Tagged: Christina Nordlander

Trembling With Fear

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Unholy Trinity: Trilogy of Light by Christina Nordlander

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.

 

Sparkle

 

My hand and arm had several opaque, shining facets, without pores. I thought they were attractive, like crystal scales. I preferred them to my first constellations of liver spots.

I didn’t go to the doctor. I wanted to see whether they would make me sparkle.

During that time, I never thought about what was underneath. There are tree galls that push out shoots once the larvae inside are mature.

One morning, one of the facets slid out, a slim-lined ice obelisk. It pierced my watch-strap, I had to tear it free.

I stumbled to the mirror, feeling others pushing through.

 

Reflections of the Sparkling Vampire

 

The sparkle is his immortality surfacing. He can still move, but within decades his joints will seize up and his fibrous lungs will stop expanding. He already has diamond skin and ruby organs.

After each hibernation he wakes with more of the crystal facets. Sometimes one clogged pore flips, like a tiny manhole cover, revealing its shining underside.

He drinks the blood of maidens and youths: messily, uncleanly, to show himself that he loathes it. He doesn’t know whether it slows the process, but he wants to have something alive inside him, regardless of origin, sloshing between the crystallised walls.

 

The Shining Plague

 

The crowds in the streets slowed. Hair grew more burnished, then longer, as if it poured from their scalps. It turned jewelled colours; it grew out in curls and ringlets. Skin turned clearer, more mineral. Ears and fingers grew more slender, eyes huge and fragile.

Bodies attenuated, as if the violent growth of hair had sucked out their juices. They shot to such height that they started tottering, then snapping. Fingers twisted longer, tears – and now blood – sparkled, and still whirlpools of hair flowed through alleys, meeting and intertwining.

From a high enough vantage point, it would have been beautiful.

 

The End

 

 

Christina Nordlander

Christina Nordlander was born 1982 in Sweden. She now lives outside Birmingham, UK, with her husband, and works for a car leasing company. She has published over 20 stories and other pieces, most of them on the speculative fiction spectrum. She also dabbles in visual art and game development. Her most recent publication is the drabble “The Factory Grounds” in Trembling with Fear. She also holds a PhD in Classics and Ancient History from the University of Manchester. Follow her on Facebook or Patreon. 

Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 12/26/21

I hope you had a lovely celebration yesterday – in whatever form that took. I have my family round me and hope to see my parents soon. I know more restrictions are coming in but I hope not for long. I’ve had my booster, which brought on a few side-effects, but this is still better than the illness itself. I’m keeping everything crossed that 2022 will finally see the virus reduced to a more harmless infection and we can live normally again.

Whilst I hope you continue to have a peaceful and restful holiday, I think it important to recognise those who aren’t so fortunate. To those of you who are having to work this period to keep the rest of us going, I’d like to offer my thanks and hope you get to enjoy your own breaks soon. And to those for whom the festive period brings a sharp reminder of personal loss or isolation, please do not suffer in silence. Organisations such as the Samaritans are there to listen and support.

Before I get to TWF, I’d like to give a couple of shoutouts here to TWF writers Eric Fomley and Patrick Winters. Eric has a collection of flash fiction available – Rehuman –  to pre-order here and Patrick has a a novelette, Seeing due out soon. As soon as I have cover and order details I will share them. I am also delighted to share the cover and pre-order details of my own novella with Silver Shamrock Publishing, Paused, here. And if you want gothic darkness, I’ve recently read (and written the introduction for) the latest anthology from Brigids Gate Press, A Quaint and Curious Volume of Gothic Tales, ed. Alex Woodroe, due out January. Another truly wonderful collection which I’ll put into my top 3 anthologies of 2021. In 1st place is The Bad Book, ed. John F.D. Taff, and tied in 2nd are The Jewish Book of Horror, ed. and A Quaint and Curious Volume of Gothic tales.

Rehuman & Other Small Stories : A Flash Futures Collection by [Eric Fomley] Paused by [Stephanie Ellis]

Our first story this week in Trembling with Fear is Silence from the Dark by Reed Martin Miller. A tale of hiding from life and not grasping opportunities, it reads as a warning and a tragedy. The final sentence is one that sums it up perfectly and has stuck with me.

I Wandered Lonely in my Shroud is a darkly funny parody of Wordsworth’s classic poem.

Signed. Sealed. Undelivered. by Connor Long-Johnson is a neat ghost story.

Spaceship Terror by Christina Nordlander brings sci-fi horror which questions reality. Being slightly ambiguous, it adds an extra chill.

Enjoy our stories and send us yours!

Steph

 

Stephanie Ellis

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Today is a double Trembling With Fear weekend! Not only did we have our Christmas Special yesterday but we’ve got our normal one today! So much fiction, so little time!

As mentioned in thel ast update, I’m slowly working on adding new features to the site. One we had mapped out in MAY of 2021 and I just did was to update our Contact Form. It still takes a few seconds to load once you get it, however, when you select the right area in “to” to now allows for different text to show what we’re looking for, depending on who you e-mail. AND, it is allowing for a few other neat things on our end which is exciting.

Coming up next is the new year, I hope that you all have a great fresh start and have wins to celebrate from the past year in your publishing endeavors.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 10/17/21

Please note: We are temporarily closed to short flash stories (unless for one of the Specials) but open to drabbles, unholy trinities and serials. We hope to reopen later in the year once we have caught up with the publication of those already accepted. Please also remember to read our guidelines, especially on word counts!

Having finished writing my latest novella and sent it away, I’ve paused work on the other WIP – I’m about halfway through. I’ve decided to allow myself to focus more on what I regard as fun, in this case writing dark poetry and working on some ideas for a book cover. These in turn free up more reading time – in theory. Well, it’s a plan. I think it’s important to sometimes change things up a little so you don’t become stale or bored. If you find things becoming a bit of a slog, time out is always good!

First this week in Trembling with Fear is Beneath the Clean Cotton Mountain by Lindz McLeod. A man is instructing his son in survival and it’s one of those moments when you have to cram in everything you want to say to your child before they go. What this story also does, is feed in the emotion and the worry by the use of the little interruptions from the unheard, they are responses to the worries of the child and he has to deal with these quickly. This gives the well-crafted monologue it’s pace and tension.

Prey by G.A. Miller takes standard expectations and turns them on their head.

The Headless Man by Mike Rader is a great parody of the classic poem, The Highwayman, by Alfred Noyes. The original rhythm is very cleverly followed and the mix of headless man and vampire allows for some nice humour.

The Incubation Garden by Christina Nordlander offers up a dreamlike and dystopian setting. Will there be any escape?

Enjoy our stories and send in yours!

Steph

 

Stephanie Ellis

Editor, Trembling With Fear

This week has been mainly looking at ways to optimize and speed up the site. Progress is being made in a few areas but unfortunately, nothing O can demo quite yet! What I can do is say if you want to enter to win a copy of Trembling With Fear: Year 4 you can enter this contest!

Also, If you run a website and would like to write an article about Horror Tree or Trembling With Fear, we’d really appreciate that! Please reach out with any questions for facts in the article (who does what, when sections were started, etc), any promotional artwork, or with a link once it is live so we can feature it on the site and on our social media.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 09/19/21

Please note: We are temporarily closed to short flash stories (unless for one of the Specials) but open to drabbles, unholy trinities and serials. We hope to reopen later in the year once we have caught up with the publication of those already accepted. Please also remember to read our guidelines, especially on word counts!

Slowly getting used to the drop in temperature as autumn moves on and with the darker nights, thoughts turn to things spooky. In my case, another first. I will be attending the UK Ghost Story Festival in Derby at the end of November and will be taking part in my first panel – Ghostly Connections- Folk Horror in 2021; I will also be hosting a Black Angel Press event with Alyson Faye, though she will be doing most of the talking 😊. We also have a book table, so please come over, grab a book, or just say hello.

Current reading is Austrian Spencer’s The Sadeiest which is turning out to be quite a unique story and Josh Malerman’s Unbury Carol.

First up this week in Trembling with Fear is Mind Shadow by Nathan Chu is cleverly constructed as the reader is invited to get into the head of the main character making it feel like a private conversation between you and him. Then you discover he has another audience, another reason for his explanation. And the final sentence is simply chilling.

Renewal by G.A. Miller brings together an occasion of remembrance and celebration. That the factor of remembrance might play a part in renewal is done with a light touch.

Slough by Christina Nordlander is a piece of writing which will trigger empathy in many of our women readers. Menstruation is little talked about. This short piece conveys a lot of the darker side of the process.

Tricksters by April Yates gives us a different perspective and it’s the tone of the writing that implies something darker is just around the corner.

 

Enjoy our stories and send in yours!

Steph

 

Stephanie Ellis

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Today I wanted to show a personal thank you and shout out to Holley Cornetto! Not only has she joined our team as an article writer a bit back but has been helping write our last few newsletter entrees which has been a have savior of my time as my current class for my MBA has just been painful to my time.

Next up, a bit of a surprise. I completely forgot our store posted to social media when new things were added. So, when I tried to stealth re-add the store and add a couple of products to it, they were announced all over the place early! Horror Tree stickers are OFFICIALLY available. You can get the logo in our current style, sepia, grayscale, and red! (Thanks to those who ordered them early!)

Finally a couple of reminders:

  • Trembling With Fear is open for our Halloween Edition until October 13th, so be sure to get your stories in! Full details can be found here.
  • If you run a website and would like to write an article about Horror Tree or Trembling With Fear, we’d really appreciate that! Please reach out with any questions for facts in the article (who does what, when sections were started, etc), any promotional artwork, or with a link once it is live so we can feature it on the site and on our social media.

Have a great week e

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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