A Post From the Publishing Void

          This year, I made my first professional short-story sale to the wonderful folks at Darkwater Syndicate (love that name) for their then-untitled collection of horror tales, the theme being abandoned places—all of them complete figments of the writers' imaginations, but written as places that could've once existed. Once I saw that in the submission call, I was in, since I've always loved abandoned places and, as you probably know by now, horror of all kinds. Not to mention that, as a South Jersey girl, I grew up surrounded by the lore of the Pine Barrens, which is absolutely chock-full of abandoned settlements, mills, and places where there's little more left than pieces of foundations or one or two overgrown buildings to mark where early settlers in the area once lived. Could I write a story set in the area about an abandoned town that never existed but once conceivably could have? You bet your ass I could. 

          Of course, that makes it sound far easier than it actually was, both coming up with an idea and actually writing the damn story out well enough that it might have a chance to get published. But as they so often do in horror stories about people exploring abandoned places and regretting their curiosity once bodies start dropping, dumb-ass (or relatively dumb-ass) teenagers came to the rescue, and "Felicity's Well, NJ" was born, submitted, and, later, actually accepted, which was the cause of much joy and celebration on my end. My first story sold! A paycheck! All that murder finally paying off!

          The story's narrated by Daniella "Danny" Ferraro (who, on a side note, is one of my favorite first-person narrators that I've ever written) and tells the tale of an expedition she, her boyfriend Grady, and their friends Wade and Jill take into the heart of the Pine Barrens to explore an abandoned settlement called Felicity's Well. I'm not about to spoil the story for anyone curious enough to actually read it when the book comes out, but I've got two words for you: demon berries. If that doesn't hook you, I don't know what will. 

          This post isn't just an extended brag, though; I actually have a point. The anthology, which is called Postcards From the Void (God, I love the names around here), will be available on September 30th in e-book, paperback, and hardcover editions, and an audiobook is apparently in production. I've gotten a sneak peek of the cover art for the special edition hardcover, and I gotta say it's pretty damn cool. There's also a new book trailer, done by Michael Warriner, who is another of the contributing authors in this thing. I hope you check the collection out in any of its many forms, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you're scared shitless. Just please, take my advice, and don't eat the berries.