Summer Scare 7!
The chills go on!
See Summer Scare Begins | Summer Scare 2 | Summer Scare 3 | Summer Scare 4 | Summer Scare 5 | Summer Scare 6 | Summer Scare 6.5
First a HUMONGOUS CONGRATS to Ian Patterson on his sci-fi book winning an award. (Yeah, it’s not scary, but I wanted to give him more than a mere comment in Notes.)
Summer Scare began 20 June 2025, Summer Solstice, and will last to the Autumn Equinox when the official Halloween Season begins).
Writers: Gather up your tales guaranteed to give readers a shiver. Can include, but doesn’t need to, any or all of the following: ghosts, goblins, things that go bump in the night, maybe a zombie or two, a werewolf, even a wendigo. Readers await you r efforts as they sweat in the heat and crave that chill that only your scary tales can convey.
And, for you readers, rest assured that the writing is ALL done by humans, but not necessarily alive or in one piece!
NOTE: For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, we guarantee these tales will give you a hot time!
Oh, and at the very bottom of this post are links to where to buy my 5 books (so far), including the latest: From the Files of Fontaine Investigations.
First, a few folks to note:
Haunts You Later (a lifelong horror obsessive) continues to bring you horror movie reviews.
Winston Malone is making progress on the new bookstore in New Mexico. Wishing him all the best.
and his online endeavor, in partnership with J. M. Elliott is The Library, listing newly published books and more, hopefully human created.
Brian Schell and team bring you their Horror Weekly.
Emerald City Ghosts is working on Issue One. Watch for it coming out soon!
Janine Eaby is open to your fantasy and sci-fi submissions.
On to the fiction.
Brrr! Quite a Bunch:
Saint-Lazare starts us off with this:
Paul O'Neill encourages the horror writer in you to come out:
Andy Futuro presents “A Science Fiction Horror Story in Reviews”:
Grace Anderson-Author continues her paranormal serial:
and presents another short horror story:
and being the busy writer she is, presents this excerpt from a WIP:
Wendy Cockcroft continues her tale of the haunted gauntlet:
Colin Devonshire brings us a short dark story, set in Thailand:
and this one set in England:
Lyndsey Resnick made me scared to go outside with this one:
Bryan Beal creeped me out with this one:
Nick Buchheit takes a different spin on horror:
Patricia J.L. 👻🧶🖊️ supplies this handy guide:
A. B. Frank writes about a bit of horror history:
Jennifer Morrow bites into the whole vampire thing:
Jessica Maison does a special monstrous posting:
C. Lee McKenzie challenges you to decide if the ending is happy or not:
These should keep your thirst for the scary sated until the next update. (If I’ve missed anything from the past week, please let me know and I’ll get it next time.)
More Writers Who Produce Scary (and Sometimes Cute) Stuff (in alphabetical order):
Some writers on here who, as far as I’ve seen, write stories in that scary arena. If I’ve missed adding you here or have tagged you in error, please let me know.
NOTE: Every writer named here has assured me they don’t use AI in any aspect of their writing. I don’t knowingly promote AI-generated junk. Thanks for reading.
A. B. Frank – Victorian Vignettes – Exploring eerie elegance of Gaslamp Horror in Victorian era
Adi Out Here – Turn on the Light – Murder, mystery, sex, romance, sci-fi, horror
Amanda V Shane – Monsters & Mystics – Fantasy, paranormal romance
Andy Futuro – Cyberpunk, horror, dirtbag literature
Brian B Baker – My Head is Unraveling – Horror writer, book reviewer
Brian Schell – Horror Weekly
Bryan Beal – Dead Heretic – Cyberpunk, Science fiction
C.P. Night – C.P. Night’s Myriadu– Science fiction/fantasy
Caroline Barnard-Smith – SwampWitch
Chris J. Franklin – Tales of the Zeitgeist – Contemporary fiction, humor, horror, Science fiction, host of Wednesday House of Haiku
Colin Devonshire – Colin’s Dark Stories
Connor McGwire – Ars Corvi – Gothic, noir
Dungeon Mistress – Dungeon Mistress Chronicles
Emily S Hurricane – The Eye of the Storm – Romance, erotica, horror, gamelit
Ethan Sabatella – Senchas Claideb
FranB – Tales at Twilight – Speculative stories with dark edge, humor
Grace Anderson-Author – Grace’s Spook Show
Haly, the Moonlight Bard ✒️ – Moonlight Bard’s Rhapsody in Realms
Jane Dougherty – Jane Doughtery’s Bestiary
Jennifer Morrow – Autumn Lives Here
Jessica Maison – Monster of the Week
John Coon – Strange New Worlds – Science fiction, horror, humor/satire
Kummer Wolfe – Worlds of Kummer Wolfe ("Oh, by Crom is it human written…")
L.L. Ford – The Trials of Astra
Leigh Parrish – Halcyon Horror
Lyndsey Resnick – Poison Ivy House
M.P. Fitzgerald – Graphomania with M.P. Fitzgerald – Darkly humorous Science fiction & horror
Michael B. Morgan – AroundSciFi - Read - Imagine - Discover
Natalie Phillips – Plotted Out – Cornish fantasy & dark humor
Nikki | Nocturnal Narrator – Speculative Fiction and Dark Tales | Nocturnal Narrator – Dark speculative fiction, builds interactive worlds to tell strange stories
Patricia J.L. 👻🧶🖊️ – Twisting the Myths
Redd Oscar – ReddOscarWrites – Fantasy, science fiction, and horror
S.L. Stallings – Ghost Stories – Paranormal fiction, tech horror, dystopia
Saint-Lazare , Writer
Sam Bartol – Ghost Notes
Scrawls of Dread – Scrawls of Dread’s Substack
Shane Bzdok – Matte Black – Science fiction, dystopian, horror
The Black Knight – Shadows and Space
The Dread Legacies – Reimagining classic monsters
Theo Priestley – Tales of the Unexpected
Travis Blake – Dracula’s Ghost
Wendy Cockcroft – Wendy Cockcroft’s Writings
And links to my 5 books:
Where to Buy:
Amazon & Audible | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
BookBub | Apple Books | Kobo | Smashwords
Angus & Robertson | Fable | Everand
Thalia (German) | Vivlio (French/English)
Thanks for the mention!
Maybe I need to make a mock book cover for the handy shifter guide. ;)