Horror Aficionados discussion

We recently had an inquiry as to whether or not there were any writing groups here. When I checked, I found that we had none, and since there seemed to be at least a little interest, I thought I would open a section for that purpose.
Feel free to start a thread, form a group to discuss each other's work so as to get or give feedback, or just generally chat, as authors. Please restrict any promotional activities to the promotional area as this section is for author discussions rather than sales.
We at HA are always trying to improve, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them with us in the "Suggestions to improve Horror Aficionados" thread in the GENERAL section!
Good luck with your writing, everyone!

Char wrote: "We recently had an inquiry as to whether or not there were any writing groups here. When I checked, I found that we had none, and since there seemed to be at least a little interest, I thought I wo..."

Great idea! Will definitely be frequenting here!

Oooh interesting, I like it :D!

An excellent idea. I’m just starting to write my first story. I’m sure the advice here will be invaluable!

Great idea! Thanks, Char

Looking forward to this!

Oooooooh

I'm working on short stories, one of which has grown into a novella (still in progress).

I do horror, fantasy, sci-fi.

I don't know much about flash fiction - is it twitter-sized generally?

I'm currently doing National Novel Writing Month and I'm trying to write every day, even though I'm behind. I tend to write horror or thriller.

Great idea. I'm working on my second novel. I like horror, zombies, dystopian and apocalyptic fiction.

Robyn wrote: "Hi, everyone! I'm curious what everyone here likes to write.

I prefer to write 15K stories in my preferred Supernatural Military Thriller sub-sub-genre. But 55K novels seem to sell better for me.

I have a YA horror/thriller book published, a short story in a time travel anthology, and have a YA sci-fi/fantasy scheduled for early 2018. Any YA writers out there?

Robyn wrote: "Anton wrote: "I'm working on short stories, one of which has grown into a novella (still in progress).

I do horror, fantasy, sci-fi.

I don't know much about flash fiction - is it twitter-sized ge..."

I will! It might be a good exercise for me. Recently I wrote a short story with a word limit in mind (5,000) and found that it increased my motivation and focus.

What are the good horror magazines to publish short stories? Anyone have any recommendations?

Or the good magazines to publish horror stories?

Anton wrote: "What are the good horror magazines to publish short stories? Anyone have any recommendations?

Or the good magazines to publish horror stories?"

Thank you, Anton, for your great suggestion! It looks like we have people that are interested. :)

I'm a horror writer - mainly supernatural, haunted house, ghostly stories, frequently with a Gothic flavour. I'm one of the two featured authors for November on HA. I'd love to see you there too.

I write novels (60,000 words+) and novellas, although I have written a few short stories over the years. Not for a while though. I love stories with something lurking in the shadows...just out of sight...ready to seize the unwary

I will definitely be haunting this forum. I have stepped away from writing for the past couple of months but am refocusing my energies and hoping to redouble my efforts to publish a work that was slated for this fall.

Great idea and thank you for the effort!

Excellent idea, this. Thanks, Char! I've had over 60 shorts published and one novel. Maybe half my stories are horror (usually in the cosmic horror vein). I had a fiction writing hiatus for a couple of years while I focused on writing for RPGs, but have begun to get back in the swing of fiction writing. I will say that the number of short fiction markets, especially print, has dwindled significantly from when I first started writing, back at the turn of the century. Would love to see more and have considered editing my own, though I know exactly what that entails.

Char wrote: "Anton wrote: "What are the good horror magazines to publish short stories? Anyone have any recommendations?

Or the good magazines to publish horror stories?"

Thank you, Anton, for your great sugg..."

You're welcome, Char!

Forrest wrote: "Excellent idea, this. Thanks, Char! I've had over 60 shorts published and one novel. Maybe half my stories are horror (usually in the cosmic horror vein). I had a fiction writing hiatus for a coupl..."

I'm having trouble deciding who to respond to first! What did you write for RPGs? Table-top or video games? That's a genre that really interests me.

In the horror genre I've released three collections of short stories. Outside the genre, I've released a novel, a children's book, and a non-fictional home improvement book.

Currently working on more horror shorts while tinkering with a thriller-type novel that's been stalling me for a while.

I'm an award-winning adult filmmaker creating a new genre of movies based on books. For the past two years the books have been erotic or erotic romance that I've adapted. You can find a selection of movie trailers on my YouTube channel for my most recent book adaptatations, plus behind-the-scenes and plenty of interviews with me. I write many genres, including horror, which has by far been the toughest sell over my erotic romance books.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzR...

Fantastic idea!

Thanks! The first adaptation was my own novel "Safe Landings" which I made into a film for Adam&Eve in 2015. Then it was the NYT and USA Today Bestseller "Babysitting the Baumgartners" then the sequel, then two more of my own books. And I'm looking to adapt more.

(BTW Kimberly - I sent you an FR a million years ago :))

I write dark fiction. Currently working on a horror novel, editing a SF thriller, and have a gothic romance in development.

Hi,
Sounds like an interesting group and idea. I'll come back to read everyone's comment but for now I am doing the 3rd draft of my thriller today. It's a cyber romantic thriller with some cool characters. Not sure how blended it is yet or scary but I'll let ya know. Word count about 55K+. I know should be more lengthy. I got a great title and I love the southern roots in it.

Anton - a good place to start submitting is Black Static by TTA press. The magazine, ‘Unnerving’ is also opening its doors in December. Both pay for publication

Anton wrote: "What are the good horror magazines to publish short stories? Anyone have any recommendations?

Or the good magazines to publish horror stories?"

I'm not sure what the submission policies are looking like these days, but you might want to check out Nightmare Magazine and Apex Magazine. Comet Press just launched an extreme horror magazine called Red Room, too. Good luck!

Glad to see a writing group open up on the HA forum. Thank you, Char and your fellow mods for making it happen. I'm excited to see where this all leads. :D

So, brief intro I guess. I've been writing horror and science fiction, and some sci-fi horror, for the last few years. My first book, Convergence, was an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award quarter-finalist back in 2013, and got strong enough reviews from Amazon editors, Vine Voices, and Publisher's Weekly to convince me to pursue publishing. Since then, I've written a number of short stories, ended up in several small press anthologies, and I recently released my first full-length horror novel.

I'll be releasing a novella in Q1 2018, and am currently working on a trilogy of historical horror novellas that will hopefully come out next year, too. I'm planning on releasing my first collection of short stories, many of which were previously published, and hopefully a couple new ones, in 2018/2019 depending on how things go. I'll also be writing a short story for submission to an upcoming themed anthology. So I'm trying to keep busy! :D

Great topic for discussion. :)

I write Horror, and dabble in Fantasy and Sci-Fi myself.

People looking for places to submit short stories to can check out the Submission Grinder. You can also check out The Horror Tree for open calls.

https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/

https://horrortree.com/category/events/

Anyone here published through Pronoun? I'm scrambling to find a new distribution channel since they closed (and dreading the legwork of re-working my old files).

Anton wrote: "Forrest wrote: "Excellent idea, this. Thanks, Char! I've had over 60 shorts published and one novel. Maybe half my stories are horror (usually in the cosmic horror vein). I had a fiction writing hi..."

Tabletop. A module for Dungeon Crawl Classics and a sourcebook for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, both in the publication pipeline.

Love this! Stupid question but where can we post stories etc.?

Madison wrote: "Love this! Stupid question but where can we post stories etc.?"

I had asked Char whether writing groups existed to share work - I don't think I'd want to "post" anything at this point, but I would like to swap drafts over email if anybody is interested in forming a short story workshop of some sort. (Unless there's a better venue than email over which to share work.)

Forrest wrote: "Anton wrote: "Forrest wrote: "Excellent idea, this. Thanks, Char! I've had over 60 shorts published and one novel. Maybe half my stories are horror (usually in the cosmic horror vein). I had a fict..."

Very cool - I'm intrigued by this "weird" fantasy setting (just looked up LoFP)

Tom wrote: "Anton - a good place to start submitting is Black Static by TTA press. The magazine, ‘Unnerving’ is also opening its doors in December. Both pay for publication"

Thanks, Tom and Michael, for the magazine recommendations.

Robyn wrote: "Hi, everyone! I'm curious what everyone here likes to write. Short stories, novels, flash fiction, poetry, nonfiction? Do you write horror or something else? A little of this a little of that?

I ..."

I write mostly horror and fantasy, and a little bit of sci-fi. I have delved into other genres as well. I write novels, short stories, flash, etc.

I write Horror, Poetry, and Crime Thrillers. I'm actually open to writing in multiple genres and pretty much any if I come up with a good enough idea. I have five published books and am currently working on my sixth, a horror called The Wax Factory. I will definitely be looking to get some ideas from people as I'd like some fresh perspectives.

I also have around ten short stories in anthologies, will be looking to be a part of 11 more in the coming months, I also write stories and poetry series on Wattpad and Channillo.

I look forward to discussing ideas, stories and writing with you all and its good to see a informative and fun thread here in the Horror Aficionados group.

Another horror poet! hello Emm!

here's another good source of information regarding markets for horror stories. If you sign up for their bulletin, they email you regularly with updates. saves an incredible amount of time trawling the internet:

https://www.darkmarkets.com/

Always happy to join another writer's group. (I have a real-world one who meet around a kitchen table)

I write horror, dark fantasy, weird sci-fi; though I've so far only had one of my books published. I only write novels - for some reason I can't get the hang of shorter fiction - but I also get the occasional poem published in local magazines, and I'm trying to move into video game writing as a sideline.

Catherine wrote: "here's another good source of information regarding markets for horror stories. If you sign up for their bulletin, they email you regularly with updates. saves an incredible amount of time trawling..."

Cool - thanks, Catherine - if people keep sending suggestions I'll collect them into a single post at some point.

Anton wrote: "Catherine wrote: "here's another good source of information regarding markets for horror stories. If you sign up for their bulletin, they email you regularly with updates. saves an incredible amoun..."

Sounds like a great idea, Anton :)

Hi - I write dark suspense that many of my readers tell me borders on horror. I have published one novel in my "Murder of Crows" serial - 2nd is finished (in editing) and the 3rd is at the half-way point. I also write short stories, & poetry. I got my start on Wattpad.com, its a reader/writer site based in Canada and owned by Amazon. You published a chapter at a time and it is sent out into the world. Large readership. Margaret Atwood and has been one it as well as Stephen King. A number of writers have received publishing contracts and they are looking for YA writers. Just an FYI. Is it only me, but does anyone else have a difficult time self promoting? I waste so much time on it.

Another submissions site is https://duotrope.com/ there is a free trial period after which it is $5 per month or $50 annual

I just released a book of short stories but prefer writing horror novels. I just started the first chapter of my next novel and appreciate the insights I've read so far.

This is fantastic! I am writing a novel at the moment and will be looking for beta readers soon. I have identified some additional edits I need to make first. I would love to have somebody to critique my work.

I typically write horror and fantasy.

I am also interested in providing feedback to others as well, so let me know if you want to swap pages!

Thank you for giving us a thread, Char.

I write novels and short stories, plus graphic novels. Mainly horror and dark fantasy, but the story I'm working on now is probably more accurately described as speculative fiction.

Thank you to the people who posted links to submission sites. I've bookmarked them all.

Wattpad sounds interesting. I'll be checking that out as well. Margaret Atwood is one of my literary heroes as are Octavia E Butler and Clive Barker.

Carmilla wrote: "Thank you for giving us a thread, Char.

I write novels and short stories, plus graphic novels. Mainly horror and dark fantasy, but the story I'm working on now is probably more accurately describe..."

Come find me if you do join & I'll follow you.