This Week in Speculative Fiction with The Horror Tree for 12/18/2025

Author

Stuart Conover
December 19, 2025

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Word of the week: Sepulchral - adjective relating to a tomb or interment as well as gloomy and dismal.

Hi readers and writers! Welcome back (or if it is your first time here, hello there) to the Horror Tree Newsletter. This week sees me full of a cold and sinus infection. I don’t know if this is an improvement from last week, haha. I’ve cheered up with the Yule/Christmas spirit, so that’s a plus. Can you believe there are only six more sleeps til the 25th? (If my calculations are correct) I’m not ready! It will be a last-minute dash for presents. In writing news, my book review of fellow Horror Tree member Stephanie Ellis ‘Harrowfield’ was published this week, and I highly recommend you check out this folk horror book. What I want now is a good Yule folk horror book to read this holiday. Does anyone have any recommendations? Have a great holiday, everyone! 

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.
It’s the holiday season, and I’m just here to wish you happy holidays. For those who celebrate and those who don’t, I hope you have a great time this year and, at the very least, can get some reading and writing time in.

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

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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, Jane Friedman’s blog has writer, editor, and critic Lisa Levy explore the importance of comps. Comps are comparison titles, such as books and films from the last two years, that have something crucial in common with your own novel. It is a marketing tool that could be your strongest ally to a publishing deal, but many authors find their mind goes blank or they can’t find the right comp to fit their unique book, so check out this article for tips. Next Writer’s Digest looks at how to advertise your writer’s podcast and gain further attention. From QR Codes to collaborating writers, there’s some great advice here to help spread the word for your podcast. In craft, Fiction University looks at the difference between tricking your reader and surprising your reader. Ideally, we don’t want to trick our readers, as it can deter them from continuing to read our future work or even finish reading the book. Instead, we must carefully structure our trick into a surprise or an ‘I didn’t see that coming’. Have a read on how to possibly achieve this.

Business:

Jane Friedman: “Comps Can Clinch Your Query”

Writer’s Digest: “Easy Podcast Promotion for Writers”

Craft:

From Horror Tree:

🌟 Free Fiction Roundup

As it is the last Friday before Christmas, this week’s free fiction is getting into the festive tradition of telling ghost stories. Who’s ready for a good spook? Firstly, “They Try The New Christmas Dress” is a spooky flash fiction about a ghost who animates a dry Christmas tree. It is a rich, imaginative world that ends with a dark cliffhanger. Next, “The Ghosts Of Me Are In Your Machine” is a long narrative poem about ghosts as memories that were stolen. There’s a dark tone of exploring identity and grotesque scenes, such as animal death and blood. Lastly, “Hauntings” is a flash story where the narrator reveals all of their ghost experiences and their attempts to rectify it. It reminded me of one of those tales you’d hear on the Uncanny podcast, but rather than focusing on one, the narrator reveals they've always been haunted. Very eerie! Enjoy reading!

“They Try The New Christmas Dress” by Mir Rainbird at A Coup of Owls (Winter 2025 Issue, page 7).

“The Ghosts of Me Are in Your Machine" by R.B. Lemberg at Strange Horizons.

“Hauntings” by Michelle Champagne at Crow & Cross Keys.

🌟 Writing Prompt

Writing Exercise: Jólakötturinn

There’s a new family on the street who doesn’t know what lurks in the woods. When the neighbours give them woolly hats, scarves, and gloves for Xmas, the family scoffs behind closed doors and throws them on the fire. For these gifts are ill-made, itchy to the skin, and full of lice.

When Xmas arrives, the family dines in their pyjamas on roasted turkey, freshly-baked gingerbread, and melt-in-your-mouth chocolates. 

Darkness descends fast, and as the family slouch on the sofa watching TV, a loud bang from above causes them to jump. Someone was pounding across their roof and breathing heavily.

Then that ‘someone’ yowls, scratching a hole into the ceiling, with an appetite for those not wearing new holiday clothes. 

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

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🌟 Weekly Post Roundup

Fairy Tale Magazine – Tree Spirit Submission Call (Jan 2026)

🌿 Fairy Tale Magazine is open January 15–21, 2026 for fairy-tale style stories and poems about the Green Man/Woman, dryads, Yaksha, Woodwose, and other tree spirits.

PG, lore-rich, nature-centered.

$25 per accepted piece.

Call for Submissions – The Ranger’s Almanac (Forest & Park Stories)

Love writing stories rooted in the wild?

 🌲 The Ranger’s Almanac is open for their Winter 2025 window, seeking short fiction (500–10,000 words), poems, art, photos, and music inspired by forests or parks.

Pays $5 per 500 words for stories, plus payments for other media.

PG-13 or below.

Deadline: February 28, 2026

Ongoing Call – Crepuscular Magazine Microfiction (10¢/word)

Crepuscular Magazine seeks paid microfiction (up to 250 words) that lives in the gray areas between night & day, real & unreal. 🌒

Ongoing submissions, 10¢/word (min $5).

Horrific Scribblings New Year’s Apocalypse Challenge – Horror Submission Call

Write the end of the world for the New Year. Horrific Scribblings seeks dark, unconventional apocalypse tales (1,500–5,000 words) for their New Year’s Apocalypse Challenge.

$25 payment

Deadline January 15, 2026.

Taking Submissions: TEETH Horror Anthology – Dreampunk Press

Dreampunk Press is seeking eerie, creepy, Gothic short stories about TEETH for a new horror anthology.

3,000–3,500 words, no extreme gore, $200 per accepted story.

Deadline March 31, 2026.

Inner Worlds – January 2026 Spec Fic Submission Window

Inner Worlds is seeking 500–2,500 word science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror with a strong emotional or psychological focus.

Jan 1–14 reserved for marginalised authors, Jan 15–31 open to all.

Pays £0.02/word.

Thanks for reading!

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