Tagged: Drabble

October 27, 2023

by Shalini

Unholy Trinity: Deathbed, Probe & Postmortem by Paul Lonardo

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.

Deathbed

On his deathbed, the retired NASA Administrator David McCaffrey told his son Carl never to tamper with the box under the stairs. A month after the man passed, while cleaning out the house, Carl discovered a seamless, metallic box. The imaginative young man wondered what extraterrestrial secrets it contained. Using a sledgehammer, he smashed the mysterious object, which was part of a global protection grid against alien invasion. Now compromised, sparks sizzled from tiny cracks and an alarm chirped while directly overhead the skies glowed with brilliant points of light and the contrails of interstellar missiles descending at hypersonic speed.

Probe

The alien set the anal probes on the counter, taking all that was left on the shelf. “I also need one of those large, gray-headed masks with the big black eyes?”

The attendant reached beneath the counter and pulled up the mask. “You must be going to Earth,” he said, scanning the items. “Tell me, why does everyone who visits Earth bring these masks?”

“Humans freak out if we probe them without the mask on.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because we’re physically identical in every way. Amazing, that of all the different lifeforms out there, humans happen to look just like us.”

Postmortem

Lying naked on the table, the cold metal pressed against Vincent’s back, butt, and calves. When the white sheet over his face was pulled down, there was an explosion of intense light. He saw a blurry figure holding a scalpel and tried to move but he could not. As the blade cut through the frigid flesh of his chest, it made a soft crackling sound. The Y-incision across his shoulders extended down his stomach, but he felt no pain. When the skin was pulled back, it was red inside, though blood did not flow. He screamed but made no sound.

Paul Lonardo

Paul Lonardo is a freelance writer and author with numerous titles of both fiction and nonfiction books. He’s placed short stories and nonfiction articles in various genre magazines and ezines. In June 2023, he released Penny Dreadfuls, a collection of haiku horror poems, and in October, Small Dark Things, his latest anthology of all new dark fantasy stories was published. Paul is a contributing writer for Tales from the Moonlit Path and an active HWA member. You find him on Instagram @PaulLonardo13, on X @PaulLondardo and on his website: www.thegoblinpitcher.com.

October 22, 2023

Trembling With Fear 10-22-23

Hello, children of the dark. I don’t know about you, but I am bloody exhausted. And I know I say that pretty much every week, but it’s super bad this week. However, I have wisdom to impart—aka I must give you some updates on our submission guidelines—so bear with me as I muddle through this week’s issue. I’ll be fancy and put in some sub-heads to make this easier on your eyes.

Submissions for special editions

If you’ve subbed to one of our special editions, or sent over a serial or unholy trinity, you no doubt have met our wonderful Special Editions Editor, Shalini. We’re so lucky to have her. (I won’t mention that she took a postcard for my vampire event to see Anne Rice’s grave this week, because that would be in poor taste.)

Anyways, Shalini has been absolutely inundated with submissions for the upcoming Halloween special, so please be patient as she makes her way through them. Which leads me onto this little note…

Technically, our special editions have tight submission windows. We tend to wave things through if, say, a Christmas story is subbed in July; we’ll just file it away to review closer to the time. But given Halloween and Christmas come so close together, I just wanted to remind you that submissions to special editions will only be looked at a few weeks out from publication, regardless of when you submit it. This is because Shalini needs to look at the special edition as a whole to make sure there’s not, for example, three stories about pumpkins and none about witches for Halloween. So feel free to submit your special editions outside of the window if you want to, but please know that you won’t hear anything until about a week out from its relevant publication time. Patience, my children. Patience.

The avalanche of short story submissions

Which brings me to another submissions dilemma we’re having at the moment. About this time last year, we had to close to short story submissions because we were scheduled for many, many, many months and it wouldn’t be fair to accept any further stories at that point. Regular readers will know we reopened those submissions at the beginning of September – just six weeks ago. Dear children, you have been very, very busy submitting again—and we’re inundated. So much so, that Stuart and I are having serious discussions about perhaps making our short story openings happen in windows rather than perennially. Stay tuned for more news on that in future editions, but please be patient (again!) if you’ve subbed a short story to us in the last month. We are but a tiny team of volunteers, and we’re doing our best to get through a vast amount of stories.

Now, to the reason you’re here…

To the matter at hand: Kenny Togunloju tells us a ghost story as our main menu item this week. This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

Vincent O’Neill tries to get a refund,
Nikki Anderson can be found in an old chatroom, and
Ron Capshaw faces his demons.

And my final word: Fangs. I promise, this is the last time you’ll hear from me in these pages about vampires! My next event, Writing the Occult: Vampires, happens next Saturday, 28 October 2023. We’ve timed it so fangbangers across the Northern Hemisphere have a chance of attending at least some of it live (sorry, ‘Straya and NZ), and we’re also recording all sessions so you can catch up on what you miss. Recordings are only for ticketholders, though, and won’t be shared anywhere else, so if you haven’t joined the nest yet and want to, act fast! Tickets are over on Eventbrite, or full speaker details and bios are on this website. You can also follow @societyofinkslingers on Instagram for deep dives on the sessions.

Now it’s over to an (I think?) MBA finals-finished Stuart!

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

The first and second rounds of rejections for Shadowed Realms have gone out! We’re 4/5th cleared-out stories and still have a bit over twice as many that we can fit into the anthology left to re-read, re-analyze, and nitpick. Honestly, we’re down to nitpicking because you’ve all sent in such AMAZING stories!

Don’t forget – Trembling With Fear Volume 6 is ready to order! Next year, we may be looking to expand past just the Amazon platform. If we do that, what stores do you like to purchase your books from?

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

October 15, 2023

Trembling With Fear 10-15-23

Hello, children of the dark. I went on a righteous rant last week, so I’ll spare you that torture this time around. Also, Stuart is in the midst of MBA hell so I don’t want to give him too much to read. Let’s skip the guff and get straight to the good stuff.

This week’s TWF menu features a magical, forested short story from Vivian Chou. This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

Nicolette Ward makes friends on the bus,
Steven Holding channels the inner geezer MC, and
Richard Meldrum is here to help.

Finally, a repeat of recent quick notes on the short story submissions. We have been honoured and excited to see the submissions come in thick and fast since we reopened last month, but we are getting multiple subs from individual authors. Given the volume of submissions we’re receiving, we will only be able to accept one story per author for now. Of course, we are always seeking more tiny slices of darkness in the form of drabbles.

PPS it’s almost time for vampires! I’m running an online day of talks and workshops from writers, academics, and folklorists examining the vampire from every angle. Yes, we’ll talk about Dracula, but also gothic feminism, Anne Rice adaptations, the folkloric origins and how those turn up in literature, world-building for vampires, and an awesome panel (Jewelle Gomez, Scott J Moses, Katalina Watt, A.W. Earl, moderated by Rebecca Wojturska from Haunt Publishing) looking at how our own experiences can help turn the tropes on their heads. Join the nest, won’t you? Tickets are £45+bf (approx $55) and available here.

Now it’s over to a very frazzled bossman—your turn, Stuart!

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Shadowed Realms responses are starting to go out! By the time you read this, I believe our first round of responses should be out in the ether.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: I’ve had a few responses to this and am eager to more! Here is what I typed last week: I’m one month away from my current 2-class MBA workload and another two and a half months from being done with the program as long as my math is right. So, one of my focuses will be to grow our YouTube channel. What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]!

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

October 8, 2023

Trembling With Fear 10-8-23

Hello, children of the dark. I wonder, how many of you turn to the dark side of fiction for catharsis? I ask because Tuesday marks World Mental Health Day—a global movement spearheaded by the World Foundation of Mental Health—and I know part of the lure for me is indeed a way to process my own issues and fears. Whether it’s writing or reading, I find that immersing myself into a fictional world can help me to confront those things which I find challenging in the Real World. Is it the same for you?

I ask this not just because of the big day of global awareness, but also because I’ve had a challenging week in terms of mental health. I’ve said in these pages before that I have many, shall we say, diagnoses of the neurological kind. I’m a long-term chronic depression and anxiety patient, and have more recently (finally) been diagnosed with ADHD, sensory processing disorder, and dyspraxia, as well as some ASD traits. And while I’ve been processing and adjusting to those more recent diagnoses, I’ve also been nursing our beloved black rabbit through palliative care. On Tuesday, we lost her. We had the vet send her over the rainbow bridge; she’d had enough, it’d gotten too much for her. And, children of the dark, I really hate not having her around. She was my heart, my soul, my emotional support. She was so important to my mental health as well as much loved and spoiled, and as I write this the day after we lost her, I keep thinking I can hear her shuffling around. It’s heartbreaking. But at the same time, my inner monologue is telling me “ffs, it’s just a pet”. Those damn voices can sense vulnerability, and they intend on making the most of the chinks in the armour. (Note to self: I need to change all my bios to amend references to bun.)

For those who are using mental health in their writing, I implore you to use a sensitivity reader before submitting your stories to publications; you can access these via the HWA, which launched a mental health initiative last year (more on that here). We’re getting an increasing number of submissions to TWF that involve mental illness, and often the matter is not handled sensitively. Mental illness is not a punchline. It can be part of a character’s back story, but it should not be the only reason they are the bad guy. If your story’s twist is “oh hey turns out she was ‘crazy’ and got locked away”, then you are not writing with sensitivity. Do better.

And dear children of the dark, look after yourselves please. This year’s theme for World Mental Health Day is “mental health is a universal human right”—and it really, really is. You have the right to support, the right to talk, and the right to ask for help. So please ask for help. And continue to seek solace in the dark of our pages and the plethora of others around the internet.

You matter, and we love you.

Turning to this week’s TWF menu, and our short story is a stunning meditation on PTSD from Masimba Musodza. This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

Stéphane G. Perahim receives an inheritance,
A.R Carrasco considers the rules of an academic discipline, and
Corinne Pollard finds it’s definitely not ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

Finally, a repeat of last week’s quick note on the short story submissions. We have been honoured and excited to see the submissions come in thick and fast since we reopened last month, but we are getting multiple subs from individual authors. Given the volume of submissions we’re receiving, we will only be able to accept one story per author for now. Make sure you’re giving us your very best to maximise chances of acceptance!

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Our Yearly Anthology ‘Trembling With Fear: Year 6′ Is Available For Pre-Order on AMAZON! It should be fully live both physically and digitally this coming Monday! AHHH! We’ve switched things up and instead of splitting all of the work we published in 2022 into 2-3 volumes like we have in previous years, we’ve combined them into one volume this year. Also, I’d like to apologize to our featured authors, between work, my MBA, and trying to get this out into the world I have not reached out to all of those included before this has gone to publication. At the time of reading this I have a week left of classes and will be trying to reach out to everything by the end of the following week. With the change in editorials, we didn’t keep a full list with emails of who we were publishing so there is going to be a bit of work to get the list re-created and everyone contacted.

Our first round of rejections for Shadowed Realms should be going out this week, if they haven’t by the time this posts.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: I’ve had a few responses to this and am eager to more! Here is what I typed last week: I’m one month away from my current 2-class MBA workload and another two and a half months from being done with the program as long as my math is right. So, one of my focuses will be to grow our YouTube channel. What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]!

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

October 1, 2023

Trembling With Fear 10-1-23

Hello, children of the dark. It’s our time of year: officially spooky season. What plans do you have this October? Me, I’m kicking off a month-long celebration of the horror genre for the British Fantasy Society’s website (I know! Who knew they covered all of speculative fiction? That’s something I’ll be embracing in my new role as the Society’s PR, Marketing & Online Content Officer). I’m also–and I think told you this before—running another online event at the end of the month, and this time we’re dedicating it to fangs. Writing the Occult: Vampires happens on 28 October in the UK afternoon/East Coast morning, and I’d love to see you there. Unfortunately the early bird price expired yesterday, so you’ll be up for the full amount—but that’s just £45+bf, and you get six sessions and eight hours of vampiric delights for your money. Full details and lineup over here.

Talk of Spooktober and vampires brings us to this week’s edition. We’re excited to present a short story from Chris McAuley, the founder of the StokerVerse. Back in July last year, when our own Steph Ellis stepped down from these pages, I was due to be joined by Chris in the editor’s chair. But Chris’s life got crazy, and he had to step aside quickly so he could dedicate his time to all the amazing writing opportunities he was being presented with. It’s nice to be able to have him in these pages again, even if only for the weekend.

So in this week’s TWF menu our short story delivers a peek at vampires along the Western Front. This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

Cassandra Daucus makes a discovery on Arthur’s Seat,
Virginia Hayes deals with a dognapping, and
Sarah Elliott stares into the eyes of the muse.

Finally, a quick note on the short story submissions. We have been honoured and excited to see the submissions come in thick and fast since we reopened last month, but we are getting multiple subs from individual authors. Given the volume of submissions we’re receiving, we will only be able to accept one story per author for now. Make sure you’re giving us your very best to maximise chances of acceptance!

Now it’s over to you, Stuart—and I think you might have news?

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

HAPPY OCTOBER! May the spooky shenanigans begin my friends.

As I opened this intro up to write (Thursday afternoon) on my lunch break, the final approved artwork for ‘Trembling With Fear: Year 6’ has hit my inbox. I am slammed with meetings and MBA work today, however, I’m hoping to have the pre-orders up and running by the time you read this. (If so, I truly hope I’ll also have time to edit this and stick the pre-order links in. There will also be a post with the details.)

Shadowed Realms update: EVERYTHING has been read. I’m hoping we can start sending out initial rejections this weekend while we finalize which of those in the ‘yes’ pile are going to be making the cut. There has been a LOT of great stories here and so many of the rejections were hard to say no to. Finalizing this is going to be painful on saying no to so much good work. You have all really shined on your stories that were published in 2022.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: I’ve had a few responses to this and am eager to more! Here is what I typed last week: I’m one month away from my current 2-class MBA workload and another two and a half months from being done with the program as long as my math is right. So, one of my focuses will be to grow our YouTube channel. What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]!

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

September 29, 2023

by Shalini

Unholy Trinity: The Call by Kai Delmas

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.

Rise

The dead call to me. I hear them whisper from their graves. They haunt my dreams, begging to be set free.

I’ve stayed away from graveyards ever since my grandfather’s burial. When his coffin was lowered into the earth I heard his voice in my head, asking for a second chance at life.

I was too afraid to return but that changed when I lost you. I couldn’t stay away any longer.

I hear them calling as my feet pass by their graves. They all want second chances.

But you will be the first.

Come back to me, mother.

Rise.

Strong. Determined. Unstoppable.

His call comes from above. Strong. Determined. Unstoppable.

I follow it.

Once weak, my body is no longer bound by nature’s laws. Rotting flesh pounds against wood until it splinters. Torn fingernails and exposed bone claw their way through settled dirt, sticks and rocks.

Pain is a thing of the past. Time not of my concern.

When I reach the surface I try to suck in air but my body’s no longer capable. It has no need of oxygen.

It only needs magic.

My dead eyes find my son. His call, his magic, brought me back.

He’s strong. Determined. Unstoppable.

The Call

Hallowed ground ruptures. Dozens of hands fight their way through the dirt. I answered their call but my eyes only focus on one.

My mother’s skin is gray with black veins. Her eyes are white. She doesn’t speak. I don’t think she can.

But I hear her. Like I hear the others. They called me. Begged me to bring them back. What for?

My question isn’t answered through words but through one single, crystal clear emotion.

Anger.

They want revenge. They needed me to bring them back. Now they need me to set them free.

And that’s what I do.

Kai Delmas

Kai Delmas loves creating worlds and magic systems and is a slush reader for Apex Magazine. He is a winner of the monthly Apex Microfiction Contest, his fiction is forthcoming in Zooscape, and can be found in Martian, Etherea, Tree And Stone, Wyldblood, and several Shacklebound anthologies. Find him on Twitter @KaiDelmas or Bluesky @kaidelmas.bsky.social And if you like his drabbles and maybe even want to get some critiques, support him on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/kaidelmas.

September 24, 2023

Trembling With Fear 9-24-23

Hello, children of the dark. Are you as tired as I am? Nay, are you as darn exhausted as I am? It’s been a big couple of weeks for me both on the homefront and out in the world, and I really just need a big long lie-in. So I won’t keep you this week. Let’s skip to the end. But first…

…big congrats to those behind the UK’s FantasyCon, which was held in Birmingham last weekend. The con covers the full spectrum of speculative fiction—scifi, fantasy, and horror, of both the dark and less so variety—and it was great to see many of the horror community I chat with online or have met at other events. If you’ve never been to a SFFH con, I highly recommend it. I was joined on Saturday by one of Horror Tree’s own writers, Sarah Elliott, and it was her first time at anything like it. I think we’ve converted her to the cause…

But for now, let’s turn to this week’s TWF menu. Our short story comes over the waves from Greece, and finds Akis Linardos in an unusual situation. This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

Ceferino Ruiz has issues with his aunt,
Alyson Faye is nesting, and
Adam Ehrenberg didn’t return his keys.

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Trembling With Fear: Year 6 update: I know I said that last week that we were going to be done by last weekend. We had one last tweak to the spine that ended up coming up so revisions are happening. I’m really hoping that THIS weekend means we’ll be set and I’ll be able to get the rest of it sorted and ready to go by the time that you’re reading this update!

Shadowed Realms update: By the time that you’re reading this, I’m hoping we’ll be at a point where initial rejections are starting to go out. We’re pretty much done with reading at this point so its just time to narrow things down. There has been a LOT of great writing here and I think our entire ‘maybe’ pile is going to unfortunately be swept into the rejection list just from how many have really risen to the top. I honestly wish I could afford to publish two volumes as the final culling is going to be extremely difficult.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: I’m one month away from my current 2-class MBA workload and another two and a half months from being done with the program as long as my math is right. So, one of my focuses will be to grow our YouTube channel. What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]!

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree