April 03, 2026 | Read online | This Week in Speculative Fiction with The Horror Tree for 04/03/2026 |
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| | Word of the week: Tabacosis - a form of chronic tobacco poisoning | Hi readers and writers! I’m back. Did you miss me? Welcome to this week’s Horror Tree newsletter. Firstly, a massive thank you to Melody for covering last week’s whilst I was away. I attended a disability convention called Naidex, which occurs annually in Birmingham, UK. I learnt a lot and bought some useful products for my own needs, like some grip aids (I’m wondering whether folks would be interested to see these on my social media? Let me know if you’d be interested), so yes, it was a great trip. No writing was achieved as I was too busy, but I managed to finally finish a body horror story I’ve been working on for a while once I was back home. I’ve been thinking lately on how harder it has gotten to be creative when the world has gotten a lot darker and terrible. I wish only to convey that if you are in the same boat, feeling low and unimaginative, then please be reassured that you aren’t alone and don’t pressure yourself. Your creativity will be there when you’re ready, but, for now, handle what you can. And if that means preferring to stay in your PJs, watching films, and eating junk food over grabbing a notebook and pen, then that's what you should do! Self-care yourself like armour. | You can find me (Corinne Pollard) lurking on Bluesky @corinnepwriter.bsky.social, Instagram & Threads @Corinnepwriter, and my website, corinnepollard.wordpress.com. Now, onto the latest articles on writing from around the web. | | | | | In this Newsletter, you'll find... | |
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| | | | | | | | 🌟 Horror Tree / Trembling With Fear Updates | Hi all.
| The new layout is going well! So far, mostly positive feedback (and if you see any bug, please reach out! We’re still working on fixing them!) I do, unfortunately, have to turn the ads back on soon, but I can probably go another week before doing so. I will double down on saying that we’re going to be able to be a lot more picky about what shows up and where, so that will help things out! | The 2024 anthology is slowly moving forward, and we have another editor stepping up to help the 2025 release, so we should be getting back to a regular release schedule this year if all goes well, fingers crossed! | Not much new on the personal writing front this week. I did send a couple of stories out for anthologies and have a few more queued up, as well as a novella that I’ll be submitting in the next week or two. Fingers crossed!
And now, I will return you to your regularly scheduled newsletter! |
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| | | | | | 🌟 Articles | This week, I’m sharing articles from General, Business, and Craft. Firstly, Burial Books explores how and whether children should be used in horror. Readers are more unlikely to read horror when there’s harm to children and animals (although Stephen King seems to be the exception, right?), so should this be avoided by writers? In business, Jane Friedman examines the relationship between bookstores and traditional publishers and how the bookstore market has changed, which authors should bear in mind, especially when it comes to choosing their publisher. It is a long article with interesting statistics, but my favourite part is the conclusion, where Friedman sums up what authors in traditional publishing should take away from this article. Lastly, in craft, Fiction University looks at alternative ways to describe character reactions. After all, it can get repetitive and dull when the character responds the same way, such as ‘smiles’ or ‘flinches’ in similar scenes, so how can this be avoided? I like Hardy's tip to leave it until the first draft. This gives the author freedom to just simply write and not to overthink this reaction part. | General: | Burial Books: “Children in Horror” | Business: | Jane Friedman: “What Bookstores Want From Traditional Publishers—and How the Bookstore Market Has Changed” | Craft: | Fiction University: “Alternative Ways to Describe Character Reactions” | From Horror Tree: | A Witch Made The Booker Short List |
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| | | | | | 🌟 Free Fiction Roundup | This week’s free fiction features horror from gruesome body inflictions, zombies, to corpses. Firstly, “Zooming Past Shotgun Houses” is a short, dark poem about the decline of friendship. There’s powerful imagery in such a tight, structured format, which makes it an interesting poem to read time and again. “All the Good You Did Not Do” is a horror short story about a zombie attack. This story is so compelling, with the attack occurring at the start and leading the reader to wonder when the next attack will happen or what will happen next. Some people may find the rest of the story mundane, but if you keep in mind that this was intentional, then its message is very interesting for a zombie story. “Little Black Thoughts” is a flash story of horror set in a sci-fi landscape. A husband and wife begin life on Mars by disagreeing on how to treat the Martians. This story is about colonization and who is to blame for the deaths of the natives. It is an unsettling story about power, culture, and lack of understanding. Enjoy reading! | | “Zooming Past Shotgun Houses” by Eva Roslin at Nightmare magazine. | “All the Good You Did Not Do" by Jolie Toomajan at PseudoPod. | “Little Black Thoughts” by Judy Slitt at Crow & Cross Keys. |
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| | | | | | 🌟 Writing Prompt | Writing Exercise: Howling to the Moon | The protagonist wakes up in hospital, flashes of blood and screams echo in their mind but they can not recall fully what happened the previous night. | The curtain next to them that separates them from another hospital bed opens. A man in bandages and hospital gown looks down at them. “I will not apologise for last night.” The man gestures at the protagonist’s bandaged arm. | Frowning and without hesitation, the protagonist rips the bandages away to find slashes already healing. | The man continues, “You shouldn’t have been in the park on a full moon.” | The protagonist looks up and slowly grins, “Actually, it went according to plan.” | What happens next is up to you…Let your imagination run wild! | If you post any writing content during the week and think it would be a good fit for us to feature, do reach out and let us know at con...@horrortree.com |
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