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

Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 5-12-24

Greetings, children of the dark. ‘Tis a dark week in TWF Towers as yours truly deals with a death in the family on the other side of the world, so it’ll be short and sweet this week. Let’s dedicate this edition to the strong women who move mountains for a better life for their family. I’ll miss you much, Granny M. Rest in peace.

Anyways, this week’s TWF menu is really quite devilish, thanks to the Armenian flavours brought by short story writer Robert Nazar Arjoyan. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Siân O’Hara’s lovesick lament
  • Liam Kerry’s airborne issues, and
  • Weird Wilkins’s poetic darkness

Quick reminders:

  • We’re technically open for the summer special edition, but Shalini won’t be looking at those subs for a few months yet so maybe hang on to them—early entry does not guarantee a spot!
  • We’re not open again to general short stories until July, so any we receive before then will be returned unread.
  • I know quite a few are still waiting to hear the result of your subs to the last short story window; I’ll get to you ASAP.
  • And we’re always, always looking for drabbles, Unholy Trinities, and serialised serial killer stories! Like, 24/7 needs. Details over on the submissions page.

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

First things first, please support our latest sponsors!

First: Order a copy of Backwaters on Amazon! “Like Flannery O’Connor, but with toxic mermaids and body horror.” — CARLTON MELLICK III, author of Full Metal Octopus and The Haunted Vagina

Second: Get 99 horror stories that range from quiet horror, hinting at the things buried there in your psyche – the thing that will come out to play after dark, and visceral horror that leaves no doubt what lies in a bloody heap in the middle of the floor. This UNHOLY TRINITY combines three of L. Marie Wood’s horror collections, Caliginy, Phantasma, and Anathema.

Order a copy today directly from Mocha Memoirs Press or Amazon!

 
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We’re SO CLOSE to having new things to share with you. Internally, I’ve been really working on catching up on a lot of outstanding small items and getting us setup for success with new expansions and side-projects. I just wish it was all coming together a bit quicker so I have something to share with you. Please note our new sponsor above and pickup a copy of Backwaters today! 

Now, for the standards:

  • We have Patreon who raised their monthly donation; THANK YOU! The more Patreons we get the closer we are to lowering even more the amount of ads we have to display! WHEW! (We should also be cutting back when the new theme eventually gets launched.)
  • Belanger Books has a cool new Kickstarter worth checking out! They’ve previously had some neat open calls that we’ve shared so wanted to let the authors and readers who follow us know about it!

Offhand, if you’ve ordered Trembling With Fear Volume 6, we’d appreciate a review! 🙂

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Articles

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Is 2024 Going to Provide a Dracula Movie Worthy of the Book?

Is 2024 Going to Provide a Dracula Movie Worthy of the Book?

Since being published at the end of the 19th century, Dracula by Bram Stoker has proven to be one of the most influential horror books of all time. While it has inspired numerous movies over the last century, many of them have disappointed fans of the book. Will 2024 see the release of a new Dracula movie that captures the magic created by the author?

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Trembling With Fear

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Unholy Trinity: “Crab” “Spawning Time” & “Hermitage” by Lew Lashmit

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.

 

Crab

 

Shipwrecked, I despaired of surviving. When the giant crab scuttled ashore, I prepared to die. To my surprise, it didn’t attack when I swallowed clumps of its pale, tough little eggs. With deft claws, it built me a shelter and warded off wild animals. My heart warmed toward the strange, beneficent creature. I went willingly when, with gentle nudges, it urged me to the sea one night. Suddenly, a squirming, scrabbling stomach pain drove me to my knees. The crab towered over me, scalpel-sharp claws poised. I realized then it wasn’t me that the crab loved . . . it was her children.

 

Spawning Time

 

Miles below the surface, it sleeps. And when the time comes, it wakes and spawns . . . its seed mindlessly seeks flesh to infest and mutate into its hybrid Offspring. 

The last spawning time, extraterrestrial Guardians nudged a comet from orbit and destroyed the Offspring, at the cost of nearly extinguishing all life on Earth. But in the millions of years since, the Guardians themselves have gone extinct. 

This time, the beaches are populated by little apes – happy, innocent, frolicking in the warm surf. This time, the Offspring will have minds, and hands, and technology. 

This time, the Offspring will have space.

 

Hermitage

 

She bends down to pick up what she thinks is a half-buried seashell. Digging it out from the damp sand, she turns the smooth, white dome over. 

Sees eye sockets, tiny teeth, a clinging scrap of dry skin and wispy hair. 

A skull. Small. A child’s.

Something glints deep within – beady eyes.

With a bleat of fear and disgust, she drops it.

Too late.

The inhabitant springs out and clutches her face with all ten segmented legs. Feelers probe her eyes. Claws dig and rip, excavating. The soft, pulsing underbelly slips neatly inside.

It is time for a new home.

 

Lew Lashmit

Hi, I’m Lew, a queer trans writer from Maryland. I try to give my stories a tongue-in-cheek, slighty cheesy 80’s rubber monster movie sensibility. I wrote these three drabbles set on the beach, which I love and which is commonly thought of as a lovely summer playground, but the ocean is dark, deep and unforgiving, and hides many secrets . . .

 

You can find more at https://twitter.com/EvilViergacht and https://bsky.app/profile/viergacht.bsky.social

Anthology / Events / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: Little Red Flags (Early Listing)

Submission Window: August 1st – 16th, 2024
Payment: 5 cents per word
Theme: Thriller + Suspense + Psychological Horror that deal with Little Red Flags about cults, cons, and control

The warning signs were there: those little red flags. But in the beginning, it all looked rose-colored. You thought you were getting community, belonging, and purpose. Maybe a lucrative new career. Maybe even salvation. Instead, you got control, fanaticism, greed, manipulation, and terror.

Bring us your fiction stories of fanaticism, fundamentalism, extremism, and control. We want to read about cons people pull off that make our jaws drop. The horrors hiding just beyond the edges of our better judgment.

We want the kind of monsters who hide in plain sight: charismatic cult leaders with a god-complex (think: NXIVM, Twin Flames Universe) and systems built to prey on the vulnerable (think: Lularoe). Give us MLM puppet masters, unhinged homeschooling movements, manipulative or extreme doomsday preppers, and weight-loss cults. We want characters who will give us a peek behind the veneer of a megachurch, an insider’s view of the pressure to recruit for a pyramid scheme, an up-close look at love-bombing in action, along with the emotional fallout.

NOTE: We’re not interested in stories that revolve around ideologies or theologies. Instead, we’re seeking stories that focus on the ways charismatic predators and extreme ideas lure vulnerable, well-meaning truth-seekers and turn ordinary people into monsters.

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Articles

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Indie Bookshelf Releases 05/10/2024

Got a book to launch, an event to promote, a kickstarter or seeking extra work/support as a result of being hit economically by life in general?

Get in touch and we’ll promote you here. The post is prepared each Thursday for publication on Friday. Contact us via Horror Tree’s contact address or connect via Twitter or Facebook.

Click on the book covers for more information. Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the page – there’s all sorts lurking in the deep.

 

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Articles / Interviews

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Migrating to a Whole New Water World with Eliza Chan

Migrating to a Whole New Water World with Eliza Chan

An interview with Eliza Chan 

By Sarah Elliott

 

Hold your breath. We may be spending some time underwater. Let’s dive in and find out about Eliza Chan, author of Fathomfolk No1 Sunday Times Bestseller. Bring arm bands if you must and remember to pack a snorkel. We could be going deep.

Eliza Chan is a Scottish-born Chinese-diaspora author who ‘writes about East Asian mythology, British folklore and reclaiming the dragon lady, but preferably all three at once.’ Eliza’s work has been published in The Dark, Podcastle, Fantasy Magazine and The Best of British Fantasy, and her non-fiction has appeared on Tor.com. She lives in the North of England with her partner and young child. Fathomfolk is her first novel. @elizawchan

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Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Zombies in the New Normal

Deadline: August 1st, 2024
Payment: $100
Theme: Real World Based Zombie Horror

WORKING TITLE:

Zombies in the New Normal

STORY QUANTITY  – 12 TO 15

WORD COUNT – 3000 TO 12,000

PAY – $100/Story

GENRE – Real World Based Zombie Horror

SUBMISSION DEADLINE – 1/August/2024

RELEASE DATE 1/October/2024

FORMAT – Word document. Un-indented. Single space with double spaces between paragraphs.

Stories from editor’s prompts have the best chance of acceptance.

SUBMIT TO – [email protected]

The stories in this anthology will be by individual writers, but each story will share a common thread of parameters as background.

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Events

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Taking Submissions: The Quarterly Journal – W3IRD

Deadline: July 31st, 2024
Payment: $5
Theme: Something a little… W3IRD

A Literary Journal with Some Art, Comics, and Analysis Thrown in for Good Measure

As Quarter Press continues to grow, we’re adding another coin to our pocketful of change. We want to offer a space for shorter works to mingle with art and other bits of nonsense, so we bring you The Quarter(ly): It just makes cents.

Issues are themed; however, we consider all interpretations.

2024’s Themes and Deadlines:

W3IRD (July 31) ~ W3IRD – July 31 – At this point, the “Weird” themes have become some of my favorite issues, so let’s keep it weird with a third installment!

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