Burial Day Books is a boutique publisher of supernatural horror short stories. Once a month we feature an established or emerging horror writer. These short supernatural horror stories deal with elements of superstition, folklore or myth. We look for writers that are innovative but can also give a nod to past – classic horror. We feature scary stories with limited gore and limited extreme violence because of the belief that fear, true fear, comes from the unknown.
Jerome Teelucksingh is a lecturer from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. His poems have been published in anthologies such as Meanderings: A Collection of Poetic Verse. Also, my poems have appeared in the Trinidad and Tobago Review, Taj Mahal Review, In Search of Fatherhood, Caribbean Voice, The Poetry Box Dark & Horror Poetry Magazine Monthly and Diálogos. Also, he has published two collections of poetry- A Stroll Through History and Memories and Musings.
The Ceremony
Macabre, mysterious men of sinister secret societies,
plot to pierce a puerile worshipper.
A ceramic bowl collects blood from a dying chicken.
A recent recruit reluctantly drinks the blood and
awaits entrance into the dark side.
Hooded followers chant satanic prayers amidst photos of the undead.
A goat’s head with curved horns and bloody eyes stares at the fearsome and feared.
The cult leader sharpens a knife, the excited recruit does not realize his life to soon end.
He feels weak, collapses in pain,
as blood spurts from his jugular vein.
Another victory for voodoo.
Winter seems so long ago but its wicked ways are not forgotten. Read “Dibs” by Kurt C. Schuett
Upon graduating from high school, Kurt Schuett won the Gwendolyn Brooks Award for Poetry in 1993; this honor, coupled with professional publication in The American Goat literary anthology in 1993 with “The First Time” and Harmony literary magazine, where he won the esteemed Guy Cooper Poetry award for “Tree House Blues,” all fueled the realization that Kurt could and should write, dabbling in everything from poetry and short works of fiction to professional essays and lengthier works of fiction during and after his college years. He completed his undergraduate in English at Culver-Stockton College before tackling a Masters of Education at Graceland University. Currently, he is entering his eighteenth year as an educator, formerly as a German instructor and presently as a high school English teacher, working in the suburbs of Chicago. He lives in the northern suburb of Libertyville, Illinois.
Kurt recently published a Southern Gothic ghost story titled “Calamity James” in the Belle Reve Literary Journal, a work that was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In addition, two of his poems, “A Response to Charles Bukowski: Yes I’m Drinking Today” and “The Bohemian Waitress” were featured in the 69th edition of the Burningword Literary Journal. Kurt’s short story “The Last Supper Redux” will be the top-slot in an upcoming anthology launching this fall, highlighting local Chicago horror writers.
Insurgency is Kurt Schuett’s debut novel, a speculative work of fiction that encompasses elements of urban suspense, thriller, and horror. This novel will be released by Bad Day Books, an imprint of Assent Publishing, August 2nd in print and all e-book platforms.
For more on Kurt visit:
http://www.kurtschuettauthor.com — I write
http://www.kurtschuett.com — I blog
https://twitter.com/kurtschuett — I tweet
https://www.facebook.com/kurt.schuett.7 — I facebook
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Your parents told you to beware of strangers. Did they ever tell you why? Read C.G. Fewston’s This Moment is Your Life to find out why.
C.G. Fewston is a working writer/university professor. Born and raised in Texas, Fewston graduated from Howard Payne University with a B.A. in English. After receiving his first Master’s degree in Education for Higher Education Leadership and Administration (honors), he received his M.A. in Literature (honors) from Stony Brook University in New York where his thesis “An Unnatural Demise” was nominated for the Deborah Hecht Award (2012). While a Seawolf, Fewston was a member of University Scholars and also the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). He received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Fiction from Southern New Hampshire University, where he is proud to be a fellow Penmen.
Among many others, he has contributed several short stories, photographs and essays to Bohemia, Tendril Literary Magazine, Driftwood Press, Shandy Pockets, Nature Writing, The Writer’s Drawer, Moonlit Road, Travelma
For more on C.G. Fewston visit www.cgfewston.me and www
Bad things can happen on an open road. Terrible things can happen off of them. Read Nicholas Bowen’s short story “The Clearing.”
Nearly born in the Great Northwest of the United States – saved this fate by a house burned down from a careless cigarette – Nicholas Bowen was instead born in California, to a pair of luckless ex-hippies turned overworked and disenchanted land-laborers. Bowen came to later appreciate to the drear and gorgeous Northwest owing to a shiftless, drifting nature. He has lived in the Northwest ever since, as it suits his personality. He fancies himself a writer, because he likes to read and thinks he’s gained something by osmosis. Whether or not he deserves the title remains to be seen. He won second-place in a writing competition (and $75 bucks), which only helps to support these delusions. For more on Nicholas Bowen visit: nickbowen.hubpages.com
John Grey is an Australian born poet. Recently published in The Lyric, Vallum and the science fiction anthology, “The Kennedy Curse” with work upcoming in Bryant Literary Magazine, Natural Bridge, Southern California Review and the Pedestal.
THE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE OLD VICTORIAN
I’m jealous.
I long to be that house.
Look how decrepit its walls,
the rotting frieze,
the crumbling keystone,
each window cracked
into a perfect crooked sneer.
If only I could peer out
from something as dusty, as spidery,
as the oculus window
or run my fingers through hair
like that roof cresting’s
locks of pigeon droppings
and dismembered chimney.
Broken brackets,
dangling pipes,
flues oozing foul breath,
and coal-black shutters
almost torn free from hinges –
if that were me
I could bask in permanent shadow,
terrify whatever strangers dared
to wander down my
uninviting dead end street.
Being me
is not the same.
I can’t creak and moan,
scurry inside walls,
crawl on eight legs,
drop a chandelier,
slide open a trapdoor,
wrap skeletal hands
around a woman
as she’s sleeping.
I can only sit here
beer in one hand,
cigarette in the other,
in a dingy south-side bar,
with my door wide open.
At night when buildings are still, and those who occupy its offices are gone one person remains, the night watchman. Night watchmen sometimes find very dreary things.
Philip M. Roberts lives in Nashua, New Hampshire and has been published in a variety of publications, such as the Epitaphs anthology,Midnight Echo, and The Horrorzine. A full anthology of Philip’s short stories entitled Passing Through can be found on the Amazon kindle store. More information on his works can be found at www.philipmroberts.com. (more…)
Mackenzie Wilson is a writer and a poet. Her short story “How Katie Michaels Became One with Her Cat,” was published by Burial Day Books. Following is a collection of her poetry, “We Trade in Lesser Devils and Other Poems.” For more on Wilson’s interest visit: http://x9dread.wordpress.com/
When it’s cold outside you depend on the warmth indoors to keep you comfortable. What if the heat wasn’t a salvation, but a curse?
Aaron Francis Runyon is a thirty-five-year old husband, writer, and father living in the Midwest. He works full-time, but has been writing horror and fantasy fiction since his early teens. His story “Jill” recently appeared in issue #22 of Dark Eclipse e-zine, “Spectrophilia” in an anthology titled “Horror-tica” by Cruentus Libris Press (both available at Amazon), and “Somnambula” in September on Fiction Vortex. To see more of Aaron you can find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aaron-F-Runyon/579361512128182.
Fearless Tom fears nothing, but maybe he should fear the gods.
Frank A. Schury has been published in Silver Moon, Nocturnal Ooze, Tales From the Moonlit Path, The Cynic, Fantastic Horror, Byzarium, Another Realm, Forever Underground Magazines and Tales of the Undead/Suffer Eternal Anthology.
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He resides in Suffolk County, NY. (more…)
Dolls have the power to make many people happy but they also have the power to terrorize a few. Read The Doll-Giver.
Amber Dawn Hollinger is a writer, yogi, dancer, nanny, living and dreaming in the steel city, happily utilizing her MA degree as cute wallpaper. She hopes to contribute something decent (or indecent) by sharing her work, which has appeared with PoetrySuperHighway.com, S/tick, Rose Red Review, Foliate Oak, The Voices Project, Eternal Haunted Summer, Dead Flowers; forthcoming in Emerge Literary Journal, Embodied Effigies, and others. She is working on new short stories and non-fiction pieces. (more…)
