My obscure cryptid horror story No Bones, Just Skin has been accepted into the Children of the Dead: Lost Lullabies anthology by Wicked Shadow Press. It’s about a brother and sister who have a terrifying encounter with an abúhukü, a rainforest demon known for dissolving the bones of its prey and leaving the empty skin behind.

Manuel’s older sister, Liliana, stood next to him, looking up at the body hanging high in the tree overhead. The carcass was little more than a shriveled husk of a man, a wrinkled bag of skin draped boneless and formless across the jungle’s dense lattice of vines and branches. It was almost as if the man had been turned into a garment, as if someone had slit him down the back, extracted his skeleton, then tossed him carelessly into the tree like an old bathrobe.

My creature feature horror story Baby Food has been accepted into Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium by Treeshaker Books. It’s about a man who convinces his wife to overcome her fear of bears to go camping with him, only to discover that what awaits them in the woods is much, much worse.

“I’ll make you a deal. You spend one night camping with me, and if you don’t have the best time of your life, I’ll book a trip to Cabo the second we get home.”

“If we get home,” she corrected.

“One night.” I squeezed her hands. “It’ll be fun. I promise.”

My non-horror story Dawn Patrol has been accepted by Written Tales Magazine. It’s a simple story about a surfer seeking the next wave.

Scott steered his bike one-handed into the empty parking lot at Salt Creek Beach and coasted toward a row of palm trees inked black against the soft pink sky. He lowered his bike to the ground, then gazed at the water. The ocean was polished glass. Scott sighed. The surf report had promised chest-high swells. Normally, he would have been disappointed at having woken up extra early for nothing. Today, he didn’t care. He was awake anyway. He had never gone to sleep.

My pregnancy horror story Before has been accepted by Tales to Terrify. It’s about a baby in the womb who suddenly realizes she’s not alone.

I don’t know where she came from, or when she appeared. I just know that I’m not alone in here anymore. There is another now. A Not-Mother. A Not-Me. A Third.

This will be my fourth story on Tales to Terrify, following Those Who Turn From God (my very first podcast ever), Something’s Wrong With Mom, and Baby Food.

My weird fiction story The Salt Circle has been accepted by Moonday Magazine for their first annual Halloween issue.

Imagine a werewolf story where, instead of the main character turning into a wolf, he turns into a slug. A were-slug? Yes, a were-slug.

“I just don’t want you to get hurt,” Linda said, wiping at her nose with a soggy, crumpled tissue. “I’m worried about you.”

I extended my eye stalks toward her, giving her what I hoped was a look of indignation. I couldn’t believe she was trying to spin it like it was my fault. “If you didn’t want me to get hurt, maybe you shouldn’t have been so quick to deploy the chemical weapons.”

My techno-horror story Blame has been accepted into the Soul anthology by Graveside Press.

Blame is about an audio engineer at a software company investigating strange sounds heard during customer voice chats. It’s a “found footage” story told through emails, Slack conversations, Reddit threads, phone transcripts, and more unusual artifacts like git commits, JIRA tickets, door entry logs … even a Walmart receipt.

My short horror story Before has been accepted by the Pushcart Prize winning fine arts journal, Abstract Magazine. It’s about a baby in the womb who suddenly realizes she’s not alone.

I don’t know where she came from, or when she appeared. I just know that I’m not alone in here anymore. There is another now. A Not-Mother. A Not-Me. A Third.

My sci-fi horror story The Door is Open has been accepted into the Portals, Gateways, and Doors anthology by Farthest Star Publishing. It’s 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.

My underwater horror story A Sinking Feeling has been accepted by the Lunatics Radio Hour Podcast. 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.

The Lunatics Radio Hour Podcast explores the history of horror and craft of modern day scary storytelling.

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 holiday horror drabble Dead Bulb has been chosen as the winner of the Pulp Asylum drabble contest. It’s the story of a man whose holiday lights are powered by souls captured at the moment of death. And one of them needs replacing.

“Bulb’s out?” Bob asked as he walked his dog past my house.

I glanced at my neighbor, then at the darkened Christmas lights. “Looks like it.”