What We Find in the Dark
This is the ORIGINAL cover art I created for WHAT WE FIND IN THE DARK. The final cover will be revealed soon!
COMING HALLOWEEN 2024
A witchy retelling of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” that leaves the holiday season a little too red… An under-the-sea origin story after a baby is abandoned from the side of a boat in a wooden crate… A grandmother singing a werewolf home… A mother who loses her child inside an abandoned house where she hears laughing—and screaming—in the walls… A guy suspicious he’s trapped in his own rendition of The Truman Show after a long drive that seemed to go nowhere… A teen who thinks the BMV is run by vampires looking for insurance money… and more.
What We Find in the Dark is filled with dark retellings and quirky renditions of the normal and mundane things we overlook in everyday life. Equally a collection for lovers of horror stories and a contender for those experiencing the genre for the first time, and just in time for spooky season.
BONUS: What We Find in the Dark includes the short story, “Black As Black,” which is a short and unique rending of the novella, Black As Black, with extra cream and sugar.
What We Find in the Dark
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Cozy Autumn Village Halloween Ambience
Nightmares from the Mist (Immersive Lovecraftian Horror Ambience)
"San Junipero," Black Mirror
Black As Black
Black As Black
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Come Little Children (Sarah's Theme)
Come Little Children (meets) The Hanging Tree
“The singing began that morning before even the roosters had woken from their coops—a song that most thought to be little more than a tall tale meant to keep children at home safe, a song by three women who children thrilled at inserting into scary stories, only to eventually put them away like their belief in Santa Claus—and it pulled everyone from their beds.”
COMING HALLOWEEN 2024
Black As Black is a dark, contemporary retelling of Hocus Pocus—a deep dive into that world and an exploration of the true darkness behind the Sanderson Sisters. There are three young, incredibly gorgeous women with a terrible secret. The legend of a black cat. More children missing than their town can count. And a curse placed along the border of the town that prevents everyone from calling for help.
But surely, how bad could it be?
It’s just a bunch of Hocus Pocus.
BONUS: Set in the same world as the novella, a short story by the same name appears in What We Find in the Dark and uniquely captures a chilling moment in a forlorn and decrepit coffee shop.
This is my favorite inspiration image for my novella, BLACK AS BLACK, as well as the short story by the same name (included in my short story collection, WHAT WE FIND IN THE DARK).
The Yara-ma-yha-who, ‘Real’ Vampires, and Aboriginal Erasure
I am SO PLEASED to share that Global Perspectives on the Liminality of the Supernatural: From Animus to Zombi, edited by the wonderful Rebecca Gibson and Jay VanderVeen, is now available as an e-book (with physical copies coming in July!).
I contributed to the concept by focusing on vampire lore that originated in Australia and addressed how Oceanic literature was impacted by Western popularity – until recently. Gone are the days of sparkling vampires and Australian vampires planted in cityscapes like New York and Chicago; and in are the legends of real vampires, bunyips and drop bears, classic Australian landscapes and wildlife, and of course (a creature I’m now sort of obsessed with), the Yara-ma-yha-who.
Find me in Chapter 4: “The Yara-ma-yha-who, ‘Real’ Vampires, and Aboriginal Erasure: The Uncovered and Retold Vampires of Australian Horror Fiction.” I LOVED writing it, and I hope you’ll enjoy it, too.
And, I’ve had a sneak peek at the rest of the book, and oh my goodness, call me biased, but it is GOOD. It’s theoretical, it’s horror-focused, it’s smart, and it’s wildly interesting and entertaining. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Read “The Duplex” Free!
Sprawled out across cornfields and a man-made lake the kids say plummets forever, the small town of Cresentstance feels isolated, a little ominous, and anything but small. But with tragedy just behind them and nothing to look forward to, Sonya decides this move to the town will be a good thing. Sonya and her daughter, Maddie, move into an old farmhouse renovated into a duplex, and when she discovers the other half of the house is occupied by another single mother and her son, who is the same age as Maddie, the situation feels like fate. But when Maddie starts to physically change and her new friend exhibits some dark behaviors, Sonya decides staying as far away from their new housemates as possible would be best. That’s until Maddie goes missing in the middle of the night, leading Sonya down dark hallways on the other side of the house where there’s laughing and screaming in the walls, and secrets the rest of the town would rather stay far, far away from.
A perfect short story to read by the light of your creepy Black Flame Candle this fall season—and to get ready for the full collection, What We Find in the Dark, which drops right in time for spooky season.
