My story Eye Maggot made it into Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Monster 2025 Contest Top 10!

On Halloween I found out that my story Eye Maggot made it into Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Monster 2025 Contest Top 10! At No. 8.

The submission trenches are a strange and unpredictable place. I just wrote this story and was dragging heels on getting it done in time. When I pressed submit during their slacker special, I honestly had no confidence it would even make the short list never mind getting accepted. This just goes to show you that you never know. All I know is that I didn’t want to miss this contest deadline, that feeling of losing an opportunity usually eggs me on. Regardless of the outcome, I’m happy to have written a new story. So don’t let inspiration pass you by.

In conclusion, you can have a piece (like my ghost story Desmond) you’ve submitted and revised over and over again and it only gets accepted after 16 times and you can have a piece that is accepted on the first go.

Please read the entire issue. I love it you should too.

PS: It’s funny I often write about body horror but I can’t really watch it. I also can’t watch pretty mundane things like the spitting in the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s video or the gross eating in INXS’ The One Thing and especially can’t watch people gross eating in The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1 but I write about those things. Weird?

HauntedMTL publishes The Bloom in their charity anthology Bodies

My short story The Bloom was published in HauntedMTL Charity Anthology BODIES on December 21, 2022.

A little bit about BODIES

What makes us ‘us’? Is it the body? Is it the mind? A space in-between? For over half the planet, that autonomy is taken for granted.

In this HauntedMTL Charity Anthology, we have a wide scope of horror from visual artists, poets, and writers of short prose. You’ll see some familiar faces and some first-time authors. Our tenth charity anthology has something for everyone. Yes, even you.

A percentage of every copy sold goes to:

The Emily Dickinson Museum
Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)
The National Women’s Law Center, Girls Who Code, and NNAF Abortion Funds
buy a copy - give directly - engage - resist

‘A collection as creepy as Bodies belongs on every horror fan’s shelf...’
- Lamar Jenkins, author of The Whale Catcher’s Daughter

Never have I seen such a collection of stunning visuals mixed with prose and verse that cuts as deep as Bodies.’ - Jo Szewczyk, author of Surviving GenX

I’m busting at the seams excited to be part of this anthology. Please pick up a copy to help out these worthy causes. Thank you!