MUSINGS OF THE MUSES, an anthology of Greek myth-inspired stories from Brigids Gate Press, is now available for preorder!
My short story “The Serpent Queen” is a horror tale centered around a girl forced to make an impossible choice in an ancient, snake-centric ritual. This is a character that’s been in my head for a long time, inspired by many childhood summers exploring the ruins of Crete. I’m excited she’ll be out in the world soon!
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UPDATE – July 2022: CHROMOPHOBIA is now available in trade paperback HERE! Early reviews are already raving.
“Extraordinary tales of terror that are as grim as they are delightful.” — Kirkus Reviews
“… clever, unsettling stories … push the boundaries of conventional horror.” — BookLife Reviews (Editor’s Pick)
My mean girls/creature feature story, “The Color of Friendship,” will appear in the forthcoming CHROMOPHOBIA: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror from Rooster Republic Press. It’s described by the editor as having “major CREEPSHOW vibes” and I could not be more pleased!
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***Update! You can purchase the anthology or read reviews at these links: Publisher’s Shop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads.
My short climate fiction story, “From Sea to Shining Sea,” appears in Dread Stone Press’ FIELD NOTES FROM A NIGHTMARE anthology.
Description from the editor: Pollution. Extinction. Warming. Sea Levels rising…Mother Nature heard our crimes and found us guilty. Field Notes from a Nightmare is an anthology of ecological horror, containing 18 stories from some of the strongest voices in indie horror. Edited by Alex Ebenstein with a foreword from New York Times-Bestselling author Tim Lebbon. Cover art and interior illustrations by David Bowman.
Read more about the anthology from Dread Stone Press here.
My science fiction story, “Comfort Zone,” is featured in the spring 2021 issue of British scifi magazine, Mythaxis.
In “Comfort Zone,” a new technology designed to improve empathy has the unintended side effect of putting a mom and daughter at odds.
This story was inspired by my time reporting on emerging technologies while a science journalist. Topics of quantum computing, brain-machine interfaces and neural imaging came together in a tale about the speed of which technology advances, and what happens when it’s hard to accept how fast the world–and children–can change.
You can read the story online for free here or an excerpt below.
My micro horror story (~200 words) “Protection” is now available in the online version of Frozen Wavelets issue #1, a newly launched speculative flash fiction and poetry magazine based in Scotland.
About Frozen Wavelets, from Editor Steph P. Bianchini:
Frozen Wavelets is an e-zine of speculative flash fiction and poetry, offspring of The Earthian Hivemind. We exist because we believe there’s not enough out there that specialises in this exquisite and peculiar format, not because it is not worthy of attention but because the genre fiction market logic overall doesn’t favour it. This is our contribution to give voice to writers and poets who love it as much as we do, and who keep writing it nonetheless.
TOC of Frozen Wavelets issue #1:
She Sleeps (Annie Neugebauer)
The Sea Bride (Deborah Davitt)
Protection (Kc Grifant)
Alien Evening (Kim Whysall-Hammond)
At the Frayed Edges of The Night (Isabel Cañas)
Bulgarian Grass – Българска Трева (Margarita I Serafimova)
Shell (Sonora Taylor)
The Wishing Clock of Gassytown (Deborah Wong)
Moon Catcher (Beth Cato)
Our Flesh Was Bred for This (Octavia Cade)
Sparse Wavelets (Colleen Anderson, Stewart C. Baker, Anatoly Belilovsky, Marc Criley, Pat Tompkins, Dawn Vogel)
Read more about the contributors here or visit the Patreon page here.
I’m pleased to share that my New England-based quiet horror story, “Better Halves,” which first appeared in the Lovecraft eZine, is reprinted in The Macabre Museum‘s debut issue.
Creators Sara Tantlinger, Chandler Morrison, Dan Coxon, Hailey Piper, Marge Simon, Sam Rebelein and others share their dark and twisted visions in this strong debut of stories, poems and artwork.
The quarterly horror literary journal and “digital museum of terrors,” edited by R.R. Trevino, is described as follows:
Imagine walking through a dark museum. A painting, basking in the soft light from a sconce, catches your eye. You approach, drawn in by its unparalleled beauty and raw power. Standing there, in front of the painting, you are mesmerized, changed in some profound way.
This is the feeling The Macabre Museum aims to evoke in its readers. Each piece we publish, whether it be fiction, poetry, or art, promises to claw at your heart and lie festering in your soul. Our art, like all good art, is timeless, has staying power, and is terrifying in its beauty.
Click through for the full version of the NSFW cover and/or to purchase via Amazon or support the Macabre Museum on its patreon page here.
I’m delighted to announce my new story “Vermin” appears in Unnerving Magazine issue #10. “Vermin” tells the tale of twentysomethings encountering… interesting… creatures in the underbelly of NYC. I had a great time writing this story and evoking the feeling of running around the city–even though it’s been over a decade since I lived there.
The issue features stories from Kate Jonez, Philip Fracassi, Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr., and Richard Montoya, and nonfiction by Gwendolyn Kiste, Jennifer McMahon, Rio Youers, Andy Davidson, and Ray Cluley. The issue also includes novel excerpts of IN THE SCRAPE by James Newman and Mark Steensland, and THE HUNGRY ONES by Chris Sorensen.
Edited by Eddie Generous, Unnerving Magazine is a Canadian-based horror and suspense magazine that also publishes delightfully strange and weird podcasts and books–check them out at the link below.
Unnerving Magazine Website
The road to writing and publishing is paved with a whole lot of self-doubt and countless rejections. Writers need to celebrate any accomplishment, big or small, to help fuel motivation and bade away the naysayers (internal and external). New Year’s Eve is a good opportunity to pause and take stock of accomplishments of the past year and reflect on upcoming goals.
Personally it’s been a year of firsts, with some accomplishments of note:
International: This year I broke into the Australian (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, COLP, and Things in the Well series); Canadian (Renaissance Book Publisher); and British (Tales to Terrify podcast) marketplaces.
Cover feature: My Weird Western tale “Dusty Arrival” was the cover story for the award-winning Andromeda Spaceways Magazine (March 2018 issue). This was a particular thrill: it never gets old to see how talented illustrators interpret your work.
Audio: Another big highlight was a foray into audio storytelling with the acceptance of my reprint story “The Peerlings” for the Tales to Terrify podcast. Much like when an artist visually manifests your story, it is surreal and gratifying to hear a talented voice actor interpret your tale.
In summary, I’ve had 6 publications and 1 author interview this year:
I am incredibly grateful for the writing and editing community, particularly in the areas of genre fiction, which often are misunderstood (e.g., horror = slasher). I am also indebted to friends and family who provide support in this tough craft. I hope the coming year leads to new stories that provide respite, intrigue or food for thought. Happy 2019!
“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.”
–Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
It’s aliiiiiive!
Edited by Derek Newman-Stille, We Shall Be Monsters (Renaissance Book Press, 2018) celebrates Frankenstein’s 200th birthday with similarly themed stories by authors from around the world. My dark short story “Wanting” shows how far a high school student will go to fit in in a cybernetic, near-future society.
From the publisher, Canada-based Renaissance Book Press:
Mary Shelley’s genre-changing book Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, helped to shape the genres of science fiction and horror, and helped to articulate new forms for women’s writing. It also helped us to think about the figure of the outsider, to question medical power, to question ideas of “normal,” and to think about what we mean by the word “monster.” Derek Newman-Stille has teamed up with Renaissance Press to celebrate Frankenstein’s 200th birthday by creating a book that explores Frankenstein stories from new and exciting angles and perspectives.
We Shall Be Monsters: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Two Centuries On features a broad range of fiction stories by authors from around the world, ranging from direct interactions with Shelley’s texts to explorations of the stitched, assembled body and narrative experiments in monstrous creations. We Shall Be Monsters collects explorations of disability, queer and trans identity, and ideas of race and colonialism.
With stories by Day Al-Mohamed, Lena Ng, Ashley Caranto Morford Cait Gordon, JF Garrard, Andrew Wilmot, Evelyn Deshane, D. Simon Turner, Kaitlin Tremblay, Lisa Carreiro Eric Choi & Joseph McGinty, Jennifer Lee Rossman, Randall G. Arnold, Alex Acks, KC Grifant, Halli Lilburn, Kev Harrison, Corey Redekop, Arianna Verbree, Max D. Stanton, Victoria K. Martin, Priya Sridhar, Liam Hogan, Joshua Bartolome
Read more: https://renaissancebookpress.com/product/we-shall-be-monsters/
Or purchase: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1987963415/
KC Grifant 