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 It was rejected 16 times (withdrawn twice).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?

Bowery Gothic Reading of Mara (October 30, 2022) - video!

I read my short story Mara for the Bowery Gothic’s Halloween Reading at Von Bar on October 30, 2022.

Let’s go to the video tape! (many of you don’t even get that!)

Throughout my reading, I started to hunch over the mic. I only realized afterwards that the mic stand was falling and as I held onto it and my pages, I started to lean to one side! Ha!

The other contributors were so talented and I loved hearing their pieces. The final reading of the night was of Poe’s The Raven. That was such a funny and unique reading of well know piece. Loved it!

It was so awesome to get back into things, so thankful to have the opportunity.

Please check out Bowery Gothic and have a drink or two at Von Bar.

Mara published in Bowery Gothic

My piece Mara was published in Bowery Gothic on September 1st in their Summer Ghosts Edition VII.

This story was inspired by the original nightmare known as Mara and other names in Time Life’s The Enchanted World’s Night Creatures fable. These were books I inherited from my Welsh grandfather. He had such a wonderful odd library, inspiration galore.

Here is a recent article from Atlas Obscura:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/original-nightmare-demon-suffocation-night-terror

I enjoy telling stories from the perspective of the monsters and having the monsters win.

The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli, 1781. JOHN HENRY FUSELI

 Please check out the entire issue!

Archived Copy

A little about Bowery Gothic

Inspired by a reading series at a haunted bar on the Bowery, Bowery Gothic is a literary journal seeking to publish the highest quality literature and art. We look for stories—both real and imagined—that exist in that liminal space: between the seen and unseen; between entertainment and fear. We are excited by work that stands at the threshold and looks into the unknown. We are excited by the sublimity of terror.

We are not interested in gore, violence, or perversion. Instead, send us literary work that transcends genre, that scares us and makes us think: Damn, that was fresh. We are drawn to literature that conjures up tales told by our favorite writers—from Henry James to Kelly Link; Shirley Jackson to Octavia E. Butler—stories that entice, amaze, terrify.

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.