Today, Black Spot Books revealed the cover for MOTHER KNOWS BEST, a new women-in-horror anthology, edited by yours truly, featuring new and exclusive stories and poems from some of today's fiercest women in horror--with a foreword by MOTHER HORROR, Sadie Hartmann!

I AM STOKED ABOUT THIS NEW ANTHOLOGY.

Rue Morgue also got in on the cover reveal, with an exclusive look here.
 
More information is coming soon, including a full Table of Contents reveal. MOTHER KNOWS BEST releases just in time for Mother's Day 2024.

Happy Halloween!

Today, Solaris Books–who just last week announced the acquisition of BLESS YOUR HEART for UK readers–is revealing the cover art for the UK edition! I love the vintage feel and Southern Charm on this cover, and the subtle nods to characters Mina Jean Murphy and Snow Leger. 

The UK edition of BLESS YOUR HEART drops from Solaris Books on July 18, 2024.

I'll admit, I have a soft spot for novellas. I also have a soft spot for holiday hauntings, grieving widows, estranged mother/son relationships, and manifestations of grief that stalk through frozen forests.

In short, I have a lot of soft spots.

Inspired by a somewhat ill-fated holiday trip of my own, COLD SNAP is a story near and dear to my heart, and I am over the moon that it has found a home at Titan Books. I've LONG wanted to work with Titan, and look forward to COLD SNAP being the beginning of a beautiful novella relationship. As I said in the Bookseller trade announcement, "COLD SNAP strips away the bright lights and shiny glare of the winter holidays and looks instead at the darker things we can’t wrap up in pretty packaging and bows. Grief, guilt and isolation are haunting enough, but add in a sinister presence that won’t let you look away and suddenly the cold, dark days of winter are even bleaker than we could have imagined."

I can't wait to tell you more about this book in the coming months as we move toward release in October 2024!

​When Black Spot Books first launched its women-in-horror poetry series in 2021, we wanted to not only give voice to women in dark prose, but through the series, to feature women from cover to cover, and we did: with cover art commissioned from noted horror artist Lynne Hansen, cover and interior design by Najla and Naja Qamber, and illustrations by the incomparable Marge Simon. More important, we wanted to give women-in-horror a platform to speak on topics and themes that speak to her soul, to her heart, and to her darkness. 
 
In our first showcase, UNDER HER SKIN (2022), my co-editor Toni Miller and I collected poems from cis, trans, and nonbinary women across the world themed on body horror, because, as I said in an interview with Cat Lowe at The Nerd Daily, “Body horror is an innate part of the female experience—from the subtle to the obvious—and women have a lifelong relationship with the subject.” And, as I said in that interview, by the time UNDER HER SKIN—which later won the BookFest Book Award for Poetry Collections and Anthologies—released, we were already hard at work on the next showcase.
 
We wanted the next showcase to be bigger, more brutal, more important. Thus, UNDER HER EYE, this time with Lee Murray joining as co-editor, was born. Lynne Hansen returned with more brilliant cover art, and once against the Qamber sisters transformed the collection into a jaw-dropping showcase. (For a full list of poets, see the Table of Contents here.)

Focused on the theme of domestic horror, we partnered with The Pixel Project, a global nonprofit focused on ending violence against women worldwide. With this project, we wanted to not only raise our voices, but unite them. We want to bring the topic of domestic violence against women to the forefront of the conversation. We want to stand with women who experience terror in the place they should feel the safest. We want to scream with them and for them. ​

UNDER HER EYE, no matter how fierce, how full of rage, how powerful, its poems are, are only a step in that direction–but it is a step. The showcase features work from Bram-Stoker Awards® winning and nominated authors, as well as over one hundred poems from women (cis and trans) and non-binary femmes in horror. Developed in recognition of United Nations General Assembly’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, resources are included in the book's matter as a call to action for those who know women suffering and a resource for who are women suffering.

Domestic violence is not always loud, but sometimes it is.
Domestic violence doesn’t always leave bruises, at least not the visible kind.
Domestic violence can come from a partner, but it doesn’t have to.
Domestic violence isn’t an accident, though it often comes without warnings.
Domestic violence might happen just once, but once is enough.
​

And last, but certainly NOT least: earlier this month I was able to rekindle my love of All Things Boulet Brothers by sharing amazing news–come Halloween, THE BOULET BROTHERS' DRAGULA is BACK with Season 5!

Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Spooky Season!

As we move into Fall, I'm resurrecting the blog. Expect fun news, announcements, reflections, and other exclusive content, as well as monthly recaps right here–starting, not surprisingly, with the August recap!

Calling August a whirlwind month is an understatement. In sum, we traveled 15 states–from San Francisco, CA alllll the way across the southern half of the US and then up the Eastern Seaboard to NYC. 

For our first stop, Finn and I drove up to Pennsylvania and The Highlights Foundation for the Western Connecticut State MFA Summer Residency. We had a phenomenal week working with students, reading and learning, and enjoying live readings from students and other visiting authors, as well as spending lots of time being surrounded by good friends and beautiful nature (check out the pics on Instagram!). From there, we flew to San Francisco and started making our way back east. Along the way, we *finally* got a chance to check out Bone Haus Brewing, a boutique craft brewery I invested in a few years back. When I was first introduced to the company, I fell in love with their branding and art, but after spending time on location, the beer is pretty darn good, too! (My personal fave is the Hilton's Hollow Marshmallow Porter–yum!) Take a gander around the brewery: Porter

Afterward, we took a short trip off-route and headed down to Tombstone, AZ, where we did some sight-seeing (and some fun research!). We brunched at Big Nose Kate's Saloon, visited The Bird Cage Theater, and came home with LOTs of trinkets.

All this time in the Old West made for the perfect backdrop to chat with Charlaine Harris about her brand new book (and the fifth installment in her Gunnie Rose series), ALL THE DEAD SHALL WEEP. 

Our last stop of the month, after a quick jaunt by my university to kick off fall semester with grad student orientation and after a quick stop at an upcoming new film studio locale in Hoboken, we made it into NYC for one thing and one thing only. 

*Insert primal yell* GROBAN! Specifically, Groban as Sweeney Todd in the Broadway production of SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. I simply cannot tell you how incredible this experience was! We dressed up, we paid too much for merch and snacks, and we cried during "Johanna." Josh Groban and the entire cast did a phenomenal job, and naturally we can straight home and watched Tim Burton's version of the same play, because why not?

By the end of the month, we were home and back to work, and I'll be spending all of September wrapping up one novel and working on the sequel to BLESS YOUR HEART. I'm wrapping up edits on not one but TWO upcoming anthologies, and working on a number of small pieces, blurbs, and other end-of-year projects, before ramping up for 2024.

That's it for now! Happy September, and remember, Halloween is only 57 days away!
​
Currently Reading: THE INVISIBLE HOUR by Alice Hoffman