Newsletter December 2025 - A Horrible New Years?
If you've read the short stories on my site, you might have noticed a horrific bent to them.
Hi everyone,
I finally broke my streak of getting newsletters out consistently on the last Friday of the month at 10:07 am. :( That's horrible, but not really. I was away visiting family for Christmas, and I focused my attention on them. Family first. I'm a few days late, but it's still December, so I'm not too stressed.
So why the "horrible" in the title? Well, my choir friend recently suggested that I check out Horror as a genre. It was an offhand comment, but it stuck. The more I thought about it and investigated the Horror genre, the more I think it might be a good home for me. I don't want to be tied down to just Fantasy, or Science Fiction, or mystery, or thriller. Even genre blending may still pigeonhole me.
Horror, as I'm coming to find, includes bits of all the genres that I enjoy writing. And if you've read the short stories on my site, you might have noticed a horrific bent to them. Maybe it's more my style than I realized. My one traditionally published piece of fiction is the horror story Paris, which was originally published in an anthology.
My ideas for my next book have been circling around cryptids and paranormal activity in the modern "real" world. That could be fantasy, or sci fi, or mystery, or thriller...but maybe it's horror?
In the meantime, I'm reading horror novels to get a feel for what's happening in the genre. Currently reading KILLER ON THE ROAD by Stephen Graham Jones. Next on the to-be-read pile is NOS4A2 by Joe Hill.
If you want to see my inspiration board for my potential next novel, I've started collecting references over here.
As always, please hit me up with horror reading suggestions as well as suggestions for my inspiration board.
And as a special New Year's gift to me, please read my short stories and forward my newsletter on to a few friends so I can grow my network.
Happy New Years! See you in 2026!
Todd
