Scary Ghost Stories

As you may have noticed, things have been a bit quiet on my end. This is not so much due to not being busy as the exact opposite, but much of what has kept me occupied is the new house and the various trials and tribulations that come along with it. For the most part, things have been good, though a number of expensive problems have cropped up that are often part and parcel of new home ownership, especially for a house as old as this one.

That said, it isn’t as if other things haven’t been going on behind the scenes, with the most notable being the actual release of How to See Ghosts & Other Figments. My fourth full-length collection of short stories, and my third from Word Horde, How to See Ghosts collects everything from some of my most recent pieces to oddities from the earliest days of my writing career, some of them never seen before. I think they all hold together well, and produce a strong collection that takes some different risks than previous things I’ve done. Hopefully, you’ll agree.

I didn’t just come here to say “buy my book,” though. (You should, however. Buy my book, that is. Please do.) I wanted to remind you that, for most of my readers, the holidays are coming up. And most people buy and receive gifts during the holidays. And books make great gifts, whether they’re mine or someone else’s. Notably, why not buy something from Word Horde, who are not only my most frequent publisher but also now an actual brick-and-mortar store filled with all kinds of cool stuff perfect for the weirdo on your list.

Aside from How to See Ghosts, not to mention my two previous collections, if you don’t already have those, they’ve got recent novels by folks like S. L. Edwards and Nicole Cushing, the latest collections from Scott Nicolay and John Langan, and anthologies galore! If you have readers on your list who don’t like scary stories as much – or movie lovers who do – my two books on vintage horror films from Innsmouth Free Press are great stocking stuffers! Monsters from the Vault and its inevitable sequel are both fun, affordable, and compact. Perfect for the monster kid on your list.

And speaking, as I was, about Scott Nicolay, it wouldn’t be a proper list of book recommendations from me if I didn’t mention his continuing work translating the weird fiction of Jean Ray. Buy any of the Jean Ray titles from Wakefield Press to get an idea of the magnificent work he’s doing to bring one of the best writers of the classic weird tale to Anglophone readers like myself. They’re some of my most immediate must-buy books every time a new one is released.

After all, the holiday season is a time for ghost stories. Always has been. The days are short, the nights are long, and it’s good to huddle up and remember why we once feared the dark. If you want my own most recent take on the classic Christmas ghost story, you can find it in How to See Ghosts or listen to it at Pseudopod. A couple of my stories also made it onto Ellen Datlow’s longlist for the Best Horror of the Year this year, including one that’s in How to See Ghosts and another that you can read online at Nightmare magazine.

I’ll be back with more, probably before the end of the year and certainly in 2023. Until then, though, stay warm and read something spooky…