#Linda D. Addison

[nettirw]

YOU, HUMAN - OPEN SUBMISSION CALL FOR VOL. 2: NOVELETTES

Written Backwards is open to submissions for You, Human, Vol. 2 for the month of September, 2024. Basically, send a submission using the guidelines below between 12:01 a.m. on September 1st (your time zone) through midnight on September 30th. Any submissions sent before or after that window will go unread and will not be considered. YOU, HUMAN The first volume of You, Human (2016) won the…

[thaoworra]

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association recently released the poems that made it to the finalist stage for consideration for the 2024 Rhysling Awards for Short and Long Speculative Poems of the year. Congratulations to all of the nominees! This will be the 46th year these awards have been conferred!

Short Poems (50 finalists)

Attn: Prime Real Estate Opportunity!, Emily Ruth Verona, Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Collection Volume II

The Beauty of Monsters, Angela Liu, Small Wonders 1

The Blight of Kezia, Patricia Gomes, HWA Poetry Showcase X

The Day We All Died, A Little, Lisa Timpf, Radon 5

Deadweight, Jack Cooper, Propel 7

Dear Mars, Susan L. Lin, The Sprawl Mag 1.2

Dispatches from the Dragon's Den, Mary Soon Lee, Star*Line 46.2

Dr. Jekyll, West Ambrose, Thin Veil Press December

First Eclipse: Chang-O and the Jade Hare, Emily Jiang, Uncanny 53

Five of Cups Considers Forgiveness, Ali Trotta, The Deadlands 31

Gods of the Garden, Steven Withrow, Spectral Realms 19

The Goth Girls' Gun Gang, Marisca Pichette, The Dread Machine 3.2

Guiding Star, Tim Jones, Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, ed. Lee Murray (Clan Destine Press)

Hallucinations Gifted to Me by Heatstroke, Morgan L. Ventura, Banshee 15

hemiplegic migraine as willing human sacrifice, Ennis Rook Bashe, Eternal Haunted Summer Winter Solstice

Hi! I am your Cortical Update!, Mahaila Smith, Star*Line 46.3

How to Make the Animal Perfect?, Linda D. Addison, Weird Tales 100

I Dreamt They Cast a Trans Girl to Give Birth to the Demon, Jennessa Hester, HAD October

Invasive, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Polar Starlight 9

kan-da-ka, Nadaa Hussein, Apparition Lit 23

Language as a Form of Breath, Angel Leal, Apparition Lit October

The Lantern of September, Scott Couturier, Spectral Realms 19

Let Us Dream, Myna Chang, Small Wonders 3

The Magician's Foundling, Angel Leal, Heartlines Spec 2

The Man with the Stone Flute, Joshua St. Claire, Abyss & Apex 87

Mass-Market Affair, Casey Aimer, Star*Line 46.4

Mom's Surprise, Francis W. Alexander, Tales from the Moonlit Path June

A Murder of Crows, Alicia Hilton, Ice Queen 11

No One Now Remembers, Geoffrey Landis, Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov./Dec.

orion conquers the sky, Maria Zoccula, On Spec 33.2

Pines in the Wind, Karen Greenbaum-Maya, The Beautiful Leaves (Bamboo Dart Press)

The Poet Responds to an Invitation from the AI on the Moon, T.D. Walker, Radon Journal 5

A Prayer for the Surviving, Marisca Pichette, Haven Speculative 9

Pre-Nuptial, F. J. Bergmann, The Vampiricon (Mind's Eye Publications)

The Problem of Pain, Anna Cates, Eye on the Telescope 49

The Return of the Sauceress, F. J. Bergmann, The Flying Saucer Poetry Review February

Sea Change, David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Ann K. Schwader, Scifaikuest May

Seed of Power, Linda D. Addison, The Book of Witches ed. Jonathan Strahan (Harper Collins)

Sleeping Beauties, Carina Bissett, HWA Poetry Showcase X

Solar Punks, J. D. Harlock, The Dread Machine 3.1

Song of the Last Hour, Samuel A. Betiku, The Deadlands 22

Sphinx, Mary Soon Lee, Asimov's September/October

Storm Watchers (a drabbun), Terrie Leigh Relf, Space & Time

Sunflower Astronaut, Charlie Espinosa, Strange Horizons July

Three Hearts as One, G. O. Clark, Asimov's May/June

Troy, Carolyn Clink, Polar Starlight 12

Twenty-Fifth Wedding Anniversary, John Grey, Medusa's Kitchen September

Under World, Jacqueline West, Carmina Magazine September

Walking in the Starry World, John Philip Johnson, Orion's Belt May

Whispers in Ink, Angela Yuriko Smith, Whispers from Beyond (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Long Poems (25 finalists)

Archivist of a Lost World, Gerri Leen, Eccentric Orbits 4

As the witch burns, Marisca Pichette, Fantasy 87

Brigid the Poet, Adele Gardner, Eternal Haunted Summer Summer Solstice

Coding a Demi-griot (An Olivian Measure), Armoni “Monihymn” Boone, Fiyah 26

Cradling Fish, Laura Ma, Strange Horizons May

Dream Visions, Melissa Ridley Elmes, Eccentric Orbits 4

Eight Dwarfs on Planet X, Avra Margariti, Radon Journal 3

The Giants of Kandahar, Anna Cates, Abyss & Apex 88

How to Haunt a Northern Lake, Lora Gray, Uncanny 55

Impostor Syndrome, Robert Borski, Dreams and Nightmares 124

The Incessant Rain, Rhiannon Owens, Evermore 3

Interrogation About A Monster During Sleep Paralysis, Angela Liu, Strange Horizons November

Little Brown Changeling, Lauren Scharhag, Aphelion 283

A Mere Million Miles from Earth, John C. Mannone, Altered Reality April

Pilot, Akua Lezli Hope, Black Joy Unbound eds. Stephanie Andrea Allen & Lauren Cherelle (BLF Press)

Protocol, Jamie Simpher, Small Wonders 5

Sleep Dragon, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

Slow Dreaming, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

St. Sebastian Goes To Confession, West Ambrose, Mouthfeel 1

Value Measure, Joseph Halden and Rhonda Parrish, Dreams and Nightmares 125

A Weather of My Own Making, Nnadi Samuel, Silver Blade 56

Welcoming the New Girl, Beth Cato, Penumbric October

What You Find at the Center, Elizabeth R McClellan, Haven Spec Magazine 12

The Witch Makes Her To-Do List, Theodora Goss, Uncanny 50

The Year It Changed, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Star*Line 46.4

Voting for the Rhysling Award begins July 1; a link to the ballot will be sent with the Rhysling Anthology, as well as with the July issue of Star*Line. More information on the Rhysling Award can be found here.

[graysongoal]

One thing I often don't do a lot of is toot my own horn. After the past week and a half, though, I'm happy to do so.

I attended my first ever GenCon, the largest tabletop game convention in North America. Attendance this year was a record-breaking 71k. One-way masking and protections unfortunately meant that my spouse and I came home early with out first-ever COVID-19 infections. We're healed up now and mostly well.

Attending the con was exciting, overwhelming, and pushed me towards growth in a number of ways. In addition to seeing friends, I also got to see, meet, and spend time with several of my favorite comedians, game creators, and writers.

Perhaps one of the most impactful moments for me was attending the writer's symposium, which reminded me how much I loved to write fiction in my youth. Once I hit high school, I began to see it the same way I saw non-fiction writing. I always tried to include too many details. Plus, I quickly got too busy and decided it wasn't for me anymore.

Lately, though, I've been writing more poetry. I've also been entertaining the idea of possibly writing a few TTRPGs or short stories.

So, when I heard that Brandon O'Brien (the Poet Laureate for Seattle WordCon 2025) and Linda D. Addison (five-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award) were co-hosting an open mic event, I nervously jumped at the chance to read probably my favorite poem I've ever written.

Hearing these two amazing individuals alongside a roomful of people respond positively to my words wasn't something I was prepared for. But, being that vulnerable with complete strangers in-person was restorative in ways that I can't even begin to express. That's especially true of hearing folks repeat and sit with the words I carefully crafted, taking in their weight.

I have experienced a great many fascinating and incredible things, and yet I quite honestly don't know that I've known such a wonderful feeling.

So, I'm sharing that same poem here. Feel free to read or listen to it, if you so choose.

As a note, this poem is about child abuse. However, it is spoken about in metaphor and there are no details. (It also has a happy ending.)

[wizardteampod]

It's Wakanda Wednesday!

A new episode of #WizardTeam is out now! We're discussing Bayana's pick from the Tales of Wakanda anthology, "Shadow Dreams" by Linda D. Addison. Listen now on your favorite podcast app!

And don't forget you can join us for live recordings! Our next recording will be this Saturday 5/11 (to leave Sunday for the mamas!). Stay tuned for the link!

[witchyfashion]

"Deliciously eerie.” —Leslie Rule, Bestselling Author From the notorious Lizzie Borden to the innumerable, haunted rooms of Sarah Winchester's mysterious mansion this offbeat, insightful, first-ever book of its kind from the brilliant guides behind “Boroughs of the Dead,” featured on NPR.org, The New York Times, and Jezebel, explores the history behind America’s female ghosts, the stereotypes, myths, and paranormal tales that swirl around them, what their stories reveal about us—and why they haunt us . . . Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction Sorrowful widows, vengeful jezebels, innocent maidens, wronged lovers, former slaves, even the occasional axe-murderess—America’s female ghosts differ widely in background, class, and circumstance. Yet one thing unites them: their ability to instill fascination and fear, long after their deaths. Here are the full stories behind some of the best-known among them, as well as the lesser-known—though no less powerful. Tales whispered in darkness often divulge more about the teller than the subject. America’s most famous female ghosts, from from ‘Mrs. Spencer’ who haunted Joan Rivers’ New York apartment to Bridget Bishop, the first person executed during the Salem witchcraft trials, mirror each era’s fears and prejudices. Yet through urban legends and campfire stories, even ghosts like the nameless hard-working women lost in the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire —achieve a measure of power and agency in death, in ways unavailable to them as living women. Riveting for skeptics and believers alike, with humor, curiosity, and expertise, A Haunted History of Invisible Women offers a unique lens on the significant role these ghostly legends play both within the spook-seeking corners of our minds and in the consciousness of a nation. "A Haunted History of Invisible Women looks beyond the legends of maligned female ghosts and gives us their real histories. It is both a meditation on the misogyny of a ghost-hunting culture that capitalizes on false narratives of sex and death, and a fascinating look at the flesh-and-blood women behind the ghost stories. This book is a long-overdue search for historic truth, yet it recognizes that “When it comes to ghosts, truth is as elusive as the spirits themselves.” —Chris Woodyard, Author of The Victorian Book of the Dead. Afterword by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Linda D. Addison

https://amzn.to/45U6ne6

[thotja]

thoughts on Predator: Eyes of the Demon

overall not as ground breaking as I was hoping for (granted im a weird transsexual fag IRL so i guess i have a lot of expectations that are unlikely to be met by the average sci fi author), but still some decent stories! i'd say 6.5-7/10 overall. rating for each of the stories under the cut (to keep this post from being like. a mile long):

• "The Titans" by Tim Lebbon – underwhelming plot but i enjoyed their poetic rivalry. 6/10 • "The Distance in Their Eyes" by Stephen Graham Jones – good little story with a twist. Didn't think much of it at first but I keep thinking about it. 9/10 • "Aftermath" by Bryan Thomas Schmidt – ENOUGH. OF. DUTCH. let the poor guy rest! that being said, the way we get a tantalizing 3 paragraphs or so of "baby's first hunt" is SO charming. would have been more if it was focused on HIM not dutch but it was ALL about Dutch so. 3/10 • "Proving Ground" by Linda D. Addison – yautja-centric! and focusing on political maneuvering! yippee! sadly still kinda whatever. 7/10 • "Lion of the Himalayas" by Ammar Habib – human focused but a much needed change of setting and at least was unique. One of the better stories imo! 8.5/10 • "The Fix is In" by Jonathan Maberry – another capitalist-military future story (i hate this genre btw) but i'm obsessed with the single surviving yautja tricking a group of humans just to hijack their ship since his was irrevocably fucked. kudos to you, bro! 5.5/10 • "Bitter Hunt" by Kim May – this one just raised too many questions it didn't have the length to answer. why was your son going around killing women and children??? at least u killed him yourself. i would be sooooo embarrassed in her shoes. i would say if it got more space to flesh itself out, it could've been great. but this version we get is solidly a 6.5/10 • "Field Trip" by Robert Greenberger – THE INFAMOUS BIRTH AND NURSING STORY!!!!!! i think i have the most beef with the world building in this story out of all them. like. why the fuck were her novices such misogynists??? hello?????? like ZERO respect / understanding of reproduction. u were a baby once too you know?! funny setup, annoying teen boy type behavior, questionable mom choices too (if she didn't want to have da baby on earth then why sign up for this job so close to your due date?), but ultimately, the reason i chose this book in the first place. so 10/10 for getting me, keeping me, and making me mad. • "Cannon Fodder" by Gini Koch – girl power! would have been better if they were lesbians at the end. 6/10 • "Little Miss Nightmare" by Peter Briggs – I like this writer's style the most out of all the other authors featured. I thought his human characters were at least interesting. AND the yautja featured was more of an anthropologist vs being exclusively there to trophy people. so she had more curiosity. I think a lack of curiosity in people's yautja characters is the most disservice they can do to them. 9.5/10 • "The Trophy" by A.R. Redington – NOT HOW IT WOULD'VE GONE DOWN. TAKING LOTSA POINTS FOR THAT. 2/10 (objectively not a bad story. but makes me mad) • "The Monster" by Michael Kogge – hey I've been there! really funny to have bigfoot fight predator, but underwhelming-ly written. 6/10 • "Ghost Story" by Joshua Pruett – I suspect you are not a geologist. 5/10 • "Sly Dark in the Daylight" by Yvonne Navarro – really funny to have a Bad Blood be the main yautja in the story. human centric of course but at least it was a different setup than typical "yautja hunting humans" type thing. Kinda addicted to the ending but also not how it would've ended in my opinion. 6/10 • "Dead Man's Switch" by Scott Sigler – yeah yeah engineered super beast hunting facility attracts yautja. of course. 6/10

[dzgrizzle]

Guy the Cat is checking out Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, edited by Jonathan Maberry. Guy loves that his friend Charles R. Rutledge is in the Table of Contents, because Charles is one of only four humans that Guy actually likes. Also in the TOC are James A. Moore, Lisa Morton, Linda D. Addison, Keith DeCandido, Scott Sigler, and a few of the ghosts my cats sometimes summon in the dark of the night (Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, Tennessee Williams).

[queer-book-society]

Title: Other Terrors

Author(s): Tananarive Due, Jennifer McMahon, S.A. Cosby, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, Michael Thomas Ford, Ann Dávila Cardinal, Christina Sng, Denise Dumars, Usman T. Malik, Annie Neugebauer, Gabino Iglesias, Hailey Piper, Nathan Carson, Shanna Heath, Tracy Cross, Linda D. Addison, Maxwell I. Gold, Larissa Glasser, Eugen Bacon, Holly Lyn Walrath, Jonathan Lees, M. E. Bronstein, Michael Hanson

Description: In Other Terrors, horror writers from a multitude of underrepresented backgrounds have created stories of everyday people, places, and things where something shifts, striking a deeper, much more primal, chord of fear. Are our eyes playing tricks on us, or is there something truly sinister lurking under the surface of what we thought we knew? And who among us is really the other, after all?

[nettirw]

MADNESS AND WRITERS

Previously only premiered prior to StokerCon‘s Final Frame Horror Short Film Competition, presented by the Horror Writers Association, the extended trailer for Madness and Writers: The Untold Truth. Maybe? is now available to watch worldwide. Simply click the image above. Madness and Writers: The Untold Truth. Maybe? (hosted by Lukas Hassel), will be a seven-part creative documentary series about…

[angela-yuriko-smith]

Authortunities #28-Space and Time Poets

Space and Time magazine poetry selections!

This week’s Authortunities has some interesting stuff: the Space and Time magazine poetry ToC (see below). We are still selecting fiction. We had more than double the submissions this time. Huge thank you as always to our poetry editor Linda D. Addison for these selections as well as everyone who submitted. 🚀And while I’m talking about Space and Time magazine, we are working on getting all…

[rg060295]

This list includes a list of 5 anthologies coming out between now, and the end of the year! I am based in the UK and therefore all dates and relevant links I have found reflect this!

In These Hallowed Halls: A Dark Academia Anthology

Published by Titian Books on September 12th 

Look I have not really enjoyed any dark academia I have read, nor have read from any of these authors so this is a risky choice. However, this is the season for dark academia and I am intrigued. This collection of 12 stories includes well known authors of the genre (sub genre?) Olivie Blake & M.L. Rio as well as David Bell, Susie Yang, Layne Fargo, J.T. Ellison, James Tate Hill, Kelly Andrew, Phoebe Qynne, Kate Weinberg, Helen Grant & Tori Bovalino. 

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon //

Peach Pit 

Published by Dzanc Books on September 12th 

A collection of 16 stories about and following unlikeable, unhinged and monstrous women. Which basically sums up some of my favourite types of short story collections. With story description makes it sound similar to other collections such as Out There with a bit of Cursed Bunny. Edited by Molly Llewllyn and Kristel Buckly featuring stories from; Lauren Groff, Deesha Philyaw, K-Ming Chang, Megan Giddings, Sarah Rose Etter, Chaya Bhuvaneswar, Alicia Elliott, Chana Porter, Alice Ash, Maisy Card, Vanessa Chan, Chantal V. Johnson, Amada Leduc, Alison Rumfitt, Yah Yah Scholfield & Aliya Whitely.

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon //

Mermaids Never Drown 

Published by Titian Press (UK) / Feiwel & Friends (US) on September 26th 

From the team behind Vampires Never Get Old (which you may know about from the Story ‘First Kill’ which became a Netflix show) comes a second Young Adult collection exploring mermaids. Edited again by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker and featuring many well known and beloved YA authors such as Darcie Little Badger, Kalynn Bayron, Preeti Chhibber, Rebecca Coffindaffer, Julie C. Dao, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Adriana Herrera, June Hur, Katherine Locke, Kerri Maniscalco, Julie Murphy, Gretchen Schreiber, and Julian Winters. I am particularly excited to see Darcie Little Badger who I have loved both their long work (Elatose) and their short fiction (in Love Beyond Body Space and Time) and also I am intrigued by June Hur who I have only read Historical mystery work from so this will be a different spin.

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon //

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror 

Published by Random House on October 3rd 

An anthology I surprisingly only found out about when putting together this list. Out There Screaming is a collection of stories edited by writer and director Jordan Peele. It is an anthology of ‘all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation. Alongside an introduction from Jordan Peele it also features stories by Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N.K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L.D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull. 

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon // Libro.fm //

The Book of Witches 

Published by HarperVoyager on August 1st (US) and October 26th (UK)

Edited by Jonathan Strahan the editor from The Book of Dragons and featuring art from artist Alyssa Winans throughout This is large collection focusing around witches featuring 29 stories and poems from well known contemporary SFF authors; Linda Addison, C.L. Clark, P Djeli Clark, Indrapramit Das, Amal El Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Millie Ho, Saad Hossain, Kathleen Jennings, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Khaw, Fonda Lee, Darcie Little Badger, Ken Liu, Usman T. Malik, Maureen F. McHugh, Premee Mohamed, Garth Nix, Tobi Ogundiran, Tochi Onyebuchi, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Kelly Robson, Angela Slatter, Andrea Stewart, Emily Teng, Sheree Renée Thomas, Tade Thompson, and E. Lily Yu. This is a must pick up for me for two reasons, I enjoyed reading The Book of Dragons last year, and found some new favourite short stories, and two it includes some of my favourite authors. So even if I only enjoy their stories this would be a win for me!

Goodreads // Storygraph // Amazon // Libro.fm //

[lucyasnyder]

Recent Poetry Publications

Last week, my work was published in two new poetry anthologies: Writing Poetry in the Dark from Raw Dog Screaming Press, and Poetry Showcase Vol. IX from the Horror Writers Association. Writing Poetry in the Dark was edited by Stephanie M. Wytovich and includes my article “A Slippery World: Writing Poetry About Gender and Sexuality”. The book also includes nonfiction by Linda D. Addison, Jim and…

[leannareneehieber]

A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN: TRUE STORIES OF AMERICA'S GHOSTS goes on the road! Check out all our in-person and online virtual events around the country!

About the book:

From the notorious Lizzie Borden to the innumerable, haunted rooms of Sarah Winchester's mysterious mansion, this offbeat, insightful, first-ever book of its kind explores the history behind America's female ghosts, the stereotypes, myths, and paranormal tales that swirl around them, what their stories reveal about us--and why they haunt us...

Riveting for skeptics and believers alike, with humor, curiosity, and expertise, A Haunted History of Invisible Women offers a unique lens on the significant role these ghostly legends play both within the spook-seeking corners of our minds and in the consciousness of a nation.

A Haunted History of Invisible Women looks beyond the legends of maligned female ghosts and gives us their real histories. It is both a meditation on the misogyny of a ghost-hunting culture that capitalizes on false narratives of sex and death, and a fascinating look at the flesh-and-blood women behind the ghost stories. This book is a long-overdue search for historic truth, yet it recognizes that "When it comes to ghosts, truth is as elusive as the spirits themselves." --Chris Woodyard, Author of The Victorian Book of the Dead.

Afterword by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Linda D. Addison

[monique-snyman]

Feeling Poetic? Here are 5 Horror Poetry Books I Love!

Feeling Poetic? Here are 5 Horror Poetry Books I Love!

I may be a day late to celebrate World Poetry Day, but better late than never. I love poetry, though. Poetry usually makes me think about an array of things, makes me feel, inspires or makes me contemplate something deeper than whatever is on the surface. It’s art in word form—subjective. My favorite poem of all time isn’t in the horror genre, but rather makes one think about choices … The Road…