Author Archive

Mother Horror and “The Christmas Spirits”

It seems like something strange happens during the holiday season. Perhaps it’s the combination of eggnog, fruitcake, and the “Spirit of Christmas” that turns average people into consumers of cheesy books and movies with zero substance. To counter this alluring nonsense, I fill my December with Anti-Hallmark-Christmas-Horror. Instead of book covers featuring Golden Retrievers in Santa hats or sparkling toothy grins from a couple wearing matching plaid flannels — I opt for depictions of Krampus kidnapping children…

A serial killer on the loose…

An isolated cabin in the woods…

In my quest to search out yuletide tales of gore, I found The Christmas Spirits – A Tale of the White Street Society by Grady Hendrix on PseudoPod, narrated by Alasdair Stuart.

This episode is a goddamn delight. (Continue Reading…)

For Your Consideration 2021: Original PseudoPod Fiction in 2020

For your consideration we present the Escape Artists stories that ran in 2020 which are eligible in the upcoming award nomination season. The list of individual stories for PseudoPod follows in order of publication:

2020 first publications:

Reprints of stories originally published in 2020:

  • 731: The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter by Elaine Cuyegkeng, originally published in Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women edited by Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn and published by Omnium Gatherum in September 2020
  • 733: Late Sleepers by Steve Rasnic Tem, originally published in It Came from the Multiplex edited by Joshua Viola and published by Hex Publishers in September 2020
  • 735: The Slow King by Tim Major, originally published The Fiends in the Furrows 2: More Tales of Folk Horror edited by David T. Neal and Christine M. Scott and published by Nosetouch Press in September 2020
  • 737: Workday by Kurt Fawver, originally published in Shadows and Tall Trees 8 edited by Michael Kelly and published by Undertow Press in March of 2020

(Continue Reading…)

Mother Horror and “The Smell of Night in the Basement”

Do you ever drive by a dark alley and catch a glimpse of something that makes your breath catch in your throat? Maybe as you drive away, you’re already telling yourself you didn’t see what you thought you saw.

Have you ever passed in front of a dilapidated house with its dark, ratty curtains and old mail spilling out of the door’s mail slot and wondered about what goes on inside a house like that?

What kind of horrors takes place in secret, abandoned, dirty spaces?

In the short story, THE SMELL OF NIGHT IN THE BASEMENT, author Wendy N. Wagner pulls back the curtain and allows readers to observe the goings-on in a very dark place. A basement. (Continue Reading…)