Today, I am blessed to appear at the Southpointe Barnes and Noble in Lincoln, Nebraska from 1 - 4 PM CDT. If you’re in the area, come by and see me, say hi, and if horror short stories are your jam, give mine a try!

#barnesandnoblebooks #horrorauthor

HELLO! My name is Pepper-Jasmin, or P.J. I'm a 24 year old plural writer from Michigan. This is my fediverse account.

I mostly write science fiction and psychological horror, but I also write romance sometimes, and make interactive fiction/games. I love writing about aliens and I love writing about lesbians and I love writing about disability and mental illness.

You can view my work here: https://vessel.pjacaciaashberry.com

#writingcommunity #queerwriter #disabledwriter #amwriting #scifiauthor #horrorauthor

Coming October 6: 20 Days of Building a Horrifying Setting.

Every monster needs a home, and sometimes the place is the true horror. Step inside if you dare.

#HorrorWriting, #AmWritingHorror, #WritersOfHorror, #HorrorAuthor, #WritingCommunity, #HorrorSettings

Author Spotlight: Horror & SFF Author Andromeda Ruins

Andromeda (he/him) is a queer, disabled, and neurodivergent author from a small town in the Midwest. He sits comfortably in the ‘I don’t know what’s going on’ category in just about everything, leading to him writing a lot about queer, disabled, and neurodivergent characters. He recently graduated his undergrad program with a Classics major and loves to take the themes and stories he learns about and adapt them to the modern day.

Author Links:

Website: andromedaruins.com

Book Links: ΔΆΙΟΣ | Incorrect Eyes

@andromedaexists on everything

You have 2 books out at the moment,  ΔΆΙΟΣ and Incorrect Eyes, which are quite different to each other! Can you tell us a bit about each of these, and especially shifting from  ΔΆΙΟΣ to Incorrect Eyes in terms of your themes, genre and writing focus?

Of course I can! ΔΆΙΟΣ (pronounced die-ohs) is the first book in the Call Me Icarus series, an anti-establishment retelling of the fall of Icarus. It is a grimdark story following Icarus as he accidentally becomes the face of the rebellion after spending ten years hiding under the nose of ATLAS Corp. It is dark and gritty, toeing the line of grimdark, but not quite horror.

I started writing ΔΆΙΟΣ while I was in my undergrad program. I have a bachelor’s degree in Classics (with a concentration in Classical Civilization and minors in Latin and Attic Greek), meaning that all day every day I was surrounded by stories far older than I could ever imagine.

At the same time, I am a very politically active person. I wouldn’t say I’m an activist by any means, but I do what I can.

Those two aspects of my life came crashing together during the pandemic, and what came out of that is the story of a disabled trans man who hasn’t yet come to terms with his disability. One who harbors a hatred and resentment towards the world around him that puts him in the position of having to fight for things he never even considered because of the propaganda he was raised in.

I guess all of this to say that I really like taking the stories of our ancient past and molding it to fit the world we live in today, which is also where Incorrect Eyes comes in.

Incorrect Eyes is a psychological horror novella following an unnamed transmasc MC as he deals with severe paranoia and an Angel with too many eyes. This was a hard shift from my established Greco-Roman retellings to Catholic based horror, but it really comes from the same place of taking the old and molding it to the new.

This time, though, instead of the story being an overtly political novel about overthrowing a fascist government, it’s a cautionary tale about the dangers of bottling up emotions and stress. I think, if both stories are read next to each other, that you can see a lot of the same through lines. There’s just more of an emphasis on horror and mental illness in Incorrect Eyes than in ΔΆΙΟΣ (for now).

Let’s focus on Incorrect Eyes, your psychological religious horror novella. How did your own Catholic background weave into the novella, and how did this shape it?

Incorrect Eyes is a bit of a unique case for me. The initial idea for the story was the title, something that was thrown around in a group chat with my closest writing friends. I was granted the use of it by Cryptic, the friend who came up with the name, and I knew I wanted to do something paranoia-related with it, but I wasn’t quite sure what that would look like.

The first few drafts actually had Incorrect Eyes staying in my Greek Mythology lane, with it revolving around the Hekatonkheires. It was something more archeology based, with the main character uncovering just so many eyes in a dig site before his spiral. But that didn’t feel right, and when I was talking with my best friend she pointed out that it sounded like I was trying to create a “biblically accurate angel” that wasn’t an angel. So I took that and ran with it.

Only, I do have a degree in classics. And I was raised in a very strictly Roman Catholic family. So I chose to take the more academic route and draw from the Book of Isaiah and refrained from calling it a “biblically accurate angel” because all angels are biblically accurate, they’re just different tiers of angels. Once I had that piece in place, the rest of the story really fell in place. I am really happy with how it turned out, though I still think the archeological Hekatonkheires would have been fun.

What is the context of the Biblical passages your MC is studying, and why did you choose to build the novella’s focus around them?

The passage that the main character is studying in Incorrect Eyes is Isaiah 6:1-7. This is a passage in which King Uzziah enters heaven and is greeted by the Holy Host, only to have a Seraph put a coal in his mouth in an act of atonement.

Even the simple description of that passage sounds like the set up to a horror novel to me, the premise of being greeted by the Divine (something that I personally view as terrifying after being raised in the Church as I was) only to have them mutilate you in the name of the Lord… it sends shivers up my spine, truly.

I built the novella around a different passage, originally; a combination of Isaiah 6:2-3 and Ezekiel 1:5-28.

However, I had a hard time keeping the tone of the story when drawing it out to incorporate the entirety of those passages, so I cut it down to just Isaiah. As for why… well, that ties into my area of comfort. I am a scholar, one who studies and translates ancient texts. This is a realm I am comfortable with! I love taking an existing tale and creating a narrative around someone interacting with it, though academic means or through living the story themselves!

What draws you to psychological horror, and how did you develop the sense of dread and mental deterioration of the main character?

Honestly, my life experiences draw me to psychological horror. I have been very open about the use of hallucinations in Incorrect Eyes and that they are modelled of my own hallucinations, though they are much worse than anything I’ve experienced.

It took me a long time to come into myself, but with that came a love for horror. Particularly, a love for body horror and mental fuckery. With that came an appreciation for the unwanted and the discarded. I grew to see the art in the way humans cope with things, with the way the mind will do whatever it needs to do to survive. That’s what I wanted to instill in the story of Incorrect Eyes. I wanted it to feel like no matter how bad things were getting, the main character was still functioning on a base level and trying to survive. He experiences hallucinations that grow worse as time goes on, and all he wants to do is make it through the night. That desperation to make it home mixed with the general “God, why me?” vibe created a mental spiral that drags the reader down with it. The only reprieve is realizing that you’ve reached the end, really.

In the novella, your MC is unnamed. Was this a deliberate choice, and if so, why? If this happened organically, why did you choose to stick with not naming him?

Yes, this is an intentional choice! He actually does have a name in my notes, however that does not come up on page. This was a deliberate choice I made while I was writing, one driven entirely by the narrative. I had always intended for the story to be told in the first person. I personally feel that horror stories thrive when told in the first person because it forces you to face the horrors as the characters do!

So when it came to writing Incorrect Eyes, I didn’t even think about how I could incorporate information about him. This extended to more than just his name!

He is a college kid, one that’s so deep into his degree that he’s counting down the days to graduation. That man does not care at all about how he looks or how he presents to the world. He is there to do a job, and that is it. The only interaction he has with people are with strangers on the street and through texts with his close friends and family.

The strangers don’t care who he is and while his name could have been mentioned in the texts, I can’t remember the last time I used someone’s name in that setting. It felt unnatural to me. Once the story was done and I could read it all as one piece, I found that the lack of a name for the main character added to the narrative significance. This man is spiraling into psychosis and seeing the Messengers of the Lord and yet he is not significant enough to have his name remembered as his story is told. He is merely a vessel for the horror of the Angels, not much different from the role of a prophet.

What is next for you and your writing? What can readers look out for in the future?

I’m currently working on my next novel, Desecrate! It’s (hopefully) going to be out next year, it’s a Dark Academia novel about a Seminary-dropout-turned-Classics-student as he begins to experience prophetic dreams about God chained in the basement of his local church. I’m really looking forward to getting this behemoth of a story out into the world. It’s been a time trying to write and re-write and re-write this story as my tastes have changed!

As soon as that’s out, I will be returning to the Call Me Icarus series! ΔΆΙΟΣ was book one in a trilogy, the other two books are zero drafted and waiting to be polished.

I had to take a break from the Call Me Icarus universe for a moment due to the nature of the story and the state of the US Government, but I’m ready to dive back in with a vengeance! I’m hoping book two will be ready for publishing in late 2026 or early 2027.

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Day 9 – 20 Days of Building an Oscar-Winning Supporting Cast in Your Horror Writing

Your monster might be terrifying, but if your world feels empty, the fear won’t stick.

Today we’re talking about crafting a background cast that feels lived-in—the neighbors, shopkeepers, and townsfolk who make your setting breathe… and bleed.

https://tasarlaromaney.wordpress.com/writing-series-secondary-characters/

#horrorwriting #writingcommunity #amwritinghorror #writerslife #StoryCraft #horrorauthor #writingtips

Author Spotlight: Horror Author Shawn Winchell

I grew up on Goosebumps, Stephen King, and The X Files and I think that is pretty obvious to the people who read my books. When I’m not busy raising my 5 kids, I write paranormal suspense and horror stories.

Author Links:

@authorshawnwinchell on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads

www.shawnwinchell.com (eBook and paperback versions of all my books are available to purchase from my website, though I’m currently only able to ship physical copies to US readers. I’m hoping to be able to change that in the future. Until then, anyone in a different country can find my books on Amazon or most major retailers)

We’re here to spotlight your body of work, which includes 7 books available in eBook, paperback, and a couple in hardback! What draws you to write horror, and how many subgenres and aspects of the genre have you tried so far? Do you find yourself returning to certain things?

I always wanted to write noir (think Raymond Chandler). I never actually planned on writing horror, but when I write, those are the stories that come out. One great thing about horror is that the genre is such a broad spectrum that there is something for everyone. I like to think that my work represents that – I’ve written all over the genre, from ghost stories to psychological to sci-fi horror and demonic possession.

If you had to highlight 2-3 themes in your body of work, what would they be, and how have you expressed them in the books? Do you find yourself expressing or even returning to these themes consciously, unconsciously, or a mix? 

One recurring theme in a lot of my writing is the concept of an unreliable narrator. I absolutely love them. I think an unreliable narrator gives a story an added layer that can’t exist any other way. Plus, they’re a lot of fun to write.

Another thing that I find myself returning to from book to book is the dichotomy between skeptics and believers – whether that is in regards to ghosts or aliens or anything really. I believe having that contrast is important.

Tell us a little bit about your writing process and style – have you found yourself developing or changing up how you write between your first book and your latest book? 

My writing process has stayed mostly the same except for one major change. I wrote the entire first draft of my debut by hand. It was such a fun experience to put pen to paper and watch as the pages piled up.

Since then, I’ve had quite a few medical issues that have made using my hands difficult on a good day and impossible on bad ones. As a result, I’ve had to give up the handwritten draft.

The rest of my process is still the same, though. I map out between twenty and thirty scenes on index cards and then I start writing. As I’m writing, I try to let the story go wherever it wants to, but if I get too far off track, I use the note cards to redirect myself. And I make a point to never read what I’ve written until I have a finished draft to keep myself from getting stuck tinkering instead of actually writing.

Let’s spotlight some characters! Pick 2-3 protagonists from your any of books, and share what makes them tick, and why you enjoyed developing them. 

It’s funny, my favorite characters to write almost always end up being side characters. Tommy and Ms. Evelyn in Birdseye were a ton of fun, as was Madame Ethelinda from Eliza (who is actually the only character I’ve ever written that was solely based off of a real person – an old boss of mine from when I used to work at Barnes and Noble).

My favorite protagonist would have to be Lucy, the nine-year-old narrator from Birdseye. She’s socially awkward on top of being at an age where she is still finding herself. She’s confident and smart and knows how to trust herself, even when maybe she shouldn’t. She’s also kind and compassionate despite someone (me) putting her through some really awful experiences.

Let’s zoom in on your favourite antagonists to write. Tell us how these characters/entities came about, and what your process was for developing them as you wrote their stories. 

I had a lot of fun with Eliza in my first book. The idea for her came about as an amalgamation of a ghost story from an old asylum near where I live and a Native American legend about what they call “Stick Indians.”

My favorite antagonist that I’ve written so far is Gus from Liminal. I’m not going to say much about him other than if you read the book, I think you’ll see why I like him so much.

As an indie author, what have been the main challenges for you in terms of publication? What have you learned over the course of 7 books?

The biggest challenge for me is and always has been social media. I very rarely used it before publishing my first book and it is still a struggle for me. But, over the course of releasing more books and starting to build a bit of a following, I’ve learned that it is absolutely necessary. And thankfully, for the most part, the people that aren’t interested in what you have to say usually just scroll by.

Can you tell us about your future publication plans? What can we look out for next?

For 2025, I have two books planned for release – Googly Eye (a possession/occult horror novel) in April, and the first book in a new series called The Many Terrors of Creekbed Hollow that will be published in October.

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In times of crisis and discrimination, our communities are our strength and power.

Today we celebrate love, pride, resistance, and the power of communities. Across the world, LGBTQIA+ communities and allies are coming together in powerful ways, showing courage, and building collective strength in the face of hate.

We're proud to organize and resist alongside LGBTQIA+ organizations, activists, and everyone fighting for a world where we can all live freely and authentically. 🌈

Because equality isn't optional and solidarity is everything. 💪🏼 ❤️ 🌎

#LoveIsLove #May17 #IDAHOBIT #StandUp #TakeAStand #NoMoreHate #LGBT+ #QueerHorror #bookstodon #books #HorrorWriter #HorrorAuthor #HorrorReader #IndieAuthor #IndieHorror #SupportIndieHorror #HorrorCommunity #DavidRider

More info: https://may17.org/