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March Belongs to Women With These Gripping New Reads

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

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March is Women in Horror Month, and the ladies are leading us to the dark side with a full slate of incredible new books. From searing dystopian tales to haunted yarns of ghostly revenge, hungry historical gothics to romcoms-gone-wrong and neighborhoods that transform into grisly crime scenes, March is a testament to the variety and volume of some of the genre’s fiercest female voices.

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (trans. by Sarah Moses)

(Scribner, March 4)

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find while the outside world is plagued by catastrophe and cruelty. Bazterrica (Tender Is the Flesh) is back with this searing tale about the climate crisis, ideological extremism and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts.

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Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano

(Minotaur, March 4)

Finlay Donovan and her partner-in-crime, Vero, have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor. But when a body is found right across the street and the focus of the investigation widens to include Finlay’s ex, more than the skeletons in Finlay’s own closet come out to play in the latest installment of Cosimano’s fan-favorite series.

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Cynthia Pelayo by Vanishing Daughters

(Thomas & Mercer, March 11)

A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in Pelayo’s latest: a grim, breathtaking, lyrical novel of suspense about the ghosts of Chicago and the tangible terrors that lurk on its streets.

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Aggie Blum Thompson by You Deserve to Know

(Forge, March 11)
Neighbor mom-friends are for more than playdates and coffees: they’re for confiding secrets, navigating motherhood, and providing a support system — until a murder shatters the peaceful quiet of their cul-de-sac. The seemingly idyllic world of three friends becomes a web of deception, betrayal, and revenge in this crackling tale.

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The Haunting of Room 904 by Erica T. Wurth

(Flatiron, March 18)

Communing with the dead was Olivia’s sister’s specialty, but when Naiche dies unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, Olivia can’t stop hearing from spirits — and this is before she arrives at the Brown Palace, Room 904. From the author of White Horse, a resonant, edgy paranormal thriller about a woman who uses her unique gift to learn the truth.

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Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen

(Poisoned Pen, March 25)

Lucy’s twin sister is unwell: Sarah refuses to eat, mumbles, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse discovered on her husband’s estate. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister’s condition, but it’s clear Sarah is hiding something in this devouring historical gothic.

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When Sally Killed Harry by Lucy Roth

(Avon, March 27)

Everything that happened last night is a blur when Sally wakes up with the world’s worst hangover, an empty bank account, and the feeling that her life just nosedived — and then there’s Harry. This “whip-smart revenge thriller” is everything a romcom gone wrong should be.

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Interview: Reality TV Gets A Paranormal Surprise in "Haunt Sweet Home" from Author Sarah Pinsker

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

When aimless twenty-something Mara lands a job as a night-shift production assistant on her cousin’s ghost hunting/home makeover reality TV show Haunt Sweet Home, she quickly determines her new role will require a healthy attitude toward duplicity, but as she hides fog machines in the woods and improvises scares to spook new homeowners, a series of unnerving incidents and a creepy new co-worker force her to confront whether the person she’s truly been deceiving and hiding from all along is herself.

RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with Sarah Pinsker to chat about HAUNT SWEET HOME, now available from Tordotcom Publishing.

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HAUNT SWEET HOME joins a growing neighborhood of scripted-shows-gone-wrong narratives. What inspired you to write this book? Are you a fan of haunted reality shows?

I’m fascinated by all reality shows and the things that they pass off as real. They work so hard to bring us scenarios that seem natural but are manufactured or manipulated. The haunted ones in particular are fascinating because they have to work so hard to convince the audience. Places that probably would make you uneasy in real life flatten a bit on a small screen, so they have to react in a way that feels over-the-top to compensate. I’m also fascinated by the bigfoot shows, because they never, ever get to succeed. They breathlessly chase something that they can’t find because it would mean the end of their show. At least the shows about hauntings can catch up with their ghosts, even if it’s usually in a vague way that leaves room for interpretation. That’s what makes them fun for me. They try so hard! It was a lot of fun to try to work backward to see how I would create those scares if I were in charge of manufacturing a haunting And combining the haunting with a home renovation/glow-up show was even more fun. I would absolutely watch Haunt Sweet Home with delight.

Your novel takes an entirely new approach to staged scares when production assistant Mara gets more than she anticipates as the show’s resident haunter. Without giving away any spoilers, can you share your thoughts behind the unstaged haunting(s) in HAUNT SWEET HOME? Have you ever experienced any paranormal activity in your home?

Not in my home, even though it is old and has some dubious history! I’m glad for that. I can only write creepy stuff when I’m not creeped out myself. [The] closest I can come is that I was working in a locked archive at a library and ran into a woman in the stacks, only to find out later that there was nobody else let in while I was there. Who was it? Not sure, though it later turned out that the library needed some environmental remediation, so maybe I was just hallucinating from the fumes.

I haven’t figured out how to talk about the unstaged hauntings in HAUNT SWEET HOME without giving anything away! I guess I’ll say that even though I wanted to write a book about a TV show that stages hauntings, I wanted there to be something beyond the staged scares. The show was fun, but it was more fun to think about layering in real hauntings to see how the characters and the show deal with it. There’s a funny phenomenon where sometimes you write something that’s completely true, but people assume it can’t be. You can look up “the Tiffany problem” for an example. “Tiffany” is a medieval name, but when we see it in a historical book, it pulls us out because we think of it as a modern name. Similarly, I can imagine how a real haunting would mess with a show that depends on a kind of formulaic approach to its paranormal aspect.

Production assistants get the brunt of the grunt work on any film set, and Mara is certainly no stranger to that on the set of HOME SWEET HOME! Between her rough working environment on the night shift, a less-than-stellar assigned roommate situation, and family drama, both on and off set, Mara has her hands full! As a writer and singer/songwriter, have you ever had a spooky experience in your work? Or maybe worked a season scaring visitors at a haunted house?

I’ve never worked at a haunted house, but in my music career, I stayed in some unusual places. My band was given a place to sleep once in this cool old, abandoned factory in New England – in the area where HAUNT SWEET HOME is set, coincidentally! Someone was supposed to be staying there with us but then left, so we got locked in on our own for the night. We knew we were alone there, but we kept hearing horrible noises all night long, which turned out to be something in the industrial kitchen absolutely demolishing the remains of our dinner, which we’d put in a garbage bag.

And last year, I got to spend a week in a thousand-year-old castle in Spain for a workshop. It’s not supposed to be haunted, but I did have a night terror on my first night there [in which] the nuns who had run the place in centuries past were all standing around my bed. I have absolutely no Catholic background – nor any beef with nuns. But if any of my students heard screaming that night, it was me! I guess I added to the ambiance!

In addition to scripted shows, haunted homes, and “ratings-boosting screams,” you bring in an element of folk horror as Mara tries her hand at her family’s woodcarving legacy. How did you feel all these elements work together in HAUNT SWEET HOME?

I had wanted to write something about someone who turned trees into art for a while, inspired by a couple of pieces at the American Visionary Art Museum. There are some magnificent carvings in their permanent collection, all done by untrained artists. As I say in the acknowledgments, there’s a piece there made out of apple wood that is, in my opinion, one of the most profound self-portraits I’ve ever seen.

I love outsider art, and I love writing about artists. Mara’s carving is the one thing she can call her own in her life since the rest of her time is spent pleasing co-workers and family members. She tries to do what others want of her, even at her own expense. The carving is literally her carving out her own time and space in the world.

I like the combination of the contrivance of the reality show and this thing that interests her, which is kind of the opposite. There are no second takes if you make a mistake when you’re working with wood. And she’s trying to make something true, to make the kind of art that compels you, that’s out of your control, while working in a very controlled environment. There’s a kind of magic in the communication between an artist and their muse and an artist and their work and even an artist – or a writer – and their audience, where you are making something for yourself that speaks to others because it rings true. I love juxtaposing that with the other forms of communication seen here.

Finally, what can readers expect from you next? Are you working on anything new?

I’m always working on a lot of stuff! I actually had a novelette come out last month in Uncanny Magazine, called “Signs of Life,” which was also inspired by something at the American Visionary Art Museum – an exhibit of photos of rocks and trees and clouds that look like other things. I have one more reality show-related project in the works and another novel that I’ve been taking my time with because I love it, and it’s research-intensive. I want to get it right. And lots of short fiction because I love short fiction, and it carries me along as I try to figure out the longer works.

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March at the Parlor

After nearly a month spent offline (an annual February treat, but it *is* important to ride out the doldrums) I’m excited to welcome in March—and with it, a spring season blooming with bookish delights. A bright red paperback release! A dainty pink new series release! A colorful bouquet of events, cons, and virtual meet-ups!

But first, a quick update: On the writing front, I’ve just submitted my first invited short story for an upcoming anthology. Usually I’m on the other side of the editorial table when it comes to anthologies, so being asked to contribute was such a wonderful surprise. Aside from that, I’ve been working on a new novella and pacing the floor in anticipation to announce the new standalone novel I keep teasing about. I’ve been told “soon”, so, SOON!

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On the editorial front, we’re getting everything ready for the cover and Table of Contents reveal for HOWL: An Anthology of Werwolves from Women in Horror in May, and my teeth are starting to chatter with all the excitement because this one will claw your eyes out, dear reader (and yes I’m mixing metaphors because I’m that excited!). Mark those calendars for May 6!

BLESS YOUR HEART in Paperback on March 18

The Evans women arrive in paperback on March 18th! I’m so excited for a whole new crop of readers to meet the Evans women! Snatch a copy of BLESS YOUR HEART and take a bite of the fun, because it’s 1999 in Southeast Texas and these four generations of sassy Southern monster slayers have some undead to put back in their graves.

Stir Up ANOTHER FINE MESS on April 15th

The Evans women are back at it in ANOTHER FINE MESS, which arrives on bookshelves April 15th!

Making sure dead things stay buried is the family business...

For over a hundred years, the Evans women have kept the undead in their strange southeast Texas town from rising. But sometimes the dead rise too quick–and that’s what left Lenore Evans, and her granddaughter Luna, burying Luna’s mother, Grace, and Lenore’s mother, Ducey. Now the only two women left in the Evans family, Luna and Lenore are left rudderless in the wake of the most Godawful Mess to date.

But when the full moon finds another victim, it’s clear their trouble is far from over. Now Lenore, Luna, and the new sheriff—their biggest ally—must dig deep down into family lore to uncover what threatens everything they love most. The body count ticks up, the most unexpected dead will rise–forcing Lenore and Luna to face the possibility that the undead aren’t the only monsters preying on their small town.

Here’s some nice things people are saying about the next mess for the Evans women:

See You Soon, Haddonfield—and Other Fine Places

It’s time to get back on the road, and I’m so excited to see old friends and meet new ones in bookstores across the country.

First up is Inkwood Books in Haddonfield, NJ on March 21st. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll come by and join in celebrating as the Evans women are set free in paperback. There will also be a pre-order bookplate signing for ANOTHER FINE MESS.

BUT if you’re not in the new New Jersey area, I hope I’ll see you at another event soon! There’s fun to come all over the country in the upcoming months. I’ll share more on each event as they come closer, but everything is on the Events Calendar on my website, if you’re curious.

That’s the updates for this month, friends! Until next month…keep your chins up and noses clean—and don’t do anything Ducey wouldn’t do!

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Interview: Author Delilah S. Dawson Feasts on the Megarich in "Guillotine"

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

Fashionista Dez Lane doesn’t want to date Patrick Ruskin; she just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine. When Patrick invites Dez to his family’s big Easter reunion at their ancestral home, she’s certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship that someone with her pedigree could never nab through conventional means. When they arrive at the enormous island mansion, Dez is floored. She’s never witnessed how the 1% lives before in all their ridiculous, unnecessary luxury. But things take a dark turn once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed. For decades, the Ruskins have made their servants sign contracts tantamount to indentured servitude. With nothing to lose, the servants decide their only route to freedom is getting rid of the Ruskins for good…

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Delilah S. Dawson to chat about GUILLTONE, available September 10 from Titan Books.

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GUILLOTINE’s protagonist, Dez, joins the ranks of “Good for Her” Final Girls taking the slasher genre by storm, and RUE MORGUE is here for it! What inspired the story?

It began with an article on Buzzfeed about what it’s like to work for the insanely rich. There was one story about a megayacht that was so large it contained multiple smaller yachts that popped out of it like baby Surinam toad hatchlings. The family that owned the megayacht was complaining that other people had bigger, nicer megayachts, and it made me want to vomit. Inheriting so much money that you could never spend it all and using it to buy outrageously wasteful things that don’t even make you happy or grateful – and then abusing your servants aboard your megayacht – it’s just so depressing and infuriating. So, I wanted to punish those people in fiction. Of course, I had to make their sins more extreme than “complains about megayacht,” so I looked at the vilest stories we know about public-facing generational multibillionaires and had as much fun as possible drawing my own conclusions.

An unmissable, brutal narrative on classism, wealth, and privilege underlines the story. Is there a larger message in this novel?

The larger message is that we need to tax the crap out of mega-billionaires instead of making up laws to help them further hoard wealth won through exploitation. Everyone I know is angry. We’re working ourselves to the bone and still having trouble making a living, and the arts are considered a hobby instead of a livelihood. We’re stuck in an era where my kids can’t reasonably expect to buy their own homes until I die, a time in which the American Dream of the 1950s is entirely out of reach even for smart, responsible people who do everything right. This book is a playful off-gassing of that rage.

Dez is taken to the Ruskin’s ancestral home because she’s dating one of the family’s sons, but it’s the Ruskin matriarch she’s most interested in. Indeed, Marie Caulfield-Ruskin is at the center of this story in more ways than one. Can you share more on the dynamics of female relationships explored in GUILLOTINE?

Dez will do anything to survive and succeed. For her, this means working as hard as she can and securing any available advantages. Her biggest sin is pretending to like Patrick Ruskin – and even that isn’t a pleasant experience for her. Marie Caulfield-Ruskin will also do anything to survive and succeed, and for her, that means she’s willing to uphold the patriarchy and oligarchy and play by her family’s twisted, sadistic rules, even if it hurts other people. Even if it hurts her children. Even if it hurts her. I see these women as two sides of the same coin – a have and a have-not – and it was fun to explore how they deal with the same impossible choice.

Readers will notice a series of stunning designer numbers catwalking through the story, which adds lovely texture to the plot. I imagine conjuring these up took as much magic as some of GUILLOTINE’s kills! For the fashionistas among us, was there a certain number that struck your fancy?

Well, I have to admit that instead of giving Dez the couture numbers she would actually love, I gave her things that were chosen for her to further subjugate her and render her less unique, less provocative, less confident. She’s waited all her life for a Chanel, and she gets one that’s matronly and prudish, which is not her style at all. That’s part of the cruelty. It’s like when the genie grants your wish, but they use it to torture you. My favorite number was the pair of snakeskin Louboutin stilettos – for obvious reasons.

Finally, what incredible Delilah S. Dawson novel should readers expect next?

My next book is It Will Only Hurt for a Moment, an atmospheric horror-thriller that, like GUILLOTINE and The Violence, explores feminine rage. That one is out October 22 and is available for preorder now. September also brings the paperback of Bloom, my cottagecore Hannibal sapphic love story, and Midnight at the Houdini, my spooky YA haunted hotel romance. I have nearly 30 books on my backlist, so if you’d like a personalized recommendation, hit me up on Instagram, Blue Sky, or Threads @delilahsdawson.

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Interview: Plan Your Next Spooky Getaway with Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence's "Travels of Terror"

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

In the mood for a spooky getaway? Horror lovers, lifelong best friends and co-hosts of the Horror Rewind podcast, Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl, have traveled the U.S. to find the most thrilling spots for horror, history and true crime. From big cities to small towns, from Florida to Minnesota, this dynamic writing duo has mapped out everything you need to plan your own ghoulish getaway in their latest book, TRAVELS OF TERROR.

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The duo has compiled a list of what to do, where to stay, where to eat and drink and where to shop to make your dark and deadly vacation-planning a breeze. They’ve also delved into the history and pop culture of each location, revealing hidden gems, the most notorious true crimes, horror books and movies set in each state and other strange facts about some of the scariest places around the nation.

RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with Florence and Hafdahl to chat about TRAVELS OF TERROR, available September 10 from Sourcebooks.

Most of your co-authored titles have tackled the science behind various horror topics – Stephen King, monsters, witchcraft, women in horror and more. What was the inspiration for TRAVELS OF TERROR?

Meg Hafdahl: A love of travel is something we both share and after the restrictions of the pandemic, like a lot of people, we were eager to get out and see some unique places. Get some fresh air! Also, back in 2001, Kelly and I went on our first big trip together to check out The X-Files filming locations in Canada. We remembered how we’d used a book to chart out our adventure, and without that book, we would’ve missed so many great memories!

Kelly Florence: Being best friends for over 20 years and traveling together, it was a natural fit that we would write about all the things we love to explore. We love history, ghost tours, great restaurants and hidden gems, and we can’t wait to share them with our readers.

TRAVELS OF TERROR highlights strange and spooky sites across twelve U.S. cities. Can you tell us more about the research process for this book? Please tell me you did a road trip!

MH: Yes! There was a road trip involved! Thankfully, Kelly and I are best friends and travel well together. That’s really at the heart of this book – finding places that we both enjoyed and sharing that enjoyment with people who are like us! Before we went to a city, we would do some pre-planning, often booking tours. We learned that by taking a tour early in the visit, we’d get suggestions from knowledgeable guides about what places to try next. There was trial and error, like how we spent at least an hour wandering a huge cemetery in Pittsburgh trying to find a unique tombstone (We finally found it!) and also dumb luck when we’d walk right into the most unexpected gothic boutique. That mix of planning and spontaneity, I think, is what makes traveling so fulfilling.

KF: We learned a lot on the way and share some practical tips, too, in our book, about packing, walkability in places, safety and practical things to consider. For example, Meg found out TSA doesn’t appreciate a fake plastic ax being brought as a carry-on!

What are your favorite sites included in the book?

MH: It really meant a lot to me to go to the Lizzie Borden house, which is now a bed and breakfast. I’ve been fascinated with Lizzie Borden since I was about 8 years old – read every biography – so sleeping in her bedroom was such a surreal experience. I was also really blown away by the Athenaeum in Providence, Rhode Island. As a literary history nerd, it was the closest thing to a Europe-level library I’ve seen in the States. And Edgar Allan Poe dumped his fiancé there, so I was in goth-nerd heaven!!

KF: Seeing the actual mall where Dawn of the Dead was filmed near Pittsburgh was a highlight for me, and visiting Vampira’s (Maila Nurmi) grave at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles was very special. We were able to take time in places and explore without being overly scheduled or overly planned. It was the best to discover things!

Are there any plans to travel in terror worldwide?

MH: Oh yes! I recently came back from Oxford and would love to write about some British ghosts! Also, every culture has a different way of experiencing horror, whether it’s true crime or fictional. It would be such great fun to explore that!

KF: Even as we were writing this book, people gave us great suggestions for places to visit all around the world that we can’t wait to explore.

Both of you are academics. How do you think horror fits into academia?

MH: We could be here all day! But I’ll make it short: Horror, I believe, was a genre conceived by women to tell women’s stories. Yes, men are pretty good at it, too. (We are both die-hard Stephen King fans.) But overall horror and the gothic are the perfect ways to reflect the psychological and physical realities of being othered, being traumatized or, heck, living in a society that values the wrong things. Often, horror is reduced to jump scares and gore (We love that, too), yet it is so much more than that.

KF: As a teacher, I see how media in all forms can be used as a tool for learning. Naturally, we are drawn to things we find fascinating, and feeding that curiosity through the horror genre has been really eye-opening and rewarding for us.

What is next up for the Hafdahl/Florence writing duo? And for you individually?

MH: I’m working on my creative writing diploma at Oxford, writing novels, short stories and mulling over furthering my career in academia. We have The Science of Alfred Hitchcock coming next summer.

KF: We also continue to write screenplays together and have some fun TV projects in development. Stay tuned!

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Love Bites and Dark Delights That Will Haunt You This February

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

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Vampiric appetites. Spectral kisses. Unhinged desires. From historical horrors to ghostly thrillers, dark fantasies, and terrifying shorts, February’s new releases make even the darkest hearts beat with six chilling new titles to fall in love with this month.

Hungerstone by Kat Dunn

(Zando, Feb 18)

When a carriage accident brings a mysterious woman into Lenore’s life, the terrible secret haunting her marriage awakens, uncovering a darkness in her household set on destroying her. Dunn’s newest reclaims the lesbian vampire trope against the backdrop of the voracious appetite of the Industrial Revolution.

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The Vengeful Dead by Darcy Coates

(Poisoned Pen Press, Feb 18)

A grave keeper’s ability to help ghosts move on from the mortal world has made her a threat to a powerful corporation intent on trapping the dead for profit. Coates brings her shivery series to its ghostly conclusion as the group of friends attempt to survive a direct strike deep into the corporation’s base … and the certain death awaiting them there.

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Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

(Liveright Publishing Corporation, Feb 4)

Christmas is coming, and Winifred has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House. Brimming with sardonic wit and culminating in a shocking conclusion, Feito’s sophomore novel plunges readers into the chilling mind of an iconic new literary psychopath.

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The Crimson Road by A.G. Slatter Chapman

(Titan, Feb 11)

When Hedrek Zennor dies, Violet thinks she’s free — until she learns her father planned to send her into the Darklands. After assassins attempt to slaughter her, it becomes clear that Violet must clean up the mess her father made in Slatter’s sinister and compelling fantasy world.

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The Pink Agave Hotel by V. Castro

(Clash, Feb 11)

Unhinged imaginations are unlocked at the Pink Agave Motel, where brutality and intimacy ooze across stories that to carve a dangerous path of lust and violence. Influenced by Mexican folklore, Castro illuminates a deeper view of how unrequited love affects every type of being alike.

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The Poorly Made & Other Things by Sam Rebelein

(William Morrow, Feb 11)

There’s something wrong in Renfield County, and whatever it is, its driving the residents mad. Rebelein plays with the uncanny to explore themes of loneliness and grief as he reminds his readers that, for those living in Renfield ,the nightmare is far from over.

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And Just Like That, It's February

Well, we made it to February. That’s something, right?

The past month has seen a tremendous amount of tumult and tragedy across the US and the world, and it feels…odd…to be looking for bright spots in such utter darkness. But in the immortal words of Samwise Gamgee “even darkness must pass,” and so we move ever-forward, because we must.

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On the writing front, in December I turned in revisions on a brand-new, standalone novel to my editor at Minotaur Books. Last week, I received her response, which read, in part: This was so pacey and tense… It had real heart to it amidst all the ghoulishness and gore of this wild and amazing book! Obviously, I can’t wait to tell you allll about it. SOON.

On the editing front, we’ve just wrapped edits on HOWL: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women in Horror, forthcoming in November from Black Spot Books! This is my third WiH anthology, and believe you me, this one is going to knock your socks off. We’ll soon be able to share the cover and ToC, and I am chomping at my fingernails to tell you all about it and the freakin’ amazeballs women and their stores; I am so excited.

Lastly, on the Something to Celebrate front, voting is underway for the 2024 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot, and I’m gobsmacked to be considered in two categories for three titles:

In Anthologies, for THE DARKEST NIGHT (Crooked Lane Books) and MOTHER KNOWS BEST (Black Spot Books), and in

First Novel, for BLESS YOUR HEART (Minotaur Books)

All three of these are near and dear to me, and I’m incredibly honored and grateful that they’ve found their way into the hearts of my beloved horror community. This year’s official Nominees will be announced at the end of this month, and whichever way it swings, there are no bad apples here. We are truly living in the golden days of horror literature, and the works on this ballot prove it. Long live horror!

On that note, the Horror Writers Association included BLESS YOUR HEART in this month’s issue of the Seer’s Table. For those unfamiliar, the Seer’s Table highlights promising stories and authors within the genre. It's a platform for discovering fresh voices in horror literature—so, it’s a tremendous honor to be spotlighted.

Coming Up Next

I am so so so so so so so so so excited for this Spring, because not only will the next ghoulishly fun adventure for the Evans women arrive with ANOTHER FINE MESS in April, but readers who haven’t yet met this motley crew of sassy Southern monster-slayers can get caught up before the sequel drops when BLESS YOUR HEART arrives in paperback in March!

Pre-orders are the best way to show love for your authors, and both of these are available now. I hope you’ll read along. Come for the horror, stay for the fun!

2025 Events are Coming!

New Jersey! Pennsylvania! Connecticut! Texas! Virginia! Massachusetts! More!

My 2025 Events Calendar is filling up! February kicks off my annual travel schedule, but as of March, I’ll officially be on the road visiting bookstores and libraries—and attending conferences and conventions!—around the country. I am so excited to meet readers, and hope you’ll come out and say hi. We can chat about the Evans women, or swap fun Southernisms, or gab about our favorite books. WE CAN DO ALL THREE.

The 2025 tour schedule officially kicks off on March 21 at Inkwood Books in Haddonfield, NJ—easily one of my favorite indie stores in the area, about a stone’s throw from Philadelphia. The booksellers are awesome, the area is a charming little destination, and last time I visited, the store was fostering kittens named after publishers. Simon, a very sweet black kitty named for Simon & Schuster blended in so nicely with my dress, and he helped me sign lots of books!

At Inkwood Books in Haddonfield, NJ - Halloween Night Market (October 2024)So, I’ve Been Reading…

January is always a crazy busy month, and this last one was no exception, but it wasn’t without its perks on the reading front. My first read of the year was Joe Hill’s USHERS, a short story about a young man who has improbably escaped death twice, and the terrible secret he carries, and if you have not read it, you should. My never-ending love of shorter works led me to Lisa Unger’s THE SLEEP TIGHT MOTEL, following a woman on the run who finds refuge in a motel at the edge of the woods, and then to Unger’s THE DOLL’S HOUSE, wherein a widowed mother moves into her fiancé’s old family home with her teenage daughter—both solid reads. I took a break from the dark side of horror-thrillers and went even darker, into non-fiction, with Rebecca Solnit’s essay collections MEN EXPLAIN THINGS TO ME, which details what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women, and HOPE IN THE DARK, a radical case for hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknowable.

From the arc pile, I dipped my toes into Laura Leffler’s upcoming debut TELL THEM YOU LIED (May 27, Hyperion Avenue), the unraveling of tumultuous friendship that gets turned on its head on fated 9/11, when one friend goes missing and the other may be to blame. It’s a taut slow-boiler that will appeal to readers who enjoy alternating timelines and unreliable narrators.

The dark early days of the New Year sent me to the sweeter side, where I treated myself to MURDER BY CHEESECAKE by Rachel Ekstrom Courage, the first in a brand-spankin’-new Golden Girls series of cozy mysteries. Picture it: the gals back together, this time on the page, and this time: there’s been a murder. Obviously, it was right up my alley, and, equally as obviously, I am already (impatiently) awaiting the next installment. I also happened upon NOBODY’S PERFECT by Sally Kilpatrick, and—as a woman of a certain age, with a certain distaste for social media, with a certain number of very large recent life changes—very much enjoyed a playful romp through suburbia with this one.

That’s it for now, friends. Until next month, stay safe, stay strong, and, as Mother Atwood reminds us: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

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Just Read: NOBODY'S PERFECT by Sally Kilpatrick

I had time this month for just one more sweet read before diving into a few upcoming horror books to blurb and research for a new writing project, and I’m so glad I chose NOBODY’S PERFECT by USA Today bestseller (and new to me author), Sally Kilpatrick. This title just released in December, and as someone who’s been going through a ton of life changes and making a concentrated effort to reduce time spent on social media, the premise of a woman who got herself into trouble with a viral video felt…well, weirdly validating.

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Her son just off to college and her YouTube channel just starting to get notice, Vivian’s world is further rocked when her husband of twenty-five years announces he wants a divorce. She’s blindsided. Mitch doesn’t love Viv anymore, he says. Mitch ran off and got his much younger assistant pregnant, he doesn’t say. The wine-fueled heartbreak rant that Vivian films and posts goes viral, sending her on a whirlwind of adventure, accidents, and unexpected consequences.

A woman with her world on the verge of collapse grabs hold of a second chance she never saw coming in this story of letting go, taking chances, and new beginnings. It’s not horror and it’s not a spooky read, but there’s a nightmare in here just the same, because what’s more terrifying than watching your entire life, your entire future, be ripped out from underneath you as you’re swept away on an uncontrollable tide of regret and guilt, not knowing where you’ll wash ashore? Yikes.

For Vivian, “somewhere in her trending if upended life, she’ll have to figure out who she really wants to be,” and I think that’s something a lot of us are probably struggling with right this very minute—but if Viv can do it, so can we.

NOBODY’S PERFECT is available from Sally Kilpatrick and Montlake now!

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Witches, Hauntings, and Dark Thrills That Will Send Shivers Down Your Spine

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

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Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

(Berkley, Jan 14)

When a pregnant teen arrives at a home for girls in the sweltering summer of 1970, she receives an occult book about witchcraft from a librarian that puts the power in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. Already a New York Times bestseller, horror is sharp, raw, and ruthlessly real in Hendrix’s latest.

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The Last Room on the Left by Leah Konen

(Putnam, Jan 14)

The caretaker at an isolated mountain hotel finds herself fighting for her life — and her sanity — in this twisty, addictive thriller. Konen’s feminist spin on The Shining is a textured romp through unreliable snow that ramps up tension while staying on the lighter side to deliver a chilling, nail-biting mystery.

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Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

(Flatiron Books, Jan 14)

Nothing is what it seems when a grieving widower tries to get his lift back on track and sees a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife. Prepare to spin sideways in Feeney’s twisty island thriller about marriage, revenge, and a man who can’t trust his own mind.

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Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman

(Quirk, Jan 7)

Chapman has made history with his satirical yet brazenly honest look into a not-as-unlikely-as-you’d-hope near-future in this relentless social horror novel. A family on the run, a divided nation, and an epidemic of demonic media possession — this is fiction, but perhaps not for long.

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Honeysuckle and Bone by Trisha Tobias

(Zando, Jan 14)

A teen girl becomes the nanny for a prestigious family in the lush tropics of Jamaica only to discover things aren’t quite as they seem, and paradise may be haunted. Eerie, propulsive, and full of intrigue, an imperfect yet courageous teen seeks to remake herself in the homeland she always idealized, only to discover that new beginnings don’t always come easy Tobias’s debut.

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At Dark, I Become Loathsome by Eric Larocca

(Blackstone, Jan 28)

Horror sensation LaRocca is back with his best work yet in this “grim yet gentle, horrifying yet hopeful, intense tale of death, trauma, and love.” A man on the brink constructs a peculiar ritual for those whose desire to die only to find connection with a candidate that traps the two men in a spiral of painful revelations.

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Tartufo by Kira Jane Buxton

(Grand Central Publishing Jan 28)

It’s not a foul-mouthed crow and his loveable hound companion, but a giant truffle that can change the fate of a dying Italian village forever in the newest from the author of Hollow Kingdom. Buxton’s characteristic charm rings true in this delightfully absurd tale about a local truffle hunter and a giant truffle with the power to either be the greatest gift or the foulest curse ever seen.

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Just Read: MURDER BY CHEESECAKE by Rachel Ekstrom Courage

Picture it: Bookstores Everywhere, 2025. Four of your favorite girlfriends reunite to solve a murder. The only problem? The murder weapon is... a cheesecake.

I’ve been on a binge of cozies lately, but if you know me, you know how much I love the Golden Girls. Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia are four of my closest girlfriends (and a constant source of comfort, inspiration, and a good chuckle). So when I heard about this new series, I was first in line for an ARC—and inhaled every page the moment it arrived.

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I never knew how much I needed the girls in written form until I got to read along as Rose jumps in over her head to plan a proper St. Olafian wedding in Miami. All the family from St. Olaf is in town, including grumpy Cousin Gustave, and Rose’s arduous list of proper wedding protocol includes things like clowns, donkeys, and a substantial amount of herring, not to mention a dance, an act of bravery, and lots of other unusual rituals. Everything must go according to plan if Rose’s niece is to receive her share of the St. Olaf inheritance fund, and the groom’s snooty family insists the event, and all its odd customs, are held at their hotel! As if that’s not difficult enough, a body is found in the kitchen’s freezer at the first wedding event—and the dead man is none other than Dorothy’s most recent video-date beaux, who ran out on her at dinner, face-planted in an otherwise scrumptious-looking cheesecake!

Hold onto your purses, girls, because things go from bad to worse when Dorothy is accused of murder and she, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia have to navigate family dynamics, St. Olaf wedding customs, and a seedy Miami Big Sugar underground to solve the murder mystery.

Light-hearted and full of personality, this fast-paced, delightful romp is the perfect slice of nostalgia with the four perfect girlfriends.

MURDER BY CHEESECAKE is coming from Rachel Ekstrom Courage and Hyperion on April 15, 2025.

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