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This Week in Speculative Fiction with The Horror Tree for 1/16/2026
Stuart Conover
January 16, 2026
Word of the week: Weirdward - suggesting a tendency towards odd or unusual behavior or implying a movement or inclination towards the odd or supernatural.
Hi readers and writers! Welcome to this week’s Horror Tree newsletter. I hope you’ve had a good week with even the slightest of writing progress. Due to family and illness (Yes, I’m unwell again. Do you not know me by now? LOL), my writing has taken a back seat. Last week I started a new story, but it is unfinished and formatted as a non-fiction text. This is something I’ve never done before, and I’m now thinking I shouldn’t do it this way. It’s new and thus scary. I do like to challenge myself, and if I change this story now, I’ll always wonder, what if…? So I’m resisting the doubt, at least until it is completed. Then I’ll reassess. Isn’t it crazy how the writing process is so wonderful and painful at the same time?
You can find me (Corinne Pollard) lurking on Bluesky @corinnepwriter.bsky.social, Instagram & Threads @Corinnepwriter, and my website, corinnepollard.wordpress.com. Now, onto the latest articles on writing from around the web.
In this Newsletter, you'll find...
🌟 Horror Tree / Trembling With Fear Updates
Hi all.
Wow, what a hard week. I’ve had a viral eye infection (surprisingly not pink eye) all week long, which has led to massive headaches from light sensitivity, which is all something that I’m very much not used to. Saying that it impacted my week is an understatement. (Also, cutting into a fw deadlines I am still hoping to make, but we’ll see, it’s FINALLY getting better, but isn’t quite there yet.)
Enough about me. We’ve got some big behind-the-scenes changes coming soon for Trembling With Fear, and we are still slowly moving forward on our overdue release from last year. Hopefully, this year we’ll catch up and get things out into the world on a reasonable timetable! Speaking of Trembling With Fear, we’re also, as always, in need of your drabbles! Please do send a couple in if you’ve got them squirreled away or want to try your hand at a story in 100 words!
Now, for the standards:
- Thank you so much to everyone who has become a Patreon for Horror Tree. We honestly couldn't make it without you all!
And now, I will return you to your regularly scheduled newsletter!
🌟 Newsletter sponsor
Read InhuMANities today!
“Dark, visceral, poetic and devastatingly honest, Robertsons writing lives at the intersection of unabashed hunger, desire, beauty and repulsion. These tales strike at the heart of the queer, gothic soul. They are beautifully painful and darkly necessary. A must read for all those who love unflinching art.”
-Suzan Palumbo Author of Countess and Skin Thief.
🌟 Articles
This week, I’m sharing articles from General and Craft. Firstly, Burial Books explores the senses in horror and how we could detect a dead body in the room if we don’t see it. I agree that we are heavily reliant on our sense of sight and hearing that the other senses get forgotten. From a writing point of view, this article is a great wake-up call on the five senses and their importance. In craft, Mythcreants looks at how to describe layout and position when writing a scene. It is easy to overdo it as we wish to give a complete picture of where a character is and what is happening, but this is not in a reader’s best interest. With great examples, this article can help you to self-edit this. Lastly, Writers in the Storm identifies that a great, memorable protagonist has a beating heart and how we can uncover this by discovering their body, mind, and soul. This article looks at character development and the interplay of such can lead to a compelling protagonist.
General:
Burial Books: “How Do You Know When There’s a Dead Body in the Room”
Craft:
Mythcreants: “How to Describe Layout & Position”
Writers in the Storm: “Finding the Heart of a Protagonist: Body, Mind, and Soul”
From Horror Tree:
🌟 Free Fiction Roundup
This week’s free fiction is a mixture across the realm of horror from ghosts to sci-fi experiments. Firstly “A Few Things They Don’t Tell You About Being Dead” is a dark fantasy drabble (100 word story) about a newly awakened ghost learning the rules of the supernatural. A well-structured story that by the end will have you chuckling. Next, “Creature With The Ticking Heart” is a dark narrative poem about the narrator consoling a creature of their own making. With a disregard for personal autonomy, the narrator wishes to give the creature more time to live. A beautiful lyrical poem that reminded me of Frankenstein’s monster. Lastly, “Dregs” is a sci-fi body horror flash story under 1,000 words about babies falling from the sky and their origins. It is a thought-provoking, gory story that was ‘inspired by the rise of generative artificial intelligence—an attempt at recreating humanity’s essence, which succeeds only in making an uncanny, half-baked simulacrum’. Enjoy reading!
“A Few Things They Don’t Tell You About Being Dead” by Jayme Antrim at 100-Foot Crow.
“Creature With the Ticking Heart" by Nico Martinez Nocito at Strange Horizons.
“Dregs” by R. Diego Martinez at Nightmare Magazine.
🌟 Writing Prompt
Writing Exercise: One For Sorrow
An elderly man is often spotted in the local woods with binoculars. When stopped by runners and walkers to see what he is up to, he replies he is a bird watcher and asks them if they’ve seen a magpie.
No one has. They shake their heads and continue the trail.
The elderly man never gives up. Then one day a dog-walker reveals they’d seen one, but not in the woods.
Directed away from trees, the man enters the churchyard, sits down, and through his binoculars, spots it. It hops from gravestone to gravestone, tearing at something in its beak.
The man sighs in relief. It is the same magpie that stole from him a month ago, before he aged, before he needed a walking stick, before his age, twenty-eight, no longer applied to his body.
What happens next is up to you…Let your imagination run wild!
If you post any writing content during the week and think it would be a good fit for us to feature, do reach out and let us know at [email protected]
🌟 Weekly Post Roundup
🐻 OPEN SUBMISSIONS: Thuggish Itch — BEAR Something huge is out there, breathing and watching. Thuggish Itch wants horror and speculative fiction where the bear is impossible to ignore. Monstrous, supernatural, altered, or disturbingly familiar, the bear must drive the story and leave a lasting scar. 📝 Word count: 1,000–10,000 words 💰 Payment: AU$5 under 2,500 words | AU$10 over 🗓️ Deadline: March 31, 2026 | 📣 OPEN SUBMISSIONS: Slush #1 (Paid Fiction Market) 💰 Payment: $100 AUD 🗓️ Deadline: February 1, 2026 (11:59 PM AEDT) 📝 Length: Up to 5,000 words 📚 What they want: short stories, micro and flash fiction, prose poems, comics, and hybrid forms that play with structure and surprise. ✅ Previously unpublished work ✅ Submit up to three pieces ✅ Simultaneous submissions allowed (withdraw if accepted elsewhere) Details and guidelines: |
✊ Flash Fiction Online - Resistance (Reprints Only) Seeking previously published stories about resistance, resilience, and hope. 📝 500–1,000 words • 💰 $40 🗓️ Deadline: Jan 31, 2026 Any genre • Sim subs OK • One submission Proceeds support Waging Nonviolence | 🤖 OPEN SUBMISSIONS: Colp — TECHNOLoGIC Technology isn’t just background here. Colp wants horror, sci-fi, and speculative fiction where technology shapes people, society, or what comes next. Central to the plot, embedded in the world, or driving decisions, the tech must matter. 📝 Word count: 1,000–10,000 words 💰 Payment: AU$5 under 2,500 words | AU$10 over 🗓️ Deadline: March 31, 2026 |
⚡️ Electric Spec May Issue 2026 - Submissions Open Spec fic stories (250–7,000 words) + artwork. Sci-fi, fantasy, macabre, and genre-bending welcome. 👁️✨ 💰 $20 per story/artwork • 🗓️ Deadline: Apr 15, 2026 No AI, no poetry, no reprints, no fanfic. One submission at a time. | 🌊🪐 Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores — Feb 2026 Window Open Feb 1–2, 2026. Seeking SF, fantasy, myth/legend/fairy tale, and eldritch work (written, podcast, video, or graphic). Reprints welcome. 💰 8¢/word original • 2¢/word reprints • 🎨 $10/image No AI • No sim subs • No multiple subs |
Thanks for reading!
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