Archive for the ‘Scary Stuff’ Category

The mythological Wild Hunt, and the inspiration for this forthcoming tale.

Followers of Fear, there’s so much going on in my writing career beyond just Hannah and the Face of Horror contest that I can’t share with you yet, but which I want to so badly. Thankfully, I can now share one thing with you: one of my short stories is getting published!

Back in March, I wrote a Christmas horror story called “The Hunting Party,” which I hoped to start submitting around the time holiday anthologies started seeking submissions. Well, I edited the story and renamed it “The Wild Hunt,” and then submitted it to Hellbound Books for consideration in their upcoming anthology Happy Hellidays.

As you can tell from the title of this post, it’s now going to be published in said anthology. And I cannot wait for you to read it!

Taking place at Christmas Eve, “The Wild Hunt” follows two sisters who have a fateful encounter with the Wild Hunt, a mythical band of riders who travel the sky at night. According to some, this band gets quite powerful around Christmas.

You know, Followers of Fear, I really didn’t think I’d be able to get this story a home. Or at least, not so easily. I mean, I thought it was great, but it’s long for a short story at 7,300 words and I worried that the ending might be a bit too sweet and happy, even for horror. Even a rewrite of the ending didn’t calm my worries.

But on the first try, “The Wild Hunt” was accepted. And to be in an anthology from Hellbound Books, no less! It’s an honor.

Not to mention, I’m kind of tickled that, as a Jew, I get to add a Christmas horror story to the world. Feels kind of like a variation on a theme, seeing as my people wrote some of your favorite Christmas carols last century. Yeah, that’s true. Look it up. You’ll never look at carols the same way again.

Anyway, I look forward to letting you know when Happy Hellidays, and thus “The Wild Hunt,” is released. It’s a great story, and I hope it fills you with Christmas fear–I mean, cheer. And I can’t wait to tell you all the other good news out there I’m celebrating. With any luck, I may be able to reveal it all in the coming weeks and days.

For now, though, my Followers of Fear, I’ve edits to make and emails to write. Until next time, good night, pleasant nightmares, and Merry Christmas come early!


Couple of quick notes: as you know, Halloween is currently fifty days away and Hannah and Other Stories releases in just twelve days. Why not prepare for the former by reading the latter? Hannah and Other Stories, my new collection of short stories, is perfect Halloween reading, with tales of ghosts, budding serial killers, and carnivorous horses, among other things. You can preorder a copy from any of the links below.

Second, I’m currently participating in the Face of Horror contest. I don’t expect to win, but I’m working hard to keep myself in the competition for as long as possible. If you would like to help, you can cast a daily vote for me on my profile page using the button below. Do that, and I might survive a few rounds. Hell, I might even win! Wouldn’t that be nice?

Once more, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares!

Week four. And this time, the story we quote from is the one that tends to get people’s attention the most. Fuseli’s Horses, the one about the carnivorous horses.

To recap, here are the rules to #FirstLineFriday, which I revived just for the release of Hannah and Other Stories:

  1. Create a post on your blog titled #FirstLineFriday, hashtag and all.
  2. Explain the rules like I’m doing now.
  3. Post the first one or two lines of a potential story, a story-in-progress, or a completed/published story.
  4. Ask your readers for feedback and try to get them to try #FirstLineFriday on their own blogs (tagging is encouraged but not necessary).

So, ready for a preview of one of the bloodiest stories in Hannah and Other Stories? Here we go:

“So, you’re getting a bunch of new horses and a cousin?” Matt asked, leaning on the fence posts that divided his family’s property from Pam’s family’s. He was tall for fourteen, with an athletic build hidden under a T-shirt and jeans, and a mop of sweat-slicked dark hair on top of his head.

Are these new horses the carnivorous ones? And what will happen with the cousin? You’ll have to read Hannah and Other Stories to find out. And if you do, please leave a review online so I know what you thought.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. We got three more stories to go, so I’ll see you next week. If you would like to do the tag yourself, I hereby tag you. Just copy and paste the rules on your own blog and I look forward to seeing what you post.


Couple of things before I sign off, Followers of Fear. First off, as you know, I’m taking part in the Face of Horror contest. And thanks to your votes, I’m staying in the Top 10. However, that could easily slip, so I’m asking you to keep voting for me each and every day while I’m still part of the contest. If you do, I’ll be able to advance through the rounds and maybe even get to the finals. So, if you’d like to vote, you can use the link below.

Secondly, tomorrow starts Mystics and Marvels. If you happen to be in Hilliard, Ohio this weekend, please stop by the Franklin County Fairgrounds and stop by the HWA Ohio booth. I’ll be there with my fellow Ohio writers selling and signing books. I hope to see you there.

Until next time (or the next blog post), my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares.

So, if you weren’t aware, I am taking part in the 2023 Face of Horror contest. This contest requires contestants to get votes from their social media platforms. Each round, those who have enough votes move to the next round. The winner will get a cash prize and a photoshoot with Kane Hodder (AKA the actor who played Jason Voorhees the most) in Rue Morgue magazine.

And as of 1 PM EST today, the contest has begun.

The first round, “First Kill,” runs from today, September 5th, to September 14th. All competitors are divided into groups, and each group will be reduced to its top twenty competitors based on votes. So, if you would like to help me win this contest, this is the first hurdle. What do you have to do? Well, you can vote for me.

Now, a couple of things to keep in mind:

  • First off, I don’t expect to win. There are plenty of other people participating in the contest, and many of them likely have bigger followings or are better at getting their followers to respond to calls to action. I’m doing it mostly because it’s fun, it’s something I want to do, and I was able to meet many new Followers of Fear by participating last year. I’m hoping for a repeat of that this year.
    That being said, I will fight hard to get as far as I can this year. After all, that’s the point of a contest, isn’t it? And who knows? I may even win. And if I do, woo-hoo! I will be a very happy eldritch entity disguised as a human storyteller.
  • You’re under no obligation to vote for me. This is all voluntary, and you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to. That being said, if you do vote for me and help me get through the rounds, I’ll greatly appreciate it.

So, if you would like to vote for me, all you need to do is click the button below. That will take you to my profile page, where you can cast one vote a day. Do that each day, and that will help me immensely.

You can also buy extra votes by donating to B+, a charitable foundation that provides support to families whose children have cancer, as well as funding research into juvenile cancer. But again, that’s only if you want to.

Anyway, I look forward to updating you on my progress through the contest. Who knows what will happen as a result of my participating and your votes? Only time will tell. That, and you clicking that button.

See you after the first round.


One more thing:

As you know, my Followers of Fear, we’re just eighteen days away from the release of my new collection of short stories, Hannah and Other Stories. This collection is perfect Halloween reading, with tales of ghosts, budding serial killers, and carnivorous horses, among other things. And while it’s currently only available in ebook format, if it does well, it may end up in paperback and even audio book!

So, use any of the options below and prepare for a world of terror on September 23rd. I look forward to hearing what you think of the book, so be sure to leave reviews. And until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares!

Good morning, people. Do you like serial killers? Because this story has one.

So, we’re on week three of my revival of the #FirstLineFriday tag in honor of Hannah and Other Stories coming out in…22 days! Yikes! It’s coming up. Have I appeased all the right evil deities and bribed all the right people?

Well, we’ll leave that for another time. As you know, I’m posting the first sentence or two of each Hannah and Other Stories every Friday. Both for fun, and in the hope that some more people will want to check out Hannah when it comes up. Anyway, here are the rules for #FirstLineFriday:

  1. Create a post on your blog titled #FirstLineFriday, hashtag and all.
  2. Explain the rules like I’m doing now.
  3. Post the first one or two lines of a potential story, a story-in-progress, or a completed/published story.
  4. Ask your readers for feedback and try to get them to try #FirstLineFriday on their own blogs (tagging is encouraged but not necessary).

Today’s quote comes from one of the most difficult stories I wrote and edited in this collection, The Autopsy Kid and Doctor Sarah. Who knew writing a story about a teen girl wrapped up in the machinations of a budding serial killer would be so hard to get ready for publication? Anyway, here’s the story’s opening:

The Paris Toy and Games Expo was awash with people and noise, which made what Sarah had to do that much easier and that much more difficult.

It’s not a spoiler to say that what she has to do is going to make life that much more difficult for her.

If you would like to find out what happens to Sarah, you can preorder a copy of Hannah and Other Stories using any of the retailers below. And if you like what you read, please leave a review online so I know what you thought.

And if you would like to do this tag yourself, you can do so. I hereby tag you. Just copy and paste the rules on your blog and have a blast.

Also, if you would like to read the tags from the first two weeks, you can check them out here and here.

Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.

After reading Philip Fracassi’s book Gothic back in spring (see my review here) and after meeting and sharing a drink with him at Stoker Con in June, I was interested in his new book Boys in the Valley. It helped that there was a lot of advanced buzz around the book. So, I preordered the audio book, and started listening to it earlier this month. What did I think?

Boys in the Valley takes place at St. Vincent’s, a Catholic orphanage for boys in an isolated section of 1905 Pennsylvania. It’s not a terrible place, but it’s not exactly a great place, either. Still, those there try to make the best of it. At least, until one night, when the sheriff shows up with an injured man covered in occultic symbols. The events of that night set in motion the release of a terrible evil and a plot that will test everyone in the orphanage. And failure of that test may lead to consequences worse than death.

Gothic was good, but I liked Boys in the Valley better.

The best part of the story is the cast, and it goes to show Fracassi’s skill as a writer at how well he juggles an ensemble cast. Among the characters are Peter, a young man who is training for the priesthood (though he also has feelings for a local farmer’s daughter) and who views himself as part of a long line of St. Vincent boys; David, an angry young man who considers the orphanage a sort of hell; Brother Johnson, a brutish staff member at the orphanage whose journey through the story is fascinating to watch; and Father Poole, the megalomaniac running the orphanage whom I wanted to strangle throughout the book (and it says a lot about the writer that I reacted as viscerally to the character as I do with some politicians).

All these and more characters really made the story come to life for me, as did the story itself. It’s a possession story, but it doesn’t follow the usual trajectory of one, and that makes the direction unpredictable and the twists so much more satisfying. There were several moments where I had no idea what would happen, but desperately hoped for it to go one way and to open my mouth in surprise when it didn’t.

If there were some things I would have liked better, I would have preferred to see some more demonic antics in the novel. That, and I was hoping for a different ending in the final chapter.

But overall, Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi is an excellent novel and a fun read. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’m giving the book a 4.6. Heartfelt, with a strong cast and vivid storytelling. Set yourself down with a copy and some communion wine and strap in for the ride.

And if you go with the audio book, you’re in for a treat. The narrator, David Aaron Baker, does an excellent job with the various voices of the characters, shifting from boys and teens with cracking voices to gruff adults in a skillful flash.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.

Well, we’re back again, folks. #FirstLineFriday is back, just as promised. And this time, the story we’ll be quoting from tends to get…curiouser and curiouser.

So, if you weren’t here last week, #FirstLineFriday is a tag I’m bringing back in honor of the upcoming release of Hannah and Other Stories. Last week, I did the opening lines from Hannah (you can check out that post here), so it only makes sense to do the next story in the collection.

But first, the rules of #FirstLineFriday:

  1. Create a post on your blog titled #FirstLineFriday, hashtag and all.
  2. Explain the rules like I’m doing now.
  3. Post the first one or two lines of a potential story, a story-in-progress, or a completed/published story.
  4. Ask your readers for feedback and try to get them to try #FirstLineFriday on their own blogs (tagging is encouraged but not necessary).

And today, the story from Hannah and Other Stories will be Queen Alice, AKA the story that crosses Alice in Wonderland with Slender Man. Enjoy:

In the WIDI studios on State Street in the heart of downtown Columbus, Joshua Blumfield patiently sat as the make-up artist brushed an eyelash from his cheek. She then put her brush on the vanity.

Not the most terrifying beginning…but then, Alice in Wonderland‘s opening was pretty quiet in and of itself.

Anyway, what did you think of the opening of Queen Alice? Is this Blumfield a reporter? And what’s he reporting about? For the first question, let’s talk in the comments below, and for the latter two, you’ll have to read Hannah and Other Stories, which you can preorder using the below buttons. And if you like what you read, please leave a review online so I know what you thought.

And if you would like to try this tag as well, by all means please copy the rules above and try the tag yourself for next week.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ll be back next week for the next story in Hannah and Other Stories. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.

Run for your lives! Light a magic candle! Pray to the Great Old Ones to be left alone! Hannah and Other Stories releases in just one month!

As you’re probably aware, Hannah and Other Stories is my new collection of short stories which is releasing on September 23rd, 2023. This collection contains seven original tales, featuring tales of ghosts, budding serial killers, and carnivorous horses, among other things. My publisher, BSC Publishing Group, and I have been working on this book for two years, so we’re very excited for people to read it. Hell, I’m kind of hoping it becomes one of the most talked about books for the Halloween season this year.

At the very least, I want to get the book in paperback. Right now, it’s only available in ebook, but if it does well, it’ll get a paperback. Maybe even an audio book.

With that in mind, we’re also doing everything we can to get people interested in the book and in maybe preordering a copy. On my end, I’ve been posting YouTube videos where I read sections from the book. A couple of the videos I’ve done are below.

Not bad, right? I tried to create an atmosphere to go with the stories, and I plan to do the stories I haven’t covered before it releases.

And BSC has been doing some amazing excerpts as well, only they’ve been posting these beautiful graphics that they do in-house! I absolutely love them. Here’s some of the most recent.

Pretty awesome, right? And you can see all the excerpts BSC has made on Hannah‘s personal page on this blog.

Anyway, I’m super excited for people to read it. These stories are all beloved to me in each their own way. What Errour Awoke is a story that not only allowed me to tap into my love of cosmic horror, but helped me to deal with world events that were causing me anxiety at the time of writing. Hannah and Queen Alice were both fun to write, with the former being inspired by a ghost story that’s always fascinated me, and the latter being an interesting mashup of Alice in Wonderland with Slender Man. The Autopsy Kid and Doctor Sarah was a story where I experimented with extreme horror and splatterpunk that I hadn’t done before, while Poor, Unfortunate Souls made for a heartfelt story of acceptance and hardship in the midst of the Paris catacombs. The Red Bursts gave me an unexpected story of finding faith in dark situations, and Fuseli’s Horses allowed me to have fun with a new monster while also playing with some teenage drama.

I can’t wait to see what people think when they read them.

And if any of this has made you want to read Hannah and Other Stories, I’ll include the links to preorder it below. That’s right, “links.” As of this past weekend, Hannah and Other Stories is available to preorder from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers, including a few international ones. I’ll include links for all the shops below, and I’ll be sure to update future posts as BSC lets me more stores are carrying the book.

And if you like what you read this September, please be sure to leave a review online somewhere. Positive or negative, I love reader feedback, and it helps me and other readers in the long run.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ll be sure to post more updates as we get closer to the release date. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!

Many of you may remember last year, I participated in a contest called The Face of Horror. Participants competed for votes from their social media networks and fans to make it through the rounds, with the eventual prize being a walk-on role in a horror movie and a photo spread with Kane Hodder (he played Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th four times, the most of any actor). I got pretty far last year, but I lost once the rounds started getting more competitive.

Still, I had fun, I was able to grow the number of my Followers of Fear a bit, and I learned how much some of you support me in my endeavors, which touched me in my cold, black, demonic heart. And I thought that was that.

But recently, I found out the Face of Horror contest would be happening again, this time with the prize being another photo spread with Kane Hodder and a cash prize. And you know what? I decided to sign up again. I mean, I don’t expect to win, but if last year is any indication, I’m going to have fun and meet some new Followers of Fear along the way. And if I win? Great. I’ll be able to spread word of my stories a bit further and get a nice cash prize while I’m at it.

So, the contest formally starts September 5th. My profile for the contest is listed below. If you would like to support me for this contest, you can either vote once daily for me, or you can buy extra votes by donating to a cancer research society through the contest’s page. You’re under no obligation to vote for me, but it would make me happy if you did.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll post again when September 5th rolls around. I hope you’ll support me and help me get through the first few rounds of the contest. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!


One more thing, my Followers of Fear: we’re only 36 days away from Hannah and Other Stories releasing. This book is great Halloween reading, with tales of ghosts, budding serial killers and carnivorous horses, among other things. If you’re looking for another way to support me, or just a good scary book, you can preorder below.

And if you like what you read, please leave a review online so I know what you think. Positive or negative, I love reader feedback, and they help both me and other readers in the long run. Anyway, once more, good night and pleasant nightmares.

So, in case you’re wondering, yes, this is a real book, and this is the actual title. Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe. My own mother sent me a meme featuring the book’s Amazon page and how it was the perfect title, thinking it was a fake page. She was so surprised that it was a real book and there’s a Netflix movie in the works, though she wasn’t too surprised to hear that I knew the author.

Anyway, Man, Fuck This House has been on my TBR list for a while, but I haven’t been able to get to it till recently. And with only 158 pages, it was a quick read. But was it a good one? Well, keep reading and find out.

Man, Fuck This House follows the Haskinses, a stereotypical nuclear family with some friction underneath the surface who move from Columbus, Ohio (yay, my home!) to the quiet neighborhood of Jackson Hill out west and to a beautiful new home. However, the house is more than just a pretty structure of timbers and aluminum siding, and it starts to reach out to the family. To communicate. To even terrify them!

So, this book was really funny. From the first couple of pages, I was laughing at the antics of the Haskins family. Most of it is told from the POV of mom and housewife Sabrina, who fully admits to herself that she’s not entirely satisfied with her life, that her husband Hal is kind of dimwitted, and who is terrified that her son is secretly evil (hence why she named him Damien). Speaking of which, Damien’s pretty funny, too: he’s an intelligent old soul who enjoys messing with his mom, though he does go through some growth in the story as well.

I also loved the narration of the story. The plot’s a mostly stereotypical haunted house story, with some twists and references to other haunted house tales (anyone else remember watching Monster House as a kid?). But it’s told in such a funny fashion, you find yourself laughing and enjoying how the author plays with the tropes and typical structure of such stories.

My one gripe is that the book was maybe too short. I mean, I bought it because I needed something short to read, but I feel the story could have gone on a bit longer and still be as funny. We might have even gotten some more character development from Hal and daughter Michaela that way.

But all told, this was a fun, funny, light horror-comedy. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’m giving Man, Fuck This House by Brian Asman a 4.8 out of 5. If you’re looking for something of the funnier variety in your horror that doesn’t use too-crude humor, this is the book for you.

Just make sure you respect and take care of your own house before, during, and after reading, okay? Your lifespan will thank you for it.

So, this past Thursday was the one-year anniversary of the release of the audio version of The Pure World Comes. (And yes, I realize this is the second time I’ve missed an anniversary like this in the past couple of months, but I’ve been busy!) And, of course, me being me, I have to mark it. So, let’s start celebrating!

So, if you didn’t know, The Pure World Comes is a Gothic horror novel I wrote during the pandemic. It follows a maid who goes to work for a mad scientist during the Victorian era and what happens to her. Here’s the description on the back cover:

Shirley Dobbins wants nothing more than to live a quiet life and become a head housekeeper at a prestigious house. So when she is invited to come work for the mysterious baronet Sir Joseph Hunting at his estate, she thinks it is the chance of a lifetime. However, from the moment she arrives things are not what they seem. As she becomes wrapped up in more of the baronet’s radical science, she realizes something dark and otherworldly is loose within the estate. And if left unchecked, it’ll claim the lives of all she holds dear.

Not bad, right? I had a lot of fun writing this story. I love the Victorian era (I actually spent five years really researching the era before writing this story) and I kind of made this story into a love letter for both the age and to the Gothic stories that came out during this period, like Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Actually, when I’m selling it at events, I tell people it’s like Frankenstein and Crimson Peak (you know, that Guillermo del Toro movie?) had a baby together. People tend to like that description.

And the reviews the book has received have been enthusiastic. Here’s what they say:

Really enjoyed this! Been a while since I’ve read a Gothic tale and it did not disappoint. I love the twists that it took!

Pax Panic, YouTuber (left on Goodreads before her untimely passing)

What I got was a short novel so perfectly Victorian and utterly Gothic that it made my old-fashioned self giddy as a schoolgirl…Mixing classic-romantic Victorian elements with early science-fiction, tales of Jack the Ripper/Spring-Heeled Jack, and a bit of the occult, this book gives the reader a truly chilling and also slightly fun little Gothic adventure.

HD Daughrity, author of “Tales My Grandmother Told Me.”

The idea of a pure world where pain and suffering doesn’t exist sounds incredible but life is about balance between good and evil. In his book, ‘The Pure World Comes’ Rami Ungar explores the idea.

The main character, Shirley, starts out as a maid, but the reader soon learns that she is mature beyond her years. Her difficult past could however not prepare her for the terrifying experiences she is subjected to. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the book.

The story flows seamlessly and grows in intensity until it explodes at the end. I love stories where the characters evolve with the story. In ‘The Pure World Comes’ we watch Shirley go from being a maid to a brave, super smart young lady who defies the odds.

A great read for anyone who enjoys a mystery thriller sci fi story.

Celeste Wilson, Goodreads reviewer

And these are just a fraction of the reviews I’ve received, the majority of which have been just as enthusiastic.

Sadly, the audio book has only received one review, which is a shame because I think it is awesome! It’s read by Nikki Delgado, who does a fantastic job with all the accents and characters and really helps you immerse yourself in the story. So, I’m really hoping that in the next year, more people will listen to the audio book and maybe even leave reviews.

If you’re interested, I’ll leave links below. Not just for the audio retailers, but for the ebook and paperback retailers as well. And if you like what you read (or listen to), please leave a review or rating other readers and listeners can see what you thought.

Thanks, my Followers of Fear. Also, as we’re 80 days away from Halloween, I wish you happy reading and pleasant nightmares.

The Pure World Comes: Available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, Goodreads, Audible, Chirp, BingeBooks, LIbro.Fm, Storytel, Palace Marketplace, Hoopla, Vivlio, Smashwords, Thalia, Scribd, Spotify


Speaking of this past Thursday, if you missed the live showing of Galactic Terrors, I have the video of it embedded below. If you’re at all interested, you can watch me, Lara Frater, and Teel James Gleen read from and discuss our recent or upcoming works. I hope you’ll give it a watch and maybe then start watching the new episodes regularly.

Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares.