This Week in Speculative Fiction with The Horror Tree for 11/28/2025

Author

Stuart Conover
November 28, 2025

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Word of the week: Geniophobia - a fear of chins.

Hi readers and writers! Welcome back (or if it is your first time here, hello there) to the Horror Tree Newsletter. Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and if you celebrate, I hope you had a lovely time. It is now the last weekend of November, and we’ll be welcoming December and then the New Year before you know it. Who’s ready? Not me! I have started my Xmas shopping, but that’s because I have a big family with so little time due to my disability, so it makes sense to be organised. This past week I celebrated the publication of The Best of Carnage House Year Two anthology which includes my story ‘Tippity Twitchet’. It was recommended to me that I should throw my hat in the ring and ask for this story to be nominated for the Splatterpunk Awards. Now I’ve never, and I mean never, been nominated or put a request in for my story to be in for a chance, so to have that suggestion that I should do it is a big deal. I feel in awe and so thankful. For more info on this, please look on my social media.    

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.

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🌟 Horror Tree / Trembling With Fear Updates

Hi all.
I mentioned last week that we were working on pushing forward on our already-late next edition of Trembling With Fear, and I’ve got some news there! While we probably won’t have anything to report on it next week, we MAY have picked out our next cover!

No news on the writing front. I’ve got about five works that I’m trying to finish up before deadlines, and a couple of novellas that I’m trying to finish off as well.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a great time and have plenty to be thankful for!

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!
- Offhand, if you've ordered Trembling With Fear Volume 6, we'd appreciate a review!

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. I am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

And now, I will return you to your regularly scheduled newsletter!

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“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, Business, and Craft. Firstly, Burial Books has guest blogger and writer Fiona Jones dive into how she places children in her horror stories. I’ve noticed a growing debate on social media about including children in horrific situations in our stories, and it is quite alarming. ‘No Child Abuse’ is included in many submission guidelines, and it isn’t there to be ignored, even for creativity. So, where can we include children in our horror? Fiona Jones provides some answers. Next in business, Author Media looks into algorithms and how the Amazon algorithm selects the bestsellers. By understanding how it works, it could help you bring your book to the forefront, yet we must remember that the algorithm is programmed by the readers. Lastly, in craft, Fiction University explores how to identify when your story is overwritten and how to fix your ‘flowery language’. I’m certainly guilty of this. I have often overwritten my stories, trying to show my readers with great imagery and description, but it is too much! Learning to pull it back is a discipline, and Janice Hardy shows how.  

General:

Business:

Craft:

From Horror Tree:

🌟 Free Fiction Roundup

This week’s free fiction is horror around the theme of ‘inheritance’ from dark powers to cursed objects.  Firstly “My Great Grandmother’s Eyes” is a spooky flash story told from first-person narrative who compares themselves to their grandmother. Same hair, same eyes, while hoping they don’t end up like their grandmother. It is an enjoyable read with a great cliffhanger. Next “Like Mother, Like Son” is an eerie flash story told from first-person narrative of a banshee’s son who is warned to always close his ears and stay low, out of sight. Very compelling read. Next “Madam Painte: For Sale” is a horror short story and podcast told in second person who is persuaded to listen to the story of a strange sculpture called Madam Painte. The sculpture is made out of lead and is blamed for murdering people. Is it cursed though? You be the judge. Lastly, “Keepsake Box” is a horror flash story told in second person as ‘you’ tries to sell a keepsake box that seems to have a life of its own. It wants you to admire it and wills you to open it. The threat of the box has a wonderful sense of dread and curiosity. Enjoy reading!   

“My Great Grandmother’s Eyes” by Kay Hanifen at Stygian Lepus (Edition 29, pp. 55-57)

“Like Mother, Like Son” by Riel Rosehill at Crow & Cross Keys.

“Madame Painte: For Sale” by John Langan at PseudoPod.

“Keepsake Box” by Lynn Wiser at 34 Orchard (Issue 12, Fall 2025, pp. 15-17)

🌟 Writing Prompt

Writing Exercise: To Be Grateful

Your protagonist goes to their parent’s home for Thanksgiving, pie in hand and alone. Newly divorced, it has not been a good year for them. Even their relationship with their parents is strained, which is why everyone eats the cold turkey in uncomfortable silence.

Until their father begins choking. His face turns purple, but no matter how many times the protagonist pats his back and inspects his throat, there’s nothing inside. It is like he is choking on air. 

Their mother watches calmly, as the protagonist rings for an ambulance. It is too little too late.

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

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🌟 Weekly Post Roundup

Tales of Sley House – Cozy Folk Horror Call

Tales of Sley House is open Dec 1–3, 2025 for cozy folk horror on Patreon: stories, poems, and art up to 6k words, paying 35 dollars per piece, later collected in their annual anthology. Warm, pastoral horror with something unsettling beneath the surface.

Call for Weird Cosmic Body Horror – YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM

Tenebrous Press is seeking Weird Cosmic Body Horror/SFF from trans and GNC creators for YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM, a charity anthology.

🌌 Up to 4,000 words

♻️ Reprints welcome

💸 3c/word originals, $25 reprints & art

📅 Deadline: Jan 10, 2026

Guidelines:

Call for Queer Timefuckery Flash – Baffling Magazine

Baffling Magazine is open Dec 1–15, 2025 for speculative flash with a queer bent 🌀🌈

• SF/F/H under 1,200 words (they love very short pieces)

• Theme: “timefuckery” plus unthemed work

• Pay: 8¢/word, simsubs encouraged

Guidelines via Horror Tree:

Taking Submissions: MONSTER MAYHEM – Halloween Monster Anthology

Submit your best Halloween horror to MONSTER MAYHEM 🎃👹

This anthology is seeking:

• 1,500–7,500 word stories

• Strong Halloween themes

• At least one monster at the center of the tale

• Payment of $15 per accepted story via PayPal

• Only 10 available slots

🗓 Deadline: August 31st, 2026

Guidelines:

OTHERSIDE – 2SLGBTQIA+ Speculative Submissions (Jan 2026)

OTHERSIDE is open in January 2026 for speculative fiction, poetry & nonfiction by 2SLGBTQIA+ creators 🌈

📅 Jan 1–14: general subs

📅 Jan 15–21: BIPOC, trans &/or disabled authors only

💰 8¢/word fiction, $50/poem, $100 nonfiction, $100/story for fiction reprints

Details via Horror Tree:

Call for Submissions – A Year of Horse Fantasy 🐎

Epona Muse Publishing is seeking stories for A Year of Horse Fantasy, an anthology of fantasy where horses (and horse-adjacent beings like unicorns, pegasi, centaurs, mules, etc.) are true characters.

📏 1,000–6,000 words

💸 Royalties: author share of 70% of royalties

📅 Deadline: Feb 17, 2026

🚫 No horse death, animal abuse, horror, gore, or explicit erotica

Details via Horror Tree:

Thanks for reading!

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