It’s finally here! Shortwave Publishing has released their newest anthology, Deathrealm: Spirits, edited by Stephen Mark Rainey. Buy the paperback or ebook today at shortwavepublishing.com/catalog/deathrealm-spirits/ so you don’t miss my story “To Fear and To Rage”.
It was a warm September evening in High Point, West Virginia, when Silas first saw the Yellow Carousel.
Early September is upon us—summer’s last gasp, anticipation of autumn, maturing sunflowers… And, for a certain retired surface miner and his wife, the Yellow Carousel’s arrival.
Though squash vine borers have decimated my wife’s acorn squashes, zucchinis, and delicatas this year (still holding out hope for a couple of pumpkins that look okay), it’s been a good year for the rest of the garden, including our sunflowers.
Sunflowers are my favorite flowers. I’m big on Russian Mammoths, but we tried some new ones this year to add more color and variety in size. Can’t help smiling whenever I see them. How can those big, bright petals bring a person anything but joy?
Say a giant sunflower-shaped carousel sprouts suddenly in your back yard. Weird, sure. But would you really think it such a bad thing? You can forgive a lonely old guy like Silas if he’s not overly wary when it happens to him. But beauty is often as dangerous as it is alluring.
If you haven’t yet read my story “The Yellow Carousel” (Cosmic Horror Monthly #35, May 2023 – read online for free), September is the perfect time. Take it out on the back porch after work, while the evenings still have a touch of late summer heat. If you have a sunflower garden like me, plop your chair right there among their heavy heads nodding in the breeze. Maybe make yourself a cup of tea to sip as you read, to fight off that chill when the sun goes down behind the pines.
And if something strange appears in your lawn, or in the playground across the street, or your neighbor’s backyard…
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Silas and Emma have settled into a quiet retirement in High Point, West Virginia. There’s nothing so peaceful as a September sunset painting the pines that edge their field. From this magic twilight emerges the Yellow Carousel, as if planted and grown just for Silas. Why shouldn’t he climb its sunflower petals and mount its undulating deer?
🌻 🦌 Read it now for free 🦌 🌻
cosmic horror #cosmichorror #sunflowers #sunflower #weirdhorror weird horror #appalachianfiction west virginia rural horror #ruralhorror #cosmichorrormonthly
Shortwave Publishing has released the cover for their upcoming antholgy, Deathrealm: Spirits, edited by Stephen Mark Rainey. Loving that artwork by J. Edward Neill! Preorder the paperback or ebook today at shortwavepublishing.com/catalog/deathrealm-spirits/ so you don’t miss my story “To Fear and To Rage”.
Coming in October from Shortwave Publishing, Deathrealm: Spirits is a new horror anthology edited by Stephen Mark Rainey, who in the 80s and 90s brought horror fans the legendary Deathrealm magazine.
Lewisburg is a beautiful, charming small town in southern WV, home to cute little shops, art galleries, caves, restaurants, an indie bookstore, and, every August, the Lewisburg Literary Festival, one of the highlights of my year. This year, come out on August 4th–5th for this totally free event that brings nationally known authors in to speak—past authors include Garth Stein, David Sedaris, and Jeannete Walls. This year, the featured Mainstage Authors are Lynda Rutledge, Silas House, Eric Eyre, and Joy Callaway.
Ever since I devoured his debut, Greener Pastures, Michael’s fiction has been a huge influence and a North Star for my own work. There are very few authors I would say this about: when I hear Wehunt has a new book coming out, it’s an automatic buy. I don’t even have to read the synopsis. Not even in Stephen King do I have that much trust.
Wehunt fans (Wehunters?) like myself have been anxious for a new story collection from him for years (which is saying something for me, as generally speaking I don’t read many short story collections). Greener Pastures was published in 2016—not a full decade, but it’s felt like it. But at long last, it’s here, and it was worth the wait. Released this June by Bad Hand Books, The Inconsolables does not disappoint.
Recently printed in issue #35 (May 2023) of CHM Magazine, “The Yellow Carousel” is now available on their website to read for free, to give folks a taste of the scrumptious fiction offered in their magazine: https://cosmichorrormonthly.com/fiction/the-yellow-carousel/
Silas and Emma have settled into a quiet retirement in High Point, West Virginia. There’s nothing so peaceful as a September sunset painting the pines that edge their field. From this magic twilight emerges the Yellow Carousel, as if planted and grown just for Silas. Why shouldn’t he climb its sunflower petals and mount its undulating deer?
Join Silas’s and Emma’s encounter in my new short story “The Yellow Carousel,” out now in CHM Magazine #35.
Another one of my stories gets new life breathed into it—listen now to the audio podcast production of “The Station Agent’s Wife, 1927” by our good friends at Tales to Terrify! My story is read by Danielle Hewitt, who also did a great job reading my other story “She Will Come to Brood” for Creepy.
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It won’t be my first time at the West Virginia Writers Conference, but it will be my first time with a “Presenter” badge. Click on the poster image above to see a more detailed list of workshops.
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