Brandon Barrows's Blog

The new issue of Weird Fiction Quarterly is out, this time featuring stories of liminal spaces and beings, and includes my story "The Breakrooms" (written before the movie The Backrooms came out, but inspired by the same concept)! In 2026 Weird Fiction Quarterly shifted into a significantly different dimension. Some blamed the stars, others the Large Hadron Collider, and still more put the responsibility on vengeful AI.

This issue, our first from this new reality, is a portal to that strange realm between life and death, human and monster, physical and spiritual.

61 Authors journeyed into these spaces, where each sound comes from the wrong direction and every denizen is uniquely unfriendly. The stories and poems here bring confounding visions from paradigms that defy the basic logic of the consensus reality we all know.

Through many hours of research and experimentation (our apologies to those who didn’t make it through, your sacrifices are noted) we mapped a safe route that will take you through these ever-changing tunnels, unwholesome lairs of entirely wrong beings, and if you are very brave to the place where we all eventually wind up.

We will guide you safely to that destination, we promise.

Getting back is another matter. We wish you all the luck in the worlds.

My story "Trust Me" is this week's publication at Guilty Flash. Check it out for free!
​

A new story of mine entitled "The Note" is up at Shotgun Honey! Go check it out!

Check it out, all you audiobook fans! THE DARKER THE NIGHT is now available in audio format! Mustang Award Winner and two-time Derringer Award nominee Brandon Barrows brings a new edge-of-your-seat mystery.
“For readers who want suspense, high tension, enough red herrings to keep them guessing, AND characters to root for, The Darker the Night is all that and more.” -S.P. Miskowski, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of If You Knew Me
Matt Allen knew it wouldn’t be easy convincing his ex-wife Lilly that their son should have a chance to live with his dad, at least for a little while. He’s been gone four years, but he’s back now. The divorce had been bitter, so of course Lilly is dead set against the idea.
Except… Now she’s just dead, and Matt is the prime suspect.
Only he and the real killer know he’s innocent. 

Audiobook narrated by Rob Burnish!

Give it a listen!

My newest novel THE DARKER THE NIGHT is out now from Rowan Prose Publishing and people seem to like it! And that's just a few, so why not check it out for yourself and see what the excitement is about?

Mustang Award Winner and two-time Derringer Award nominee Brandon Barrows brings a new edge-of-your-seat mystery.

“For readers who want suspense, high tension, enough red herrings to keep them guessing, AND characters to root for, The Darker the Night is all that and more.”
-S.P. Miskowski, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of If You Knew Me

Matt Allen knew it wouldn’t be easy convincing his ex-wife Lilly that their son should have a chance to live with his dad, at least for a little while. He’s been gone four years, but he’s back now. The divorce had been bitter, so of course Lilly is dead set against the idea.

Except… Now she’s just dead, and Matt is the prime suspect.

Only he and the real killer know he’s innocent.

Get your copy on your favorite ebook platform or in paperback!

Click here for options!

​13 Days Publishing has closed after a little over a year and a half, but all rights, including cover artwork, to my weird western/cosmic horror novella SINNERS RIDE were released to me, so like the protagonist Ben Keelock, its risen from the grave. Unfortunately, this means all the reviews of the original edition are also lost as all 13 Days publications have been scrubbed from Amazon, so if you've read it, I'd appreciate reviews on the new edition, and if you haven't read it, it's available at a lower price than previously.
 
From Mustang Award-winning author Brandon Barrows comes a story of cosmic horror on the frontier!

Ben Keelock was hanged at sundown.

By sunrise, he was riding again.

Marked by a noose that didn't kill him and shadowed by a coyote that talks, Keelock rides through a dying land where rotting towns huddle in fear, cattle drop dead without a mark on them, and something old and cruel stirs at the top of the world.

If Keelock wants to outrun what's coming, he'll need to face what's riding with him--and the poisonous dreams of what lies ahead.

Paperback contains two bonus stories never before in print, including the Derringer Award-nominated "The Right to Hang!"
 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H3DXTXFT 

Got my copy of the new issue of Guilty Crime Story Magazine, including my first publication of the year, a pretty visceral crime story called "Danny Said."

Where's your copy? Right here: https://a.co/d/dHIaKu3

Well, 2025 is over and it's been a weird year. In some ways, a good one, in some ways, a difficult one. It was a fairly light year for me publication-wise, but I did have three books published: a revised, retitled tenth anniversary edition of my first novel THIS ROUGH OLD WORLD, now titled LONG BEFORE THEY DIE; a pseudonymous romantic suspense novel, which went over pretty well with the target audience, called WHO ARE WE NOW?; and SINNERS RIDE, the weird-western novella that lived in my head for nearly six years. I also had a handful of stories published, one of which won the 2025 Mustang Award for western fiction.

Guess we'll see what happens in 2026.

SINNERS RIDE , the weird western that's lived in my head for almost six years, is out now on Kindle from 13 Days Publishing !

Ben Keelock was hanged at sundown. By sunrise, he was riding again.
​
Marked by a noose that didn’t kill him and shadowed by a coyote that talks, Keelock rides through a dying land where rotting towns huddle in fear, cattle drop dead without a mark on them, and something old and cruel stirs at the top of the world. If Keelock wants to outrun what’s coming, he’ll need to face what’s riding with him—and the poisonous dreams of what lies ahead. Ebook is available as well as paperback --which includes two bonus, never-before-in-print stories, including my Derringer Award-nominated story, "The Right to Hang!"

So what are you waiting for? Get your copy and ride along with Keelock!

The new issue of Rock and a Hard Place Magazine is out and includes my story "Lucky Duck," about an unemployed guy trying his hand at a little robbery. When the dog makes the heist.
When life gives you a chance to make a connection after all these years.
One swing of the machete solves all your problems . . . and maybe makes some new ones.
Best eaten cold? Small-town revenge stays hot for years.

All this and more in Issue 15 of Rock and a Hard Place. We’re at it again, with stories that shine the spotlight on the desperate, the down-on-their-luck, and the dangerous and depraved. The only question is, do you dare?

Fiction and essays by:
Colin Adams-Toomey, Brandon Barrows, Travis Wade Beaty, Christina Boufis, Colin Brightwell, Zack Budryk, Gabriel Hart, Philip Kimbrough, Sally Milliken, Joshua Murray, Kirstyn Petras, Emilee Prado, M.E. Proctor, Tim P. Walker, and Richard Zaric.

Rock and a Hard Place is the literary magazine that knows that when your back is against the wall,there are still no guarantees against back-stabbing.