The UK Ghost Story Festival 2026 line-up is up, and I'm thrilled to have been invited to run a workshop on experimenting with form in stories. Guests also include @catrionaward.bsky.social @unheimlichmanvr.bsky.social @dancoxon.bsky.social @willmac23.bsky.social! www.derbyquad.co.uk/ukgsf/

My review of This Way Lies Madness from Flame Tree Press 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

IT’S HERE! Our first volume of strange and supernatural stories for the darker half of the year. Nine new tales by masters of the genre: Ramsey Campbell, Helen Grant, Reggie Oliver, Ally Wilkes, Steve Toase, Verity Holloway and more. 👉🏼 Get your copy on www.helleborezine.com

Spent an hour going through a short story manually today changing all my Word doc curly quote marks for straight ones (to fit a publisher's website requirements) - before realising I could do it all in one go using the find and replace function. Then, when I sent the story off, the email bounced 🤣

If you'd like to be emotionally scarred (and also maybe fired up?) today, may I recommend my recent story in Nightmare magazine?

You have one more day to preorder my novel, Imperfect creatures at a 31% discount! Just enter CREATURES at the checkout. diachroneitybooks.com/Imperfect-Cr... Now check out what some awesome folks have been saying about it:

❄️ Now Taking Submissions! Frost Zone Stories Books 3 & 4 seek Dark Literary Fiction, Quiet Horror, and Literary Horror. 💰 $15 CAD + copies 🗓️ Deadline: Nov 1, 2025 Send your subtle, chilling, and strange tales. 👉 horrortree.com/taking-submissions-frost-zone-stories-book-3-and-4/

New story - GIVE AND TAKE - by me, available now to Sley House Publishing Patreons. :) www.patreon.com/posts/give-a...

Tomorrow, I have scheduled some time to myself to write. First time in literally months. Quite excited. 🖤

There's just 17 DAYS LEFT to back the 2026 Apex Magazine Kickstarter! We've been supporting outstanding authors writing strange, shocking, beautiful stories for 20 years...help us keep doing it for 20 more! 💜👽 www.kickstarter.com/projects/ape...

Contract signed :) Pleased to announce that my story, YELLOW CAR, will be published in HELLBOUND HIGHWAY by Hellbound Books. Do you want to play a game? Do you want to play the yellow car game? Coming soon!

The Programme for World Fantasy 2026 is now live! worldfantasy2025.co.uk/programme/

Whizzed through this collection by Alison Moore today. So bleak. Loved it.

October not haunted enough for you yet? After some spooky stuff? There's a creepy story in here by me called GIVE AND TAKE that might unsettle you nicely:

The Night Ship is up on Netgalley for those of you so inclined! Reviewers, friends, enemies, anyone, if that's not accessible for you drop me a line, I *am* keeping a list of who has asked and will be dropping emails shortly. ♥️ www.netgalley.co.uk/catalog/book...

Tomorrow will see the release of LMS in Carnage House. A story about the End of the World, a rare topic for me. Did you know I once tackled the subject in I'm a House but I must Scream, published by Bag of Bones - edited by @sjtownend.bsky.social - in their Step into the Light anthology? Links 👇

I've just queued up tomorrow's @thisishorror.bsky.social news, but while you wait, take a look at last week's edition: www.thisishorror.co.uk/news-round-u... Your Last Sunset by @sjtownend.bsky.social - out now @sleyhouseeditor.bsky.social ... 1/2

⭐⭐⭐⭐ review of Step into the Light, from Bag of Bones Press, ed. @sjtownend.bsky.social "A clever and consuming anthology of daylight themed horror, proving once and for all that evil and fright are not merely shadows, but irrepressible and diurnal." www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

"From inside, came the tips of fingers, then the hand, like a houndstooth glove extending between the folds of crumpled clothes in the bottom of the closet..." read Houndstooth now in the Patterns anthology edited by @sjtownend.bsky.social. mybook.to/patternspape...

If you're feeling rushed today, why don't you slow down a bit and read the first free story from Issue 4 of Die Laughing Mag? No, slower than that. Slower. Slooooowwwwwwer..... Check out "You Always Drive Too Fast" by @sjtownend.bsky.social! dielaughingmag.com/2025/07/25/y...

Out now! YOUR FINAL SUNSET is the 2nd short story collection by the eminently talented @sjtownend.bsky.social . Includes “I Have Seen Seven Bad Things” as the lead tale, a haunting story you won’t soon forget.

Happy to say that my story, QVC, has just been selected for reprint by the most excellent Penumbric Magazine! 🖤

Thank you #Waterstones for stocking my debut horror collection SICK GIRL SCREAMS! www.waterstones.com/book/sick-gi...

This issue includes work by @sjtownend.bsky.social, @joellekillian.bsky.social, @lilliekoi.bsky.social, @acbauer.bsky.social, @timidwerewolf.bsky.social, and Randall Madden! You do not wanna miss this! 🤡🔪

NEW SCRIBE ALERT! @sjtownend.bsky.social joins HORRIFIC SCRIBES! Her story "QVC" adds to our #domestichorror, #quiethorror, and #psychologicalhorror, describing a parent who has high hopes for a new air fryer... hopes feeding on dreadful circumstances. Read at horrificscribblings.com

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If you have ever asked "What the heck is Weird fiction?," this new essay by @megapolisomancy.bsky.social is a fantastic introduction to the territory. www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/t...

Psyched to be part of this anthology with my story "Six Figures," the harrowing tale of the worst job interview you've ever had (okay maybe second worst)

My short story "Chakatagir" is in this latest anthology from Bag of Bones Press, about a young Armenian girl defying fate after her brother's funeral, refusing tradition and blazing a new way. Thanks to @sjtownend.bsky.social and @markpeters.bsky.social for their wonderful work.

Announcing The Best of British SFF eBook Bundle. Includes Priya Sharma's debut, All the Fabulous Beasts, which we published in 2018. $5 gets you the 3 main books. $25 gets you all 10! Incredibly well-curated bundle from @lavietidhar.bsky.social storybundle.com/bestof

Out Now! I’ve got a story, titled “Freckles”, in this horror anthology PATTERNS. You’ll never look at your freckles the same way after reading it...

wrote about obsession & family & fire in PATTERNS. grateful to bag of bones press and @sjtownend.bsky.social 🪞🕯️

Delighted to announce the anthology “Patterns” by Bag of Bones Press is out now! The collection features my plastination story “Tracing Insides to Outsides” 🫀🧠💀🏃and I’m excited to dig into the other tales ❤️

AVAILABLE NOW! PATTERNS - an anthology of pattern-themed HORROR. All 2025 profit to NAPS, a menstrual disorder charity. Paperback and e-book purchase link: t.co/zIAly7U1Dp

A funny tale from me, in here:

Follow our fabulous Issue 4 authors on Bluesky! @sjtownend.bsky.social @joellekillian.bsky.social @lilliekoi.bsky.social @acbauer.bsky.social @timidwerewolf.bsky.social

BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror (+ More) is out now! 25 of the best independently- & self-published Weird Fiction stories published in 2024, spanning Horror Sci-Fi Fantasy & all things unclassifiable...but WEIRD. And all part of a balanced breakfast🖤☠️ Get it: store.tenebrouspress.com

You can read my review of @claymcleod.bsky.social 's most excellent ACQUIRED TASTE here on Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

July's around the corner so here's next month’s upcoming #indiehorror #newreleases (Part 2) @mikebockoven.bsky.social @joshrountree.bsky.social @sandersjacob.bsky.social @cshumble.bsky.social @michaelcisco.bsky.social @michaelboulerice.bsky.social @jasonsanford.bsky.social @sjtownend.bsky.social

so excited to be part of this new anthology by bag of bones press and @sjtownend.bsky.social !!

'ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.”...ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.' time.com/7295195/ai-c...

Here she is - the second of my upcoming short fiction collections. This is the darker sister, the one with a maniacal laugh and way too many teeth. Huge thanks to @matgost.bsky.social and @sjtownend.bsky.social for their amazing blurbs. I'm excited to unleash this one 🖤

💀Eco-Body-Coral Horror! 💀Indigenous Supernatural Survival Thrills! 💀The Year's best New Weird Horror (+ More)! 💀Psychedelic Surgical Nightmares! Coming Soon & Just Released from Tenebrous Press; feed all your Weirdest cravings this summer with these and more🖤☠️ store.tenebrouspress.com

It's unleashed! An Ill-Stitched Menagerie. 12 strange tales of horror and imagination. mybook.to/JSQxd Works first published by @exposedbonemag.bsky.social @acidbathpublishing.bsky.social @sjtownend.bsky.social @darkwinterlitmag.bsky.social & more

Very stoked that my spiral-shaped job interview horror story "Six Figures" will be in the PATTERNS anthology coming later this year from Bag of Bones Press and @sjtownend.bsky.social! In the meantime, please direct any questions to the Chief Threshold Officer.