Self-published Author Appreciation Week: 5 Ladies of Horror

Day 4 already, wow. Today I want to focus on ladies of horror. I have found that I am enjoying horror more and more from a women’s standpoint. They can write horror with the best of men. Their ability to write a female character with heart and real emotions speaks to me on some basal level. Gone are the days where men are dominating the market, extreme horror is being showcased by very talented women and I want to holler about it. So sit back and see what these wonderful ladies are capable of.

S.H COOPER

S.H. Cooper is a Florida-based author with a penchant for horror. She has penned short story collections, co-wrote the podcast, Calling Darkness, and is a regular contributor to the award-winning anthology series, The NoSleep Podcast. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband, pets, and a cup of Earl Grey.

S.H. Cooper’s first book is a collection of fourteen short horror stories that chronicle obsession, loss, and why you should be afraid of things that go bump in the night.

“SOME BOOKS JUST BEG TO BE REVIEWED, THIS IS ONE OF THEM. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK. AS SOON AS I FINISHED IT (AT 2:45 AM, MIND YOU) I WENT ON AMAZON TO SEE WHAT ELSE THIS AUTHOR HAD AVAILABLE. NOTHING! S. H. COOPER, GET BUSY WRITING AND I AM GOING TO CHECK OUT YOUR OTHER AVENUE OF WRITING. GET THIS BOOK, YOU WON’T BE DISAPPOINTED UNTIL YOU LOOK FOR MORE…” – IN HONOR OF BOOKS

“THIS BOOK IS DIFFICULT TO PUT DOWN AND THE STORIES ARE HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL AS WELL AS DISTURBING. I WOULD ENCOURAGE ANY FAN OF THE GENRE TO CHECK OUT THIS BOOK, AND I EAGERLY AWAIT FOR FUTURE STORIES FROM THIS TALENTED UP-AND-COMING AUTHOR.” – J.SOMETHING

The most wholesome families have the darkest secrets. 

In this collection, you’ll experience intimate first hand accounts of modern day murders, kidnappings, and violent revenge. Other stories are heartwarming with whimsical mysteries, gothic fairy tales, and supernatural monstrosities.

“SO SCARY!! THIS FINE COLLECTION, VARIED BUT ALWAYS WITH IMPACT, WILL LIKELY KEEP YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT, AND WILL DEFINITELY BURROW INTO YOUR MEMORIES TO RECUR WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT (SUCH AS MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT OR IN DREAMS). IF YOU ENJOY THE SHORT FICTION OF SHERI WHITE, I PREDICT YOU WILL ALSO ENJOY S. H. COOPER’ S PERSONAL BRAND OF HORROR.” – MALLORY A. HAWS

“APTLY TITLED, THIS BOOK IS A DELIGHTFULLY TWISTED COLLECTION OF SHORT HORROR STORIES. RIGHT FROM THE START, COOPER DRAWS YOU INTO HER WORLD AND KEEPS YOU THERE. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO GET FROM ONE STORY TO THE NEXT, BUT YOU KNOW YOU’RE GOING TO ENJOY THE RIDE.” – ROXIE REVIEWS

A monster lurking in the mountain.

A mysterious cult seeking a doorway.

An otherworldly evil waiting to be unleashed.

Faith York was a young girl when she saw her father dragged into the ground by a spider-armed woman, never to be seen again. Twenty years later, the events of that day continue to haunt her, and her need for answers has only grown stronger with time. After her estranged mother’s death forces her to return home, old wounds are reopened and Faith finally decides to face her demons. What started as a search for closure soon pits her against a shadowy cult known as The Gathered and the eldritch beings they worship. With reality becoming more blurred by the day and the thousand eyes of an alien deity fixed on her, Faith must decide if the dark secrets of White Crow Mountain are really worth losing herself over. 

Inheritance often comes with strings attached, but rarely are they as tangled as those hanging over High Hearth.

When Eudora Fellowes learns she’s the sole heir of her estranged great-aunt’s seaside manor, she believes it will be the peaceful escape she’s longed for. What awaits, however, is a dark legacy shrouded in half a century of secrets, and it doesn’t take long before Eudora realizes she’s not the only one to call High Hearth home.

Beverley Lee

From as far back as she can remember, Beverley Lee has always been in thrall to the written word. Her earliest memories are of books and how they made her feel. She spent most of her formative years with her nose between the pages, or at the local library, devouring books, and losing herself in the worlds of fantasy and adventure. She was that child who would always try to find Narnia at the back of any available wardrobe. Even now the smell of paper in a bookshop makes her feel like she is eight again.

Her writing journey began at the age of seven when she created terrible, but enthusiastically written, cliché ridden pony stories, complete with illustrations, for her long-suffering teacher. But she can’t remember a time when she didn’t makeup stories in her head, even when there was no chance to write them down.

The closest thing to magic that she knows is creating characters and new worlds that never existed before. She loves the way the images and voices take form, and the way they take on a life of their own as the words spill out. Beverley is very much drawn to the darker side of fiction and the shadowy place between light and darkness where nothing is quite as it seems. She loves flawed characters – they have a depth and a tantalising wealth of possibility.

Inspiration comes in many forms – a snippet of conversation, a stranger on the street, a song lyric fleetingly heard. Life is an inspiration. The very best story is the one you have to tell.

She is a people watcher, a dreamer, a lover of nature and simple things. She collects feathers, picks up seashells, and likes to run her fingers over old stone. There’s history there. Stories just waiting to be discovered.

The best way to grow is to support other people and she is passionate about helping other writers as they begin their journey.

Something is waiting for its time to rise.

Beth and Stu Davenport moved to the sleepy English village of Meadowford Bridge to give their young son, Gabriel, an idyllic childhood. But one night a hidden, ancient darkness shatters their dream and changes their lives forever.

Years later, Gabriel searches for answers about his mysterious past. His life unravels as he discovers that the people he loves and trusts harbour sinister secrets of their own. As the line blurs between shadow and light; and he becomes the prize in a deadly nocturnal game, Gabriel must confront the unrelenting, malevolent force that destroyed his family all those years ago.
His choice: place his trust in a master vampire, or give himself to the malignant darkness.
Is there a lesser of two evils—and how do you choose? 

Barrington Hall is a place of secrets – something Dan Morgan has worked hard to forget. But when a heart-breaking loss brings him back to the place where he spent his childhood summers, Barrington Hall will do what it must to make him remember.

Faye Morgan blames her husband for the death of their teenage son. She doesn’t want to leave the place Toby called home. But after she catches a glimpse of a strange boy in the midnight woods and learns of his connection with Barrington Hall, her need to learn more pulls her further and further into a nightmare world filled with past atrocities and the burning flame of revenge.

A tale of grief and horror, The Ruin of Delicate Things explores how loss can leave a hole inside of us. A hole large enough for anything to crawl into.

He thought he was untouchable.
David Lansdown, esteemed British horror writer, and supernatural sceptic, is used to basking in the glow of the press…
Until a hastily snapped photo hits the headlines and makes his affair with his publisher’s son public.
When David finds himself at Bone Hollow, a house with a glass wall overlooking a wild and desolate moor, his only concern is writing his next bestseller to bury his misdeeds in the past.
But something stirs beneath the earth. Something bound to the land. Something determined to take everything from him.
Luca Fox-Waite is still in love with the man who cast him aside, but his own childhood demons lurk in his shadow. As he discovers more about Bone Hollow’s history, he finds himself ensnared in its story—a story steeped in time and tragedy.
Because curses lie in bones, and they do not die.
The House of Little Bones is a tale of avarice, adoration, and of how the sins of the past cling to the living as well as the dead.

Expected Release Date: September 21st 2021

Once upon a time, there was a woman, and she was tired. Tired of pushing. Tired of being pushed. Tired of feeling alone. Tired of so much.

So she gathered together a pack of wolves, a band of mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, partners, friends, lovers, survivors, victors and brilliant, shining things, and she told them to sing.

And sing they did.

The result is We Are Wolves, a chorus of of terrifying, moving and heart-breaking stories from some of horror’s finest contemporary writers including Gemma Amor, Laurel Hightower, Cina Pelayo, Sarah Read, Hailey Piper, V Castro, Sara Tantlinger, Sonora Taylor and many more.

All proceeds from the sale of this charity anthology will go towards helping the survivors of abuse and assault.

Catherine McCarthy

Catherine McCarthy grew up in the industrial valleys of South Wales where she went on to teach in primary education for almost three decades. Having been ‘shown the light’ by her mother, who had the tradition of oral story-telling down to a fine art, she quickly developed an insatiable appetite for all things literary.

  Her first published novel, The Gatekeeper’s Apprentice, is a fantasy, magical adventure for middle-grade readers. Still in love with some of the characters from this novel, she has since woven them into her adult fiction and also has spellbinding plans for them in the future.

  Her second novel, Hope Cottage, is a dark and mysterious family saga of triumph over adversity, reconciliation and, well…hope. Hope Cottage is a deviation from her preferred genre and was penned as a cathartic means of coming to terms with the loss of her own mother. 

  Her most recent publication is a collection of ten portal stories for adults, entitled Door, and Other Twisted Tales. This work explores the darker side of supernatural fantasy, a sprinkle of mythology, and a twist of good old-fashioned horror.

  Her current work in progress is a novel entitled The Wolf and the Favour, a dark fantasy tale, of how a young girl with learning disabilities strives to overcome life’s obstacles and find her own way in the world.

  Having traded the challenges and rewards of teaching for the hurdles and merits of writing, Catherine McCarthy now lives with her illustrator husband in a two hundred-year-old cottage in West Wales amidst spectacular, story-inspiring countryside.

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  When she is not writing, you may find her sewing in her ‘Garden Beehive,’ or wandering the coast path, complete with picnic, sun-cream, and just enough money for ice cream.

Welcome to Wales, land of mists and megaliths, where mythical creatures and ancient spirits lurk in the strangest of places.
This collection of 10 supernatural stories offers a flurry of folklore, a gathering of ghosts, and even a cosmic cave creature.

Stories include…

Lure: A fisherman who nets the tail fin of a lure becomes obsessed with finding the rest, but what else lies hidden in the ancient lake?

Carreg Samson: A Neolithic burial chamber stares out to sea, remembering times long since past, but when it loses its heart of stone to a young girl the repercussions are hard to bear.

Coblynau: An old man watches the mountain which was once a slag heap of coal. He listens for the knock of the Coblynau, certain they will come for him… soon, just like they did to warn of the Aberfan disaster.

Author Catherine McCarthy’s second collection invites the reader on a regional journey, evoking a sense of quiet horror from the cosmic to the Gothic.

Botany Bay, 1790 – One by one, a colony of white-skinned pioneers disappear from their camp. Did the legendary rainbow serpent of the Dreamtime, Goorialla, wreak revenge on the ghosts for disturbing its sacred watering hole?

North-east coast of Japan 2011, vicinity of Fukushima Nuclear Plant – Seismic waves on the Pacific Ocean floor cause a catastrophic tsunami. The mythical giant catfish, Namazu, is believed to seek retribution for human greed by creating earthquakes. Could it be to blame?

Door and Other Twisted Tales is a collection of ten, dark portal stories, each set in a different time, a different place, yet woven together by supernatural visitations which result in the death, destruction and disappearance of humans in recompense for their actions.

From Plague – the embodiment of the 14th Century Black Death, to Shams – a contemporary tale of the mysteries of quantum physics and the mind, Door and other twisted tales will lead you on a journey through time and place as the consequences of greed, impulse, loneliness and fear are exposed.

When Elinor’s daughter, Rowena, is found poisoned and dead in an animal trough, Elinor is sure the local parish priest is to blame.

A ceramic artist by trade and influenced by her late grandmother’s interest in supernatural magic, Elinor crafts an immortelle for Rowena’s grave and attempts to capture the girl’s spirit in the clay model of a starling. Soon she is inundated with requests for immortelles and the more immersed in the craft she becomes, the greater her powers grow.

As the dead share their secrets with grieving Elinor, she learns the sordid truth of what happened to her beloved daughter and plots a revenge so hideous, it must be kept a secret forever.

Gemma Amor

Welcome! I’m a Bram Stoker Award nominated horror fiction author, podcaster and voice actor based in the UK. My books include Cruel Works of Nature, Dear Laura, White Pines, Girl on Fire, and These Wounds We Make. I’m also co-creator, writer and voice actor for horror-comedy podcast Calling Darkness, starring Kate Siegel. My stories feature on the NoSleep Podcast, Shadows at the Door, Creepy and the Grey Rooms podcast. You can find me in a number of horror anthologies, too.

Every year, on her birthday, Laura gets a letter from a stranger. That stranger claims to know the whereabouts of her missing friend Bobby, but there’s a catch: he’ll only tell her what he knows in exchange for something… personal.

So begins Laura’s sordid relationship with her new penpal, built on a foundation of quid pro quo. Her quest for closure will push her to bizarre acts of humiliation and harm, yet no matter how hard she tries, she cannot escape her correspondent’s demands. The letters keep coming, and as time passes, they have a profound effect on Laura.

From the author of Cruel Works of Nature comes a dark and twisted tale about obsession, guilt, and how far a person will go to put her ghosts to bed. 

A woman, returning to her roots. A town, built on sacred land. A secret, cloaked in tradition and lore.

Welcome to White Pines.

Don’t get too comfortable.

This is the new cosmic-folk-Celtic-cult-horror novel from Gemma Amor, the Bram Stoker Award nominated author of Dear Laura, Cruel Works of Nature and Till the Score is Paid.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but supernatural curiosities brought it back.

A Jack-in-the-Box made from skulls.
A monster egg in the mail.
A sketchbook bridging imagination with reality.
What other wondrous and terrible secrets will these survivors tell?

Cruel Works of Nature is a collection of 11 horror novellas about strange and exciting supernatural encounters. Reality and the fantastic are blended seamlessly in these immersive tales, with plenty of mystery to lead the reader on a thrilling journey. Some stories are dark and macabre while others whimsical and lighthearted, together ensuring constant surprises and terrifying twists to keep you reading until the very last page.

Special edition with full page illustrations. Hand illustrated by the author herself, these images will bring the stories to life and give unique insights into the wild unknown.

Rowan Hill

Rowan Hill is the pen name for a young(ish) woman California born, raised in Australia. Beginning her career teaching high school English and Drama in the Australian bush, Rowan eventually traveled the world and found her love of languages. After earning her Masters in Applied Linguistics, she did a lot more traveling and teaching until she finally just decided to throw in the towel and earn a Doctorate. 

Schoolteacher Ms. Fairchild and the widower Col. Ashby have fallen in love. His dead wife does not approve.

Her Horror Short story fiction can be read and ordered on her website HERE