This anthology brings together a collection of short fiction, poetry, and black-and-white art that all live in that uneasy space where beauty and horror overlap. These are stories that don’t just aim to scare—they linger. They follow you. They ask you to look a little closer than you’re comfortable with.
Beautiful and Terrifying: Tales and Visions from the Edge of the Uncanny, the newest anthology from Elderfly Press, will be released on April 23, 2026, bringing together haunting fiction, poetry, and black-and-white artwork that explore the strange space where beauty and fear collide.
The cover of Beautiful and Terrifying: Tales and Visions from the Edge of the Uncanny, Elderfly Press’s upcoming anthology of eerie fiction, dark poetry, and black-and-white art, releasing April 23, 2026.
I’m thrilled to finally share the release date for this collection, which has been such a meaningful project to bring into the world. From eerie woods and submerged cities to folklore retellings, grief-soaked landscapes, and intimate encounters with the supernatural, this anthology embraces the unsettling and the sublime in equal measure.
In Wolf Worm, T. Kingfisher delivers a slow-burning gothic nightmare set in the woods of North Carolina, where scientific curiosity collides with something far older and far more feral. Releasing March 24, 2026, the novel follows Sonia Wilson, a scientific illustrator in 1899 who has been surviving on the borrowed credibility of her late father’s reputation. When she accepts a position with the reclusive Dr. Halder to illustrate his insect collection, she believes she’s securing stability. Instead, she steps into a story that opens with a chilling admission: “I saw the devil in these woods.”
Get your copy of Wolf Worm from my independent online bookstore today!
Kingfisher’s prose reflects Sonia’s artistic eye. Descriptions feel layered, as if applied with a brush—yellow ochre laid in for a dog’s fur and then lifted back out again along the face. The natural world is rendered with precision and technique, which makes the corruption creeping through it feel even more invasive. As animals begin behaving strangely and local whispers about “blood thieves” grow louder, the beauty of the environment becomes inseparable from the horror beneath it. This is a novel saturated with insects—some of them of the burrowing-into-flesh variety—and Kingfisher does not shy away from the visceral implications.
Ancient inventions like the wheel and the needle gave humanity the freedom to create art and stories, but modern technology has trapped us in a new kind of survival mode.
Throughout history, technological advancements have transformed the way humans live, work, and think. In ancient times, simple but revolutionary inventions such as the knife, the needle, and the wheel began to free humans from the constant struggle for survival. These tools enabled people to hunt, sew clothing, and transport goods more efficiently, allowing them to devote time and energy to higher-level activities such as storytelling, art, and religion. These pursuits not only enriched individual lives but also fostered the development of complex societies. By freeing humans from the grip of immediate survival, ancient technologies created the foundation for cultural and intellectual progress.
REVENGE OF THE PENMONKEY: Wallpaper #2 (Photo credit: curious_spider)
Today I am participating in the TerribleMinds PenMonkey Evaluation. Here are the answers to my writing survey questions:
What’s your greatest strength/skill in terms of writing/storytelling? –>Dialog. The voices make me do it.
What’s your greatest weakness in writing/storytelling? What gives you the most trouble? –> Description. I touched on that just a couple of days ago here.
How many books or other projects have you actually finished? What did you do with them? –> Well, that’s a bit personal, isn’t it? Okay. Well. Finished? Can I count my one completed first draft that I’m still revising? I have several other first drafts that I’m still plugging away on, but that’s it as far as actually “finishing” a book. Unless you count my book of amateurish poems I slapped up on Kindle a while back. As far as other projects go, my blogs are doing awesome. Besides this one winning an actual award (as opposed to a Liebster or something like that,) I have been steadily gathering new readers each week. Continue reading “My PenMonkey Evaluation: Six Questions”→
What’s the worst thing someone could say to you when you’re suffering from writer’s block? | Writer’s Block 1 (Photo credit: NathanGunter)
As writers, we know how rare it is for our friends and relatives to really “get” what we do and why we do it. We know they love us and want to support us, but sometimes they make thoughtless comments that make us want to wring their necks. I recently asked my online writer’s group what was the worst “advice” they have received from well-meaning friends and family members. Here are some of the responses I received:
Go check out my “Born in ’76 Collection” on Medium.com and share your own stories from that era.
I come from a family of storytellers. Whenever a few members of my dad’s family get together, you can pretty much count on it turning into a storytelling session. One story sparks a memory of another until everyone at the table is clamoring to tell their own. Sometimes I wish I had been carrying a tape recorder with me all my life so I could capture those stories of everyday life and put them together in a book.
No matter what year you were born, you probably have your own “growing up” stories that are unique to your age group. My dad’s stories are different from mine. Even though I grew up about a mile from where my father grew up, we grew up in different times. While we share some experiences, each of our stories are compelling in their own way. Continue reading “Born in ’76: A call for submissions”→
I have about a million of these floppy discs containing business and management essays from both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in business and management. I’m considering editing all of them and putting them up on an informational website (complete with ads to generate revenue.) If only I had a floppy disc drive. | English: Spiral made of Floppy discs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you’re like me, you probably have at least a couple of projects laying around unfinished. If so, then like me, your major goal for 2014 might just be to get shit done. Seriously.
I get a little overwhelmed when I consider all of the projects I started in 2013 and didn’t finish. I want to finish them all. I want to finish writing my current WIP and the one I started for thesis last spring. I want to revise the novel I completed for the summer writing challenge in 2013. I want to publish everything (even all of those business essays I wrote so long ago that they are sitting around on floppy discs.)
When I think about it, I have many great projects that are not only started, but are also nearing completion. For me, 2014 will be more about completing projects than it will be about starting something new. Although, I suppose actually finishing something will be new for me. HA!
“Dust” provides a fascinating conclusion to Hugh Howey’s Wool trilogy. | Hugh Howey’s Wool, in the wilds of a brick and mortar store (Photo credit: martin_kalfatovic)
I finally got my hands on a copy of Hugh Howey’s Dust at my local library last week. I didn’t have time to start reading it until Saturday. But once I opened that book and started reading, it didn’t matter what I had time for. Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop. At the end of the day, I kept trying to put it down so I could go to sleep. I didn’t manage to close the book for the night until after I had read the last page. It was that good.
One of my favorite things about Hugh Howey is the way in which he shot to fame. He basically self-published a short story, then went on about his business and forgot about it. Then one day, he realized that short story was a bestseller. He rushed to write a few more stories to capitalize on that interest. Those first stories later became the Wool omnibus that is now being published around the world. Continue reading “As if Hugh Howey needs more publicity”→
This semester, I am teaching out of The Longman Writer: Rhetoric, Reader, Research Guide, and Handbook (8th Edition.) You can buy a copy here.
This semester, I am teaching one section of English Composition I at my local technical college. This is not a course I particularly care to teach. The first semester I taught it was a disaster. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I definitely didn’t know the material well enough to teach it. It was a horrible experience for everyone involved. This semester, I finally feel like I kinda know what I am doing. And it’s having a positive impact on my writing.
Write on the World 