Well, I got another event on the horizon! And this one, both its timing and theme, shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me.
I attended the Columbus Witches Ball in November 2022, and had an amazing time. Hosted by the Magical Druid, one of the most prominent metaphysical shops in Columbus (we have a few), it’s an awesome gathering of witches, Wiccans, and neo-Pagans. There was a ritual (which I filmed for YouTube), some dancing, and, of course, plenty of people interested in books and Tarot readings. I did very well on sales, and also had a ton of fun.
I wanted to go back in 2023, but I had a conflict, and last year, I attended a different event held by the Magical Druid, so I decided not to go. But this year, I’m going back. And this year, it’ll be held at the Ohio Brewing Company at 421 East 2nd Avenue in downtown Columbus from 1 PM – 11 PM. Obviously, there will be food and drink (it is a brewery, after all), but also a guest lecturer, a ritual, and dancing. Plus, lots of vendors, including little old me. I’ll be there selling books and doing Tarot card readings, so if you’re in the area, please consider attending. I’ll include links to tickets below.
And don’t worry. I’ll be sure to post a reminder before the event. Just in case you forget. And I’ll let you all know if any new events pop up. Which, given Halloween is 94 days away, is likely to happen.
Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares!
No, you didn’t read that wrong. That’s not a misspelling on my part of “Halloween.” That is the name of the novel, and since I heard of it, I’ve wanted to read it. I mean, with a name like that, how could I not? And with the audio book just getting released recently, I decided to give it a listen and see if this would become a new classic for spooky season.
Taking place during the Halloween immediately following the September 11 attacks, several strange things are happening in the small town of Crook’s Corner, Massachusetts. A famous scream queen is kidnapped in town while filming a new horror film. A science teacher is putting together a machine that causes those near it to see strange shapes. A Goth teenager and her little sister use the latter’s psychic abilities to play pranks on their grandmother. All this and more herald the coming of something evil: a cosmic being who wishes to become a god over all humanity. And this Halloween, they may get their chance.
This book was so hard to put down (or should I say put on pause?). The first chapter, where the scream queen is kidnapped, is shocking enough, but then the novel jumps back several hours, showing what the main characters–a group of high schoolers filming a horror movie for a class–are up to. And with those opening chapters, you get several different plot threads and you wonder how they’re all going to wrap up into one neat little package.
Which, much to my delight, they did come together nicely, leading to a harrowing story with a strong atmosphere of dread and tension. In fact, that’s probably the book’s biggest strength: the atmosphere. Once the horror part really gets going in Helloween, it’s just nonstop threat to the characters. Even in the pauses to the horror, there’s so much tension, it’s hard to relax. Add in some of the events in the latter half of the book, and you start to wonder if the characters can even triumph over the great evil.
And that’s the book’s second biggest strength: it’s characters, particularly the antagonist Geth. Geth is an ancient entity who schemes to become a god, and when it–or they, I should say–gets the ball rolling on their plans, you better believe that shit will hit the fan! And the way Geth is written, this alien being who thinks differently than us but plans to become a god over us, just makes them fascinating to follow. Even as you fear their victory due to their overwhelming power and disregard for both human life and human autonomy.
The other characters are great, too. Ralston manages to make almost all of the supporting characters– from kooky science teacher Ernie Combs and the Catholic priest to would have been right at home during the Crusades, to scream queen Darla Knight and the annoying kid who annoys almost all the other characters–feel real and fleshed out. And yes, there are a lot of them, but at no point did I ever feel like I was overwhelmed with the number of characters I encountered in the book.
Of course, our six main characters were no exception. At first glance, they do feel like your typical high school stereotypes: Cody the jock; Britney the popular girl; Jay the computer geek; Walden the film buff; Cassandra the Goth and her sweet little sister Taylor. But early on, we see that they all have deep dimensions to them, and that only grows as we get deeper into the story. Before I knew it, I couldn’t help but root for and love these characters dearly.
All in all, Helloween by Duncan Ralston is scary AF and sure to become a Halloween classic in time. On a scale of 1 to 5, I’m awarding it a 4.8. Consider picking up a copy and adding it to your reading list this spooky season. If you’re a horror fan, you won’t regret it.
Happy 100 days till Halloween! Now is the time to start getting serious for spooky season. Decide your costumes and lawn decorations, stock up on candy for the trick or treaters, and decide on movies and books to enjoy. I’ll have a separate blog post for the movies, but in this post, let me recommend something for your reading list:
Hannah and Other Stories is a collection coming out on September 23rd and features seven scary stories, ranging from ghost stories to serial killers to carnivorous horses. It was originally published in September 23, 2023, and then went out of print when the publisher and I parted ways. Now, it’s coming out again, two years to the day it was originally released.
And in this edition, not only is there a brand-new cover (I mean, look at that thing! It’s gorgeous!), but I’ve updated the stories. Not only are they cleared of some of the spelling/grammar/punctuation errors I found during the first release, but I added some things that were missing or taken out during the first run. So, while the stories are very much like what was published, the additions and changes I made have much improved them.
So, I’m very excited for people to read these updated stories. And there are a growing number of people who are preordering it, including a supervisor at work! (He thinks the story about the haunted bathroom sounds neat.) It helps that this time around, unlike the first round, there’s going to be a paperback edition. Believe me, I’m excited for the paperback edition!
And if you would like to preorder a copy, I’ll include links below. You can preorder the ebook from all four sites, and the paperback from Barnes & Noble (still not sure why Amazon has such a weird policy for preordering paperbacks from self-published authors, but whatever).
And if you do preorder and read Hannah, I hope you’ll leave a review. Positive or negative, I love reader feedback. And it helps me out as an author, as well as other readers when it comes to their reading choices.
That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. We’re about sixty days out till release day, and 100 days until Halloween. I hope you’re as excited for both of these as I am. And in the meantime, I hope to have more stuff, including lists of good movies for Halloween and haunted places to visit, very soon.
Until next time, my Followers of Fear, and pleasant nightmares.
This isn’t my normal review. But then again, this is far from a normal graphic novel.
So, when you think of tiny, humanoid people, what do you think of? Fairies? The Borrowers? How about tiny people living inside you (and I don’t mean the emotions from Inside Out)? Not with Beautiful Darkness, a graphic novel by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoet.
The graphic novel starts out prettily enough. A girl named Aurora, who is like a Cinderella in a 1950s housedress, is being courted by a princely character named Hector. She’s helped by a short little friend named Plim. In the first page and a half, their romance is going just like a fairy tale…until the cutely drawn characters’ home starts dissolving around them, forcing them to leave.
And then it’s revealed that home is the body of a little girl, left abandoned in the woods to rot. Her name, who she might have been, and how she died, never revealed.
And that’s just the start of a very dark saga dressed up in art that, in another graphic novel, would fit nicely in the children’s section at your local library.
This image is so disturbing, I almost didn’t include it in this review.
Aurora quickly finds herself trying to be a leader as she and the other survivors learn to grasp their new surroundings. However, Aurora, who might be the most realistic, as well as the most idealistic, of this community of tiny people, do not have it easy. Except for one mouse, all the animals and insects are as wild as you’d expect, and do what animals do best. The elements take their toll as well. Schemes to survive lead to further deaths or maiming, such as when one character tries to sneak into a nest full of baby birds and eat with them. The result is that her mouth gets torn open by the mother bird’s large beak, leading her to throwing up blood and running away.
But worse than animals, or nature, or survival attempts, are Aurora’s compatriots. Perhaps because they lived inside the body of a little girl, they are almost oblivious in their innocence and naivete. They see each other die, and move on to fish or fly kites or dance like it was nothing. They scheme against and backstab one another. They even kill each other, and do it with such callousness, never once sparing a thought for the lives they’ve taken!
All this betrayal and disappointment wear on Aurora, especially after her leadership role, and her lover, are usurped by rival leader Zellie. She later thinks that she’s found a friend in a loner survivor named Jane, but events soon force her to make the ultimate choice.
A prime example of how dark and uncaring the world of these characters is.
I’ve written before about “corruption of the innocent” before. The idea that the horrors one faces through a horror story destroys whatever innocence you have left and transforms you into something new. It could be childhood innocence, or that you thought the world was a rational place full of rational people, or that the world is ruled by a loving and merciful god. In some subgenres of horror, like Gothic, it could be considered essential. I certainly consider it essential, to the point I have a tattoo on my back representing it.
And it’s been such a long time since I’ve seen it done so well. Aurora tries to stay strong, but her innocence is destroyed in a world where she and her people are as inconsequential as dust motes, and those she should be able to rely on smile innocently while they betray her. In a way, it’s like cosmic horror, only instead of Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones, it’s a forest full of hungry animals and violent nature, as well as your own community.
(That’s not my observation, BTW: it’s the YouTube channel Tale Foundry, where I first heard of this graphic novel and which I highly recommend. You can check out their video about it here, but beware of spoilers.)
Anyway, it’s probably only a matter of time till this graphic novel appears on my personal shelves. In the meantime, I’m awarding Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoet a 4.8 out of 5. It’s dark, it’s disturbing, it’s possibly the prime example of a new subgenre called “innocent horror,” and I think you should check it out.
Just don’t show it to young children afterwards. It’ll mess them up in all the wrong ways.
I was watching the movie adaptation of My Best Friend’s Exorcism with my sister the other day. And, right before they’re about to do the exorcism, the exorcist asks the main character if she’s been baptized. And the main character, a high school senior at a Catholic school, taking catechism classes and attending evangelical events at school, says in a deadpan voice, “I’m Jewish.”
My sister and I, as well as her roommates (it was movie night at her place), burst out laughing, because it was great comedic timing. Plus, it wasn’t something about the character that was in the book, so I hadn’t seen it coming. But looking back on it now, I can’t help but feel like it’s the latest example of an issue of Jewish portrayal in media.
I said in a previous post that I might be talking about problems of portrayal I see in media, thanks to the panel I was on last month. And I’ve noticed that portrayal of Jews in the media–at least the media I’ve been consuming–has been problematic. This is because, generally speaking, I have noticed Jews tend to be portrayed in one of three different groups:
The religious types. They’re Orthodox, with black coats and beards. At least one of the men is a rabbi, and if the story is speculative in nature, Kabbalah shows up somewhere. I’m not too upset about this portrayal, because I have seen some good and nuanced portrayals of this group since Fiddler of the Roof. I’ve even used it myself. Still, it’s done A LOT.
The barely-Jewish portrayal. They say they’re Jewish, but the characters eat bacon, have barely any connection to their ancestry, and their religious affiliation is only used as a joke or a quirk of their character. Examples include Howard Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory, Rachel Berry from Glee, and, most recently, Abby Rivers in My Best Friend’s Exorcism. There are Jews like this, but it’s nuts that this is the biggest alternative to the religious types I see in media.
Jewish equals some weird behavior or stereotype. The fact that they’re Jewish usually translates to some silly behavior or conglomeration of behavior or traits that defines their entire character and is equated with their Jewishness. Maybe they’re clownish wimpy goofs that are always going “Oy vey” and speaking in funny voices, like Krusty the Clown in The Simpsons or Mort Goldman in Family Guy. Or they’re hypochondriacs, like Stan Uris in IT. Usually satirical, but sometimes it’s meant to be taken seriously or realistic, like in IT.*
Ziva David. So far, the most unique portrayal of Jew I’ve come across.
Honestly, the only character I’ve seen buck this trend is Ziva David from NCIS, a former Mossad agent from Israel who was tough, somewhat religious, and very connected to her Jewish heritage and faith. When I watched NCIS, I absolutely loved her, and was so sad when she left the series for good. That was a great and different portrayal of a Jew on media. (As for her being portrayed by a Catholic actress…well, she’s still a great character.)
But that’s the only one. And honestly, I think that’s a damn shame. There are so many different kinds of Jews out there: Jews who are religious but enjoy listening to the Ramones and going out for drinks and bowling with friends; non-religious Jews who are connected to their heritage and use it to make art; Jews who are both Israeli, Jewish, and Arab (just read about him yesterday in an article a friend sent to me); and the disabled Jewish horror writer who lights Shabbat candles on Friday night and keeps kosher while also seeing plays on Saturday afternoons or getting tattoos of Tarot cards all over his body.
Me, if you couldn’t tell.
This is why I’m not just writing an increasing amount of Jewish characters in my work, but also a wider variety of Jewish characters. There’s the married and heavily connected Jewish gay couple in “The Red Bursts,” one of the stories in Hannah and Other Stories; the rabbi, his less-religious but still Jewish best friend and his secular daughter in “The House on Lafayette Square” in Symphony for Walpurgis; and in The Shape of Evil, a Jewish teen on the spectrum (who’s only partially based on me). And I hope to write many, many more.
It may be only a drop in the water. But mentioning those stereotypes at StokerCon did make one or two writers consider how they were writing their Jewish characters. Perhaps mentioning them here, and writing all those characters, might cause some positive ripples. Which, in these scary times, would be most welcome.
I very much prefer this version of Stan than the one in the book.
*In all honestly, I hate Stan Uris. At least Stan in the book. I love King and I love IT. Hell, I’m a horror writer because of them both. But Stan was barely connected to his Jewishness, except in how it made him different, and he was more defined by his clean-freak nature and his almost worshipful adherence to logic and a normal world. In fact, it’s stated in the book that Stan’s suicide was because he wanted to “stay clean,” rather than get “dirty” and jump into a world completely outside of normal. I hated that.
This is why I prefer Stan’s portrayal in the movies. In the first movie, he’s the son of a rabbi studying for his bar mitzvah (I can relate) and, while being religious and connected to his heritage, is still pretty much a normal kid. And as an adult, his suicide is portrayed as him ensuring that the others are able to defeat It. A true sacrifice for the greater good. No wonder I prefer that version.
Some of you may remember that, for most of 2023, I was in what I called The Great Editing. It was a phase where, except for the occasional short story, I did nothing but editing. Mostly stuff related to Hannah and Other Stories‘s first time out, but a few other stories I was editing. When it was done, I hoped to do nothing but write original stories for a long, long while.
Well, man (or whatever entity I am) plans, and God (or whatever entity runs this universe) laughs.
Because I did write a few original short stories last year. And then I wrote The Shape of Evil, which took up half the year. And then I did another couple of stories. Then I did an edit of The Shape of Evil, followed by edits of the stories that were going into Symphony of Walpurgis. Followed by one original story, and then another edit of The Shape of Evil in time for StokerCon. Then I edited stories for Hannah‘s re-release. And then I edited a novella while also writing an essay (which I will likely have to edit soon before I can submit it).
So yeah. I’m in the Second Great Editing. I thought the first one was the editing to end all editings, but I guess a second one was just inevitable! I set myself up for that with the choices I made. And now I’m suffering through it. And it will likely set up the future of my career for decades to come.
Okay, enough with the World War II joke. Point is, I’m stuck in this Second Great Editing. And with two more novellas, that essay, and a short story to edit (plus another novella which needs serious rewrites), I’m likely going to be stuck in it for a while. Possibly till next year, if you can believe it! (Some of these stories will need to be edited again once I have beta readers look them over, after all.)
I’ll hopefully have news to share about this soon.
But you know, it’s not the worst thing. Yeah, except for that essay, I’m mostly putting original works on the back burner until I can get through editing all of these stories that I’ve let sit for so goddamn long. And I really have some new work I want to throw myself into!
But like I said in the WWII joke, I think all this editing is going to have an effect on my writing career. And unlike WWII, the effect will hopefully be positive:
I can’t really get into it right now, but I’m making progress with finding a home for The Shape of Evil. People are reading and enjoying Symphony, and people are getting excited for the return of Hannah and Other Stories. And I hope these four novellas will be published together as a collection. I think this essay, once edited, will make a great entry into a magazine or essay collection. And that short story is rough, but I think it’ll be quite spooky once it’s ready for readers’ eyes.
So, I think I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing: working on these stories so I can get them to you and, if I’m lucky, maybe write full time someday. I’m working hard to make those goals happen.
That being said, once I’m out of this Second Great Editing, I’m going to dive headfirst into some new stories. You can bet your ass on that!
(I’ll also finish my mummy novel Crawler and that witchy novella I was working on at the beginning of the year. I hate leaving things unfinished. Especially when I think they’ll be amazing once they’re done.)
One last thing, my Followers of Fear: this weekend is the Columbus Book Festival. This annual festival is full of amazing writers, vendors, and entertainers, and my fellow Ohio HWA members and I will have a booth there as well. So, if you’re in central Ohio this weekend, July 12 and 13, 2025, please head to the Main Library and Topiary Park in downtown Columbus. I would love to see you.
And if you can’t stop by but still want to support me, you can check out my work. From plant/human hybrids and strange gods to Mafia-hunting serial killers and carnivorous horses, there’s something for every horror fan, so why not grab a book and take a look? There’s even some free stuff. I’ll include a link to my books page below.
And if you like what you read, please leave a review. Positive or negative, I love reader feedback, and it helps both me and other readers in the long run.
That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.
From left to right: Rob Costello, Gaby Triana, Tamika Thompson, me, Aaron Dries, Rae Knowles, and Logan Johnson.
I’ve been wanting to write this post ever since I got back from StokerCon, but life has been very, very busy. But hey, better late than never, am I right?
So, as you probably recall, at StokerCon I was on the panel Representation in Horror, where we explored the topic of including marginalized voices in our community, as well as writing characters from those communities. I was very excited about the topic; not just because it’s one that’s near and dear to my heart, but because it was my very first time sitting on a StokerCon panel. You know, one that wasn’t pre-recorded.
And I figured I would be bringing something to the panel. I’m Jewish, bisexual, and have some disabilities, including being on the spectrum, after all. With the amount of time I spent just thinking about the things I would say in response to the questions, I thought I could help my fellow panelists blow some minds and get our audience (which nearly filled the room) thinking.
I did not expect to have my mind blown as well. But there were several moments just like that.
Just for a couple of examples, I remember Rob Costello mentioning that fat people were the only group that it was still cool to beat up on and how he was sick of it, and while the audience responded positively to that (apparently they noticed that, too), I was like, “Whoa! How have I never noticed that?” And Tamika Thompson mentioned how much Stephen King uses the trope of the Magical Negro, and I was like “Huh, she’s right. Dick Halloran, Mother Abigail, that dude from The Green Mile. He does use that trope a lot.”
And I’ve been thinking about that panel and all we discussed since then, as well as all the things we didn’t have time to discuss. For example, we didn’t have a chance to discuss various communities and their inclusion in the community or in our literature, such as Muslims, Native Americans, or the Roma community (seriously, even when it’s not overtly negative, I can’t think of a portrayal of the Romani that doesn’t lean on stereotypes). And I forgot to mention how not-helpful the portrayal of mentally disabled people as being magic because of their disability is (examples: Dudditts from Dreamcatcher by Stephen King, the autistic kid from 2018’s The Predator).
I think we could all use further conversation in this topic. Photo by nappy on Pexels.com
And it’s made me realize something: the discussion needs to continue. Because this sort of subject, the kind of stuff certain people call “woke,” requires constant learning and further conversation. That way, we can continue to think about what sort of stories we are creating and foster better understanding between people.
So, don’t be surprised if I have a few more blog posts like this one in the near future, ones where I discuss portrayal in horror and problematic stereotypes and whatnot. I may even reach out to some of my fellow panelists to help with that (I managed to find most of them on social media). But hey, if they feel the same way as me, they might want to continue the conversation as well.
And who knows? We might see Representation in Horror become a regular topic at StokerCon. And I don’t think anyone could see that as a bad thing.
These past two months have gone by so quickly, it’s hard to believe we’re already in July. Not surprising, given how busy I’ve been lately. I mean, I just got done with another con, and I’m preparing for another one the weekend after this!
And yet, two months have indeed passed, and that means that Symphony for Walpurgis is two months old now.
Now, if you don’t know (though at this point, you’re probably so familiar with Symphony, you’re sick of it), Symphony for Walpurgis is my newest collection. It is a collection of nine novelettes that include tales of cryptids, malevolent spirits, and even a Jewish exorcism, and has plenty of LGBT, Jewish, and disabled representation.
And I’m very happy to say that it’s slowly growing a readership. Just the other day, I received fan art from my fellow horror writer and Follower of Fear, Louise C, for one of the stories, “Disillusionment and Trauma Sometimes Go Hand-in-Hand.” It’s of the Akolouthos, the main villain of the story (or one of them). Isn’t it awesome?! I mean, look at it!
And at Big Ohio Book Con this past weekend (which went better than any event I’ve done before, which is even more amazing when you consider that this was the first year this event happened and nobody knew how it would go, but I digress), I sold so many copies, I even sold out on the first day! The same day, someone bought a copy online, which means they were interested enough to get it for their Kindle.
Given all that, plus some glowing reviews and some authors I admire with copies of the book, I’d say that’s been a good first two months. And it makes me hopeful for month number three (especially with the Columbus Book Fest just around the corner). I mean, who knows? Maybe I’ll get to that goal of five-hundred sales and fifty reviews by May 1st, 2026, the one year release anniversary.
And if you enjoy or are curious about scary stories involving cryptids and giant bats, spirits plaguing families with parasites, mermaids, untold masses of spiders, mutating viruses, and, again, a Jewish exorcism, then you should check out Symphony for Walpurgis. It’s nine amazing and terrifying novelettes, and I’m working hard to make sure as many people discover it and enjoy it as possible. And I would love it if you were among those people who discovered and maybe even loved it.
I’ll include links for the book below. And if you end up getting a copy and read it, I hope you’ll let me know what you think. Positive or negative, I love reader feedback, and it helps me out in the long run.
That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’ve got a busy couple of days ahead of me, but I hope I can have a few more blog posts (including a few I’ve wanted to write for a while now) out soon. Until next time, good night, pleasant nightmares, and I hope you have a great month of July. It’s what I’m planning on.
It’s the night before the Big Ohio Book Con, and earlier today, I went and set up my table. This is what it looks like.
I hope it looks great. I think it looks great, even if my stickers and bookmarks and whatnot aren’t out yet (I’ll do that in the morning). But one thing’s for certain: it’s cramped, about five feet total. And I have to make do with what space I have.
This lack of space, and trying to make a good booth for myself, made me appreciate all over again what goes into making an eye-catching booth. I thought I’d figured that out after my first ParaPsyCon, and a friend advised me to get at least some kind of sign for next year so people knew what I do at my table. Solid advice, and it made me realize that I need to be a lot more eye-catching if I want people to come check out my table. This has led to various changes to my booths over the year, including that big banner you see behind the table, which I got in December 2023.
But this tiny space, and the other booths around me, made me realize that all over again. My neighbors are romance authors, and they have such eye-catching booths, with banners and signs and little decorations like fake vines or flowers or game wheels or whatever. And just about every table I saw today was just as decorative and eye-catching. Made me think to myself, “Shit, I gotta be careful if I want to stand out, too!”
And that’s something I got to keep in mind from now on: I just can’t just have a simple template for my tables. I have to adjust based on space, the kind of con I’m at, and who I’m next to or near. That way, readers will be interested in coming closer and reading my work.
Sucks that I have to basically turn my table into a peacock just to get people interested in reading my work. However, I’ve long accepted that I need to be something of a carnival barker to get people to come over and find what I hope will be their new favorite book. So, adjusting my display as needed shouldn’t be too much more work.
Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. Tomorrow’s the con, and I’ll be there for most of the weekend. There will hopefully be plenty of opportunities for me to meet new readers, and to change my display as necessary. Should be interesting.
That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. If you happen to be in Medina, Ohio this weekend, please stop by the Big Ohio Book Con at 735 Lafayette Rd. I’ll be there signing books and doing Tarot readings, and would love to see you.
If you can’t be there but still want to support me, you can support me by buying one of my books online. From plant/human hybrids and strange gods to Mafia-hunting serial killers and carnivorous horses, I have something for every horror fan. So why not check out a book or two? I’ll leave the link to my Books page below.
Until next time, my Followers of Fear, good night and pleasant nightmares.
Back in 2023, I released a collection of short stories called Hannah and Other Stories. It contained tales of ghosts, budding serial killers, and even carnivorous horses. Yes, you read that right. Carnivorous horses. And they were terrifying, as were the rest of the stories. In fact, the book was really well-received by most of the people who read the book.
Sadly, as of New Year’s, the book went out of print, due to Hannah‘s publisher, BSC Publishing Group, and I going our separate ways (don’t worry, it’s not because of bad blood). But the good news, the book’s rights were returned to me, so that meant I could re-publish the book whenever I wanted.
And I decided to do just that. Not immediately. After all, I had Symphony for Walpurgis to put out, so there was no way I was going to work on two collections at once! Instead, I decided to wait till after Symphony was released. Once that was done, I would go over the stories in Hannah one more time, and then proceed with releasing the book one more time.
I’m happy to say that I’ve finished going over the stories in Hannah, correcting any errors or missing pieces I missed from the first release, and making some additions or changes to the story to make them a bit closer to my original vision. I also went and got this unbelievable new cover, which is located…
…RIGHT UNDERNEATH THIS PARAGRAPH!
What do you think? Since the carnivorous horses were such a memorable part of the collection, I made sure they were on the front cover this time. And the cover artist, Carin, really brought out how terrifying they were. At least, that’s my humble opinion.
So, if you’re still with me right now, and you’re at all interested in reading Hannah, you’re probably wondering, where do I get this new edition? Well, it’s currently available for preorder, and will be releasing on September 23, 2025, two years to the day of the first release. You can preorder a copy using the links below.
And guess what else? This time, Hannah and Other Stories will be available in paperback as well as ebook! Yeah, for reasons I’m not going to get into, the first time around, Hannah was only available in an ebook format. But this time, a paperback is going to happen, and it’s currently available for preorder on Barnes & Noble. (Why Amazon doesn’t do preorders for paperbacks from self-published authors, I’ll never know.)
So, if you’re at all interested, go preorder a copy by clicking on any of the links below. And, after the book comes out in September, if you end up reading it, please let me know what you think! Positive or negative, I love reader feedback, and it helps me out in the long run. Plus, leaving reviews for books help other readers decide whether the book is for them or not.
I hope you’re as excited as I am for the re-release of Hannah and Other Stories. I’ve been planning this since around October last year, so I’m glad I can finally come out and say, “Hey, this book is on its way again.” And I have a feeling it’s going to do even better than it did last time!
Who knows? It may even get an audio book this time around. Wouldn’t that be cool.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll be sure to remind you all periodically that Hannah is on its way again. And until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares!
Rami Ungar The Writer 