Jane Nightshade's Blog

FREE ARC digital copies of GHOSTS NEVER LEAVE, my latest book, are available on Book Sirens at this link: https://booksirens.com/book/DFU3UX8/D...

Again, it's free! Check it out. It's free to join Book Sirens and get a free digital book!

The lovely ladies at Kandisha Press, a woman-owned horror publisher, interiewed me awhile back.

Visit me in the Kandisha Library here: https://kandishapress.com/2025/05/04/...

My latest book is out today!! What a great Mother's Day present!! GHOSTS NEVER LEAVE is a collection of 17 forays into ghostly terror that you will never forget!! Pick it up in digital and Amazon.

https://a.co/d/bUiloJ2

The formal sub call for HellBound Highway, my new anthology with Ann O'Mara Heyward, has been posted at HellBound Books's website under submission calls.

Here's the link:
https://hellboundbookspublishing.com/...

Briefly summarized, we are seeking short horror stories in the 3k to 6k range featuring a bad (as in horrifyingly bad) road trip or other type of journey (railroad, airplane, bus, etc)

The deadline is August 25, 2025.

Pleased to announce I've signed a contract with HellBound Books to serve as co-editor and curator of an anthology called "Hellbound Highway," centered on "bad trips" aka travel-related horror. My co-editor is fellow indie horror maven Ann O'Mara Heyward https://www.goodreads.com/author/show....

Look for a submission call soon if you are interested in contributing. Calls will be published on HellBound's site as well as HorrorTree and Duotrope.

If you're a reader who likes my work, the anthology will be published late in this year.

Thrilled to be working on this. My other book coming out this year is "Ghosts Never Leave," a fat collection of 18 ghost stories, coming from Unveiling Nightmares publishing, to be edited by Crystal Baynam. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... They are shooting for a May release. I'm never happier than when I have a book to work on!

Just finished the Amazon Prime limited series, Cross, based on the Alex Cross novels by James Patterson. It starts off a bit slow but then becomes an exciting rollercoaster as the unusual detective Cross tracks a vicious serial killer called the Fanboy, while also dealing with a separate mysterious criminal who is threatening his family.

Eventually Cross realizes that the Fanboy kidnaps people who look like famous serial killers that have been executed, and makes them over so that they are "correct" in every way, then executes them. He records it all in a book of death mementos. Cross races against time to stop the Fanboy from killing his latest kidnap victim, a woman who resembles Aileen Wuornos. The cast is headed by Aldis Hodge as Cross and Isaiah Mustafa as his best friend John Sampson. Ryan Eggold as the Fanboy makes a truly detestable killer. There are a lot of unexpected twists in the story. A great 8-episode watch; not sure if the series will get a second season.

I'm gonna start posting movie and book reviews here occasionally. My first here is The Substance.

My short take:

I thought it was great for the most part. It trods familiar territory vis a vis women and how aging can depersonalize them, like the 90s film "Death Becomes Her" or the early 60s Twilight Zone episode "The 16 Millimeter Shrine."

But the sci-fi plot and how it unfolds present these old ideas in a fresh and very in-your-face kind of way. My main quibble is the ending, which is a bit too Grand Guignol for my taste and goes on forever. If the ending had been trimmed back maybe 15-20 percent, it would have been a really excellent film. I also felt like Margaret Qually doesn't really look or act like Demi Moore very much, but that's a small thing. It's still very much worth watching.

A newish five-star review from author Mark Mackey for A Scream Full of Ghosts has been posted.

"A great collection of ghost stories. Look forward to more from the author."
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Thanks, Mark!

There are still some free digital copies of A Scream Full of Ghosts on Goodreads if anyone is interested in reading this well-rated book. It's the season for reading ghost stories by the fire!

Here is the Book Sirens link to download the free copy: https://booksirens.com/book/YTQYJSI/U...

Have at it!!

My latest story is out! "The Summer of '74" is included in The Anthology of Horror from HellBound Books publishing, edited by Jaime Powell. I don't want to give away the plot, but "The Summer of '74" is one of my most transgressive stories. Here it is for more info:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

HellBound has been really good to me. This is the fourth story I've published in one of their anthologies, and they also published my own anthology of serial killer stories, Jane Nightshade's Serial Encounters! They are great folks!!

My latest story dropped on November 5 in Monster: Underdog Anthology 2024. It's called The Bone Train and it's the scariest story I've ever written!! And it's the FIRST story listed in anthology that's 39 stories long!!

Pick it up today at Amazon or another online joint!!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...