SHORT SHOTS: ‘The Painting My Husband Keeps’

(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies.) "The Painting My Husband Keeps" is the quietly menacing opener to the horror collection titled Under Your Bed by Blair Daniels. The well-paced short story is narrated by a recently married woman named Tara who's unnerved by a painting owned …

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SHORT SHOTS: ‘A Traveler Between Eternities’ 

(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies.) “A Traveler Between Eternities” by Atlanta-based author Amanda DeWees is a tragic but hopeful tale of a woman named Ruth Whitlock who’s in the midst of a pregnancy where the unborn child “had suddenly gone still.” Set in 1864, the story …

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Triana, Harding win Best Novel at 2022 Splatterpunk Awards

Kristopher Triana and Ryan Harding won Best Novel on a night the 2022 Splatterpunk Awards honored the horror subgenre's inaugural Hall of Legends at KillerCon in Austin, Texas, on August 13th. Hosted by Wrath James White and Shane McKenzie, the fifth annual Splatterpunk Awards celebrated the best of Extreme Horror fiction published in 2021 by …

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One-Sentence Reviews: My 2nd Quarter 2022 Reads

(Editor’s note: Author Priscilla Bettis’ quarterly one-sentence review posts are just the bee’s knees.)

Priscilla Bettis

This quarter includes stories about Bigfoot, Vikings, amateur sleuths, and Gothic ghosts!

The Devil Took Her by Michael Botur is a gritty and compelling collection of horror short stories with subjects like gangs and rats rather than werewolves and specters. Kindle.

Autumn Gothic by Brian Bowyer. Despite the title, my favorite Bowyer book yet is more extreme horror than Gothic horror, and NONE of his characters are safe. KU.

Whodunit? I was clueless until the end!

Double Date Disaster by Hope Callaghan. A cute, Golden Girls type of cast made this a fun cozy mystery. Whodunit? I was clueless until the end! Kudos to Callaghan for stumping me. KU.

Murder in a Dream by Thea Cambert. Happy people in happy places with nice conversations don’t make a cozy mystery very exciting, but readers’ mileage may vary. KU.

The nice-guy prince of horror wrote a YA space adventure?!

Light-Years from Home

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SHORT SHOTS | ‘Slashbacks’

(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review horror short stories.) "Slashbacks" by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Tim Waggoner is a vicious little wish-fulfillment tale of vengeance set inside a horror movie lover's dream video store. The short story appears in the 2022 anthology Attack from the '80s edited by Eugene Johnson and …

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Rachel Harrison’s CACKLE wins 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Novel

Rachel Harrison's witchy tale, Cackle, won Best Novel for the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards, according to an announcement by the LOHF on June 29. The LOHF also announced winners in the other seven categories. Zakiya Dalila Harris’ The Other Black Girl won Best Debut. The Best Collection category resulted in a tie with Isabel …

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Nominees announced for 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards

V. Castro, Hailey Piper, and Isabel Yap each received multiple nominations for the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards, according to announcements by the LOHF team on its website. Castro's The Queen of the Cicadas is nominated for Best Novel and Goddess of Filth for Best Novella. Both works also received nominations for 2021 Bram …

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