Trembling With Fear 09/26/21
Please note: We are temporarily closed to short flash stories (unless for one of the Specials) but open to drabbles, unholy trinities and serials. We hope to reopen later in the year once we have caught up with the publication of those already accepted. Please also remember to read our guidelines, especially on word counts!
This week has been quiet – thankfully – and I’ve continued on with my latest novella. At the moment, I am still writing it longhand. There will come a point when I transfer it to pc and go from there but for the moment, the notebook is keeping me focussed and I am not dipping into social media too much! I had planned for most of it to be set on the streets of Victorian London’s East End but whilst it started there, it has now gone underground to the massive vaults that lay beneath the warehouses back then. My characters are down there and not showing any sign of coming back up soon! Having this book to work on has been a great antidote to a few rejections I’ve had lately!
Delighted to see Were Tales – A Shapeshifter Anthology appear this week. Yes, I’ve got a story in it but I want to give it a plug a) because there are a huge number of wonderful indie authors in the TOC b) it includes poetry c) finishes with a bonus non-fiction piece, One and Done, from Cindy O’Quinn, which everyone should read in these covid times (and when you’ve read it, pass it on) and finally d) because this is Brigids Gate Press first publication. Steve and Heather Vassallo set up their new press this year. They are not necessarily focussing on one specific genre – which is great news for those who want to try other areas to work in – and have been both enthusiastic and professional. If you are looking for a home for your work, keep an eye out for this publisher.
Our first story in Trembling with Fear is Clozapine Daydream by Jim Graves is a bleak story of psychosis and effectively terrifying use of the character of Humpty Dumpty. Using a nursery character usually regarded as innocent and harmless really heightens the darkness of this tale.
After Dark by Stephanie Parent is the story of someone at war with themselves, trying to be someone else, but then they are summoned home.
Beneath the Waves by Toshiya Kamei brings us the Namazu, a giant catfish from Japanese mythology which causes – well, I’ll let you read for yourself. More monsters from other cultures please!
Tools and Weapons by Ryan Benson is a sci-fi thriller in a drabble. This sort of pacing allows you to put the character under huge pressure – and what can go wrong when that happens?
Enjoy our stories and send in yours!
Steph
Today’s thanks goes to our Patreons who I feel I have not been thanking enough lately! While our advertising has gone up a bit, it is still the Patreons that are the heart and soul of keeping the site running as a fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station! … Oh, wait, no that was the Death Star. You HAVE been keeping us running though and for this I thank you!
We made a small update to our calendar view of upcoming open calls. Previously, if you opened a calendar item you could export it to your calendar only if you used Google Calendar or iCal. NOW, we also have Outlook integration!
We’ve had a few users reach out about this very thing so I’m thrilled to be able to add the requested functionality! Expanding on this. Do you use our calendar religiously? Do you wish it was more filterable? Consider becoming a Patreon & mentioning that. We need another $89 a year to add an advanced filter bar where we could have it filter on anything from genre to length to pricing!
Just as a reminder, last week our store unofficially relaunched! With it going live we also added the sticker that so many were requesting after I showed off a prototype I got on my laptop and they’re available in 3 sizes! You can get the logo in our current style, sepia, grayscale, and red! (Thanks to those who ordered them early!)
Finally a couple of reminders:
- Trembling With Fear is open for our Halloween Edition until October 13th, so be sure to get your stories in! Full details can be found here.
- If you run a website and would like to write an article about Horror Tree or Trembling With Fear, we’d really appreciate that! Please reach out with any questions for facts in the article (who does what, when sections were started, etc), any promotional artwork, or with a link once it is live so we can feature it on the site and on our social media.
Have a great weekend!
