My story “The Pet” is set to appear in Nightmare Fuel 2025 from Cloaked Press! This anthology, affectionately referred to as “horror with teeth,” will feature creature horror stories of all breeds.

I can’t wait to read it, and I hope you’ll grab a copy when it’s released this fall (official date not yet announced). But until then, don’t forget to feed your pets…

Submerged is out now! This is a rerelease of Sea Secrets, an aquatic horror adventure that takes place in an underwater resort. I don’t know how, but Jurassic Park, Night of the Living Dead, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and The Shining all have their bite marks, claw marks, and bloody hand prints all over this thing. And I would love for more readers to experience it this go around.

Grab a copy and enjoy…

GORY just got a rerelease!

With an incredible cover by Kevin Diamond and a foreword by Michael Cole.

You can read more about Gory’s inception below. But for now, marvel at the cover…

And grab a copy!

My latest novella is now available! It is a mythic creature feature with a monstrous elephant tearing through its center. I don’t know about you, but I think we all need more killer elephants in our lives.For a couple months after the release of my novel Cat Key I tried to think of a good creature-feature concept to serve as the basis of a novel or novella. No ideas would materialize, which any writer knows is a terrible feeling. Think being lost in a desert with no sustenance and no sense of where to go or how you even ended up there in the first place.

Maybe throw in some kind of humanoid beast tracking your scent in the distance for good measure.

That might be a bit dramatic, but it doesn’t feel great either way. Finally, I dug through some old dream-memory files as I often do. The great thing about story ideas is that they never really diminish, no matter how much time passes.

This particular story idea can be traced back to the dream of a nine-year-old me still riding the wave of euphoria sparked by Jurassic Park and the sci-fi/horror, creature-feature frenzy it whipped up.

In this dream, I watched a movie about killer elephants breaking out of a lab and slaughtering folks. Who knew what the exact concept or plot was, but I remember fearsome beasts with sharp tusks and glowing red eyes. The dream movie was called “Goric.”

I woke up and asked my mom if ‘goric’ was a real word, and she said she didn’t think it was –– but that elephants can GORE people with their tusks.

I had no idea the word ‘gore’ could function as a verb with that meaning, so, while ‘goric’ wasn’t a proper word, it suited the dream movie perfectly in a way…which was more than a little strange.

Anyway, I always wondered if I’d ever do something with the idea. Now, twenty-seven years later, Gory finally rears its scarred, dripping head. The story is more mythical and supernatural than sci-fi-entific, but the tusks and red eyes are present.

‘Goric’ didn’t quite make sense as a title. ‘Gore’ has no real ring to it.

But Gory…Now, that –– as gruesome adjective and colloquial epithet –– works just fine as the title of this story. My nine-year-old brain couldn’t quite get it right back in 1995–96, but that’s okay.

It’s never too late for a story to be born.

My first books were released recently: Cat Key, a horror-fantasy novel, and Sea Secrets, an aquatic horror novella.

Both are from Raven Tale Publishing. It’s beyond exciting and fulfilling to finally have longer works in print.

Anger and annoyance aren’t exactly the responses I’m after here. I’m swinging more for fear, wonder, and joy…

Grab a copy by clicking the titles above!

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.

This is the first bit of feedback I’ve gotten on a screenplay.

Considering that I conceived of The Seventh Date back in 2012, wrote a short story of it in 2014, published that story in 2016, wrote the screenplay in 2017––and then rewrote it in 2018/19––I’m immensely honored and relieved to see it advance in a contest.

Here’s hoping it makes it to at least the Finalist round, as those get some real attention from the industry. I think this tale would charm and thrill audiences.

Upside Down Pictures…It won’t cost much, and it’d be perfect for you guys. Whatdya say?

The script did not advance in the Golden Script contest; still waiting to hear about a few others.

As far as fiction publishing/writing goes, I’m finishing up a ghastly novella and still waiting to hear about publication dates for two anthologies that will feature my stories.

Writing is tough. It’s often hard for writers to know if they’re on the right track, if their hours of effort will pay off in any way. Honest feedback can be scarce.

But if you as a writer are honest and quiet with yourself in the process, you’ll know if what you’re working on is something you or the few people you’re close to would truly want to read or see.

If so, the effort is worth it. Keep working. You’ll tell the story, and that story will reach somebody and make them feel something. And that means everything.

Keepin’ on…

Between a new baby and international crises, posting has not been much of a priority. But a writer’s gotta keep his page fresh…

I will always write fiction. But I’m seeing more and more that the kind of storytelling that excites me just as much is screenwriting.

Movies are inherently collaborative. No one person makes a movie. The same could be said for novels, and it’s true. Editors, proofreaders, beta readers––all of them contribute to a novel.

But at the end of the day, the person who does the most work on a novel is the writer.

A screenplay, though, is pure potential that buzzes with energy until it’s actually produced as a film. Before it’s written, that potential is fluid, soupy. After it’s written, it may no longer be soupy, but it’s still just potential––though clearer and more supercharged, it hasn’t reached its true form.

The story is there, complete and ready to play out in the minds of readers. But a whole team is required to bring the story to full form on screen.

There is something deeply exciting and humbling about that whole process. The original story idea will always belong to the original screenwriter, but the finished film belongs to the actors, editors, directors, cinematographers, composers, and anyone else involved.

Anyway, I have a few screenplays ready for that process. What do I need now? Representation. Manager/agent. And it’s looking like one of the best ways to secure representation is to place in a script competition.

So, this year…it’s still writing and submitting fiction, letting those sweet rejections pile up. (I’ve gotten one ‘yes,’ but since the anthology hasn’t been announced yet, I can’t post any details.) But I’m also entering my scripts in as many competitions as I can without totally bleeding out my wallet.

Will my scripts place? Hard to say, but they will be read by people in the industry. Or people who know people in the industry.

Ah, the potential.

Dates from Hell from Hellbound Books is now available on Amazon.

This one features my story “The Flood,” which I thought might never find a home. Now that it has, I’m satisfied and relieved.

It’s a longer story, really qualifying as a “novelette,” and it has a “new monster” that I can’t really define. Some readers and editors really dig that kind of ambiguity; others hate it. But this story is one of my favorites, one that I think has life potential beyond the page.

I adapted it into a teleplay, perfect for a horror anthology series, after it became a Quarterfinalist in Screencraft’s Cinematic Short Story contest 2020–2021. Currently, I am adapting it further into a feature length screenplay.

That life potential I saw early on is starting to stretch thin for the screenplay, but that’s where the writing really begins I suppose.

We will see what happens. But just seeing this thing come to life on screen would be magical. I’m looking at you producers, investors, studios, rich folk…Come on, it’ll be fun! Profitable? Well, sure, I think it will be…But it’ll definitely be fun.

What’s this story about? Well, it’s not about natural disasters or climate change or Bible stories. Or maybe it’s about all those things.

Just know there’s a party, a mansion, rich people, human sacrifices, lots of blood, lots and lots of water, and an incomprehensibly beautiful and terrifying being who just wants a little attention and respect…And flesh.

For now, you can’t see The Flood in theaters, and you can’t stream it. But you can read it. And it’s not THAT long.

Plus, that angelic, horrific being? It really, really wants your attention. And if it doesn’t get what it wants…Well, just keep an eye on your sink, your toilet, your tub, your pool, and especially any nearby bodies of water.

Or else the waters might rise…

And rise…

Its depths know no end.