I’m so excited to launch The Night Parade at Main Point Books, which graciously hosted my first two book launches. And let me tell you: those were really amazing events! So if you’re in driving distance, join us in Wayne, PA, for a Halloween book party with me, a parade of partying ghosts, and special guest AC Wise.
The Night Parade Book Launch!
w/ special guest AC Wise
Halloween games, give-aways, cake, ghosts, fun!
Tues., Oct. 27
6:30pm
Main Point Books (Wayne, PA)
I’m lucky to have another story in a Halloween season issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction. “The Invisible Bone” draws on folklore to tell the story of a young girl trying to protect her sister from winter’s monsters, and their own past choices. Read an excerpt over at Asimov’s.
“Aren’t you afraid of mylings?” he asked. The angry souls of unbaptized babies who climbed on backs and begged for Christian burial. If the hapless bearer was too slow reaching hallowed ground, the myling drilled them into the dirt, burying them alive.
When Kee didn’t answer, he shook his head. “I guess you don’t believe in all that.”
“I do,” she said. The orange sun was just above the trees now, soon to be pricked by clawed branches, soon to melt away, like blood into quilt scraps. “But I’m not afraid.”
The latest issue of Weird Horror is here, with my story “Cosmic Passage,” about a museum attendant assigned to stand watch over a mysterious painting; the strange sights she she finds in it; and what finds her.
“It felt like entering a void — passing through the burgundy curtains, into the temporary alcove housing the new exhibit’s final painting, “Cosmic Passage.” Like a pocket of night in the ivory marble palace of the museum. But darker than night. The darkest place the Attendant had ever been in her city life.
The Attendant assumed her place in the far corner, where she could observe the visitors who would come and go, or perhaps sit on the single bench before the painting. She blinked rapidly, as if her eyes could bite through the blackness, soft and resistant as skin. Soon, though, they adjusted to the low lighting, which coaxed a dark rectangle from the wall: “Cosmic Passage.”
As her vision adapted, purple-black shapes rose from the black-purple canvas: trunks and fronds, leaves and blossoms, stalks and stalks and stalks. A violet curl, a lavender-gray curve, a berry-shine; a jungle blooming from the indigo night. “
Order print and digital copies here.
I’m excited to see my story “The Genius and the Devil” in the anthology The Elements of Dark Academia, publishing in the UK in August 2026 and now available for preorder. Get free shipping to the US from Blackstones!
Don your best tweed and sharpen your daggers: school is in session.
In this revelatory collection of over two dozen stories, award-winning anthologist Jared Shurin guides us through the hallowed halls of Dark Academia, from its Gothic roots to its boundary-pushing present. Ranging from the mysterious to the fantastic, the romantic and the horrific, these stories explore the hidden secrets of elite institutions, probe our relationship with power, and examine the darkest corners of human nature.
Within these pages, you’ll meet obsessed professors and the students who will do anything to impress them. Artists and musicians who make deals with the devil. Academic rivalries that turn personal, and even deadly. Students who come to study, but learn that ivory towers often contain dark secrets.
On the syllabus, you’ll find:
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Evelyn Waugh
- Dorothy Sayers
- Carmen Maria Machado
- M.L. Rio
- Lev Grossman
- And many more.
Very excited to share my latest flash story “Enthrall!”, out now in Hex Literary. Children’s games, an endless old house, a mysterious hostess, and my favorite collective narrator. 
“The cheese course lay in ruins on the endless table. The parents were too tipsy or sleepy, too busy arguing or laughing or singing, too distracted loosening belts and popping buttons to demand patience, send sharp looks, or worry about offending the great house’s new owner (whoever she was, wherever she was). It was the first time any of the guests had been inside the great house, or attended such an elaborate banquet.
A child whispered, “Let’s play.””
I’m thrilled to share a new story, “A Skull in Reverse.” It’s my take on the haunted hitchhiker legend, including my own favorite trope, angry women with real estate issues. I originally wrote this for a ghost story party a couple years ago, and I’m so excited to finally share it, and on a very cold and snowy day, too. Read online at The Sunday Morning Transport.
I’m excited to share that Fairwood Press will publish a collection of short fiction, including the new title novella, in 2026. Get ready to join The Night Parade.
In 2024, my short story “Bachelorettes on the Devil’s Dance Floor” appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction (Sept./Oct. 2024). The story is available to read on the SFWA and HWA member sites. Grateful to everyone reading at the end of the year!
I’m thrilled that my newest story, “Bachelorettes on the Devil’s Dance Floor,” has entered the world between the pages of the September/October 2024 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction. Jealous sisters, resentful besties, and reckless brides–and, of course, the devil (or is he?)–all in time for Halloween.
Read an excerpt and purchase at Asimov’s.
“The building has a rough stone façade, narrow smoke-gray windows, and brightly painted signs in several languages. The bachelorettes line up behind a crush of Asian tourists, each wearing a red lanyard.
“That bar has a shorter line,” Elle says, gesturing across the square. She’d like to get drunk as quickly as possible.
“But this bar’s authentic!” Bea argues. She wants them to remember, later—Bea planned the best trip, Bea found the best bar. She’s nearly forgotten that their attendance is an accident. A mistake, even.
“It’s for tourists,” a man says. It’s the man in the dark coat, the man with the dark eyes.
His English is just barely molded by German. He smiles at Angie again, and this time she smiles back. “It’s not fit for a bride,” he says. “Wouldn’t you like to see the real Walpurgisnacht?”
Angie plays with the hem of her veil. She knows the plastic tiara and the sash printed “bride” in gold make her alluring—ripe but forbidden. She’s like a true spring maiden under the maypole. She plans to enjoy it.
“Yes,” Angie says.”
Weird Horror has posted my short story “The Getaway” (Issue #6) to read online.
“The person stood in the front yard, hunched over, their shoulder blades poked through their long scraggly hair. Strange that I missed it before, but they were oddly colorless—the whole image oddly colorless, like it was taken at twilight or before sunrise. I zoomed in and the image jumped to the porch swing, the black windows behind it, the big round clock beside the door. I dragged my finger on the screen, almost expecting the lawn to be empty—the figure just a glitch or my imagination.
But there they were.”