Posts Tagged ‘horror fan art’

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.

Hello, my Followers of Fear. I’m back from StokerCon and I’m sure you’re expecting me to go into detail about that. I plan to do so, believe me, but I need a little more time to process what’s happened, so I won’t be doing that this post.*

Instead, I want to talk about something else this weekend, which hasn’t happened in a long time: I got new fan art!

I’ve long believed that fan art is one of the most honest expressions of love from a fan to a creator, so I’m very touched to have received a new piece. This piece comes from Louise C, a fellow horror writer and a Follower of Fear I met over on BlueSky. She’s been reading several of my stories since we met, and I’m glad not only to have her among the Followers, but that she gave me this amazing piece of fan art, which was intended as a birthday present for me (my birthday was quite recent, if you didn’t know).

Not only that, but she had the fan art created by a commissioned artist! Yeah, really. According to Louise, she somehow won a free commissioned art piece and decided to use it to give me a birthday present. I told her I was really flattered and that, if she wanted to do this, I would be honored. I also told her she could choose whatever the fan art was of.

The result is below.

Pretty awesome, isn’t it? I love the expression on the character’s face. So cocky and full of pride and self-assurance.

If you don’t recognize the character, it’s the Akolouthos, the master of the dragon bats in my novelette “Disillusionment and Trauma Sometimes Go Hand-in-Hand.” He’s described as an extremely tall man of eight or nine feet, with yellow eyes and teeth and wearing a long black coat and broad-brimmed hat. And, as you can guess from one of my stories, he’s not exactly human.

You know, this isn’t the first time that this particular story, which was one of the previously published ones in Symphony for Walpurgis, has had fan art created for it. When I first came up with dragon bats (they came before the story), Iseult Murphy, another friend, fellow writer, and Follower of Fear, created the fan art you see below. It was the first time I ever received fan art, and spurred me to write a story about dragon bats.

I’m glad to know the story is still scaring enough people to generate new fan art.

Thank you again, Louise, for this deliciously scary fan art. It’s such a wonderful birthday present, and there’s a good chance it’s going to end up on my wall, in the spot where my favorite pieces of fan art go. If it does, I’ll be sure to send you a photo.

And, because I would be remiss if I didn’t do this, if you would like to read “Disillusionment and Trauma Sometimes Go Hand-in-Hand” and see this villain in action, you can grab a copy of Symphony for Walpurgis using the links below. It’s the second story in the collection. And if you end up liking what you read, please leave me a review and let me know what you think! After all, reviews help both me and other readers in the long run.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. Until next time (which will hopefully be later this week), good night and pleasant nightmares.

*I will say, however, that I did get a chance to pitch The Shape of Evil to some agents and editors. And I got instructions from four of them on how to send the manuscript to them. Which, yeah, is great, no doubt. However, if one of them wants to work with me to get The Shape of Evil published, that’s when we’ll have a real celebration.

Back in 2021, I got my first author fan art. Iseult Murphy, my friend and colleague, created a couple of pictures based on a made-up creature I mentioned in a tweet, the dragon bats. You can see them below.

Pretty cool, especially since they didn’t belong to any story. At least, not then. The fan art inspired me to write a novelette, “Disillusionment and Trauma Sometimes Go Hand-in-Hand.” That story was published in Ink Stains: A Dark Fiction Literary Anthology in October 2022.

And this past month, Iseult created some more fan art, which she’s sent me. The first is a story-accurate picture of the dragon bats, down to the orange fur and cat-like faces. Even their scaly, armored bellies are featured! Now imagine if one of these were real, and as big as a large dog! Now imagine hundreds of them, flying around and feeding upon you. Did I mention they may be venomous? A single bite can be deadly!

But that’s not the only piece of art Iseult sent me. Yesterday, she sent me this picture based on my story “The Dedication of the High Priestess.” That story is a fusion of ballet horror with the cosmic horror entity The King in Yellow. Check it out:

DAAAAMN! That is beautiful! The dancing figure of Anastasia in yellow, her shadow underneath her, and the giant form of her master, the King in Yellow, watching over her as she dances. It’s just an amazing piece of art. Also, was that painted with oil pastels? Because it looks like it, but I’m no art expert. Iseult, please let me know.

Whatever it’s made with, I LOVE this picture. I’ve said it before, but I feel like “Dedication of the High Priestess” is one of my favorite and best stories. And fan art is one of the sincerest forms of flattery you can give a creative, as well as showing your love and appreciation for that creative and their work. And from this, I really felt the love Iseult has for this story. So, I printed out a copy of this picture, bought a frame for it, and am now trying to find a good place to hang it up.

Check my Instagram to find out where I eventually hang it up.

Anyway, I wanted to post this fan art for you all to see. Iseult’s art needs to be appreciated by more people, so I made sure to put it on my social media and on my blog.

And I hope to receive more fan art in the future. Not just from Iseult, though I would be happy to see more of her work. I hope, as I continue to publish more stories and reach more readers, I’ll see more fan art based on my work. And, as long as it’s manageable to do so, I may even post more fan art to this blog and to my social media.

Perhaps there will be more fan art once Hannah and Other Stories releases later this year. I can see the stories Queen Alice and Fuselli’s Horses getting some fan art.

In the meantime, I have plenty of stories that are worth reading. You don’t have to create fan art from them if you don’t want to. I just want you to read them. And maybe let me know what you think. And you should also check out Iseult Murphy’s stories, which you can find links to on her blog. I recommend 7 Days in Hell and 7 Weeks in Hell.

Anyway, for my books, here are my links. For starters, if you want to check out “Disillusionment and Trauma Sometimes Go Hand-in-Hand,” you can grab a copy of Ink Stains here. If you want to check out “The Dedication of the High Priestess,” you can listen to it on the Tales to Terrify podcast here. And below are the links for my books.

That’s all for now, my Followers of Fear. I’m off to work on a new short story while trying to figure out where to hang Iseult’s picture. Until next time, good night and pleasant nightmares.

The Quiet Game: Five Tales to Chill Your Bones: Amazon, Createspace, Barnes & Noble, iBooksSmashwords, and Kobo.

Snake: AmazonCreatespace, Barnes & Noble, iBooksSmashwords, and Kobo

Rose: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Audible, B&N

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

Mother of the King: Amazon

Agoraphobia: Amazon