Tagged: Free Fiction

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.

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.

Hello, children of the dark. I’ll keep it short this week as we have some superb offerings for you on this week’s menu and my ramblings are not what you come here for. I have just three things to share/offer/beg:

First of all, I’m currently in Birmingham for the UK’s FantasyCon, so I’ll be sure to update on all the shenanigans in the coming weeks. Yesterday I was part of panels on marketing and on contracts, and today it’s my first British Fantasy Society AGM as the new PR and Marketing Officer. From today, that work begins in earnest! (And I’m definitely flying the flag for the UK’s horror and darker speculative writers.)

Secondly, if your dark leanings tend towards the blood-thirsty and fang-based, you might be interested in the second edition of my Writing the Occult events happening on Saturday 28 October. This time we’re talking vampires, and have a bloody good line-up of authors, essayists, poets, academics, and folklorists ready to inspire and give you something juicy to sink your (pointy) teeth into. Our guests include a wide range of emerging, established, and iconic writers, including Jewelle Gomez, Scott J. Moses, Katalina Watt, Beverley Lee, Nicole Eigener, AW Earl, Dawn Kurtagich, and more!  All the details are over here, daily updates are featured on the Society of Ink Slingers Instagram/my own social accounts, and you can get your tickets here. It’s timed to allow those in the UK, Europe, and on both coasts of the US enjoy at least some of the programme. (It’s a bit late for Aussies, but don’t let that stop you!) Consider it a Halloween present to yourself. 

And finally a quick reminder, at risk of my sounding like a broken record: if you’re looking for something to flex those creative muscles, do consider popping out a drabble or two, please. Our cupboards are looking a bit bare on that front—though we are very grateful for all the short story submissions we’ve been getting since reopening last month!

But for now, let’s turn to this week’s TWF menu. Susan E. Rogers is losing time. This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Julie McNeely-Kirwan’s grandma returns,
• Georgia Cook embraces the ocean’s cruelty, and 
• David Alan Owens seeks sweet agony.

Over to you, Stuart.

Trembling With Fear: Year 6 update: The first and second revisions to the cover have happened! We’ve got the back cover sorted, the spine sorted, and are just making some last-minute tweaks to the front. I’m really hoping that by the time you read this, it has already been finalized. Fingers crossed! 

Shadowed Realms update: We’re SO CLOSE to out first round of answer. I swear, we are! Truly! 

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.

Hello, children of the dark. Isn’t it mad that an entire summer can go by with not much happening, and then a mere two week period brings alllll the excitement? Summer has finally arrived in the UK, a week after the season’s official end. (I know it’s over – I saw evidence of the local strawjack harvest parade last weekend!) As this week’s edition goes live, my other half is up in the north of England doing a half-marathon for his sins. As next week’s edition goes live, I’ll be finishing up at the British Fantasy Society’s FantasyCon (do make sure you let me know if you’ll be there too so I can say hi!). And then… well, life calms down again. Hopefully the weather will be cooler. It’ll almost be Halloween month. The stores will be full of spooky-themed clothes I can buy to wear year-round (anyone else do that?). And maybe, just maybe, I’ll get time to write. Think it’ll happen? Yeah, me neither.

I hope you’re getting plenty of time to write. And if you’re looking for something to flex those creative muscles, do consider popping out a drabble or two, please. Our cupboards are looking a bit bare, and we’d hate to have to skip a week of TWF! (It’d either be that or a stack of my own, and that’s just way too self-indulgent for anyone.)

But for now, let’s turn to this week’s TWF menu. We get out the ouija board for this week’s short story from a writer who’s new to these pages. (Hello, Sue du Feu!) This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Christina Nordlander can’t find a way out,
• John K Peck haunts with a twist, and 
• Pauline Barmby finishes her probationary period.

Over to you, Stuart.

(PS sorry for all the bracketed asides this week! Not sure what’s got into me.)

Trembling With Fear: Year 6 update: We’re down to just the cover art, specs are in, I’m hoping by the time you read this I have a copy or final copy in my hands and a proof copy of the anthology ordered as I’m writing this in advance, fingers crossed!

Shadowed Realms update: Next year, we clearly need to budget more reading time to be built in. (Also, I won’t be in an MBA program so I’ll be reading quicker.) Progress is being made, slowly but surely.

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.

Hello, children of the dark. Tell me, dear ones: do you have any stories hiding behind your couch? Maybe an idea that’s been burning a hole in your brain but you’re yet to put pen to paper? Or maybe there’s that thing you were *sure* would be accepted to that anthology but you were ghosted… If you have a story lurking in the shadows, please consider submitting it to us here at TWF. You can do that here, or just email us via [email protected].

You see, I fear I may have scared you all off last week with my diatribe about how we’re really searching for dark speculative fiction and not evil humans in the real world. Please don’t let that put you off trying! One thing I love about this publication is how open we are, as well as how we’re often a jumping-off point for writers who are nervous about submitting elsewhere, or those who are at the beginning of their journeys. But I say this a lot, and I need to add this afterwards: we also welcome stories from those writers who are well-established, and those who are anywhere in between. We have an insatiable need for submissions, so I can’t say this enough!

Here’s a random tangent, but trust me, it makes sense in my head: when I was growing up in Australia in the ‘80s, there was a character in a TV commercial called the Gobbledock. This purple hairy thing only wanted one thing, and that thing was potato chips (crisps for the Brits). It would run around calling out “chippy chippy chippy” as it searched for the gold. And lately, I kinda feel like the editorial Gobbledock, constantly calling out for “stories stories stories”. I’m a broken record and I even annoy myself. But it must be done.

It’s the end of the northern hemisphere summer, and real life is calling. Maybe we should all spend some time this month indulging our dark sides. Get your fingers on those keyboards, and write!

But for now, let’s turn to this week’s TWF menu. Our short story offering this week comes from someone we’ve published in drabble form before, but this is her first short story: welcome to the longer form, S.G. Perahim! This is then followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Ceferino Ruiz is trapped under water,
• DJ Tyrer channels old Hollywood adventures and heads for Egypt, and 
• Cassandra Vaillancourt finds things are not well at the mine.

Over to you, Stuart.

It was a time of crazy busy-ness. The cover is moving forward, however, no real updates outside of that. Sorry, more to come! 

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.

Hello, children of the dark. I’m running a bit late this week (sorry, Stuart!), so I won’t do my usual rambling unfurling of my mad mind. I’ll just say hi, I’ve finally got my ticket to next month’s UK FantasyCon—spurred on by the fact I’ve now joined the British Fantasy Society as its PR and Marketing Officer—and I hope to meet a few TWF-ers while I’m there! Make sure you come and say hi if you see me. I’ll be the one in the corner that looks like me.

But for now, it’s time for this week’s offerings on the TWF menu. Our short story this week is a tasty bit of cosmic horror—thanks for this one, Patrick O’Malley! Patrick also marks the first of our new short stories now we’ve reopened after a year’s publishing backlog. We’re really trying to make sure that doesn’t happen again, but please don’t be shy about submitting your stories!

Speak of which, our timely cosmic horror is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Adam Ehrenberg picks up a hitchhiker,
• Caroline Jenner gets magical, and 
• Engilbert Egill has unfinished business.

BTW if you happen to be in the UK and in the vicinity of the Midlands town of Derby next month, be sure to check out this awesome event: the Paracinema Cult Film Festival happens 22-25 September!

Over to you, Stuart.

School has started up again, and I’m taking more classes than I have before, so, unfortunately, expect my usual complaint of not having much time. That being said – I’m closing in on the finish line of my MBA. I’m not there after these two classes, but I’ll be VERY close. Side note: I have everything I need now to get the TWF final covers formatted and am sending that over to our artist this weekend so expect some real news on that front SOON! (Finally! WOOHOO!) 

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.

Hello, children of the dark. It’s great to see short story submissions back in our inbox—yes, in case you missed the news, we’ve re-opened to shorts!—but the team’s noticed a developing trend we’d like to nip in the bud, right here and right now. 

It concerns the type of “darkness” we’re looking for in our stories. Despite the name of the site, we at Horror Tree and Trembling With Fear don’t just concern ourselves with horror; we are fans of anything darkly speculative. When we say “dark”, we mean it’s not light and fluffy, nor full of hope and optimism. That could mean monsters or it could mean fairytales or it could be dystopia or it could be anything, really. 

But it’s the next bit that I really want to focus on: the “speculative” bit. Because this is where the trend is developing.

Speculative stories, says Masterclass, have “elements that are based on conjecture and do not exist in the real world”. They’re sometimes called “what-if” stories. They “change the laws of what’s real or possible as we know them in our current society, and then speculate on the outcome.” 

Now, because our site has “horror” in its name, we get a lot of horror stories. That’s understandable. But the bulk of those stories lately have been based in the real world, dealing with real horrors. Serial killers are not speculative; they are very, scarily real. So are plain-old abusers, murderers, tormentors. Humans are evil, for sure. And that’s not particularly interesting to us at TWF. 

If you take that tormentor and make it a supernatural being, that’s something we like. It doesn’t have to be a high fantasy, dark version of the Hobbit. It just has to be something a little bit unreal. A haunting. A creature. A nightmare. Use the darkest recesses of your imagination. 

With that in mind, we’re going to get strict on real-world horror subs now we’ve reopened. If you’re going to try us with a real-world horror tale, it better be bloody spectacular. That’s all I’m saying. We get that the world is shit; get catharsis by imagining something new!

Whatever your poison, you can find the guidelines and details on how to submit over here. 

But for now, it’s time for this week’s offerings on the TWF menu. Len Klapdor’s short story shows how dangerous it is to follow strangers. (And Len has been super patient as we worked through our big backlog of stories from last year – this is the last of the oldies; it’s all shiny new subs from here!) This is followed by three delicious quick bites: 

• Cassandra Daucus channels Austen,
• Vincent West faces omens, and 
• Catherine Berry seeks silent solace.

Over to you, Stuart.

We’re done with formatting and everything else for physical releases! Just waiting on cover edits and this year’s Trembling With Fear is finally going to be good to go. So excited for this to FINALLY be getting out into the wild. Also, we’re working toward finishing the first round of Shadowed Realms. Hopefully, the first round will be done by this coming weekend, though time will tell. 

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.

Hello, children of the dark. I’m keeping it short this week because, as I write this on Thursday, I am still trying to hurriedly work on my presentation about witch tropes in pop culture for my event in less than 48 hours, aka the first time I’ve organised a writing event and sold tickets. Readers, I am rather anxious! But hopefully it will go smoothly—and if it doesn’t, hopefully the attendees are forgiving. The good news is, this one has been so well received that there will definitely be another edition of Writing the Occult, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I’ve seen plenty of short stories coming into the coffers, which is great (I’m going to need a lot of reading time in the coming days!). Yes, we are now officially re-open to short story submissions, and you can find the guidelines and details on how to submit over here. Please use the website form to submit it rather than emailing us directly; it’s a good way to alert us that this is an important message rather than one of the many, many link-building requests we get into the inbox every day. And make sure you choose TWF from the drop-down menu!

But for now, it’s time for this week’s offerings on the TWF menu. Our short story course comes from Sarah Licht, and it is quite honestly the most innovative story format I’ve had the pleasure to publish since sitting in this chair—I’m only sorry the limitations of our system couldn’t do more justice to the format!. This is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Steven Patchett heads off to carve lovers’ initials,
• Hana Carolina is inspired by a real abandoned mental hospital, and 
• Emma Burnett catches her reflection in the mirror.

Over to you, Stuart.

PS – it’s my birthday tomorrow 🥳

We’re still working through our readings for the physical release and best of anthology! Things are going well, more soon!

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.

Hello, children of the dark. It’s time. Yes, it’s time for your short stories to come back to us. I know it’s been frustrating having submissions closed for SO DAMN LONG, but we were a victim of our own success, and you’re all just too goshdarn talented. 

In celebration at the window reopening, I’m keeping it short and sweet this week to remind you of what we’re looking for, and to give a recap on our submission guidelines. All of this – including the form to submit – is over on this page.

Short stories

• Up to 1500 words – any longer and we won’t read it.
• Make the most of the word count, please; the sweet spot is at least 800 words for our publication.
• It needs to be a complete story in itself; no extracts from longer works please. We can tell (most of the time). “A complete story” means  it has a coherent and strong beginning, middle, and end, and a narrative that is well-paced. Descriptive prose is great for scene-setting, but there also needs to be some action and character development with it.
• We might be called “Horror Tree”, but we’re not just looking for horror. In fact, we want your best dark speculative fiction – emphasis on the speculative. Think fairy tales, paranormal entities, scary stuff in space, fantastical beasts, grimdark worlds. Get creative!
• We’re ready to read them NOW.

Drabbles

• Exactly 100 words – no more, no less.
• Also needs to be a complete story in and of itself, with a strong resolution (not just tapering off…)
• We have an insatiable appetite for these, and are always looking for more! (Otherwise we’ll have to start publishing pieces from Stuart and I, and we’ll look super self-indulgent – and you don’t want that, right?)

The intense but important warning

• No erotica, pornography, or graphic sex
• No rape (implied or explicit)
• No homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, misandry, ableism, or racism
• No killing or abuse of kids or pets – don’t cause great harm small sentient things!
• No reprints
• No fanfiction or stories in someone else’s established world – there are copyright issues

Be inspired/spurred on by this week’s efforts!

But for now, let’s turn to the reason you’re here: it’s time for this week’s offerings on the TWF menu. For this week’s short story, Paul Lonardo tells the sad tales of a man who collects haunted houses. This is followed by three delicious quick bites:

• Cassandra Vaillancourt enters the darkness of the cave,
• Tom Ray receives a dreaded postcard, and 
• Alan Moskowitz goes off for a date night.

Over to you, Stuart.

We’re still working through our readings for the physical release and best of anthology! Things are going well, more soon! 

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.