Tagged: Steven Holding

Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 12/19/21

Christmas is drawing in. We’ve actually put our Christmas tree up, a bit later it seems than many folk but I don’t like to do it too early – which can cause disputes with my youngest who does like to put them up at the beginning of the month. But she’s not home yet so we’ve been able to delay! The decorations look good though and it’s nice to be able to celebrate in our new home and helps us to put the whole covid issue to the back of our minds for the moment. We’re currently waiting for our booster jabs.

It’s been lovely seeing the short flash stories coming in now that we’ve opened up again. However, can I please remind folk that the length is generally 800-1500 with some flexibility, ie we do take stories of around 500 or 1800 words but prefer people to hit the range mentioned. Anything longer is just not for us unless you wish to be considered for a serial. In this case, send in your longer story split into instalments which match the word range.

Trembling with Fear starts with Oxi by R. Wayne Gray is a story with a warning and some nice touches of dark humour. The setting of a site which disposes of medical waste is one ripe for exploitation and the Gray does this in full, pretty much revelling in the possibilities. What other workplaces could you bring to TWF?

On the Factory Floor by Hillary Lyon has some nice touches of humour with assumptions made in the workplace which actually disguise something more chilling.

Search Party by Tom Trussel takes us into the forest and thus into the realm of folk horror with a clever twist.

Walking in Stories, Stalking in Dreams by Steven Holding talks directly to the reader and challenges your reality. 

And finally, have a peaceful and restful Christmas – and thank you for supporting TWF and Horror Tree so strongly.

Enjoy our stories and send in yours!

Steph

Stephanie Ellis

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Another year is closing in! I know that the holiday season tends to either be fantastic or horrible for everyone so I do hope that those who have it rough are able to seek out comfort in friends.

In case you missed it, we’re currently giving away multiple digital copies of the anthology ‘Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth, And Babies’ edited by Deborah Sheldon!

New changes and expansions are in the works! We did make one minor addition for the writers who love the calendar view on the site. You’re now able to subscribe to it! Details can be found here.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 11/14/21

Please note: We are temporarily closed to short flash stories (unless for one of the Specials) but open to drabbles, unholy trinities and serials. Please also remember to read our guidelines, especially on word counts!

By the end of the year, we will have caught up on all our short story publications for TWF. With that in mind, I feel it safe to reopen at the beginning of December – but please do not send before this!

Another week gone far too quickly. Not much writing was done on my part, most of it was ‘around’ writing in some way and also in creating cover designs for some notebooks I’m putting up on amazon. One of my buys this year was an XP-Pen drawing tablet. It’s proving its value as I’ve used it for a few book covers now and hopefully will pay for itself one day. It is also great fun and a nice change from concentrating on the written word.

I’ve finished reading The Jewish Book of Horror, ed. Josh Schlossberg. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the sheer richness of tradition and history which comes from this culture made it a refreshing experience.

Our first story in Trembling with Fear is Critic by Alejandro Gonzales. This is a story of writerly obsession and thereby a warning to those who read it. A masterclass in how a writer should not behave!

Pristine Porch by Kevin M. Folliard is a perfectly painted picture of a story, so many little details adding nuance, plus a very alliterative last line – cleverly done!

Return Notification by G.A. Miller is a lovely bit of dark humour which touches the effects of lockdown.

Water Babies by Steven Holding is very dark and cleverly engages your sympathy for a character who may not be what you expect.

 Enjoy our stories and send in yours!

Steph

Stephanie Ellis

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Today’s first story is ‘Critic’ by Alejandro Gonzales and I’m going to have to give it a 1 star! (You’ll appreciate that after you read the story.)

Had a huge test for my MBA this last week so unfortunately wasn’t able to make much progress outside of that on the site. NEW UPDATES SOON! (I hope…) 😉

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 10/10/21

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!

Where has the time gone? Our supermarkets are full of Christmas goods and seem to have forgotten Halloween. In the UK, its popularity had grown for a while but it seems to be fading away again, and you will be hard-pressed to find much more than a few shelves of anything related to this celebration (in the areas I’ve experienced anyway). This is in stark contrast to our US cousins. When I was younger, Halloween meant carving turnip Jack-o-lanterns, reading ghost stories and shivering at the hoot of an owl. Being in a rural location, that was enough to create a spooky atmosphere and to this day made it feel more real to me than the modern version (in the UK) which focusses on slasher movie masks, cheap decorations, and sadly attracts some anti-social behaviour. Ho hum.

First this week in Trembling with Fear is Pink Balloon by James Rumpel. An accident brings trauma, but is it all just in the mind or is there something more diabolical afoot?

Do Not Enter by Sam Lesek brings to mind initiations, the tricks played on a novice employee. A nice twist to this trope.

Shrill by Steven Holding is a touching love story with a dash of darkness.

Space Scrap by Margarida Brei is an imaginative sci-fi which has you feeling sorry for the androids – which is no easy feat

Enjoy our stories and send in yours!

Steph

 

Stephanie Ellis

Editor, Trembling With Fear

Hey all! I hope you all had a great week. I’ve been slammed here between work, school, etc. Whew. Had a mini-hiccup. One of our Patreons left early this week. However, I love you all so much, within an hour of posting about it we had two new Patreons step up and surpass what we had lost getting us MUCH closer to our next goal level! THANK YOU!

A couple of reminders (this is the last week for one of them!):

  • 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.

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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