#Horror Author

[comikbook]

currently really into the idea of doing horror book covers i think it would be so cool to do…anyone know how to get into that ? anyone know how to find authors looking for artists to work with ?

[marsadler]

INTRO

Hello!

I thought I'd do a bit of a more formal intro as I try to move over to engaging more on Tumblr now that other social media platforms are becoming steadily more unusable.

I'm mars or Kaye, I write lots of weird sensual horror and cross-blended speculative fiction with horror, all with trans and queer characters. I first self-published a short story on itchio in March of 2023 after years of wishing I could leave ghostwriting to publish my own work. (I still haven't fully escaped that occupation, but we're getting there.)

I'm a big, huge fan of publishing on itchio, although I'm also published on Amazon as a necessary evil, boo hiss, tomato tomato, etc.

PUBLISHED WORK

2023

FIRST CREATION: my debut novella, 22k words/98 pages, religious horror featuring an angel and a demon on opposite sides of a never-ending war escaping together, and a whole lot of cannibalism and fruit metaphors. It was a finalist in the 2023 Indie Ink Awards. Transmasc protagonist, M/M pairing.

Blood & Flowers (currently undergoing a re-release process that's adding roughly 11k words and a new cover, so it's not available for sale right now): won the Queer Indie Award of 'Best Sophomore Novel' in 2023, enemies to lovers, vague Romeo and Juliet retelling, vampires and haunted houses. I'm so excited to share the re-release of this early this year! Transmasc protagonist, M/M pairing.

EYETOOTH: another novella (I really love writing novellas), 18k words/90 pages, t4t eroguro medkink fever dream. A trans art student undergoes an experimental surgery at an underground plasma donation center, but afterwards, the doctor disappears and leaves him to deal with the aftereffects and strange cannibalistic urges. Transmas protagonist, nonbinary love interest, M/NB pairing.

2024

Dead Cowpokes Don't Wrangle: Probably the coolest thing I did last year was curate this anthology with a good friend and fellow author, H.S. Wolfe. A queer collection of weird west stories and gorgeous artwork from 18 creators, this is an absolute banger, if I do say so myself. My story in there, Red as Blood, Black as Tar, deals with people coming back from the dead, gunslinging outlaws, and a lot of weird, gross tar. F/NB pairing, ~10k words.

UNHOLY FAVORS: 22k words/90 pages, a short story duet about making deals with supernatural entities that go wrong. Featuring trans protagonists, monsterfucking, weird dreamscapes and hellhounds, this is an odd little itchio-exclusive collection. M/M pairings for both, each story is around 10k words.

The Apples of New Eden: 57k words/251 pages, my first full-length novel. Sci-fi horror, taboo romance. Two brothers struggle to reunite for Christmas in a dystopian war-filled future. Featuring cybernetics, wire play, heavy handed anti-establishment themes, and some really weird dogs. Itchio exclusive, transmasc protagonist and M/M pairing.

WIPs For This Year

Sequels: one of my main goals this year is to actually publish a sequel to one of my three started series. (First Creation, Blood & Flowers, and Eyetooth are all the first books in series.)

Sweet Lamb: novel length, religious horror. I tried to release Sweet Lamb early in 2024 but it just wasn't ready. I'm glad I waited, because I'm a lot clearer now on what I want to do with it. It's a very personal book to me, and I want to make it the best it can be. Polyam trans rep, new age cults, weird fucky angels.

Clipped Wings WIP: novel length, religious horror, anti-establishment themes as well as a toxic age gap pairing. What happens when you take an angel's wings away?

Several Novella and novelette length wips: I won't list them all out because I've started SEVERAL, and I'm not sure which I'll get done first, but I'm hoping to get at least a couple of them out this year.

Other work: I'm very excited to be a part of several other cool collaborative projects I can't talk about yet, but there's several things in the works right now, so keep an eye out!

Alright, that's it for now, thank you for reading this, and I'm so excited to meet new people on this platform and get weird about queer horror with y'all! You can always DM me or ask me any questions, I'm chronically online.

All my books have CWs in their front matter for those looking, and on itchio in the listing. They're also available on my website, which is marsadler.carrd.co

[museofthepyre]

The Novem Woods

(Audio drama project I’m writing with friends… I’ll be posting teaser-ish art with no context. What does this art mean, I hear you asking? Well… you’ll have to find out ;] )

[whatsuptyler]

Gonna clean up the blog, intro post, etc in the next few days I hope—it’s all so woefully out of date—and come back to tumblr some more. Miss you guys!

Also want to relearn how to interact and make friends on here I feel like I’m staring through the window like sicko.jpg and need to remember how to talk to people

anyway if you write horror, especially queer and/or disabled horror, or if you write horror romance my beloved, I would love to meet more people!!

[sanityshorror]

PLEASE give us some tips on writing horror, PLEASE

Honestly, I might do a video about this, as I get asked this/things along the lines of this rather often lol. Off the top of my head though, the most simple but important tips I can give:

Have an actual plot. It doesn't need to be super complex, it doesn't need to build an entire universe, it doesn't need to be ‘orignal’ (literally all artistic expressions are inspired by art that came before, it's impossible to create something truly original), and it doesn't even have to be unique. It just needs to be very solid and it should not be convoluted. And no, the horror of the story is not the plot of the story. The basic plot should be able to work in different genres. The story you tell with the plot and the execution is where you bring the horror.

Don't let your book become overly convoluted. You can tell a complex and rich story without adding every single detail about every single thing. Some things might seem a bit out of place without you including excessive lore, but it's better to just focus on the story you're telling in your book rather than try to explain every single aspect. Also, it adds much more mystery when you don't explain everything!

What is the villain's motive? What are the reasons for the villain's actions? And most importantly, what is your reason for telling the story? Do you have one? (Because you need to have one.)

Show, don't tell. This is off the top of my head without editing so it's not great, but as a general example of what not to write vs what to write: “He smacked the butt of his gun against her head and knocked her unconscious.” [❌] VS “Steel violently collided into bone creating an earsplitting, nasty, unmistakable cracking sound of a skull breaking. The woman's unconscious body thudded to the ground in an unceremonious manner. Blood poured from her head, pooling on the polished, hardwood floor on which she laid crumpled.” [✅] Same scene, but I don't think I need to explain the difference of why the first sucks and why the second is compelling.

If you aren't making yourself uncomfortable and horrified, you aren't going to horrify your readers. Push the limits.

Pacing: don't rush the story and gloss over important aspects of it because you want to get it done or you feel like it's just 'too much effort.' That does not mean adding filler to lengthen the story, either. All scenes and events should be relevant to the conclusion, if it's not relevant, then leave it out. If it is relevant, focus on writing it and doing it as well as you can. I would say for a short story, aim for a minimum of 4k words. For a book, a minimum of 25k words.

Bonus tip: over the top, excessive angst is not horror. Don't confuse the two and don't replace horror with angst. Yes, there may be a lot of overlap at times BUT you cannot write horror without the majority of the story being horror. I add this because I've seen a lot of new horror writers confuse the two and it just comes off as rather goofy when it's executed.

[wolfehorror]

A Guide To Wolfe

Hi I'm H.S. Wolfe and I write queer horror, romance, erotica and urban fantasy. I have two books and three shorts published currently, as well as an anthology on the way.

In The Garden Of Echo - Genesis 1 Echo and I have been around almost as long as the earth itself. We’re indestructible, in love, and hungry. For centuries we’ve wandered across continents, just the two of us, devouring an invasive species: humans. But the mess we’ve left in our wake has its consequences. Forced to curb our feeding and go into hiding has put Echo and me at risk of exposure, and I’d die before I let anything happen to her. In The Garden Of Echo is a T4T erotic horromance novella, and the first book of the Genesis trilogy. Full content warnings are listed in the author’s note and can be found on the author’s website.

Tales Of Genesis The TOG shorts are erotic one-offs best read after In The Garden Of Echo on itchio only

ROTGUT All I want to do is play drums in Cluster Headache, but I can’t even get that right. Between my on-again off-again shituationship with one of my band mates, the drinking problem-I-don’t-really-have and losing my job along with my will to live... I’ve kind of botched up my life.

As if things weren’t crummy enough I’m being followed by strange creatures that no one else seems to notice. Right before a big show too, that can’t be a good sign.

I've got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about it.

ROTGUT is an 18k psychological thriller / paranormal horror novella about music, mental health, and aliens.

COVER ART BY YUNE (@heavenlyystar on social media) I'm also part of this huge project I've been running alongside author Mars Adler, a Queer Weird West Anthology feature 17 authors and artists, which was fully funded on kickstarter in 11 days! The kickstarter is running until the end of June 2024

Dead Cowpoke's Don't Wrangle With more queers, weirds, and steers than you can shake a stick at, DEAD COWPOKES DON'T WRANGLE collects original weird west tales and art and will take you to the strangest plains over yonder, then further still. So tie up your horse, settle in to wet your whistle 'round the fire, and prepare to be amazed. When shape-shifters, duels, gunslingers, and strangers come to town, you best be saddling up for a hootin' hollerin' good time. You can find all my links to the left of my blog or here

[loveguts]

boything – an introduction

GENRE: southern gothic horror POV: third person limited, present tense STATUS: ongoing wip, very early stage LENGTH: roughly planning on a novella but may become longer THEMES: transmasculine main character with an exploration of (repressed) identity being a focal point of the plot / oppressive christianity and the religious horror surrounding it / trauma and grief / social isolation / horror within the family unit / psychological horror and subtle body horror / primal dormant rage / set during the summer WARNINGS: abusive and controlling parent / religious abuse, psychological and emotional abuse, physical abuse / transphobia and transphobic abuse against the main character, primarily under the lens of christianity / detailed explorations of gender dysphoria from the point of view of the person experiencing it, including negative perceptions of body parts / death of a (non-abusive) parent / suicide / gore and blood / body horror / vomit / self harm / potentially more tbd

summary

in the wake of a familial tragedy that leaves him completely alone with his tyrannical father, twenty year old eden abernathy finds himself grappling with grief, his identity, and the desire for independence in his blossoming adulthood. with his sense of self deviating drastically from his father's strict expectations more and more over time, eden begins to wonder when – not if – he'll snap under the constant strain.

notes

I'M SO EXCITED TO BE SHARING THIS, eden's story has undergone so many revisions and rough drafts and rewrites since 2021. it originally began as a victorian gothic setting with vampires, but after never being satisfied with it and constantly trying to make it into something that i actually liked, i've finally found what i want to do with his character after three years of work and completely rehauling everything. it means a lot to me and i'm genuinely so excited to finish this and share it with you all !!

tag / previews and snippets to be posted / absolutely feel free to give me a reply, message, or ask if you'd like to be added to a taglist for future previews and the eventual full release!!

[spern-awel]

Thorngale by Phoenix Mendoza

In their neglected, decaying family estate on the cliffs of the northern Cornish coast, two Anglo-Catholic brothers grow up in parasitic isolation during a time marked by the decay of English nobility. The elder, Alexander, is equal parts devout and sadistic, lording over Francis, the younger, as his tormentor and God. Oscillating between dreamlike fragments from their insular childhood to their final, sharp descent to madness in 1928, Thorngale is a chilling gothic horror tale of obsessive love and fatal devotion, written with the cutting, claustrophobic spiral of an ever tightening concertina wire.

Available October 25th

[boymanmaletheshequel]

For the past year and a half, I have been working off and on writing my first novel. It is a horror novel, based in concepts of existential, cosmic, and nihilistic horror, and as of writing this, it is about 150,000 words. It has been my passion project, for me personally, the result of years of literary study of the horror genre, essay writing, and an overall love for the genre. As of late, I’ve decided I’m ready to start sharing it with people, an audience, but I’m not sure where to begin. If you are all interested, let me know, and I will link my Wattpad where you could read the first completed chapter. If you all could help me as a new writer and author find a platform to share my works on and gain exposure, please let me know! It would mean the world to me, as this is something I’ve truly loved creating!

[kaedynce-is-a-writer]

reader: hey uh kaedynce can you please stop traumatizing your characters

me, a horror writer: so you have spoken blasphemy

[abalonetea]

Consider joining my mailing list, mayhaps?

You can subscribe to it HERE!

I've never run a mailing list before so it's just a little bit of bi-monthly news, but it would mean a lot to me if you considered checking it out!

[ladyofthevalley]

I’m meeting Stephen Graham Jones this weekend…. I hope he’ll sign my book

[roadkill-dreaming]

ARE YOU HUNGRY?

A story about those who revel in the grotesque- about the inherent contradictory nature of dogma- about the red string of fate being pulled so tightly that it strangles. Nothing but meat and candy.

My debut novel- AVAILABLE NOW

[grady-hendrix-the-cat]

Raise your hand if you feel this way sometimes

[whatsuptyler]

Hello, writeblr! My name is Tyler Battaglia (he/iel/any, 30+), an author of horror, dark fantasy, and other speculative fiction. I have a number of short stories out--or coming soon--and I recently self-published a horror novel, PRAY FOR HIM (more below!). You can find more information on my author homepage, but the evergreen intro is here!

WHO?

I'm a disabled, queer, Canadian author specializing in horror and other dark fiction.

I'm also a big reader and I have a personal and professional interest in disabled and queer futurity!

WHAT?

I write mostly horror, dark fantasy, urban fantasy, and other speculative fiction. I especially enjoy writing about religious trauma, grief, and things-not-quite-right. You can find a lot of sad gays in my writing.

WHERE?

Social media

You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or through my newsletter.

Writing

I have short fiction available to read for free online, as well as in a couple of anthologies! Consider checking out the full list on my site, where I have indicated which ones are free to read online. I marked on my site as well the genre and any relevant content warnings for each.

This list gets updated whenever there is something new!

WHEN?

I've got short fiction coming out somewhat regularly, so the list on my site is updated periodically with new releases.

PRAY FOR HIM was released on October 1, 2024.

--WAIT, PRAY FOR HIM?

My novel, PRAY FOR HIM, is a story about being gay and performing exorcisms. It's about religion vs faith, being honest with yourself, the redemptive power of love (and not just romantic love)--oh, and demons. You can add it to Goodreads or order the book here!

You can find more information on it, including a tag of stuff I've reblogged that's the vibe, on this WIP list page, which also includes hints of future projects!

WHY?

I just love horror and writing about grief and love and spooky nonsense. idk what else to say.

Would love to make more reader and writer friends and connections here on tumblr! Give me a follow if you're interested in seeing more. 💖

[sanityshorror]

Me re-reading what I wrote in Act 16: A Little Piece of Heaven from The Dressmaker from Hell:

Coming 2025: