Summer Scare Time Is Near!
You can feel the chill in the air as things heat up – 2 weeks to go!
TWO WEEKS AWAY! Summer Scare starts on 20 June 2025, Summer Solstice. Gather up your tales of ghosts, goblins, and things that go bump in the night, maybe a zombie or two, a werewolf, even a wendigo. Readers await, sweating in the heat and wanting 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!
Oh, and I will be including excerpts from my new book From the Files of Fontaine Investigations, a paragraph or two to give you a clue as to some of the lesser known goings on in the U.S. capital city.
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.
Some Scary Previews by Other Humans Here:
Starting you off with Jennifer Morrow who keeps that scary stuff coming year round and inspired this push on my part to ratchet up the shivers this summer:
A scary little item from Chris J. Franklin posted as a Note:
For anyone who’s grown up around cornfields, the scarecrow is a common sight, one that Grace Anderson-Author presents that iconic figure in a somewhat different light:
This multi-part story from C. Lee McKenzie throws a bit of a twist and kept me waiting each week for the next part:
Heartless, Part 1
Check out Honeygloom for some stories that chill like this one:
Like ghost stories? Check out Bill Hiatt ’s The Haunting of Guaritori Diolco, easily accessed through his episode list:
https://billhiatt.substack.com/t/haunting-of-guaritori-diolco
And don’t forget that scary stories also fit in other genres, such as this science fiction tale from Michael B. Morgan :
Just a taste of things to come.
Oh, and don’t miss John Coon ’s story and seven more in the new horror anthology Feral Lands from Samak Press.
The Scare Team (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.
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
Caroline Barnard-Smith – SwampWitch
Chris J. Franklin – Tales of the Zeitgeist – Contemporary fiction, humor, horror, Science fiction
Colin Devonshire – Colin’s Dark Stories
Connor McGwire – Ars Corvi – Gothic, noir
Dungeon Mistress – Dungeon Mistress Chronicles
EJ Trask – Age of Aquarius
Emily S Hurricane – The Eye of the Storm – Romance, erotica, horror, gamelit
FranB – Tales at Twilight – Speculative stories with dark edge, humor
Garen Marie – Only Child Originals – Horror and dark stories inspired by fairy tales and folklore
Grace Anderson-Author – Grace’s Spook Show
Jennifer Morrow – Autumn Lives Here
Jessica Maison – Monster of the Week
John Coon – Strange New Worlds – Science fiction, horror, humor/satire
Leigh Parrish – Halcyon Horror
Lyndsey Resnick – Poison Ivy House
M.P. Fitzgerald – Graphomania with M.P. Fitzgerald – Darkly humorous Science fiction & horror
Natalie Phillips – Plotted Out – Cornish fantasy & dark humor
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
Sam Bartol – Ghost Notes
Scrawls of Dread – Scrawls of Dread’s Substack
Shane Bzdok – Matte Black – Science fiction, dystopian, horror
The Dread Legacies – Reimagining classic monsters
Theo Priestley – Tales of the Unexpected
Travis Blake – Dracula’s Ghost
And speaking of scary:
Where to Buy:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org
Apple Books | Kobo | Smashwords
Angus & Robertson | Fable
Thalia (German) | Vivlio (French/English)
My Other Four Books:













A very nice collection of work! Well done everyone... 😎
This is not exactly scarey, but it might stand out thematically from the mainstream….
https://open.substack.com/pub/rgarron/p/chance-with-fancy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=336zru