My psychological horror story Me, a Hero has been accepted into the Mask of Sanity anthology by Wicked Shadow Press. 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 weird horror story Uncle Pumpkin’s Tongue has been accepted by 7th-Circle Pyrite. It’s the story of a Halloween carnival ride with a sinister secret.

It wasn’t the slide itself that scared me—it was the character of Uncle Pumpkin that I found most terrifying. He was supposed to be a silly, clown-like figure that brought joy to children around Halloween, but the only thing he brought to me was a sense of profound unease, a lingering dread that left me feeling like I had a sandbag in my stomach.

My psychological horror story You Are Reading This Story has been accepted into the Creatures of Habit anthology by Culture Cult Press. It’s a self-referential piece of metafiction about a writer trapped by his own words.

This story begins at the end.

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.

My dark sci-fi story Arrivals at Hope Station Have Been Indefinitely Postponed has been accepted by Stupefying Stories. It’s framed as an urgent announcement on an interdimensional travel platform.

Attention, Travelers. Due to circumstances entirely within our control—but beyond our collective will to change—all arrivals at Hope Station have been indefinitely postponed, and the Station is now closed. Travelers entering the Station should abandon Hope and proceed to the exits immediately.

My sci-fi horror story A Piece of the Sky has been accepted by The Lost Poetry Club podcast. It’s told through the testimony of the surviving member of a two-person asteroid mining crew that picked up an unfortunate souvenir during their expedition.

With all due respect, sir, you don’t know what you’re talking about. There was no way Bakely could’ve known what the thing was when he picked it up. It looked like a rock. Hell, it was a rock, just a hunk of the asteroid’s crust that he grabbed as a souvenir for his kid. There’s no way he could’ve known it was a nest.