My coming-of-age horror story Many Deaths Before Dying has been accepted into the Horror Over the Handlebars anthology. When a giant, silvery puddle appears in the field where they play, four boys encounter an inexplicable horror that will change them forever.

The empty lot next to Eddie’s house was the football field where Joe Montana threw the game-winning touchdown to Jerry Rice. It was the baseball diamond where Mark McGwire beat Jose Canseco in the most epic Wiffle ball home run derby in MLB history. It was where Rambo took down the Predator with a Nerf gun, and where RoboCop blew the Terminator’s head off with a Super Soaker. It was my favorite place to hang out with my three best friends.

And it was the last place I saw them alive.

Two of my horror stories, Feed the Worm and The Door is Open, have been accepted by the Chilling Tales for Dark Nights podcast.

• The Door is Open is hard to describe the story without spoiling it, so let’s just say: never open a door that can’t be closed. You never know who—or what—might slip through.
• Or, if you like stories about cosmic murder worms, Feed the Worm is the one for you!

My underwater horror story A Sinking Feeling has been accepted Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. It’s the story of two survivors trapped in an air pocket in a sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean. And they’re not alone. 

I didn’t know how long we had been underwater at that point—we had no way to measure time—but for however long it was, we hadn’t heard any noises outside of our own movement and the occasional groan of the ship’s structure as it settled into the ocean floor. But this noise was different.

Something was moving. And it was close.

My psychological horror story Me, a Hero has been accepted by Apocalypse Confidential. It’s a story about a man who joins the search for a missing girl in hopes of making an appearance on the local evening news.

Since the girl disappeared, some of her friends had turned her regular table in the corner of the coffee shop into a makeshift shrine, with a large 8×10 photo, plus a few flowers, candles, and even a teddy bear. A hand-made sign reading “Have you seen me?” was affixed to the wall above the table.

“Yes,” I thought as I paid for my coffee this morning. “Plenty of times.”

My psychological horror story Influenced has been accepted into the Femme Fatale Flashes anthology by Wicked Shadow Press. It’s a story about blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, and what happens when your dreams finally come true. 

The stranger passes his purchases over the Home Depot self-checkout scanner. Sweat glistens on his round face.

Trash bags. Duct tape. Hammer. Bleach. Scrub brush. Hacksaw. Plastic tarp.

He pays with cash.