This Week in Speculative Fiction with The Horror Tree for 1/2/2026

Author

Stuart Conover
January 02, 2026

Word of the week: Cafard - melancholia, severe depression, or apathy.

Hi readers and writers! Welcome to the first Horror Tree newsletter of 2026! Here’s to the new year, and may it be a productive one. Like always, we’re here to help you along your writing journey, no matter at which stage you’re at or what your goals are. It is the start of a new year, so our writing attention is to focus on what we wish to achieve. What are your writing hopes for the year? For myself, I hope to get back into a free-flowing mindset, to allow the words to just come and less overthinking, less self-editing at the starting point, as it feels more like a mind block than an aid right now. I hope with this practice to focus on a slasher horror idea that, at this stage, I only know if it will be a longer story than I am used to writing. Whatever your goal is, we’re here to support and cheer you on. Good luck!

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.

🌟 Newsletter sponsor

Read Project Threshold

🌟 Horror Tree / Trembling With Fear Updates

Hi all.

Stu here, Happy New Year, Horror Tree friends!

New year, same messy brilliance. If you’re starting 2026 feeling fired up, congratulations. If you’re starting it tired, distracted, or a little fried, congratulations to you too. You made it here. You get to write from here.

Here’s a bit of advice I keep coming back to when I want a clean restart: lower the bar, then keep the promise. Don’t aim for “finish a novel” on January 1. Aim for something you can do on your worst day. Two sentences. One paragraph. Fifteen minutes. Something small enough that you can’t talk yourself out of it, but real enough that it counts. And then show up again tomorrow. Momentum is a sneaky little monster. Feed it.

If you want a simple reset plan, try this for the first week:

  • Pick one project (not five).

  • Pick one tiny daily action you can repeat.

  • Pick one “no guilt” rule (miss a day? you return the next day, no self-punishment, no dramatic speeches).

Fresh starts don’t require perfection. They require permission. So here it is: permission to write badly, restart often, and still call yourself a writer.

Here’s to stories that survive the draft. I wish you all of the best in your writing endeavors this new year.

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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 Business and Craft. Firstly, Author Marketing Experts explore the modern media that authors can use for their marketing. What is the key to a good marketing strategy? And how can you get your book more noticeable? There’s some great pointers and free resources to help you start your 2026 with a marketing bang. Next, Writer’s Fun Zone has a podcast with a transcript and this time they’re divulging how to find a literary agent, but not just any agent. A good agent. So what is a good agent, and how can we identify them as such? Lastly, in craft, Mythcreants looks at how to write scenes with tons of new characters. Sometimes it is unavoidable. We need more than three or four characters, but the problem is when writing them, we’re describing and naming them straight away and not hooking our readers. There’s some tips here to help you make this less of a turn-off for readers.      

Business:

Writer’s Fun Zone: “How to Find a Literary Agent”

Craft:

From Horror Tree:

🌟 Free Fiction Roundup

This week’s free fiction is a mixed bag of horror from evil snowmen to haunted couples. Firstly, “Surviving the Snowball Onslaught” is a horror drabble (100-word story) about children playing in the snow. This is a great story about revenge, magic, and perhaps a bit of bullying. Next, “The World to Come” is a poem about a girl who is resurrected. There’s body transformation and death/dying content warnings. It is a great reflective poem about one’s place in the world. I love the line ‘this world to come is no world of mine’. Next, “Amara” is a horror short story about a woman trying to handle too much, dealing with mental health, her sister’s hospitalisation, and inheriting a house. There’s supernatural at play, too, that gives a creepy atmosphere. Lastly, “The Ever After” is about a newly married couple who spend their wedding night at a haunted hotel. They’re visited by two ghosts, each revealing different things to the pair. It’s a great haunting short story about one’s past and hope for the future. Enjoy reading! 

“Surviving the Snowball Onslaught” by Tim Law at The World of Myth Magazine.

“The World To Come" by Jennifer Hudak at Strange Horizons.

“Amara” by Polina Slepac at Sans Press.

“The Ever After” by Laura Mullen at Crow & Cross Keys.

🌟 Writing Prompt

Writing Exercise: Beating the Blues

Your protagonist goes on a walk. The sun is shining, and after being stuck inside for weeks due to a blizzard, they are determined to make the most of it.

It is a glorious walk. They can feel the sun’s rays warming them more than the exercise does. It is great to get some vitamin D.

But their skin begins to itch. They unknowingly begin to scratch and scratch until they dig their nails under their flesh. They scratch deeper and deeper, their screams echoing through the woodland. An isolated place where no one would find them.

What happens next is up to you…Let your imagination run wild!

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🌟 Weekly Post Roundup

Call for Pacific Northwest Spec Fic

🌲 Sley House Publishing wants horror, sci fi, fantasy and more rooted in the Pacific Northwest.

Pay is 35 dollars per accepted piece.

Submission window Jan 1 to 3 2026.

Open Call WAXEN Spring 2026 Horror Submissions

Submit occult and weird horror to WAXEN Spring 2026 from Shtriga Books.

Fiction up to 5,000 words, plus poetry and illustrations.

50 dollar flat fee per accepted piece.

Deadline March 15 2026.

Call for Horror: NEED Anthology

Submit horror about addiction, hunger, obsession and other all consuming NEED for this anthology.

Up to 2,000 words, 20 dollar pay, deadline Feb 28 2026.

Last Girls Club Haunted Feminist Horror Submissions

Submit haunted feminist horror to Last Girls Club Winter Spring 2026.

Theme Haunted.

Short stories to 2,500 words, flash to 1,000, poems under 200.

Sub window Jan 1 to 15 2026.

Pay for all accepted pieces.

Passing Strange Queer Weird Arthurian Tales Call

Submit queer weird Arthurian stories to Passing Strange.

3,000 to 10,000 words, 0.05 USD per word up to 500.

Deadline August 31, 2026.

Speculative takes on Arthur, knights and myth.

Whump In Space Non Earth Sci Fi Call

🚀 Submit your non Earth sci fi to Whump In Space. Micro, flash, short stories and novelettes up to 17,500 words.

Contributor copy or 10 USD.

Half of proceeds go to charity.

Deadline March 31 2026.

Thanks for reading!

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