C.J. Dotson
C.J. DOTSON possesses the statistically average number of body parts for a human being to have. She and her husband, stepson, and children (all of whom also appear human) share a cabin in the woods with more bugs than she would ever like to see. In her limited spare time she enjoys reading, video games, painting, baking and decorating cakes (with…questionable success), and petting her dog and five cats. Visit her at cjdotsonauthor.com or cjdotsonsdreadfuldispatch.substack.com
If you like author C.J. Dotson here is the list of authors you may also like
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Pedro Íñiguez
Pedro Iniguez is a speculative fiction writer who also enjoys reading and painting.
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His work can be found in magazines and anthologies such as Space and Time Magazine, Crossed Genres, Dig Two Graves, Tiny Nightmares, Deserts of Fire, and Altered States II.
His cyberpunk novel, Control Theory (Indie Authors Press,2016) and his 10-year collection, Synthetic Dawns & Crimson Dusks, (Indie Authors Press,2020) are available on Amazon.
Originally from Los Angeles, he now resides in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he is currently working on his second novel. -
Amelinda Bérubé
I write about ghosts and monsters and other things that go bump in the night. My books tend to include a liberal sprinkling of weird Canadiana and the occasional zombie metaphor.
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I am an eternal fangirl for YA and SFF, but any book that makes me laugh, makes me cry, or creeps me out will have my heart forever. My very favorites tend to have a thinky, supernatural flavor and don't explain too much.
In my other lives I'm a public service editor, a mother of two, and a passionate gardener. I live in Ottawa, Canada, in a perpetual whirlwind of unfinished projects and cat hair. -
Jacob Moon
Jacob began reading voraciously as a teen, enjoying everything from Stephen King to Agatha Christie to 19th and 20th Century classics. Although he still enjoys many of those authors and books, his taste as an adult has evolved to include literary, historical nonfiction, and contemporary crime authors.
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Jacob is also the published author of over thirty short stories, most notably a title that appeared in 'The Saturday Evening Post.' He self-published his three crime novels, all standalones. The most recent, 'Letter 26,' won the 2025 Maxy Award for Best Horror & Suspense Novel.
In his free time Jacob enjoys sports, traveling, and playing guitar. His work-in-progress is a memoir chronicling his many harrowing jail experiences.
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Jon Bassoff
Jon Bassoff is the author of nine novels. His mountain gothic novel, CORROSION, has been translated in French and German and was nominated for the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, France’s biggest crime fiction award. His psycho-noir novel, THE DISASSEMBLED MAN, has been adapted for the big screen with a filming date set to begin within the next hundred years. He also wrote the screenplay for BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE, which was named semi-finalist at the New York Cinematography Awards and a finalist at the Seattle Film Festival for best short film.
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His novels have been lauded by authors like Craig Johnson (LONGMIRE series), James Grady (SIX DAYS OF THE CONDOR), Rob Hart (THE WAREHOUSE), Paul Trembley (A HEADFUL OF GHOSTS), S.A. Cosby (RAZOR -
Collin Armstrong
Collin Armstrong has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade developing, writing, and producing material for outlets including 20th Century Fox TV, ABC Family, Bleecker Street, Viaplay, Discovery, and the LA Times Studios. Polybius is his first novel. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children.
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Crissy Van Meter
Crissy Van Meter is a writer based in Los Angeles.
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She teaches creative writing at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the founder of the literary project Five Quarterly, and the managing editor for Nouvella Books. She serves on the board of directors for the literary non-profit Novelly.
Her debut novel Creatures is out now from Algonquin Books. -
Melanie Golding
Melanie Golding grew up in Leicestershire, UK. Her first novel, Little Darlings, became an e-book bestseller and won the DragonCon award for Best Horror Novel 2019.
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Her second novel The Hidden, (titled The Replacement in the UK), was a B&N monthly pick in March 2023.
Her third novel: The Sight, is available now in all good bookstores and she has a fourth in development for publication in March 2027
She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University which examines the use of folklore in contemporary thrillers.
You can find more on facebook @melaniegoldingauthor
twitter @mk_golding,
instagram @melaniegoldingauthor
tiktok @melaniegoldingauthor -
Maureen Kilmer
Maureen Kilmer graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and three children. She does not have a She Shed, and thankfully has not had to battle the forces of darkness (unless going to Costco on a Saturday counts).
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She is the author of the upcoming HEX EDUCATION (9/19/23) and SUBURBAN HELL, released in 2022.
Under Maureen Leurck, she wrote CICADA SUMMER and MONARCH MANOR, both set in the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin area. -
Christopher Golden
CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Road of Bones, Ararat, Snowblind, Of Saints and Shadows, and Red Hands. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of the Outerverse comic book universe, including such series as Baltimore, Joe Golem: Occult Detective, and Lady Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, Dark Cities, and The New Dead, among others, and he has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and a network television pilot. Golden co-hosts the podcast Defenders Dialogue with horror author Brian Keene. In 2015 he founded the popular Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. He was born and raised in
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Craig DiLouie
Craig DiLouie is an author of popular thriller, apocalyptic/horror, and sci-fi/fantasy fiction.
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In hundreds of reviews, Craig’s novels have been praised for their strong characters, action, and gritty realism. Each book promises an exciting experience with people you’ll care about in a world that feels real.
These works have been nominated for major literary awards such as the Bram Stoker Award and Audie Award, translated into multiple languages, and optioned for film. He is a member of the HWA, International Thriller Writers, and IFWA. -
Philip Fracassi
PHILIP FRACASSI is the Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award-nominated author of the novels A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, Boys in the Valley, The Third Rule of Time Travel, and The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre. He is also the author of the story collections Behold the Void, Beneath a Pale Sky, and No One is Safe!
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His stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Black Static, Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, Interzone, and Southwest Review.
Philip lives in Los Angeles and is represented by Copps Literary Services, Circle M + P, and WME. You can find him on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky, or visit pfracassi.com. -
Erika T. Wurth
Erika T. Wurth’s novel WHITE HORSE is a New York Times editors pick, a Good Morning America buzz pick, and an Indie Next, Target book of the Month, and Book of the Month Pick. She is both a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow, and Kenyon faculty. She’s published in Buzzfeed, McSweeny’s, and The Writer’s Chronicle, and is a narrative artist for the Meow Wolf Denver installation. She’s a professor of creative writing at Western Illinois University. She’s represented by Rebecca Friedman. She’s an urban Native of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent and lives in Denver with her partner, niece, step-kids and two incredibly fluffy dogs. Her novel THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904 will be out with Flatiron books March 2025.
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Rachel Hawkins
Rachel Hawkins is the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs, Reckless Girls, The Villa, and The Heiress, as well as multiple books for young readers. Her work has been translated into over two dozen languages. She studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn University and currently lives in Alabama.
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Mira Grant
Mira also writes as Seanan McGuire.
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Born and raised in Northern California, Mira Grant has made a lifelong study of horror movies, horrible viruses, and the inevitable threat of the living dead. In college, she was voted Most Likely to Summon Something Horrible in the Cornfield, and was a founding member of the Horror Movie Sleep-Away Survival Camp, where her record for time survived in the Swamp Cannibals scenario remains unchallenged.
Mira lives in a crumbling farmhouse with an assortment of cats, horror movies, comics, and books about horrible diseases. When not writing, she splits her time between travel, auditing college virology courses, and watching more horror movies than is strictly good for you. Favorite vacation spots include Seatt -
Nat Cassidy
NAT CASSIDY is a national bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-nominated author whose acclaimed works include Mary ("One of the Best Horror Novels of All Time" - Audible), Nestlings, and Rest Stop. Esquire described him as one "of the best horror writers of this generation" and among the writers "shaping horror's next golden age." His award-winning plays have been produced across the country, including Off-Broadway and the Kennedy Center. You've also maybe seen Nat guest-starring on shows such as Law & Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, Bull, Quantico, FBI, and many others ... but that's a topic for a different bio. His newest novel, When the Wolf Comes Home, hit shelves in April 2025 and was called "a classic" by Stephen King. He lives in New York City
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Ronald Malfi
Ronald Malfi is the bestselling, award-winning author of many novels and novellas in the horror, mystery, and thriller genres. In 2011, his novel, Floating Staircase, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for best novel by the Horror Writers Association, and also won a gold IPPY award. Perhaps his most well-received novel, Come with Me (2021), about a man who learns a dark secret about his wife after she's killed, has received stellar reviews, including a starred review from BookPage, and Publishers Weekly has said, "Malfi impresses in this taut, supernaturally tinged mystery... and sticks the landing with a powerful denouement. There’s plenty here to enjoy."
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In 2024, Malfi was awarded the William G. Wilson Maryland Author Award for adult f -
Gretchen McNeil
Gretchen McNeil is the author of the YA horror/suspense novels POSSESS, 3:59, RELIC, GET EVEN, GET DIRTY, and TEN (a YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, a Romantic Times Top Pick, and a Booklist Top Ten Horror Fiction for Youth) all with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins. Gretchen’s first YA contemporary I’M NOT YOUR MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL, also with Balzer + Bray, hit shelves in 2016, and her next novel will be the horror-comedy #MURDERTRENDING for Disney/Freeform in August 2018.
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Gretchen’s novels have been published internationally in Chinese, Spanish, Turkish, and Czech. The film adaptation of TEN starring China Anne McClain (Descendants 2, Black Lightning), Rome Flynn (The Bold and the Beautiful), and Callan McAulif -
Wendy N. Wagner
Wendy N. Wagner grew up in a town so tiny it didn’t even have a post office. With no television reception, she became a rabid reader, waiting impatiently for the bookmobile’s fortnightly visit to her tiny hometown. Today, her family struggles to find room for her expanding book collection in their Portland, Oregon, home.
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Wendy's work ranges from horror novels to poetry to environmental essays. Her books include THE SECRET SKIN (a gothic novella), THE DEER KINGS (a horror novel), AN OATH OF DOGS (science fantasy), and two tie-in novels for the Pathfinder role-playing game. A Hugo award-winning editor of short fiction, she currently serves as the editor of NIGHTMARE MAGAZINE and the managing/senior editor of LIGHTSPEED. -
Michael Wehunt
MICHAEL WEHUNT has been a finalist for multiple Shirley Jackson Awards and was shortlisted for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts' Crawford Award. In Spain, his stories have garnered nominations for the Premio Ignotus and Premio Amaltea, winning the latter. He haunts the woods outside Atlanta with his partner and their dog. Together, they hold the horrors at bay. Find him in the digital trees at www.michaelwehunt.com.
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Eric LaRocca
Eric LaRocca (he/they) is a 3x Bram Stoker Award® finalist, a Shirley Jackson Award nominee, and a 2x Splatterpunk Award winner. He was named by Esquire as one of the “Writers Shaping Horror’s Next Golden Age” and praised by Locus as “one of the strongest and most unique voices in contemporary horror fiction.” LaRocca’s notable works include Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Everything the Darkness Eats, and At Dark, I Become Loathsome. He currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with his partner.
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Kristi DeMeester
Kristi DeMeester is the author of Beneath, published by Word Horde, and Everything That's Underneath by Apex Books. Her short fiction has been included in Ellen Datlow's Year's Best Horror Volumes 9 and 11, Year's Best Weird Fiction Volumes 1, 3, and 5, and Stephen Jone's Best New Horror. Her short fiction has also appeared in publications such as Black Static, The Dark, Pseudopod, as well as several others. In her spare time, she alternates between telling people how to pronounce her last name and how to spell her first.
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Avery Curran
Avery Curran studied History at university, where she first became interested in spiritualism. She finished an MA in Victorian Studies in 2021, and is now midway through a PhD on spiritualism and queerness in the nineteenth century. She was born in New York City and currently lives in London with her girlfriend and their cat.
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K.C. Jones
After graduating from the University of Nevada—Las Vegas with a degree in film production, KC JONES returned to the Pacific Northwest to focus on a career in screenwriting, before making the leap to novels. When not writing, he likes to cook, explore the local wilderness, and play video and board games. Black Tide is his debut novel.
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Harlequin Grim
Mortuary worker turned full-time circus artist, Harlequin Grim leads a dual life as an entertainer and writer. He co-founded The Grim Theatre, a troupe dedicated to creating dark yet whimsical stories through literary, illustrative, and performing arts.
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Isabel Cañas
Isabel Cañas is a Mexican American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York City, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage.
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Rachel Harrison
Rachel Harrison is the author of The Return, nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica and Electric Lit. She lives in New York with her husband and their cat/overlord.
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Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. -
Collin Armstrong
Collin Armstrong has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade developing, writing, and producing material for outlets including 20th Century Fox TV, ABC Family, Bleecker Street, Viaplay, Discovery, and the LA Times Studios. Polybius is his first novel. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children.
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James Lloyd Dulin
James is a nerd with a head full of stories and limited time to put them on the page.
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He grew up in Grand Rapids, MI, spending an excessive amount of time at a local community theater where he developed his affinity for storytelling. This affinity grew into a deep admiration for language and spoken word poetry while studying mathematics and education at the University of Michigan. A few hundred mediocre poems and lackluster performances later, he decided his dream of writing a novel might not be as ridiculous as he once thought. He firmly believes that art—even silly books about magic, or maybe especially silly books about magic—has the ability to tell stories that sink beneath the surface. -
K.C. Jones
After graduating from the University of Nevada—Las Vegas with a degree in film production, KC JONES returned to the Pacific Northwest to focus on a career in screenwriting, before making the leap to novels. When not writing, he likes to cook, explore the local wilderness, and play video and board games. Black Tide is his debut novel.
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Erika T. Wurth
Erika T. Wurth’s novel WHITE HORSE is a New York Times editors pick, a Good Morning America buzz pick, and an Indie Next, Target book of the Month, and Book of the Month Pick. She is both a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow, and Kenyon faculty. She’s published in Buzzfeed, McSweeny’s, and The Writer’s Chronicle, and is a narrative artist for the Meow Wolf Denver installation. She’s a professor of creative writing at Western Illinois University. She’s represented by Rebecca Friedman. She’s an urban Native of Apache/Chickasaw/Cherokee descent and lives in Denver with her partner, niece, step-kids and two incredibly fluffy dogs. Her novel THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904 will be out with Flatiron books March 2025.
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Sam Paisley
Sam was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario Canada.
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Driven by a lifelong passion for storytelling, Sam has made it his mission as an author to create worlds and stories that bring joy and escapism to others.
Having completed the first entry in his Elements of Time trilogy, he his hard at work on the final two instalments.
If you like his work, want to learn more about the series, or find additional content beyond the books, please visit www.elementsoftime.ca -
Toni Halleen
Toni Halleen worked for many years as an employment law attorney. She was born and raised in the Midwest, earned a B.A. in Women's Studies from Mount Holyoke College and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota. Toni won Mentor Prize in fiction from the Loft Literary Center, and her writing has appeared in Wigleaf, Structo, Gravel, and the Star Tribune.
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Aurora Hardy
I was born and raised in Alaska. I am Alaska Native. I was the first indigenous woman to graduate from the University of Montana at Missoula School of Forestry with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry. I love to fish, berry pick and explore, as well as learn about Alaska. I have published 3 books with a fourth on the way. I love to share stories from a native perspective. I love adventures and life.
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Allison Gunn
Allison Gunn is a researcher, writer, and tarot reader with a penchant for all things whimsical and strange. An alum of University of Maryland, Allison has extensively studied marginalized communities as well as folklore.
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She currently resides in the wonderfully weird land of West Virginia with her twin daughters, precocious pup, and one seriously troubled tabby.
Allison is represented by Logan Harper with the Jane Rotrosen Agency. Her debut horror novel, NOWHERE (Atria | 2025) is currently available for pre-order. -
Harlequin Grim
Mortuary worker turned full-time circus artist, Harlequin Grim leads a dual life as an entertainer and writer. He co-founded The Grim Theatre, a troupe dedicated to creating dark yet whimsical stories through literary, illustrative, and performing arts.
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Jon M. Sweeney
Jon M. Sweeney is an independent scholar and writer of popular history. He is married, the father of three, and lives in Montpelier, Vermont. He has worked in book publishing for 25 years: after co-founding SkyLight Paths Publishing, he was the editor in chief and publisher at Paraclete Press, and in August 2015 became editorial director at Franciscan Media Books.
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He has written more than 20 books, seven about Francis of Assisi, including "When Saint Francis Saved the Church" and "The Complete Francis of Assisi." HBO has optioned the film rights to "The Pope Who Quit."
Jon's first 20 years were spent as an involved evangelical (a story told in the memoir "Born Again and Again"); he then spent 22 years as an active Episcopalian (see "Almost Ca -
Avery Curran
Avery Curran studied History at university, where she first became interested in spiritualism. She finished an MA in Victorian Studies in 2021, and is now midway through a PhD on spiritualism and queerness in the nineteenth century. She was born in New York City and currently lives in London with her girlfriend and their cat.
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Kate Risse
I'm the author of the novel: Inland
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https://www.katerisse.com/
I teach at Tufts University.
When I'm not in Boston, I like to spend
time on Dog Island, on the Florida Panhandle, and
in the Mountains of Vermont, just outside of Montpelier. -
Dolores Johnson
Dolores Johnson is a journalist who has worked on newspapers in Oregon, California, Wyoming and Colorado, but she always wanted to write and sell a murder mystery. She tried writing books about an investigative reporter and a newspaper editor, but it wasn't until she wrote a book about a dry cleaner, using her background as a free-lance writer and field reporter for American Drycleaner, that she met with success.
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Series:
* Mandy Dyer Mystery -
Jackson Kuhl
JACKSON KUHL is the author of the Gothic mysteries The Island of Small Misfortunes and A Season of Whispers , as well as the Revolutionary War biography Samuel Smedley, Connecticut Privateer. He has worked as a journalist, ghostwriter, and freelance writer and editor. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies. Kuhl lives in coastal Connecticut.
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Thomas Howard Riley
Thomas Howard Riley currently resides in the wasteland metropolis, where he reads ancient books, plays ancient games, watches ancient movies, jams on ancient guitars, and writes furiously day and night. He sometimes appears on clear nights when the moon is gibbous, and he has often been seen in the presence of cats.
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He always wanted to make up his own worlds, tell his own stories, write his own history, create his own people, honor the truths of life, and explore both the light and the darkness of human nature. With a few swords thrown in for good measure.
And some magick. Awesome magick.
He can be found digitally at THOMASHOWARDRILEY.COM
On Twitter he is @ornithopteryx, where he is sometimes funny, always clever, and never mean. -
C.J. Daley
C. J. Daley lives in New York. He is the author of Welcome to Cemetery, his full-length crime thriller debut, as well as a full accompanying short story collection, Tales From Cemetery. BestGhost was his first sampler on the road to release. He enjoys smaller pieces that give hints to his created worlds at large, and he loves blending genres with dark descriptors. He hopes this won’t be the last you hear from him, and if you enjoyed, please consider leaving a review on Amazon, BookBub, Goodreads, StoryGraph, Literal Book Club—or share with a friend.
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Follow along for more news @ CJDsCurrentRead / @ CJDaleyWrites on social media
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Dylan James
Dylan James is the author of a dozen plus short stories and poetry publications, appearing in Horror Tree’s Trembling With Fear, Moria Literary Magazine, and more.
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His nonfiction novel Brothers peaked at #3 on Barnes & Noble’s History Bestsellers.
His horror fiction novel Cedar Mills (Savage Realms Press) was published in 2025. -
Marcel Feldmar
Marcel Feldmar was born and raised in Vancouver, BC—(That’s Canada, eh?). He studied creative writing at Capilano College and then ended up spending some time in an institution called The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and now he lives in Los Angeles where his words often get caught in traffic.
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He has had more bands than girlfriends, but now he is married and not playing music, even though he’s been mistaken for Ric Ocasek on more than one occasion.
Marcel is a regular contributor to the Big Takeover, a music magazine based in New York. His musical journalism has also appeared in columns, reviews, articles, and interviews in a variety of ‘zines and magazines.
Marcel’s poetic writings have appeared in one small book of poetry enti -
Elizabeth Broadbent
Elizabeth Broadbent (she/her) left the South Carolina swamps for the Commonwealth of Virginia. She’s the author of Ink Vine (Undertaker Books), Ninety-Eight Sabers (Undertaker Books), Blood Cypress (2025, Raw Dog Screaming Press), and Breaking Neverland (2026, Sley House Publications).
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Her speculative fiction has appeared with Hyphenpunk, Tales to Terrify, If There's Anyone Left, Penumbric, and The Cafe Irreal, among other places. During her long career as a journalist, her nonfiction appeared in places such as The Washington Post, Insider, and ADDitude Magazine.