🌻 So turns the Yellow Carousel 🌻

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

“We Suckle” makes The Saturday Evening Post’s Top 10 of 2022 👀

The Saturday Evening Post’s Most Popular New Fiction of 2022 – Number Ten Might Surprise You 👀

The Saturday Evening Post has rounded up their Most Popular of 2022 in various categories. Last night I was surprised and happy to see that “We Suckle” snuck into their top ten short stories!

(Can’t figure out why my screenshots are turning out with such poor resolution, sorry)

Thanks to everyone who read and shared this story. It is only because of you that it made this list. If you haven’t read it yet, find it here: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2022/10/we-suckle/

🔥🔥🔥

#thesaturdayeveningpost #topten #top10 #horrorauthor #horrorwriter #wesuckle #weirdhorror #shortstories #shorthorror #augustusvalley

THE CRICKET KING is finished!

Well, sort of. The first wife-readable draft is done, which is a huge weight lifted (looks like you have some new reading material, Emily).After my initial editing pass, I discovered a pretty upsetting plot hole. But today I finally got it fixed, and I can take a break from thinking about this book. In its current version, it clocks in at 78,700 words. That will, of course, change by the time it is in its final form (the very roughest draft finished at around 81k), but it’s a respectable length, even though it won’t quite come in over 80k like I had hoped.

I don’t know what to say except that I am very relieved to have got the book to its current state. I suffered many assaulting doubts while I was writing and while I was editing. Even though it is not yet in book form, it is a great relief to have finished the hardest part of the work, and I am very proud of it so far. I look forward to sharing it with you sometime in the hopefully-not-too-distant future.

All my novelist friends: keep on writing! Work through the doubts! Trust the process! Keep on chirping!

#amwriting #amwritinghorror #orthoptera #crickets #thecricketking #horror #horrorfiction #horrorbooks #wip #horrorwriters #wvwriters #amediting #ameditinghorror

40,000 words into my new horror novel

I haven’t updated you guys on my latest writing project until now because whenever I start something intended to be a novel, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to remember how to write again, or I’ll get to the end and it won’t be long enough, or it will turn out to be an incoherent, unpublishable disaster. Well, I’ve been deep into a project I started this spring, and I’m relieved and excited to go into this weekend having crossed the 40k mark! What’s more, I think it might resemble something you may actually want to read.

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In which Curtis M. Lawson interviews me on the Wyrd Transmissions podcast

Fresh feasting for your famished earholes, hot off the audio griddle. Curtis M. Lawson, host of the podcast Wyrd Transmissions, has interviewed me. Listen to us chat a little about my writing and a lot more about other stuff.

Listen to “Ep. 49 – Appalachian Horror with Timothy G. Huguenin” on Spreaker.

Stream here it using the embedded player above, or go directly to the episode page, or listen on Apple Podcasts (don’t forget to rate and review the show).

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Preorder the new limited edition weird horror anthology from Dim Shores

Preorders are finally live for the new weird horror anthology Dim Shores Presents, Vol. 2, edited by Sam Cowan. Visit the Dim Shores webstore and secure your copy of the limited first edition now! Along other fine authors, you’ll notice my name down there on the front cover:

The first edition will be limited to 150 copies, and I’m betting they’ll sell out fast, so order yours today.

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Independent Legions to publish my weird novella

I am excited to announce I have just signed a contract with Independent Legions Publishing for my weird novella, Unknowing, I Sink. They plan to release it this year!

Independent Legions is an awesome press based out of Italy (don’t worry, my book will be in English). The recipient of the Horror Writers Association Specialty Press Award in 2017, they have tons of amazing writers in their catalog, including Cody Goodfellow, Nicole Cushing, Owl Goingback, Philip Fracassi, Poppy Z. Brite, and Ramsey Campbell. Too many more phenomenal writers to list here. Go to independentlegions.com to see more.

This book is probably one of my weirdest pieces, and it’s very dear to me. I can’t wait to share this one with you, and I’m extremely grateful to Independent Legions for helping me do it. As always, if you want to be absolutely sure that you don’t miss the release, sign up for my email updates (I’ll even send you a free copy of Antique Bed).

99c End of Summer Kindle Sale on WTWS – Buy Now

I’m running an End of Summer Sale the rest of this month (and a bit into September) on [*When the Watcher Shakes*](https://tghuguenin.com/wtws/) — [get it on Amazon NOW](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IBZFNEI/) for **only 99 cents**. That’s **over 75% off** from the original ebook price of $3.99! Don’t miss out, get it today!

Click here to buy!

***The walls were meant to keep evil out—but they only hid the evil within…***

“A chilling entry in the small-town horror genre. Huguenin combines suspense, mystery, and action in page-turning style.” — Scott Nicholson, [*The Red Church*](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/145150702X/)

 

99c kindle sale ebook horror suspense #99c #kindle #sale #kindledeals #buynow #endofsummer