The Horror Tree Recent Markets, Articles, Interviews, and Fiction!

Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 4-28-24

Greetings, children of the dark. Hope you’re all enjoying the shorter / longer days (delete as applicable according to your hemisphere). I’ll tell you what: this has been a massive energy-draining week for me for various reasons, and I’m sure glad I’m staring at the weekend. I had wanted to get started on reading your (I’m sure all amazing) short story submissions, but I need a day off already! I’ll get to working through them ASAP, though.

What I do need, though, is MOAR DRABBLES. Our drabble cupboard is looking awfully bare right now. We’ve got some going through the process now, but it’s only a couple of weeks worth. And that means I’m challenging you, dear reader, to get your drabble hats on. I’d love it if next week I can report that I’ve had a ton of drabble subs. Shall we set a goal? I would like to see at least 10 drabbles in the inbox before I write this column for the first issue of May. Can you make that happen? Get ’em ready and head to the submissions page. Remember when you’re using the form (here) to choose TWF from the first dropdown menu, and then choose ‘drabbles’ so it can be routed to the right place. 

Anyways, this week’s TWF menu is kicked off by a nihilistic museum visit with Adrian Fahy. That story is followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

  • Michael Bettendorf’s hunter-gathering,
  • JB Riley’s imaginary friend, and
  • Lynn Kristine Thorsen’s tortured experiments

Over to you, Stuart.

Lauren McMenemy

Editor, Trembling With Fear

 
We have a new site sponsor for the month, so if you’re looking to pick up a new book, I highly suggest The Dark Man, by Referral and Less Pleasant Tales by Chuck McKenzie!
 
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Hi all! 

Another week of sick children, though finally, they’re both better now! Outside of that a bit more progress on the new layout as well as Shadowed Realms. Really hoping to have some solid details on both of those soon. Also, a couple of quick news bits:

  • We have a new Patreon; thank you so much for joining, the more Patreons we get the closer we are to lowering even more the amount of ads we have to display! WHEW!
  • Belanger Books has a cool new Kickstarter worth checking out! They’ve previously had some neat open calls that we’ve shared so wanted to let the authors and readers who follow us know about it!

Offhand, if you’ve ordered Trembling With Fear Volume 6, we’d appreciate a review! 🙂 

 

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Articles

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Reasons To Write Some Terrific Horror in 2024

Reasons To Write Some Terrific Horror in 2024

In the last week, there has been a viral post floating around titled “No One Buys Book” which is both financially and statistically incorrect. We could break down all of the financials and numbers, but Lincoln Michel already did in his perfect rebuttal, “Yes, People Do Buy Books,” and I see no reason to re-list all of the research in this over a billion books sold a year in America alone industry.

So, if you have been wondering whether there would be interest in your writing or if you want to see what’s on the market at the moment, then you have come to the right place. The horror genre is on the rise, and with plenty of space for new writers and readers, this article will outline the reasons why 2024 is the year to start writing (or reading) some frighteningly good literature.

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Trembling With Fear

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Unholy Trinity: “See Some Evil, Hear Some Evil, Speak Some Evil” by Liam Kerry

Our church worships at the altar of the Unholy Trinity. Its gospels are delivered as a trio of dark drabbles, linked so that Three become One. All hail the power of the Three.

 

Cold Caller

 

The Avon lady informed Amelia and Riya that she believed the elderly lady at number 13 had passed. Thoughts of the rich widow’s jewellery enticed them into her home, where they found the basement door ajar and entered hesitantly.

In the corner of the room stood the Avon rep, facing the wall, whispering.

“Hello?” they asked nervously.

Turning to greet them, her face became visible – the face of the deceased resident, wild-eyed, her mouth foaming.

The pair ran, tormented by her whispers. Her words rang in Amelia’s ears.

Amelia fell, choking. Her spine arching violently as death’s verse consumed her.

 

Lege Haec Et Peribis

 

Extract from a 999 call, placed at 18:15 13/02/2024:

Call Handler: Police, what’s your emergency?

Female Caller: Help! Police?

Call Handler: Hello, Miss. How can we help?

*Heavy breathing*

Female caller: Oh fuck, oh fuck, OH FUCK! 

Call handler: Miss, I need you to stay calm. 

*sobbing*

Female Caller: She’s… She’s all bent up. She’s broken in half! No… The lady… She’s coming!

*screaming*

Call Handler: Miss, are you okay?

*Inaudible whispering*

Woman’s voice: Diabolum vocare; coprus frangere. Vocatis spiritibus; accipere animam. Diabolum vocare; coprus frangere. Vocatis spiritibus; accipere animam

*Choking sound*

Call terminated at 18:24

 

Thirteen

 

Four editors died during the creation of this publication. suicides, the police concluded. Suspectly, they were each found in the same position, folded in half. The expressions on their faces were haunting; photographs published online show bloodshot eyes opened wide, staring from their head’s new position by the back of their pelvis. Their mouths stretched so far open that their jaws dislocated. Human incarnations of Munch’s The Scream.

There is a theory – Editing started on the 13th. It’s possible that reading the 13th entry on the 13th of the month seals your fate. Hopefully, I’m wrong.

Better check your calendar.

 

 

Liam Kerry

Liam Kerry is a thinking enthusiast with a bad memory. Writing helps him recall his daydreams. An anthology of his micro-fiction will be available later in 2024.

Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Leviathan: An Anthology of Industrial Horror

Deadline: September 30th, 2024
Payment: $125 – $200
Theme: Weird tales set in the Victorian period that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of horror.

LEVIATHAN: Submission Brief

Sentinel Creatives has opened up for submissions for “LEVIATHAN: An Anthology of Industrial Horror.”

Deadline for Submissions: 30 September 2024
Wordcount: 3,000 – 6,000
Remuneration: $125 – $200
Simultaneous Submissions: Yes

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We’re looking for original weird tales set in the Victorian period that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of horror.
Some clarifications:
Victorian: There is a tendency to view the Victorian Age as beginning and ending with the reign of British monarch Queen Victoria (1837-1901), but this is so strict as to be crude. Rather, the period will be what is referred to as The Long Nineteenth Century (1789-1914), which begins with the French Revolution and ends just short of World War I. This expanded timeframe serves to foreground the transformations that took place within British society and brings those changes into stark relief.

This period usually takes England as its geographical norm, and often a particular city: London. But for the purposes of this anthology, the region will also include Scotland, Ireland, Wales, as well as India and the furthest reaches of the British Empire. There is considerable scope here, and the period is rich in conflict and upheaval, which any excellent story cannot do without.

Show us primitive science, at once enlightened and profane, the obscure craft of learned mutilators who frighten all, even the dead. Or the Resurrection men, who do their bidding by midnight, and fear more moonlight than the noose. Give us tales of strife and privation, loss and alienation; rural homesteads replaced by hypnotic topographies of stone and glass, cloaked in smog; of choking workhouses and tumbledown tenements. Show us who built this world, mixing mortar with bone, but won’t inherit it. Take us where rail and steam cannot, where clockwork minds are set adrift from empire—from themselves. Give us immigrant tales: ex-lives, diasporic fugitives—what did they leave behind, and what did they bring with them? Give us your silent biographies of the obscure and unseen.

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Articles / Interviews

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Kevin Bachar Is ‘Cursed’ With His Latest Collection!

The Horror Tree Presents: Author Interview – Kevin Bachar

By Lionel Ray Green

 

Kevin Bachar uses his experiences as an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker to inspire his horror writing. The results so far are two collections, Dread and Creep, firmly entrenched in the top 10 of Amazon’s Horror Anthologies category since their release.

Another short story collection titled Cursed is out April 26, completing his three-book series Nights of Madness.

Bachar is president of Pangolin Pictures where he directs, shoots and writes documentary films.

“If you’ve watched National Geographic, PBS or The Discovery Channel over the years, you’ve seen my work,” he says. “I produce in all genres but specialize in natural history filmmaking. Series like PBS Nature or Shark Week have featured my films. Not bad for a kid from Queens.”

A three-time Emmy Award winner for his work on the National Geographic Explorer series, Bachar thinks his documentary work gives his writing “a real-world feel.”

“I don’t need to hit up Wikipedia for a lot of research,” he says. “I know what it’s like to be on a stakeout with cops or know what a tornado sounds like when it roars into a town, since I’ve filmed those things in real life.”

Bachar agreed to an exclusive email interview with Lionel Ray Green for The Horror Tree about his horror collections, screenplay writing, and future projects.

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Articles

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Indie Bookshelf Releases 04/26/2024

Got a book to launch, an event to promote, a kickstarter or seeking extra work/support as a result of being hit economically by life in general?

Get in touch and we’ll promote you here. The post is prepared each Thursday for publication on Friday. Contact us via Horror Tree’s contact address or connect via Twitter or Facebook.

Click on the book covers for more information. Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the page – there’s all sorts lurking in the deep.

 

Before you scroll down through the books however, please could you consider checking out the ‘Creatives in Crisis’ section. This has been added to help those who need additional support at this time. Please note I keep these up as long as they’re either running or have hit their targets. Those belonging to Claire Fitzpatrick and Bill Spangler continue to need support (11/04/2024). Thank you!

 

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Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Magazine / Poetry / Semipro

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Taking Submissions: The Skull and Laurel Spring 2024 Window

Deadline: May 31st, 2024
Payment: 3c/word (USD) originals; $25 (USD) reprints
Theme: Weird Horror, Dark Fantasy, Dark Science Fiction. Short Fiction, Narrative Poetry.
Note: Reprints Welcome

The Skull and Laurel is a quarterly magazine of New Weird short fiction. A more detailed explanation of the type of stories we publish at Tenebrous Press can be found here, but essentially we are looking for speculative fiction that is genre-fluid and modern in its themes, subtext, characters, techniques, or form. Horror, fantasy, and science fiction stories are welcome so long as they are dark and Weird with a capital W. If your story is speculative and either blends genres or refuses to fit neatly within their confines, we want to read it. Our goal is to publish strange and brave new stories told by people you may have never otherwise met.

 

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Anthology / Events / Flash / Flat Amount / Token Payment

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Taking Submissions: Hellbound Books’ Anthology of Flash Fiction

Deadline: August 30th, 2024
Payment: $5
Theme: Horror, Noir, and all Things Dark, up to 1,500 words

Announcing a new venture into short horror fiction – curated by Theresa Scott-Matthews.

We are looking for the very best short horror fiction stories – up to 1,500 words (approximately – we’re not going to to turn away cracking tales for being a tad over the word count!).

Anything goes, subject-wise, as long as it fits HellBound Books’ “Horror, Noir, and all Things Dark” philosophy!

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