Shirley Jackson – Write on the World

From the author of Tender Is the Flesh comes another brutal yet mesmerizing vision of humanity undone. In The Unworthy, Agustina Bazterrica imagines a world consumed by climate collapse and desperation, where one woman survives inside a secretive religious order that thrives on submission and silence. From her isolated cell, she writes her story in scraps of ink, dirt, and blood—confessing, questioning, and unraveling as the walls of her faith begin to crack.

*Get your copy of The Unworthy from my independent online bookstore today!*

This is horror not of jump scares, but of ideology and indoctrination. The convent’s rigid hierarchy—the Enlightened and the Unworthy—mirrors the broken world beyond its gates, one where water is scarce, and mercy even scarcer. When a new woman arrives and challenges what the narrator believes to be truth, the cracks widen. What emerges is a story about power, memory, and the price of obedience in a collapsing world.

Continue reading →

Author Interview

Interview with horror writer, Bryan Alaspa

October 2, 2025September 30, 2025 Mandy Webster

Every anthology begins with the voices that bring it to life. As I launch this new series of interviews with the authors featured in Bad Moon on the Rise: An Anthology of the Unsettling, I’m excited to start with Bryan Alaspa—a writer whose love of horror runs deep and whose storytelling continues to unsettle, inspire, and keep readers turning pages late into the night.

This Halloween, Bryan Alaspa unleashes The Witch of November, where something ancient and deadly has awakened in the Great Lakes. As boats sink and body parts wash ashore, survivors Logan Field and Mike Quinton must confront a force even more destructive than the Piasa Bird. But can anyone stop a creature that commands the storms themselves?

Pre-order your copy now!

Bryan has been writing since his early fascination with sharks led him to discover Jaws and the idea that authors could create entire worlds from imagination. From there, he dove into horror with Stephen King’s Cujo, the gothic tension of Shirley Jackson, and the psychological unease of Poe. Those influences have shaped his own ability to build characters readers care about—and then, as he says, “do dastardly things to them.”

Continue reading →

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

What secrets lie beneath the surface of The Bog Wife?

July 11, 2025June 27, 2025 Mandy Webster

What happens when the land that sustained your family for generations suddenly stops keeping its end of the bargain? In The Bog Wife, Kay Chronister drops us into the eerie isolation of rural West Virginia, where five estranged siblings are forced to confront not just each other but the decaying legacy of their ancestral covenant. The Haddesleys have always served the cranberry bog, and in return, the bog has given them what they need—until now.

Get your copy of The Bog Wife from my independent online bookstore today!

This novel is southern gothic by way of eco-horror, rich with decaying settings, creeping dread, and characters who make you want to shout at the page. And I mean that literally: there are moments when you’ll be begging Wenna, the middle child trying to break free, to just Google something already. But that’s part of the tension. These characters have been so deeply insulated from the outside world that the obvious often eludes them. Their sense of what is normal, what is allowed, what is true, has been shaped entirely by what they’ve been taught to believe—and by what they’ve been carefully kept from knowing.

Continue reading →

Author Interview

Author interview with J.L. Mathews, prolific writer and president of the St. Louis Writers Guild

February 18, 2025January 28, 2025 Mandy Webster

Jessica Mathews published her debut picture book, The Old Man and the Pirate Princess, in 2017. Since then, she has published more than twenty seven books, including picture books, early reader chapter books, and several adult works under her pen name J.L. Mathews.

Mathews began writing stories for children at a young age. Her father would write down all of the stories she told him, and they would read them together at bedtime. She hopes her books will inspire others as much as her favorite books inspired her when she was growing up. She wants her work to motivate others to create something of their own to share with the world.

Jessica is the current president of the St. Louis Writers Guild. She recommends every writer join a literary organization to network with other writers and find their people, reading as much as you can and doing what you love. Jessica lives in St. Louis with her two cats, Storm and Knight. She also recommends adopting as many cats as you can.

Continue reading →