Tagged: Drabble

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 4-6-25

Greetings, children of the dark. Keeping it short this week to throw all the attention on this one thing: Our April/Spring window for short story submissions is now open! This is your call to submit, submit, submit! And you know what? It’s spring or autumn, depending on which end of the globe you live in, so let’s make a special call for some folk horror coming our way. It’s either planting or harvest season, so lean into those pagan motifs and get your outsiders into a closed community for some shenanigans. This is my greatest wish for this window. You have until 14 April to get something to us, and then we’ll close again until the summer. 

Until then, let’s celebrate the talented folks featured in this week’s edition of dark speculative fiction. For our main course, we’re following Bob Gielow’s media coverage of the apocalypse. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of a trio of regular contributors:

  • Kevin M. Folliard’s mid-air issues,
  • Robert Allen Lupton’s genetic manipulations, and
  • Weird Wilkins’s brush with the wild.

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Hi all.

This week was two full days of training, which kept me as busy as last. That being said, the Trembling With Fear crew is officially done with proofing half of the next installment. I’ve almost got the sizing fully sourced to put in the request to have the covers finished size-wise, and then we can push forward! Huzzah! 

Now, for the standards:

  • Thank you so much to everyone who has become a Patreon for Horror Tree. We honestly couldn’t make it without you all!

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

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree as we’re not really active on Twitter anymore, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: Dracula’s Castle by James Nemeth

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.

 

Dracula’s Castle

 

Jim Nemeth’s Journal

31 Oct. Transylvania—

The carriage dropped me at the castle at midnight. Dracula, clean shaven save for a long white mustache and clad completely in black, opened the door, bid me to enter freely and gave me a tour. 

Afterward, I presented my report. “Count, as your Airbnb rep, I have to be honest: the broken battlements, the cobwebs, remote location, lack of servants, the wolves…”

Dracula looked crestfallen. 

“Count, I think we have a real WINNER here!” I said.

The Count beamed. He approached as if to hug me, but instead bit me in the neck.

 

 

Hotep – Seth

 

The archeologist’s face turned to uncomprehending horror as he tried to stop the advance of Hotep-Seth, guardian mummy of the tomb, by thrusting and waving the blazing torch. Hotep-Seth would have laughed if he could as he lifted the defiler by the neck and repeatedly slammed his head against the stone wall. 

Hotep-Seth reached down and picked up the still blazing object that had for centuries been his greatest undoing. So many fiery deaths followed by phoenix-like resurrections. But no more. He gazed at his body, admiring the tomb priests’ work in rewrapping his form in fire-retardant gauze.

 

Nothing Under the Bed

 

Mrs. Grimes grunted as she stood erect from kneeling beside little Johnny’s bed.

“There’s nothing there, Johnny. No clawed and fanged hairy monster. Nothing. Now go to bed!”

“But mom,” Johnny started to blubber.

“No, Johnny! I’ve had it! Night after night screaming the house down! Now, come here. I want you to look.”

“Mom, no!” Johnny pleaded, tears running down his face.

“Do it, Johnny. Now. Or else.” 

Tears still streaming, Johnny kneeled down. His eyes refused to open.

“Open your eyes!” Johnny’s mother bellowed.

Johnny did and whimpered as the clawed and fanged hairy monster winked at him.

 

 

James Nemeth

I am a published author of both fiction and non-fiction. In 1993, I won 1st Prize in a national magazine’s short story writing contest for which novelists Ray Bradbury and Robert Bloch were judges. Winning held special meaning for me, as Robert Bloch remains my favorite writer and main literary influence. I have had essays, articles and reviews printed in a variety of magazines, including Filmfax, Mad About Movies, and Scary Monsters. I am the book review columnist for the revived Castle of Frankenstein magazine as well as the webmaster of the Robert Bloch Official Website (robertbloch.net). The year 2020 saw the release of my co-authored It Came From? The Stories and Novels Behind Classic Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction Films, an examination of 21 classic fantastic films, and the books/stories that inspired them.

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 3-30-25

Greetings, children of the dark on this second-to-last day of March—which, btw, WTAF?! How does time work these days? I am, as ever, back to being behind on life because my brain is refusing to do its job lately, so I’ll just pop one note in here and then let you go about your merry ways…

Our April short story submission window shall be declared open on TUESDAY. Yes, that’s April Fool’s Day, but I promise you this is no prank. 

We’re right up to date on our slush pile now, so come on and fill it right up again! We want your best and brightest (well, darkest) speculative fiction. Your gothic tales and mythological beasts. Your killer-on-a-spaceships and your dystopian futures. Your dark dabblings with magic and your haunted happenings. Come on and submit—just make sure you read our submissions guidelines first, and please please please submit a clean, plain Word document. Bonus points if you do the following:

  • 1.5 or double spacing
  • 12pt font size
  • Arial or similar font
  • Word doc – not pasted into the submission form; not a Google doc link; not a PDF
  • Have your name and story title on the first page

We’re not asking you to follow any strict particular formatting here; just the basics of helping us be able to open and read the document, identify what the story is, and who wrote it. Honestly, it’s formatting issues that have delayed the anthology publication because we now need to go through and proofread it carefully and check it for consistency, so do us a solid and let’s start out with the consistency, yeah?

But now, it’s time for this week’s edition of dark speculative fiction. For our main course, we have a gorgeously dark and haunting morsel from John Dougherty. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Catherine Berry’s trash,
  • Sean MacKendrick’s possession, and
  • Gideon Smith’s bargain.

Want to join these four in the illustrious pages of TWF? Here’s what we’re looking for:

  • Always, always with the drabbles – those short, sharp bursts of exactly 100 words. Make it dark and make it speculative (scifi, fantasy, horror). We publish three of these every darn week of the year.
  • Unholy Trinities – that’s three drabbles that are connected in some way. Sarah Elliott awaits your tales.
  • Serials, or dark speculative fiction that can be serialised on the site over several weeks. Vicky Brewster is ready for ‘em.
  • Finally, our next submissions window for general short stories opens on Tuesday!

Send your submissions via the form at the bottom of this page (and you may as well read the content of that page, since it tells you our guidelines).

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Hi all.

This week I had 3 full days of training (and next week I have 2), so I hate to say this, but I wouldn’t expect much progress on the new layout for 3ish weeks. 

That being said, more proofing has been done on the next Trembling With Fear print addition! As I’m not currently in charge of getting that together, something IS being done. 

Now, for the standards:

  • Thank you so much to everyone who has become a Patreon for Horror Tree. We honestly couldn’t make it without you all!

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

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree as we’re not really active on Twitter anymore, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 3-23-25

Greetings, children of the dark. We are heads-down here in TWF Towers, desperately trying to get through the proofreading of the 2023 anthology so we can get it into your hot little hands. No, that wasn’t a typo; I’m seriously talking about the anthology from two years ago. This is how utterly destroyed we were last year—we just did not have the bandwidth to even think about it. Now we have a host of new helpers, we’re trying really hard to catch up (yes, the boss man is even cracking the whip). Hopefully we’ll have a new helper dedicated purely to the anthologies soon, and that will help us get back into shape. Slowly, slowly, dear children of the dark. Be patient with us, for we are emerging from the ashes. 

But enough apologising; let’s dive into this week’s edition of dark speculative fiction. For our main course, we’re dining with some sinners, landlords, and K.A. Sweitzer. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • SG Perahim’s glimpse at future film,
  • Sian O’Hara’s snowed-in hotel, and
  • Shiloh Kuhlman’s otherworldly paramour.

Want to join these four in the illustrious pages of TWF? Here’s what we’re looking for:

  • Always, always with the drabbles – those short, sharp bursts of exactly 100 words. Make it dark and make it speculative (scifi, fantasy, horror). We publish three of these every darn week of the year.
  • Unholy Trinities – that’s three drabbles that are connected in some way. Sarah Elliott awaits your tales.
  • Serials, or dark speculative fiction that can be serialised on the site over several weeks. Vicky Brewster is ready for ‘em.
  • Finally, our next submissions window for general short stories opens at the beginning of April. 

Make sure you check our submissions page here for what we do and DON’T want. That last bit is super important – don’t waste your time sending us things we have publicly stated we’ll reject! (Seriously, you’d be surprised…)

And finally, if you’re in the vicinity of Kent, England, this Saturday 29 March, make sure you head to Westgate Hall in Canterbury for the UK Indie Chapter’s next indie horror marketplace. You’ll find all the details over on Facebook. I went to the first one in Birmingham last year and it was fab. This time they’ve got 40 indie horror authors from across the UK and Europe, with book signings, readings and panels throughout the day—plus free entry, so you get more money to buy books directly from the creators. See you there, maybe? 

Over to you, Stuart.

Oh, and PS: Happy birthday to my other half!

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Hi all.

More progress on the layout, I believe the main page is done, just working on a few sub-pages and the individual posts. We’re closing in!

Also, progress IS being made on the next Trembling With Fear print addition! It’s moving slow but steady.

Now, for the standards:

  • Thank you so much to everyone who has become a Patreon for Horror Tree. We honestly couldn’t make it without you all!

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

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree as we’re not really active on Twitter anymore, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: Daniel’s Promise by Tim Law

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.

 

Whispers

 

Why didn’t I listen to those who Daniel dated before? The whispers, the rumors, those words I chose to ignore.

“I will love you until the day you die,” Daniel said.

“Until death do we part,” we echoed in the moment we wed.

 

Now Daniel is telling me it is time to move on. I’m not who he wanted, his love is all gone.

 

Daniel, I thought our love song would last forever. Now I wonder if you truly loved me ever.

 

Daniel promised until death do we part. So with his hands around my throat, he stole my heart.

 

 

Hunter

 

They begin as perfection, but somehow they fail. I’m the hunter, so I shall prevail. My dream girl is out there, you’ll see. My one and only, the perfect girl for me. Until I find her, the one who’s the very best. I won’t stop hunting, vow I’ll never rest. I shall whisper those promises girls want to hear. Sweet nothings, forever mores, into every eager ear. Then when they fail, reveal their true self. In my madness, my fury, toss their picture from my shelf. That’s when my mind plans their demise. Before they discover me, and my lies.

 

Comeuppance

 

I know you, Daniel, know you true. The wind in the trees whispers about you. I’m not the first girl you promised forever. Not the first to bring you to the end of your tether.

Marriage is a contract, made between two. Death is the only way for it to be through.

You’ve had your share of fun, leaving a trail searching for the one. Did you not realize I’ve got a trail of my own? Suitors were left in my wake, and my love was outgrown.

Ghosts whisper, they don’t lie. They say at my hand you must die.

 

Tim Law

Tim Law writes fantasy, horror, detective, general fiction and everything else that pops into his head. He hails from a little town in Southern Australia; a happily married father of three. Currently working at the local library in the role of Library Manager, he has dreamed since his early high school years of becoming a full-time author. Working for a library, surrounded by so many wonderful stories, it is difficult not to be inspired to write. All he now needs is what every author wishes for, time, a little peace and quiet and of course a willing and understanding publisher.

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 3-16-25

Greetings, children of the dark. Apparently it’s Women in Horror month, which I hadn’t even realised because I’ve seen basically zero promotion of it. It was only when our own Steph Ellis tapped me on the shoulder for something that I realised the month was half-way through and I hadn’t even realised. 

Whoops?

Not sure how much these set months actually help anyone, but it feels like there are a helluva lot more women and non-binary humans and basically not-white-men in horror these days. Let’s all raise a glass to ‘em and mark the occasion. Run to your local indie book store and grab all the things, buy the books, shout about how awesome your faves are. 

And actually, the whole WIHM thing suddenly makes sense, because I’m going to a panel about women in horror at a local book store next week. It all becomes clear!

Before I make any more of a fool of myself, let’s dive into this week’s edition of dark speculative fiction. For our main course, we’re peeking into the inbox of Brendon Vayo to see exactly what an indie author must face these days. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Alexandra Beaumont’s brush with myth,
  • Sophie Jarrell’s car sale, and
  • John Nugent’s frozen fear.

(PS John is one of our new assistant editors, and he’ll be reading your summer special submissions soon!)

Want to join these four in the illustrious pages of TWF? Here’s what we’re looking for:

  • Always, always with the drabbles – those short, sharp bursts of exactly 100 words. Make it dark and make it speculative (scifi, fantasy, horror). We publish three of these every darn week of the year.
  • Unholy Trinities – that’s three drabbles that are connected in some way. Sarah Elliott awaits your tales.
  • Serials, or dark speculative fiction that can be serialised on the site over several weeks. Vicky Brewster is ready for ‘em.
  • Finally, our next submissions window for general short stories opens at the beginning of April. 

Make sure you check our submissions page here for what we do and DON’T want. That last bit is super important – don’t waste your time sending us things we have publicly stated we’ll reject! (Seriously, you’d be surprised…)

OK, rant done. Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Hi all.

I’ve made a bit of progress on the new layout. I’m really down to needing to take a day off dedicated to it so once I catch up on this current project that is taking all of my time at work, I’ll be doing just that.

Unfortunately, no updates on the next Trembling With Fear print edition quite yet.  

Now, for the standards:

  • Thank you so much to everyone who has become a Patreon for Horror Tree. We honestly couldn’t make it without you all!

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

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree as we’re not really active on Twitter anymore, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: Gone Fishing by CJ Goldberg

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.

 

Gone Fishing

 

A perfect morning for fishing. The cattails sway in the gentle breeze. I follow the well-worn path toward the water. But then, my lungs fill with sweetness, a perfume of roses and overly ripe fruit… Larry’s been missing since last week.

I pull the collar of my T-shirt over my nose and mouth and, heart pounding, emerge from the tall grass into swarming flies on the sandy bank. There, half-submerged, its fingers clawing at the shore, is a bloated rotting corpse.

Larry?

Prodding it with my fishing pole, its skin splits, and maggots spill into the river.

A trout jumps.

 

 

The River’s Secret

 

The medical examiner covers the corpse with a white sheet and glances at the chart.

“What’s strange,” she says, chewing the end of her pen, “is he died from decompression.”

“Decompression?” the detective asks, frowning.

“It happens when a diver surfaces too fast, and nitrogen bubbles form in their bloodstream.”

“That’s not possible. He was found in the river. The water’s not deep enough.”

“Look at this.” She lifts the sheet to reveal a jagged stump where the man’s leg should have been.

“What the hell?”

“It was torn off before they surfaced.”

The color drains from the detective’s face.

 

Summer’s End

 

James’s pick-up truck bounces down the country road. He glances at Annie. Her hair is pulled up, and the strap of her tank-top hangs to the side, revealing a white line on her otherwise sunbaked red skin. A bead of sweat clings to her upper lip.

“Let’s go for a swim,” Annie says.

James can’t believe he didn’t think of it. Nothing sounds better than a plunge in the ice-cold river. He knows the perfect spot, so deep you can’t touch the bottom.

They pull over and, laughing, she tugs him toward the trail.

Cattails sway in the gentle breeze.

 

CJ Goldberg

CJ Goldberg writes horror and weird fiction steeped in crime and the uncanny. Growing up in small-town Montana, he developed a love for isolated landscapes, dark forests, and the creeping dread they evoke. Now a stay-at-home father, he spends most days exhausted, searching in vain for more time to read and write scary stories. Discover more of his work at https://www.CJGoldberg.com.

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 3-9-25

Greetings, children of the dark. I don’t mean to alarm anyone but… I’m actually up-to-date on reading submissions! Yes, after being almost an entire year behind, I’ve been reading like a madman and sending out feedback and contracts left right and centre. We are absolutely 100% up to date on drabbles (as at time of writing), and I’m just waiting on the bossman looking at the last few short stories from the January window and then we’ll be done. Which means: if you submitted in 2024/25 and haven’t heard from us, please get in touch as the gremlins might’ve been hard at work as well.

The reason I’ve been able to spend so much time catching up? That’s simple: we have so much help around TWF Towers these days. It is so, so lovely to have housemates to keep us ticking over, to pick up the slack, to keep us on track. The biggest help in recent months has been the lovely Annette taking over inbox management – I’m sure you’ve seen her name in your inboxes acknowledging your submissions. Just having that admin taken care of is a huge help, and means that you don’t have to wait so long for me to get time to respond to things. Soooo helpful!

But of course, it’s not just Annette’s help that’s got us bursting at the seams around here. We welcomed a couple of new Assistant Editors a few months ago to take over the mantles of Serials and Unholy Trinities –  hi, Vicky and Sarah! – but we’ve now got another four on board to help with the special editions. Yes, that’s a total of six assistant editors in TWF Towers! As interest in this free fiction publication has increased, and we’ve gotten more and more submissions through, we needed to grow the team. It had to happen, or Stuart and I would’ve imploded in a very messy way. (Stuart may still, given he’s trying to revamp the site.) Please join me in welcoming our new residents:

  • Jane Morecroft, who you met when we published the Valentine’s Edition
  • John Nugent, who’ll be looking for all your dark summer stories very soon
  • Angela Zolner, taking up the Halloween Queen mantle, and
  • Ahlissa Eichhorn, our new festive fiction specialist 

You can meet the full TWF team over here. 

These newbies are also helping us get out the incredibly-very-late-embarassingly-so 2023 TWF anthology; the great Steph Ellis has laid it all out, and we just need to proofread it all, so hopefully that will be out by the end of the month. Then we’ll get cracking on the 2024 anthology, and hopefully have a new Publications Editor to help with that!

So yes, lots and lots of new blood around TWF Towers now, but we can always do with fresh blood for Horror Tree as a whole. If you’d like to get involved as a reviewer, interviewer, blogger, social media person, website manager, etc etc, do get in touch and let us know. Or, pitch an idea! You never know what the bossman will be in the mood for…

With that out of the way, it’s time for this week’s edition of dark speculative fiction. For our main course, we’re off on an autumnal walk with Austin Anna; it’s full of nostalgia, strange characters, and, well, suckers. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Karin J Robinson’s monster under the bed,
  • Margaret Eve’s danger outdoors, and
  • Geoff Holder’s economics of grave robbing.

Want to join these four in the illustrious pages of TWF? Here’s what we’re looking for:

  • Always, always with the drabbles – those short, sharp bursts of exactly 100 words. Make it dark and make it speculative (scifi, fantasy, horror). We publish three of these every darn week of the year.
  • Unholy Trinities – that’s three drabbles that are connected in some way. Sarah Elliott awaits your tales.
  • Serials, or dark speculative fiction that can be serialised on the site over several weeks. Vicky Brewster is ready for ‘em.
  • Finally, our next submissions window for general short stories opens at the beginning of April. 

Make sure you check our submissions page here for what we do and DON’T want. That last bit is super important – don’t waste your time sending us things we have publicly stated we’ll reject! (Seriously, you’d be surprised…)

OK, rant done. Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Hi all.

I’ve been stuck on a huge project at work, so aside from trying to keep the site functioning, my time has been mainly focussed on the new layout. It’s really the central thing that I’m working on, and I still think that I’m going to need to take a day off of work coming up to try and organize it. Now, to just find a day without meetings. 

I’m also harassing my fellow Trembling With Fear editors to hopefully get the print copy out from last year’s edition. Sigh. I’m so sorry that this is so overdue at this point :/ 

Now, for the standards:

  • Thank you so much to everyone who has become a Patreon for Horror Tree. We honestly couldn’t make it without you all!

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

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree as we’re not really active on Twitter anymore, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)