My story “The Suicide Dead” is featured in Night Terrors, Volume 26, from Scare Street.

I’ve been waiting to see this one in print for a long time––a year! But really I’ve been waiting since 2020, when I wrote it. Writing is a long game…

This story means a great deal to me. As the title implies, it deals with suicide, which is a subject I’ve dealt with as a writer only marginally. Also, it deals with zombies, a subject I vowed never to pursue as a writer. I love a good zombie story, but the sub-genre has been done too many times too well and too terribly.

Then a friend of mine took his life in 2020. I was shocked and heartbroken, and I became restless. This person was complicated in ways I never got the chance to fully experience firsthand, but what I did know about this friend was that he relished and celebrated creativity with unfettered passion. I wanted to do something creative in his honor with the abilities I had at my disposal.

I had no idea what.

This story was the result of one of those rare, spooky moments wherein you realize you don’t have a choice. I risk sounding pretentious or cliche, but I don’t care. Later that night, I woke up to a flash of blueish light in my mind, and behind it came a horde of shambling beings with a story to tell.

I knew the longer I waited to write the story, the closer those shambling things would get to me. I wrote as fast I could. Did they ever get their hands on me? Well…

I dedicate this story to my late friend and his electric spirit and complicated passion.

His passing was a tremendous loss for the many people he touched, and he will never be forgotten.

It’s also for anyone who has struggled to face their inner darkness, that constant witching hour within. And it can be for anyone who just wants a creepy, weird, and mildly humorous story to help them take a breather.

Let’s remember to be patient and gentle with ourselves. We just might have at our disposal all the “weapons” we need to stave off and even beat our demons.

Rest easy, Etwas.