Lindy Ryan's Blog

September has arrived, and with it, the need to slip into writing hibernation and find a quiet moment to breathe. Between drafting a brand-new novel, editing a forthcoming anthology, and preparing for upcoming releases (HOWL in November, Dollface in February, and a few short pieces here and there), my plate is full—in the best, most terrifying way. Add in the start of the fall semester—with a triple-digit roster of students waiting for me—and just general life, and it’s safe to say my calendar looks like a horror story all its own.

The truth is, the balance between teaching, editing, and writing isn’t always graceful. Some seasons it clicks, and some seasons it feels like I’m sprinting in heels while juggling knives. This one looks like it will be the latter, and that means I need to give myself permission to press pause in the places where I can. Unfortunately, that means a brief hiatus here and a general slowdown “online.”

This isn’t goodbye—just a little breather while I pour energy into the projects (and people) calling loudest right now. In the meantime:

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As always, thank you for reading and for being part of this amazing journey. Your support means more than I can say. See you on the other side of the draft!

If you work in horror fiction at all, you know Becky Spratford. She’s a fierce advocate for the genre, a super-cool librarian, and a tireless champion for emerging voices. She’s an icon, really.

Horror nonfiction is having a moment—and just like in horror fiction, women are leading the conversation. We’ve been treated to a treasure trove: explorations of women and the monstrous (Jessica Zimmerman, Lisa Kröger, Meg Hafdahl, Kelly Florence), reader’s guides from the indomitable Mother Horror (Sadie Hartmann), smart and entertaining works on ghosts, death, and the afterlife from Mary Roach (Stiff, Spook, Six Feet Over) and Caitlin Doughty (Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, From Here to Eternity). And, now, Why I Love Horror, a dazzling essay collection curated and edited by the one-and-only Becky Spratford, where some of horror’s best answer this exact question.

As an academic, my instinct is to wait for a print ARC or a final hardcover so I can mark up the pages with notes. I promised myself I’d be patient. Then I learned that I was listed as a readalike to one of the contributors—Rachel Harrison, one of my favorite humans!—and even still, I tried to resist. I told myself I’d wait until the end of September, when I could cozy up with a highlighter and savor essays from friends, colleagues, and admired voices. But then Becky asked me to write my own Why I Love Horror essay for this year’s 31 Days of Horror—and that was it. I caved.

My takeaway? As usual: horror people are the best people. Every essays felt like its own small, beating heart—authors baring their bones, writing their truths in blood and ink. I’m proud, honored, and endlessly grateful—for these wonderful voices, for heroes like Becky, for the entire horror community.

I’m grateful to call horror home.

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For twenty-five years, Becky Siegel Spratford has worked as a librarian in Reader Advisory, training library workers all over the world on how to engage their patrons and readers, and to use her place as a horror expert and critic to get the word out to others; to bring even more readers into the horror fold.

Why I Love Horror is a captivating anthology and heartfelt tribute to the horror genre featuring essays from several of the most celebrated contemporary horror writers including, Grady Hendrix, Paul Tremblay, Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Malerman, Victor LaValle, Tananarive Due, and Rachel Harrison.

WHY I LOVE HORROR drops September 23 from Becky Spratford and Saga Press, and is available for preorder!

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Saturday before last, The Doylestown Bookshop hosted its second annual DARK INK—a gathering of some of the areas spookies readers, writers, and book lovers. From packed panels to bustling book signings, a film screening at The County Theater, and a Fright Club nightcap at Hops/Scotch, the event proved once again that horror is at home in Bucks County.

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And speaking of home, I had the privilege of sitting on a panel alongside peers Chuck Wendig, Todd Keisling, and Nat Cassidy, moderated by Violet James McMaster, where we dug into the dark heart of horror: what draws us in and what keeps us there. The conversation was sharp, funny, and heartfelt, reminding us that horror isn’t just about scares—it’s about being home. Here, we may face the things that terrify us most, but we may also find resilience, humor, and even comfort. After all, horror isn’t just about the monsters that lurk, but about the light that refuses to go out in the face of them—the hope that keeps horror stories bleeding.

Finding hope in horror is about finding strength and courage, about fighting back and persisting, and about recognizing that the very act of reading, writing, and gathering together in spaces like this is itself a way of saying: we endure.

Hope is the thread that lets protags (and readers) fight back, hold the darkness at bay, and carve out a place for community when the odds are stacked against them. It’s taking fear by the throat and making whatever that horror is hope to survive you.

Afterward, the room buzzed with readers eager to talk horror. It was so much fun to share the signing table with Chuck Wendig, Todd Keisling, Nat Cassidy, Clay McLeod Chapman, Sam Rebelein, and Dennis Mahoney. We missed the screening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and subsequent panel with Paul Tremblay and John Langan, but for good reason: the energy was electric.

Once the sun went down the celebration continued with Fright Night, hosted at super-cool-definitely-haunted Hops/Scotch. Conversation over horror-themed cocktails and the chance to catch-up with friends (Cynthia Pelayo! Diana Rodriguez Wallach! Christoper Golden! Peg Turley!) was the perfect way to close out the weekend—proof the horror community thrives well beyond the page.

A huge thanks to The Doylestown Bookshop for hosting, to Krisy and Peg and the entire staff and crew, to the Hops/Scotch bartenders, to my fellow authors, panelists, and moderators for their brilliance and friendship, and—most of all—to the readers, who are the true beating heart of horror.

Until next year, keep reading in the dark.

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This article was originally published on BookTrib as part of my Chill Quill series. Read the original article here.

Summer may be winding down, but horror is heating up — and this month’s offerings are proof that nothing pairs better with late-season dread than a dash of madness, obsession, and the occasional missing husband. From cursed cookbooks to cosmic king, apocalyptic odds to haunted retreats, these terrifying new releases deliver seven courses of high-stakes chills with razor-sharp precision.

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(Sourcebooks, August 5)

When a ghostwriter is invited to pen the memoir of a notorious chef long suspected of murdering her husband, she quickly realizes the family’s secrets are far darker than the rumors. Stranded on their isolated farm, she uncovers a legacy of disappearances, rot, and one terrifying recipe kept buried for decades.

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(Saga Press, August 12)

A couple’s search for erotic thrill leads them to a forbidden play that warps reality and temps the mind with madness in this hallucinatory descent into lust and lunacy. Blending horror, erotica, and psychological suspense, this is a razor-edged tale of desire gone deliriously wrong.

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(Poisoned Pen Press, August 12)

When a literary legend drops dead at a writers’ retreat in the French countryside, a mystery author finds herself caught in a real-life whodunit teeming with jealous rivals, buried secrets, and a killer hiding in plain sight. With a reluctant commissaire, a meddling journalist, and a mounting body count, one author must solve the mystery of another’s death before her idyllic getaway turns into her final chapter.

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(Tor Nightfire, August 19)

In the wake of a surreal catastrophe that killed millions through improbably freak accidents, a former statistics professor is pulled into an investigation that suggests it wasn’t random — it was orchestrated. With luck itself weaponized, Tingle’s latest is a razor-sharp existential horror that asks what happens when the odds turn against reality itself.

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(Gallery Books, August 19)

Authorized by Stephen King himself, The End of the World as We Know It is a powerhouse anthology of all-new stories set in the world of The Stand, featuring some of the most visionary voices in horror today. From haunting aftermaths to chilling alternate paths, these tales expand the legacy of King’s apocalyptic masterpiece with fresh terror, heart, and humanity.

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(Gallery Books, August 19)

In the aftermath of unspeakable loss, Isla Hansen finds new purpose when a mysterious child appears on her remote Colorado property. But the child’s presence begins to unravel the very fabric of the family’s reality in this mind-bending descent into grief, motherhood, and the horrors that hide just beyond perception.

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(Titan Books, August 26)

When three friends break into a crumbling country estate, they stumble into a centuries-old curse furled by blood, relics, and revenge. As storms rage and secrets unravel, a dark folk horror tale unfolds — one where belief alone may be enough to seal their fate.

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Last week, I traded the Carolina coast for the story-soaked hills of Pennsylvania, joining the Western Connecticut State University MFA Summer Residency at the beautiful Highlights Foundation retreat center. There’s a stillness there you can feel in your bones—mornings draped in mist and bunnies, afternoons humming with wildflower blooms and butterfly wings, and evenings beset with campfires and porch lights—and that quiet is a rare, precious gift for those of us who live in a world that demands we be loud and fast and endlessly available. Out there, in the hush of the woods, stories have room to stretch. So do we.

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Of course, put a group of women together in that quiet—writers, poets, dreamers—and the stillness doesn’t last long (sorry, fellas in attendance). It turns to laughter that carries across the treetops, to fierce conversations, to the kind of chaotic feminine magic that only happens when creativity is both nurtured and witnessed.

During my time at residency, I gave two readings—first, my story “Bone Marrow,” a coming-of-age were-woman tale included in the upcoming women-in-horror anthology HOWL, and second, a piece from a current work-in-progress. I sat on a lively publishing panel with Housatonic Book Award winners Jen Soriano and Cleo Qian and faculty peer Stephanie M. Wytovich, and led a two-hour workshop on self-editing, diving deep into the craft of refining stories until they’re razor sharp. I also had the deep, deep privilege of watching my bestie (and HOWL co-editor) teach an absolutely brilliant workshop on monstrosity—one of those talks that stays under your skin in the best way possible.

Between sessions, I met with my new mentees, caught up with dear friends, swapped pages and ideas with students, and celebrated the accomplishments of recent graduates.

It was, everything.

Too much to find words to contain it all, and no metric to measure the joy.

There’s something about the Highlights grounds that invites both reflection and inspiration, and I left feeling full—of gratitude, creativity, and maybe a little too much of Chef Amanda’s mashed potatoes and local peaches. Until next time, I’ll be holding on to the echoes of those conversations, reminding me why we write, why we teach, and why community matters so much in this work we love.

(And thank you to Pete for all the pics!)

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Several friends (and students) have mentioned Hache Pueyo’s BUT NOT TOO BOLD over the past few weeks, and as a fan of both spider bride stories and spiders in general—not to mention a good steep in folklore and a brutal, sharp-fanged novella—I was an easy sell. Considering this book came out in February, I’m a little ashamed of myself for not devouring it sooner!

Pueyo’s BUT NOT TOO BOLD reimagines the spider bride mythos through a fragmented, lyrical narrative of obsession, performance, and identity. It follows a woman entangled in a web of desire and surveillance, navigating the fine line between spectacle and self-erasure. The spider bride becomes both a metaphor and a metamorphosis—an unraveling of femininity, power, and myth—and it’s stunning. This is a quick read so pace yourself, but devour it completely.

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The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House⁠—Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides.

Dália, the old keeper’s protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's execution, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role.

But there’s a gaping hole in Dália’s plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path.

BUT NOT TOO BOLD is now available from Hache Pueyo and Tordotcom!

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I will always tear into a new Rachel Harrison book the very second it arrives (or, in the case of PLAY NICE, when she delivers it *into* my greedy reading hands and I do my *very best* to not devour it in one sitting). I always enjoy Rachel’s wry, feminist voice and bold take on horror stories that speak to the feral, “unlikeable” among us, and PLAY NICE now sits in my Top 3 Rachel Harrison titles—right alongside CACKLE and BLACK SHEEP.

With its haunted house, familial trauma, and sisterly squabbling, PLAY NICE is reminiscent of The Haunting of Hill House and How to Sell a Haunted House, sitting safely within genre staples, yet with the sharp humor and culture critique that gives Harrison’s newest its own vivid edge.

So, if you enjoy haunted‑house thrillers layered with feminist commentary, unreliable memory, or a haunting that might be all too real, PLAY NICE is for you!

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Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parents' messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped her of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.

After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, a sinister presence in the house manifests, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.

PLAY NICE is coming from Rachel Harrison and Berkley in September, and available now for preorder!

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Earlier this week, I woke up much earlier than usual, put on a pretty dress, and drove out to Pawleys Island, South Carolina to brunch with thirty wonderful women at the charming Caffe Piccolo as part of the community’s Moveable Feast program, hosted in partnership with My Sister’s Books. We talked all things Evans women—growing up in the South, family recipes and traditions, and, of course, a little bit of monster slayin’—over gorgonzola-dressed salad, chicken piccata, and yummy cannolis.

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It was SO MUCH FUN! An intimate, cozy event, I had the pleasure of having a lively dialogue about BLESS YOUR HEART, ANOTHER FINE MESS, and all things Evans women—those complicated, resilient, unforgettable characters who’ve lived in my imagination ever since their real-life counterparts passed on. We dug into themes of legacy, womanhood, secrets, and the kind of Southern strength passed down like family recipes. This was a spunky bunch of ladies—warm, welcoming, and absolutely hysterical. Unforgettable, really, just like the Evans women.

As always, I’m grateful for community, engagement, and the thoughtful questions, kind words, and vibrant energy each of these lovely ladies brought to the table. Afternoons like this are more than just book events—they’re reminders of the power of story to connect us.

A heartfelt thank you to My Sister’s Books for making it all possible, and to Caffe Piccolo for the delicious hospitality! Until next time—keep reading, keep gathering, and keep believing in the magic of a well-told tale!

Thanks for reading Evans Funeral Parlor! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This article was originally published on BookTrib as part of my Chill Quill series. Read the original article here.

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A captivating debut collection of ten unforgettable stories that explore the weirdness of bodies and existence through the eyes of society’s outsiders and outcasts. Surrealism blends with raw emotion in provocative meditations on sex, shame, womanhood and the fragile beauty of defiance.

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When a group of writers gather at the estate of horror legend Mortimer Queen, they expect an inheritance but are instead forced into a deadly game where every unsolved riddle feeds the house’s hunger. Locked-room thrills beg contemplation of how the best horror stories come to be — and who’s really writing them.

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Three women across three different eras find their lives entangled by a sinister force that refuses to die. As Minerva unravels the truth behind her great-grandmother’s stories and a lost author’s obsession, she realizes the witch that haunted them may now be haunting her in this multigenerational horror saga.

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Five years ago, Erin’s brother vanished in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Now, she follows his trail to the foothills of Mt. Hood — only to stumble across another corpse and put herself in the crosshairs of powerful forces — and must uncover the truth or risk becoming the next secret swallowed by the woods.

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This collector’s edition pairs two chilling tales — a tense Halloween night descent into a house filled with past horrors, and a high-octane slasher where a runaway and her friends become prey to an interstate killer — delivering a double dose of terror.

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After a breakup and career implosion, Cassie marries her high school best friend and slides uneasily into the life his late wife left behind. But as she battles intrusive thoughts and hears a strange voice whispering the house’s secrets, Cassie begins to suspect Beth’s death wasn’t as simple as it seemed — and her new life may not be hers to keep.

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Scientist Kesta Shelley hides her infected husband while racing to find a cure for the zombie virus epidemic that destroyed London. As Tim’s condition worsens and Kesta’s obsession deepens, she must confront how far she’s willing to go to save the man she loves — and what it will cost the world.

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Lizbeth Rose and Felicia face their fates as one sister becomes the belle of the Wizard’s Ball and the other is forced to protect her when the genteel façade of wizard society turns deadly. Charlaine Harris brings her beloved Gunnie Rose series to a thrilling conclusion in this sixth and final installment as the sisters face their fates at the last Wizard’s Ball.

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When grieving renovator Ronnie Mitchell buys a crumbling cliffside mansion sight unseen, she unknowingly steps into the lair of Venita Rost — a vengeful silent film star whose former home has claimed countless lives. As Ronnie fights to survive both a living threat and a malevolent ghost, she discovers too late that the line between life and death in Venita’s house is fatally thin.

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At the Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted, students are promised redemption and a normal life — if they survive graduation. When Alessia Li and her classmates discover their teachers’ plan to devour them in a ritual feast, they must band together to escape a school designed to eat them alive.

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This past weekend, I had the incredible honor of being a featured author at the third annual Columbus Book Festival—a vibrant celebration of books and the people who love them. Hosted by the Columbus Metropolitan Library Foundation, Friends of the Library, and Columbus Metropolitan Library, and held in the heart of downtown Columbus at the Main Branch (and gorgeous, adjacent Topiary Park), the festival brought together readers, writers, and literary enthusiasts for two unforgettable days (plus a super fun kick-off event) of panels, signings, and conversations.

200+ national & local authors! New & used books! Lit gifts! Panel discussions! Book signings! Entertainment! Food & drink! PUPPY ADOPTION!

It was amazing.

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As part of the weekend’s programming, I had the privilege of participating in (and moderating!) several panels: The Ups and Downs of Publishing (joined by authors Tracy Clark and Rosalyn Ransaw, moderated by author Lauren Marie Fleming), Not Quite Human: Otherworldly Characters (joined by authors Vivian Shaw and Nghi Vo, moderated by BookCrushin Book Blog’s Christy Hayes), and Adrenaline Spike! Horror Novels (with authors Nat Cassidy, Alex Grecian, and Neena Viel, moderated by yours truly). I loved sitting down with fellow authors to talk about the business of publishing and the joys of writing monsters, and the attending audiences came ready with amazing, thoughtful questions and enthusiasm. Our last hour panel was packed, hysterical, and brimming with personal anecdotes that will inspire giggles for a lifetime—I’m still buzzing from the fun!

In between panels, I signed copies of Bless Your Heart, Another Fine Mess, Cold Snap, and Mother Knows Best (thank you to everyone who stopped by, you made my weekend!), and though the temps were blazing, the festival grounds and all three floors of the library were absolutely buzzing with excitement. It was a pleasure to meet readers, make new friends, and catch up with friends from across the literary world—Nat Cassidy! Cynthia Pelayo! Neena Viel! Maxwell I. Gold!

I’m still riding the high from such a wonderful weekend. Thank you to the organizers, volunteers, and readers who made this event so, so special. There’s nothing quite like the energy of a book festival, and this was one for the ages!

Columbus, you were an absolute delight. I can’t wait to come back.

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