Tagged: Drabble

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 6-16-24

Greetings, children of the dark. We’ve hit the week of the Solstice, which means here in the UK the days are about as long as they’ll ever be. I’m celebrating by doing that very horror thing of heading to a cabin in the woods for a mini-creative recovery/retreat type of thing. I’d love to know what you’re up to: do you celebrate these moments in time? 

For that reason, and because I’m writing this the day before my next Writing the Occult event and so my brain is a bit too wired, I’ll keep it short this week. Just one note: remember that our short story submissions are only open in four windows now. We just couldn’t keep up with the submissions, and because we can only publish one story a week it was the sensible thing to do—noone wants to wait literal years to see their story on a website, right? Anything submitted to us outside of those windows will unfortunately be returned to you unread. 

That said, we have a window coming up… Make sure to check out our submissions guidelines for details of what and when we’re open. We can tell if you haven’t looked at them. And remember, we’re ALWAYS open for drabbles! Insatiably so. Feed the drabbles beast!

For this week’s darkly speculative offerings, our menu kicks off with despatches from a failing neighbourhood, direct from the mind of Benjamin Larned. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Keith B. Walters’s failed sacrifice,
  • Gabrielle Bleu’s Ice Age revival, and
  • F.M. Scott’s mad science.

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!

 
***

Hi all! 

I’ve spent most of the last week communicating with all of you lovely souls who have reached out to offer aid to Horror Tree. Things are progressing, and it looks like we’ll have a few new faces to help with various aspects of the site soon! I’m hoping to have some big news on multiple fronts in the next week or two. 

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! 🙂

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: The Calling by Jack Reigns

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.

 

I.

 

The woods call to me like a helpless lover, begging for my embrace. My eyes are drawn to something I cannot focus on. I’ve taken several steps forward before I realize it. Butterflies flutter across my chest as I reach forward to push a branch aside. The trees are so beautiful; I am overwhelmed by the ocean of green. A deep, droning hum breaks through to my consciousness. It floods the air but not unpleasantly, like monks chanting. Sheena tugs on my sleeve. “Daddy, where are you going?” I pause and look down, one foot poised over the cliff’s edge.

 

II.

 

The forest service ranger pulled up alongside the empty truck. The driver’s side door had been left open to the elements. She parked, got out and looked inside. A child’s backpack sat slumped over on the floor. At the edge of the road, a sharp drop off revealed an empty expanse of crumbled rock and forest debris below. A streak of dried blood smeared across the rocks, trailing off into the trees. Backtracking, she wrote down the license plate on her notepad. A glint on the trees caught her eye. She paused, suddenly lost in the beauty of the forest. 

 

III.

 

Sheena picked her way through the woods, looking for a way down to where she’d seen her father fall. She heard a car approach on the road and ducked down under some ferns to hide. Daddy told her if anyone saw her, they’d be in BIG TROUBLE. Then they’d take her back to mommy; and she couldn’t go to the big water park. A rustling sound made her turn around. Nothing was there. A feeling overwhelmed her body, a feeling that if she kept walking into the woods, everything would be wonderful. A deep, quiet droning noise filled her mind.  

 

Jack Reigns

Jack Reigns was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and finds the area a constant source of inspiration. A lifelong horror fan, as a child Jack would get in trouble for scaring family with stories and is thankful to now share them with willing participants. Jack is the author of The Reigns of Terror series of short horror collections, and a proud member of the Seattle Chapter of The Horror Writers Association. Available works can be found at jackreigns.com.

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 6-9-24

Greetings, children of the dark. I’ve got to say, you have blown me away in the last week! We had such a great response to the call-outs for helpers both with TWF and with Horror Tree as a whole and I am feeling the community love right now. But please know this isn’t a once in a lifetime kinda thing; we’re always looking for more helpers, particularly in terms of people to do interviews, write articles and reviews, and generally make Horror Tree the brilliant resource that everyone knows and loves. If you’ve got ideas or want to get involved, email us at [email protected] and let’s chat. Stuart’s especially keen to grow the YouTube channel, so if you’re harbouring secret desires to be a YouTuber/famous content creator, now’s your chance!

For this week’s darkly speculative offerings, our menu’s centrepiece is a creepy thing found in a dark cave created by regular TWF contributor Catherine Berry. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Corinne Pollard’s hunger issues,
  • Sarah-Beth Watkins’s folkloric dabbling, and
  • Andy Meek’s misplaced curiosity.

Finally, a final plug for my next event which takes place virtually on Saturday. Writing the Occult: Connection to Land has a bumper lineup, no less than 10 sessions featuring some of the best speculative fiction writers around, and it’s all yours both live and recorded for just £40+booking fee (that’s around US$50). If you’ve ever wondered how to make the landscape a driving force in your narrative, if you’re pondering that ecohorror or climate thriller, if you’re wanting to get spiritual about the environment, this is for you—readers, writers, interested parties, all are welcome. Details, etc, over at writingtheoccult.carrd.co, or grab your ticket here! 

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!

 
***

Hi all! 

Summer camp has started for my kids and some free time has returned! We recently put out a call for new talent to join Horror Tree and we’ve got quite a few responses! I’ve been spending most of this week talking to everyone and this has the potential to really ramp up some of the changes that have been on the back burner for awhile. 

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! 
  • I’ll include this for a second week though, it’ll be out of next week’s: , ‘The Trouble With Time‘. It’s being put together by a regular fiction contributor to Trembling With Fear, and I really wanted to give it a small extra highlight for this speculative fiction anthology that will be dealing with time travel. If you’ve got a story idea that could fit, check it out! 

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

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: Critter Conscious by Alan Moskowitz

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.

 

Daisy

 

When Riggs saw the sleek and intact bitch, a perfect breeder, and its owner, a  kid, he knocked the boy down and grabbed the dog. 

The kid screamed after him, “Bring Daisy back! She’s special!” Riggs laughed all the way to his van, until Daisy’s two angry red eyes seared at his and made his insides roil with fear. 

Cruel talons hooked into Riggs, mouth opened impossibly wide, stiletto teeth waiting.  Riggs shrieked for help, but the boy ignored him and the crunch of bones. 

 The boy smiled. “Told you I’d find you dinner.” Daisy answered with a satisfied burp.

 

Buttons

 

Magic Murray desperately needed a white rabbit. He found Buttons in Mistress Michelle’s Exotic Petting Parlor. Buttons was perfect for the hat trick, but she refused to sell, claiming Buttons was sentient. 

Buttons understood that Michelle’s function was to feed and worship her. In return, Buttons acted “cute” and forced herself to tolerate children’s sticky hands. 

So when Magic Murray rabbit-napped Buttons, caged her, then stuffed her into his rigged top hat, she was not amused. When he self-assuredly pulled Buttons from the hat, “Tah-dah!” she bit off his nose.

To Mistress Michelle’s surprise, Buttons was no longer a vegetarian.

 

Fred

 

Bruce was horrified when his favorite pet Iguana, Fred, suddenly squealed, “The revolution has begun!”

Fred raised his wicked front claws and readied himself for a leap onto Bruce’s astonished face. “Now we are the masters! Die, human oppressor!”  It was a mighty jump, launched straight and true. 

Bruce ducked, hoping to avoid being clawed to blindness. There was a loud crack, a tinkle, and a pain filled screech. 

Peeking into Fred’s habitat Bruce saw Fred lying prone, shards of glass pin-cushioning his body reflecting the blood seeping from his flattened face.

 Fred groaned, “Does this mean no more crickets?”

 

Alan Moskowitz

Recently un-retired from screen and TV writing, Alan also creates short genre fiction for fun and sanity. He loves feedback.
 

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 6-2-24

Greetings, children of the dark of June. JUNE! How is it June already? I know, I know I’m a broken record but really: JUNE. Mid-year. Official beginning of summer. The summer solstice and longest day of the year are just around the northern hemisphere corner and I cannot fathom where the time goes.

Mainly it goes because we are So Darn Busy in TWF Towers, which is why it pains me to let you all know that our wonderful Assistant Editor Shalini—she who talks to you about specials, unholy trinities, and serials—is stepping down from her role to focus on Life Stuff. We will miss her and her endless enthusiasm for your creative works, but it does mean we are now seeking a newbie to move into TWF Towers. Could it be you? In fact, could one of the many roles Stuart is looking to fill at Horror Tree be something you’re keen on? Here’s what we’re seeking for the site in general (bearing in mind these are voluntary roles!)…

Assistant Editor for TWF 
You’ll be working alongside Stuart and I to get this publication out. That means dealing with submissions as they come in, reading and reviewing them, working with writers on their acceptances, sending out contracts, and preparing the posts for publication (using WordPress). Your remit would be specifically for the four themed special editions we do every year (Valentine’s, Summer, Halloween, and Christmas) so you’ll get a bit busier around those times, but you’ll also take care of the more regular Unholy Trinities and serialised stories. You might also need to support me on this weekly version every now and then, or jump in to help us with our never-ending submissions pile. 

Editorial Assistant 
This is a general helper to Stuart for the site as a whole. You’ll help to prepare site posts—that could be the open calls, interviews, articles, or anything else we’re publishing—so will need to be comfortable with WordPress. He could also very much do with a hand on the social media side of things!

Contributing writers 
The more people writing for Horror Tree, the better the tree is. We’re looking for people to take on interviews with authors, article writing (generally about the writing/book world), reviewing books, or anything else you’d like to pitch us. If you’re keen to join the team, you’ll need to provide examples of your work. This does not mean you need to be professionally published in other places; Stuart just likes to see your style!

YouTube Editor 
You’ve probably seen Stuart call this out most weeks in his TWF intro, but we’re very keen to build and grow the Horror Tree YouTube channel. At the moment we have the lovely Belinda doing a weekly recap of open calls, but we want more! Got ideas? Want to explore the world of dark speculative fiction while also experimenting with video creation? This is an opportunity to very much be creative and properly *own* the channel. Maybe even build your own empire around it?

Fancy tackling any of these? Got another idea for the wider Horror Tree world? Get in touch with us at [email protected] or using the site’s contact form here. We’d love to hear from you. 

Now to the matter at hand.

This week’s speculative fiction offerings are led by the glorious main course that is Callum Young’s Boy on the Pier. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Don Money’s lumberjack lament,
  • T.M. McLean’s medical mistake, and
  • JL Royce’s snakey take.

Finally, a quick plug for the next edition of my Writing the Occult events: we’re talking about connection to the land on 15 June. All details, etc, over at writingtheoccult.carrd.co —tickets are on sale now! We meet on 15 June, starting at 1pm UK / 8am ET, and you’ve got one week left to grab an early bird priced ticket at £35+booking fee (that’s about $45, and includes a recording of every session so you can dip in and out at your leisure).

Also—a big hello to all of you at StokerCon. I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not jealous… I am, however, part of the online programming! Hear my thoughts on authentic representations of mental health in horror as part of StokerCon Online. 

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!

 
***

Hi all! 

My kiddos are on summer vacation, and the first week has been nuts. The second week will have summer camps starting up for them, which will go back to allowing me some breathing room, but things are crazy. So, a few small updates. I do believe we have the plan for a new theme on Horror Tree in place. It needs quite a bit of work still but we’re on our way forward! 

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! 
  • Shadowed Realms is OFFICIALLY ready for pre-order and you can order it from Amazon right here!
  • I want to share a special shout-out to the open call we posted last week, ‘The Trouble With Time‘. It’s being put together by a regular fiction contributor to Trembling With Fear, and I really wanted to give it a small extra highlight for this speculative fiction anthology that will be dealing with time travel. If you’ve got a story idea that could fit, check it out! 

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

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Unholy Trinity: “Reversal, Ritual & Refusal” by CD Francis

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.

 

Reversal

 

The hunter suppressed his pain through gritted teeth. His grimy fingers clawed desperately at the bear trap, the shattered ankle upon which it had closed oozing blood. He attempted to prize the jaws apart, and for some tantalising seconds it appeared they were wide enough to release his useless foot. His fingers slipped. The jaws met with a snap and the foot fell away, hoarse screams echoing into silence. A rustling; he looked around, nauseated. The Grizzly, upright and tall, stared down at him with malevolence. It raised the shotgun it held, clicking back the hammer. The hunter whined softly.

 

Ritual

 

A frantic din of bleating presses in on all sides as the Druid struggles to find a gap. Hooves kick and horned heads butt in a tight semicircle, forcing him into the hulking wooden cage. Those inside clamour wildly, unable to escape, lamenting their fate. One ram gives a last kick and retreats, another secures the cage door. Another drops a flaming bough from its mouth onto the pyre’s edge. Flames ascend the structure, which comes alive with screams overwhelmed by the flock’s rising cacophony. The rams look on, rearing, stamping their adorations to the Great Sheep of the Moon.

 

Refusal

 

Miss Grunt, line manager at Springtail & Sons Organic, looked into the pen from the mezzanine, trotters on loins. The creatures inside paced dismally, squatted in corners they’d soiled, and fought over a three foot square of sunlight pouring through a hole in the roof. They enjoyed the warmth, never having felt it before. 

Grunt wouldn’t believe the experts this time. The idea of these creatures experiencing the world similarly to pigs was absurd, and everyone knew it. Not to mention everyone ate Springtail sausages; they were the leading domestic brand. She snorted.

‘I must get that roof fixed first thing.’

 

CD Francis

CD Francis is a ‘moonraker’ (someone from the folklore-rich county of Wiltshire in the south west of England). They have lived and worked in Wiltshire, Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and they love this part of the world and all of its folk history. This makes its way into their writing, which they have recently decided to focus on over their current tedious existence. 

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 5-26-24

Greetings, children of the dark. This has been an up and down week at TWF Towers and I’m feeling super drained, so I’m mustering the last of my energy to send this missive before I collapse in a heap for the UK long weekend. The good news? The next edition will be the first of the official summer in this part of the world. The sun has been out more than not, and I’m soaking up all that vitamin D every time I can.

This week’s speculative fiction offerings are a mixed bag, kind of like the London weather has been this week. Our main course from Harris Coverley is a short but deeply gothic offering that ticks all the right boxes for me. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Bernardo Villela’s lupine wonderings,
  • Melody E. McIntyre’s desperate humanity, and
  • Trevor Steel’s terrible consequences.

Finally, a quick plug for the next edition of my Writing the Occult events: we’re talking about connection to the land on 15 June. There will be land myths, ritual landscapes, and spirits of place; how to use the land to spark fantasy creations or be the driving force in your story; how to connect when it’s hostile as well as beautiful; and we’ll ask how the climate crisis is impacting the writer’s connection to the land. I’m super excited about the line-up that’s assembling; it might even be our biggest one yet! All details, etc, over at writingtheoccult.carrd.co—tickets are on sale now! We meet on 15 June, starting at 1pm UK / 8am ET. (Sorry, Antipodeans, but it is all recorded for ticket holders to watch back at more convenient times)

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!

 
***

Well. I hope that Holley or myself have reached out to all of the authors involved. Our initial announcement came a bit early as Shadowed Realms is OFFICIALLY ready for pre-order and you can order it from Amazon right here! I wanted to get this into the newsletter for Friday so it went up a bit early though it is super exciting to share that this is out in the world. It was Holly’s dream to put together her favorite indie horror from a year, and I’m thrilled that she tapped me as her co-editor on this one. We’ve got it at a special lower pre-order discount price before it goes fully live, so save while the saving’s good! (On release day, the digital copy will go up a few dollars.) 

And, for anyone who missed it, we once again ranked in the top websites for authors as recommended by Writer’s Digest! WHEW! 

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

(more…)

Trembling With Fear

 by 

Trembling With Fear 5-19-24

Greetings, children of the dark. Before we get to the good stuff, let me give a quick update on our progress with submissions: I think I’ve now contacted everyone who submitted prior to the most recent submissions window. There are a handful I had marked as needing to discuss edits, so if you haven’t heard from me yet, that’s probably you. Next up: reading all of those who submitted in the April window. It really does take a long, long time to get through all of your fabulous work! We are mere mortals and volunteer ones at that, but I do thank you for your patience with us. If you’ve found a home for your story since you submitted it to us and you haven’t yet heard, do let us know so we can take it off our reading pile and save us all some time and heartache.

And now to this week’s TWF menu. Jordan McClymont takes us into the Scottish wilderness for a frightful look up at the stars (and what’s down below, too). That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Emily Holman’s thunderous terror,
  • Hannah Foster’s creature in need, and
  • Ryan Van Ells’s single-minded maniac.

Finally, I announced the next edition of my Writing the Occult events this week: we’re talking about connection to the land for the week of the Solstice. There will be land myths, ritual landscapes, and spirits of place; how to use the land to spark fantasy creations or be the driving force in your story; how to connect when it’s hostile as well as beautiful; and we’ll ask how the climate crisis is impacting the writer’s connection to the land. All details, etc, over at writingtheoccult.carrd.co—tickets are on sale now! We meet on 15 June, starting at 1pm UK / 8am ET. (Sorry, Antipodeans.)

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!

 
***

Okay, this week we’re running a giveaway for ten digital copies of Cretaceous Canyon by Deborah Sheldon and with that many to give away you have high odds of winning – enter right here!

On top of this, a bit of exciting news. We’ve once again been included in Writer’s Digest 101 Best Web Sites! Here is a scan from the magazine, and we’ll be sharing links once it appears online this year. Thank you so much for the love RD!

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

(more…)