My flash ghost story Desmond was published in Rawhead’s Bloody Bones Special Issue #1

My flash ghost story Desmond was published last week in Rawhead’s Bloody Bones Special Issue #1.

I will be reading a portion of this tale on zoom (Sunday, November 2nd from 12 – 2 PM ET) during the The Launch Party for Rawhead’s Fall 2025 releases, Issue One and Special Issue One: Bloody Bones

It will take place via Zoom on Sunday, November 2nd from 12 – 2 PM ET. You can register for the event here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/UUxsrgltTmCKMrSu_7w8tA.

“alien? where did you come from?”, by gryffyn m, Unsplash, 2020

This story started out as a poem called French House Shadows about a haunting at Oberlin back in the nineties. Or was it mass psychosis? Who knows?

I personally experienced some of the more innocuous bits of this haunting but it was the former RA of the dorm who relayed his tale to us impressionable sophomores that has remained with me after all these years.

One of the older students in the dorm was friends with him. She started to tell him about all the weird occurrences happening over winter term. He immediately demanded to speak to us all. He wanted to know who told us about the ghost and Desmond. But honestly no one did. (Or no one did to me). He had just returned to campus from taking off a year for his health. He rationalized that the dorm experienced mass psychosis and it wasn’t a haunting at all. He had also been very sick during the first haunting with pneumonia. But it wasn’t all explainable.

I first completed the fiction version of this story in June 2021 submitting it to The Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Vision Contest. Contests often inspire me to finish a story and even write a new one. If you’re ever uninspired, submit to a contest.

This story of madness and/or ghosts took submitting to 19 places and many revisions to get accepted. It was rejected 16 times (withdrawn twice).

It has been almost 2 years since I’ve gotten a piece accepted. To be fair, I wasn’t submitting enough but this year I set a goal of submitting to 100 places. I’ve made it to 59. In 2024, I only submitted to 22 places and 2023 (when I was last published) to 56.

My point is don’t give up, keep working, revising, reading and submitting. The very process of submitting makes one a better writer.

I wanted to post about this sooner but I’ve been recovering from surgery and contracted food poisoning. Desmond’s revenge, maybe?

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!

My flash fiction piece, The Eyes, was published in Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Legend Mega Issue

My flash fiction piece, The Eyes, was published in Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Legend Mega Issue.

The craziest thing about this is Mark’s (my husband) piece La Puerta placed in the top ten of their Flash Legend contest as well. The editors commented that --

“We also saw a Molotov first, with two people who apparently live at the same address each scoring a slot in the Top 10 (must be something in the water)."

Once we saw that scrolling down on the contest winners’ announcement page, we hoped they were talking about us.

And they were!

My story
The Eyes – No. 4
https://themolotovcocktail.com/vol-10/flash-legend/the-eyes/

Archived Copy

Note about this story’s inspiration - I wrote it about The Deogen legend in the Sonian Forest .

Mark’s story and first published piece below
La Puerta – No. 9 (a suitable musical placement)
https://themolotovcocktail.com/vol-10/flash-legend/la-puerta/

Archived Copy

Also, super exciting, both of our stories will be included in Molotov Cocktail’s Fifth Annual Prize Winners Anthology (details on that in late summer).

We’re looking forward to reading the entire issue.

The Molotov Cocktail is a Portland-based electronic literary journal serving as a projectile for incendiary flash fiction of the dark and offbeat variety. We believe flash fiction should ignite on contact and engulf the page.

Check them out on Twitter too.

My short story, Nocnitsa, was published in The Molotov Cocktail today!

My short story Nocnitsa was published in The Molotov Cocktail in their Issue 10.1 today - April 9, 2019!

They called it a “vivid and compelling piece”!

Archived Copy

Inspiration - I don’t remember how I happened across this creature. It may have been while researching nightmares during a relentless insomnia bout. But I was struck by its physiology – an ethereal being composed of smoke and a screeching voice. It caused me to imagine a lower physical body of vapor and sounds, the opposite of a physical self. According to folklore, she could shape shift into a raven, but that sounded too generic to me. I had recently become fascinated with the Vampire Finch, a blood sucker, which seemed more fitting for the Nocnitsa. Then I began wondering what specific kind of rage would make one into such a creature. When your body and everyone else fails you. And out of all that came my story of Nocnitsa.

About
The Molotov Cocktail is an Portland-based electronic literary journal serving as a projectile for incendiary flash fiction of the dark and offbeat variety. We believe flash fiction should ignite on contact and engulf the page.

Check them out on Twitter too.