🌻 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

Take a spin on the Yellow Carousel in CHM Magazine #35

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.

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“The Station Agent’s Wife, 1927” now in audio on Tales to Terrify

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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Listen now to “She Will Come to Brood” on CREEPY

In February 2021, “AV_NEST.CASEFILE” appeared in the horror/dark fantasy anthology, Dim Shores Presents Vol. 2. I’m pleased to say that it’s now been released as a podcast episode on Creepy! The wise folks at Creepy suggested the title “AV_NEST.CASEFILE” might be a little awkward when read aloud (and maybe a little awkward read silently), and it now is named “She Will Come to Brood”.

The truth is, I’m late to my own party here; this episode came out about a month ago. February is busy, okay? I miss stuff. But you shouldn’t miss this. It’s got creepy birds, giant eggs, and an eighty-foot nest.

Click the image above to be brought to the episode on their website, or find it on any of your favorite podcast apps, like Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify. Don’t forget to leave a review if possible.

“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

Listen now to “Animals” on Tales to Terrify

Tales to Terrify is coming at you again—this time, with my short story "Animals." Just released today, Episode 556 of the Tales to Terrify podcast will get you where you need to be, if where you need to be is creeped out and revolted. Might be a good one to listen to while you get dinner ready; just my suggestion. Or maybe sitting by yourself in the shed out back. Keep an eye out for rats.

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Dim Shores Presents Volume 2 second edition ebook and paperback now available

My weird horror inspector story, "AV_NEST.CASEFILE," was published February 2021 in the limited edition anthology, Dim Shores Presents Volume 2. Those copies are now sold out.

If you missed out, have no fear. You can now get the second edition paperback, as well as the e-book! Buy it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or order directly from the publisher’s website.

If you’re scared of birds, or if you want to be, you’ll dig my story. If you don’t, I’m sure you’ll find a favorite from any of the other fantastic writers in these pages!

#weird #horror #scifi #darkfantasy #smallpress #indiepub #dimshores #weirdart #weirdfiction #weirdhorror #shortfiction dim shores presents vol 2 ebook #ebook #kindle #nook #epub #dimshoresvolume2

Got another one coming to TALES TO TERRIFY

I don’t have details on when yet, but wanted to let you know I recently signed another reprint contract with Tales to Terrify, the great short horror fiction podcast that has published two of my other stories, "The Apocalypse of Moses" and "Drifting Into the Black.".

This time you’ll get to listen to "Animals," originally published in 2017 on HelloHorror.com. I will let you know when it’s released.