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

Articles / Interviews

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The Horror Tree Presents: An Interview With Zin E. Rocklyn

Selene – Welcome to the Horror Tree, and thanks for agreeing to an interview. First, tell us a bit about yourself, as there doesn’t seem to be much out there on social media. How did you start writing? 

 

Zin – Hi, Horror Tree World! I’m Zin and I write pretty much everything within the Speculative Fiction realm with a dash of horror. I’m of Trinidadian descent which also influences my work. I began writing when I was a child, maybe six or seven, when all the books I loved didn’t feature a child like me.

 

Selene – What about horror draws you, as an author? Your work seems to include elements of fantasy and magic realism, as well. 

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Articles / Interviews

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The Horror Tree Presents- an Interview with Jennifer Anne Gordon

The Horror Tree Presents- an Interview with Jennifer Anne Gordon

By Ruschelle Dillon

 

Ruschelle: Ladies and Gentleman, The Horror Tree Presents an interview with THE award-winning author Jennifer Anne Gordon! A woman of many masks, dancer, teacher, writer, model, podcaster, business owner, butcher, baker, candlestick maker- okay maybe not those last three, but I bet she would if she wanted to do so. Her newest offering Pretty/Ugly is due out July 13th, 2021. But if you can’t wait to see what this fantastic author is all about, check out her other offerings-Beautiful, Frightening and Silent, From Daylight Madness, When the Sleeping Dead Still Talk and Victoriana. But FIRST, let’s have a little fun. Tell us three things about you but one of them isn’t true. You can reveal the answer at the end of the interview…if you want to. If not, just let everyone speculate and spread crazy rumors about you on Twitter.

Jennifer: I held the hand of a ghost while in an abandoned executioner’s home in Prague. Once I locked myself in a bathroom—panicked—then peed my pants while still in the bathroom. I met Vanilla Ice after seeing him in concert at a place called Club Land in Worcester Mass. 
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Articles / Reviews

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Comic Review: Red Shift #1

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.

The tagline for Ridley Scott’s Alien movie says it best: In space, no one can hear you scream. Space can indeed be a scary place: literal emptiness surrounding you on all sides. Whether you’re in a metal suit or a massive space station, uninhabitable space is always out there, waiting for a breach in your environment to enter and pull you into it. And what if you’re alone in space with your only connection to humanity being lightyears away? Isolation is to dramatic tension what darkness is to mushrooms, so there’s already a great dramatic set-up presented Red Shift #1, which is an excellent teaser for this story. 

Red Shift #1 introduces us to a human race that has colonized Mars even as they stare at their own extinction. Humanity has left the resource-depleted Earth for Mars and colonized it. After living on and building a society on Mars, humanity now faces the same dwindling resources that have them looking for another hospitable planet to inhabit. Every ten years, A Voyager is selected to travel to a location in space and try to find a world where humans can settle. The trip is a long and arduous one and many of these Voyagers have never returned. This is the case for the mother of Hellener Drake, who has just been selected to be humanity’s next voyager. 
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Closed Markets

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Closed : Night Terrors Pod

This market has closed from too many submissions and will re-open at a later date.

Payment: $15 and 50% ad revenue on your episode for one year
Theme: Horror, Creepy, Paranormal, Suspenseful, or Thriller Stories

Thank you for your interest in submitting your work to be produced for Night Terrors Podcast. We are a horror/creepy narration podcast looking to create episodes showcasing a new writer each episode. Our episodes run between 20 and 40 minutes, so we’re looking for 2000 to 4000 word submissions. Since this new series is based around showcasing authors, we strongly encourage multiple stories that add up to around the word count, but if you believe you have a single story that is compelling enough, please do not hesitate to send it along. All submissions should be sent to [email protected] with the Subject reading NTP Submission.

What we’re looking for:
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Articles / Guest Post

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How to Avoid Clichés When Writing Horror

How to Avoid Clichés When Writing Horror

What other horror story can a writer tell apart from that of blood drinking zombies and dead people walking? Well, it turns out that there is a lot more in the horror genre, if only you can dig deeper. Get a professional dissertation writer to take over your assignments to allow you to spend more time doing your creative work like writing scripts. 

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

The cliché in horror movies, novels, and short stories makes them unpalatable for many people. It is a turn-off to read the same storyline and scenes, only differentiated by names and location. 

Before exploring how to avoid clichés, it might help to know what they are. Here is a look at some of the clichés in horror movies, novels, and short stories.  (more…)

Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 07/04/21

More settled in the new place. I’ve got a desk! The chair has also turned up but needs to be put together. Won’t be long before I’m gazing out at the cemetery seeking inspiration 😊 Our internet has also be activated after recent shenanigans and life is almost normal. I’m even back at a gym, though this does now involve a bus ride rather than a 10 minute walk down the road.

The craziness has reduced so much I’ve been able to return to writing a novella, edit a story for a sub call – which I almost missed(!), and provide a critique. Finally having a more productive writer’s life! And having some lovely evening walks to boot!

Before we go to the stories, here’s my usual weekly reminder to check out the submission guidelines for TWF. Also remember we are currently closed to short stories (unless for one of the Specials) but open to drabbles, unholy trinities and serials.

Our first story this week in Trembling with Fear is The Chasm Between Us by Eric S. Fomley. This is a beautifully tragic love story filled with both hope and despair. You never give up on those you love, even if it demands the ultimate sacrifice. Horrific and, as I said, beautiful.

Dr Vale’s Inn by Kevin M. Folliard is a great poem, a great rhythm used to describe some gory goings on.

Elixir by RJ Meldrum appeals to the vanity of humans and how this could so easily catch them out. Be careful what you wish for.

Little Porkies by Scarlet Berry is a morality drabble told mainly through dialogue, don’t we love it a bit of comeuppance.

Enjoy our stories and send in yours!

Steph

 

Stephanie Ellis

Editor, Trembling With Fear

By the time that you’re reading this. We’ll be fully moved into the new house! Well, our stuff at least, we’ll probably be setting up for the next 3-6 months. Moving is the worst.

At any rate, it has been a busy week. We’ve started to update the calendar view for the site. It is still a work in progress and some of the biggest changes will be later in the year when we can hopefully afford the paid version of the software that allows for it and more customization. Unfortunately, they are doing away with the standard layout we had. The new one WILL be more customizable (especially when we upgrade) but isn’t there quite yet.

When it comes to Trembling With Fear I am thrilled to share with you that all 3 of the digital pre-orders are now available and the full physical copies will be launching shortly after they go live. For those who like digital, please hit the links below!

For those of you also in the states, I hope you all have a great fourth of July!

 

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Events

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July 2021: Tarot Cards for Writing Inspiration

Photo courtesy of Canva.com

Welcome to Climate Change Summers! At least July’s going to cool off so that people here in the United States can set off fireworks and thereby terrify all kinds of wildlife and traumatize people’s pets. Ha! (Seriously, though, stay safe, and please don’t set the world on fire any more than it already is!) And, speaking of terror and trauma, here’s hoping this month’s tarot card reading is fiendishly inspiring to all you writers out there!

Photo courtesy of Canva.com

 

Character(s): Page of Wands (Reversed). A young person who’s a thief, pickpocket, or part of some criminal enterprise. Smart and clever, and, of course, manipulative. This character’s motivations can be used to develop the plot, whether as an antihero to your main character, or a flawed character that finds themselves drawn into a situation where they risk getting in over their heads, or tempted by a downward spiral path that may prove difficult to extricate themselves from, until the stakes demand a price they aren’t willing, or able, to pay.

Photo courtesy of Canva.com

 

Theme/Development: Ten of Swords. A fatal mistake. Severe misjudgment. Heart-wrenching loss. A terrible price has been paid. Capture, physical/emotional injury, torture, confinement, and the threat of death/execution occurs because of the character(s)’s actions. Cunning has only taken the character so far, and now the character may find themselves on the run.

Photo courtesy of Canva.com

 

Setting: Six of Swords. Journey of exile or escape to a remote island, or other faraway location, possibly with an injured loved one, or to recuperate from their own injuries. Area could be populated by a previously unknown peoples, or the character could find themselves on their own.

Photo courtesy of Canva.com

 

Conflict/Climax: Queen of Wands (Reversed). The character encounters an opportunity to make a new life; whether it’s in the location (and with the people) they took refuge in, or an opportunity to start over in a new location with the aid of a companion. Instead they are tempted by the opportunity to seek revenge for their loss, or for the trauma they endured at the hands of their persecutors. There might also be a conflict as money needed to start over in new lands, there is debt incurred with a doctor, healer, or other medical individual, or new family/community ties the character wants to support. And, as a result, the character risks being drawn back into the same cycle they had escaped.

Photo courtesy of Canva.com