HORROR AND FANTASY WRITER
SPOILER ALERT! "The Call Shift" by N.J. Gallegos won the 2025 Alien Buddha Horror Showdown. It's a slice-of-life tale from the point of view of a resident doctor dealing with exhaustion and a zombie virus amid a pandemic. Gallegos also won the Showdown in 2022 with her domestic horror story titled "The Fruits of Her... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies, collections, and zines.) SPOILER ALERT! I like receiving newsletters in my email from my favorite horror writers, and one of the best is The Fear County Chronicle by Splatterpunk Award-winning author Ronald Kelly. His newsletter provides an introspective and sometimes... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies, collections, and zines.) Illinois author John Everson’s horror novels and short stories often use the disturbing combination of the occult and taboo sex to explore infidelity and obsession. While he won a Bram Stoker Award for First Novel with Covenant... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies, collections, and zines.) I almost cut myself on the satirical edge of Lucy Leitner's standout short story "They Say the Sky Is Full of Snakewolves." The author wastes no time in dropping the reader into the action as we follow... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies, collections, and zines.) I like my horror fiction with a darker tone, but I'm always impressed when an author effectively adds the right amount of dark humor to the mix. I'm also surprised by how much I enjoy it. "Vampire... Continue Reading →
(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... Continue Reading →
(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... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review horror short stories.) “Quiet Embers” opens with the heart-wrenching line, “My neighbors house burned down six months ago with their children inside.” The tale then gently explores how the now empty lot haunts the narrator, a new resident of the neighborhood. “Quiet Embers” is one... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review horror short stories.) From the disturbing image in the first sentence to the unsettling realization in the final two lines, Lisa Quigley’s “Birth” takes the “sometimes dead is better” theme of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary to the next grim level. Released in 2018, “Birth” is... Continue Reading →
(Editor’s note: SHORT SHOTS is a column where I review short stories from horror anthologies.) “Still Life” by Kelli Owen is one of sixteen stories in the Bram Stoker Award-nominated anthology titled Arterial Bloom. Released in 2020 by Crystal Lake Publishing, Arterial Bloom was edited by Mercedes M. Yardley and includes a foreword by Linda... Continue Reading →
LIONEL RAY GREEN 