The Horror Tree Recent Markets, Articles, Interviews, and Fiction!

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

What Makes a Good Horror Story?

What Makes a Good Horror Story?

 

Let’s consider the vast catalog of dystopian and post-apocalyptic tales currently available. Now, add all of the works featuring zombies, vampires and other monsters – werewolves seem to be a perennial favorite. Top it all off with liberal splashes of gore, frightened screams and wide-eyed panic. 

 

And there, you have just a few elements that make up the horror genre.  

 

At its heart, horror intends to scare, shock or disgust its audience, but not so much that readers will turn away completely. The essential art of writing horror is creating enough of a visceral response to keep the reader hooked while reaching the outer limits of how far to go before you repel them entirely.

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: Good Bones by Gus Wood

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

Bone Concert

Olivia, after her years of brutal tutelage,

has mastered the flute. 

She should hate this particular instrument.

The flute’s crude construction bends every breath into noise.

It’s such a struggle to get good music from bone.

Each note is a power drill,

a hack saw through a stubborn teacher’s skin.

Olivia, when she closes her eyes and plays,

can only hear the sound 

of her music teacher screaming 

as she taps her fingers across the holes.

She imagines him as she last saw him,

pale, bleeding, clutching a bleeding stump, 

watching her play his favorite song,

blowing into his femur.

 

Missed Cue

The lights burned

as Leopold struggled with the words to Hamlet.

“Alas…poor Yorrick…”

Nothing. 

He started pacing, buying time.

Leopold wondered what the old critic

would’ve thought of his performance.

What a man who loved theatre enough to donate his skull 

thought of a college kid butchering the bard.

Leopold tripped, gripped the skull to ground himself.

Then, the click of polished teeth,

the squeak of spurting blood,

the thump of fingers hitting the floor.

The critic, his bleached teeth streaked red, 

hollow mouth full of knuckles and skin, 

was never shy about giving a review with a bite.

 

Mr. Ossum’s Bones

Mr. Ossum starts the lesson.

The entire class rolls their eyes.

“The human body has 206 bones,” he says.

Pointing a ruler at each one, 

he rattles off their names.

Phalanges, Tarsals, Metatarsals, Tibia, Fibia, Femur, 

No one is paying attention.

Cocyx, Sacrum, Lisa, Renee, Joan,

The names slip out quiet and uneventful.

Ossum stops himself and clears his throat.

Nobody notices,

except for the quiet girl in the back

who stopped talking when her mother went missing

The girl stares at the skeleton,

all its different bones,

including the long, slender, familiar fingers

that could have taught her piano.

Gus Wood

Gus Wood is a game designer and horror writer. You can access all of his games, fiction, and horror criticism at www.gusonhorror.com. He hopes you read this by candlelight.

Reviews

 by 

Epeolatry Book Review: Fiends in the Furrows, ed. David T. Neal & Christine M. Scott

Disclosure:

Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: Fiends in the Furrows
Author: Various, ed. David T. Neal & Christine M. Scott
Genre: Horror, Short Story, Folk Horror
Publisher: Nosetouch Press
Release Date: Sept, 2018

Synopsis:

The Fiends in the Furrows: An Anthology of Folk Horror is a collection of nine short stories that hew both to the earthy traditions and blaze new trails in Folk Horror.

Fans of Folk Horror, as well as those unfamiliar with it, will find horrors galore in these stories. Themes of rural isolation and insularity, paranoia, mindless and monstrous ritual, as well as arcane ceremonies clashing against modern preoccupations run through these stories. Nosetouch Press is proud to bring The Fiends in the Furrows: An Anthology of Folk Horror to horror enthusiasts everywhere.

FEATURING:

Coy Hall | “Sire of the Hatchet”

Sam Hicks | “Back Along the Old Track”

Lindsay King-Miller | “The Fruit”

Steve Toase | “The Jaws of Ouroboros”

Eric J. Guignard | “The First Order of Whaleyville’s Divine Basilisk Handlers”

Romey Petite | “Pumpkin, Dear”

Stephanie Ellis | “The Way of the Mother”

Zachary Von Houser | “Leave the Night”

S.T. Gibson | “Revival”

Review:

Okay. So, I love some good folk horror. Give me rural cults sacrificing to corn gods–a la ‘Children of the Corn,’ et al. A few of my favorite movies fit this genre: Midsommar, Wickerman (both versions), Blair Witch, Viy, The Witch, The Ritual, Lair of the White Worm. These films vary widely in quality, but all are a treat. Notice that many of these are recent big hit movies which garnered a lot of attention. So, there is contemporary interest in this genre, and I am among those hungry for collections like Fiends in the Furrows.

A friend from my writing group introduced me to this anthology. He’d selected Steve Toase’s story “The Jaws of Ouroboros” for us to study. I went into this story knowing absolutely nothing, and now I am frantically looking for Toase’s other work. It was amazing. Not since my first reading of Nathan Ballingrud’s “Atlas of Hell” was I so blown away. Just like Ballingrud, Toase builds a terrifying setting filled with dread and the supernatural. The price of this book is worth it just for this one story.

There is also a story by HorrorTree’s very own Stephanie Ellis! “The Way of the Mother” is a creepy yarn that is a mix of Wickerman and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. There are ultra visceral and emotional images in this one. Give it a shot!

The remainder of the collection is hit or miss, but all are worth your time. I intend to pick up a copy of the follow up anthology: The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror. (https://www.amazon.com/Fiends-Furrows-II-Tales-Horror/dp/1944286209/)

I give this anthology out of 5 ravens

Available from Amazon and Bookshop.

Flat Amount / Magazine / Ongoing Submissions

 by 

Ongoing Submissions: Our Name Is Amplify


Payment: $15
Theme: Short stories
Note: Goal is to boost women, BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+, and international authors.

AMPLIFY welcomes submissions from emerging writers all around the world! We aim to use our platform to boost women, BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+, and international authors. If that’s you then we’d love to read your writing!

Translations are embraced and encouraged.

We believe artists should be compensated appropriately for their work, but because we are a very small organization, we can only offer payments of $15 per acceptance at this time. Hopefully we will be able to raise this in the near future!

Fiction – Short stories or longer excerpts of unpublished work no longer than 2,000 words.

(more…)

Articles / Guest Post

 by 

How to Write the Middle of the Horror Story: 7 Tips

How to Write the Middle of the Horror Story: 7 Tips

The middle of the horror story is a pivotal point in any book. Depending on your inspirations, the first half sets up all the characters and events, while the second half pays off on what has been established. 

But how do you write it? There are many different ways to approach this section that will give your readers nightmares for weeks—and increase their attachment to your story. In this blog post, we will discuss seven tips on how to write a great horror story.

Tip 1: The Middle of Horror Stories Can Be Haunting and Creepy

The middle of horror stories is pivotal and usually has the most tension. It’s a home to jumps scares, gore, and haunting. This section should be haunting and creepy enough that readers will never forget it—even when they think about your story years later.
(more…)

Articles / Interviews

 by 

The Horror Tree Presents – An Interview with Nicholas Bowling

The Horror Tree Presents – An Interview with Nicholas Bowling

By: Ruschelle Dillon

 

Ruschelle:  I’m here sitting on the thickest branch of the Horror Tree hoping you’re not looking for a new log for the Log Lady from Twin Peaks. This tree is haunted and off limits. Speaking of Twin Peaks, your most recent work, The Follower, which dropped July 20th, 2021 is described as Twin Peaks meets Welcome to Night Vale. Could you give us a little taste of how The Follower conjures both the strange Twin Peaks and Welcome to the Night Vale? 

Nicholas: Well. I wasn’t consciously channeling Twin Peaks, but tonally it shares quite a lot, I think. I like to create feeling in my (adult) books where the world just feels a bit out-of-joint – a sense of unease or menace beneath the surface of things that can’t quite be articulated. I like to wrongfoot the reader, too, in terms of tone and genre. I want them to feel unsure of how they should react to a certain scene or character. Absurdity is good for that. It allows you turn something funny into something violent or upsetting very quickly. David Lynch is obviously the master of this, but I think it also comes from my general experience of the world. It’s a very odd place, and people are very odd, and we’re all involved in a kind of group delusion that it’s anything other than that. Normality is a fiction that barely holds together most of the time. Also: The Follower has a peak. But just one. 

As for Night Vale – I wasn’t even aware of it until my publisher told me it was in the same neighbourhood as The Follower. But I’ll get on it.
(more…)

Anthology / Events / Semipro

 by 

Taking Submissions: Silence in the City

Deadline: September 15, 2021
Payment: 6 cents per word
Theme: A city gone silent

Sudden disruptions in power and other major services sends a city into chaos. In the blink of an eye, the modern technological world fails. Is it a government plot? Experiment gone wrong? A foreign cyber attack? Alien invasion? A mystical incursion from beings beyond this dimension? Who knows? Now the noise and the bustle of the city has vanished and an eerie silence settles over the urban landscape. Within, there are stories of human violence, depravity, and desperation, but also heroism, selflessness, and sacrifice. Silence in the City is an anthology of speculative tales asking what happens when a city—and all of modern civilization—is plunged into darkness.

(more…)

Articles

 by 

What’s in a name? DocSketch is now SignWell


What’s in a name? DocSketch is now SignWell

By Amanda Headlee 

There is one thing that is always certain about life, and that is change. For authors who have submitted to The Horror Tree and received publishing contracts, you may have noticed that the contracts were sent through a paperless documentation signing product called DocSketch. We at The Horror Tree love this product as it is easy to use and intuitive. 
(more…)