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.
The land holds memory, of ancient peoples and ancient things, but sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we cannot forget history.
By: Katrina Denman
Katrina Denman lives in California and holds a master’s degree in history from Claremont Graduate University. She also has an abiding love of folklore and the supernatural. In her writing, she combines horror with elements of historical truth, which in most cases is far more unsettling than pure fiction. She currently works in archives devoted to the history of the American West, out of which experience this story was born.
Click here for a PDF of Reminiscence.
Gothic Faery Tale inspired by Little Red Riding Hood
By: Alyne de Winter
Growing up in the woods in witchy old Massachusetts, Alyne de Winter learned to love a good chill up her spine. She left the performing arts, unwittingly moved into a haunted house in London and began writing supernatural fiction. The Gothic atmosphere of Europe, the layered history, the ghostly ruins, opened up a story-telling world she’d been seeking all of her life.
An award-winning poet, Alyne’s poetry and short pieces may be found in both online and print publications.
For more about Alyne de Winter you can visit her here: http://www.alynedewinter.com
Click here for PDF version of Thirteen.
A world where damnation plays by day and tortured, captive souls dream by night. Read Grant Holden Wagner’s The Cosmic Damnation.
By: Grant Holden Wagner
Grant Holden Wagner is currently studying philosophy at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
Click here for a PDF of The Cosmic Damnation.
Guilt, madness, and loneliness sometimes have a way of reaching down and touching our past. Mr. Tim Tobin tells us exactly how that can happen in Chuckles. Do read and enjoy.
By: Tim Tobin
Mr. Tobin holds a degree in mathematics from LaSalle University. He retired five years ago from L-3 Communications after more than forty-years as a project manager and software engineer. His speculative stories have appeared in Separate Worlds Magazine, Marco Polo, The Mustache Factor, Burial Day Books and Micro Horror. His western stories and poetry have appeared in the Rope and Wire Web. His crime stories have also appeared in Darkest Before The Dawn.
T.C. Clark has been published in the Pill Hill anthologies, Solstice Publishing, and the Western Fictioneer’s anthology The Traditional West. Do enjoy his most recent work, a 33-lined poem titled The Hand From Above.
Nathan J.D.L. Rowark has been published in Horrorzine.com, Forward Press, Bloodmoonrisings.com, Staticmovement.com, Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine, Taintedtea.com, among others. Please do enjoy his collection of poems.
For a PDF of the February Poetry Collection click here.
No one knows how it started and no one knows why exactly a hospital in Southern Illinois was shut down and its patients not allowed to leave. In a desperate attempt to save his nephew, Ben Scofield breaks into the hospital only to be confronted by unsettling blackness.
By: Nick Medina
Nick Medina is a young author from Chicago, Illinois. He has been published in print, online and audio formats by magazines, journals and short story anthologies in the United States and the United Kingdom. He hasn’t been writing for very long but the quality of his work is very high. He credits his ability to learn quickly down to the fact he’s always looking to write about anything and everything. He often uses short story prompts in a variety of genres to improve his all-around writing skills. However, his favorite genre is definitely horror.
Click here for a PDF of Gone Black.
In Allen Kopp’s new short story, Late of Cherry Street, we learn that sometimes one just needs to learn where they are going. Do read.
By: Allen Kopp
Allen Kopp lives in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. His fiction has appeared in Short Story America, A Twist of Noir, Midwest Literary Magazine, Abandoned Towers Magazine, Danse Macabre, Short-Story.Me, Foliate Oak Literary Journal, Berg Gasse 19, Santa Fe Writers’ Project Journal, Copperfield Review, Superstition Review, Midwestern Gothic Literary Magazine, Skive Magazine, ISFN Anthology #1, Best Genre Short Stories Anthology #1, Wilde Oats, Writers’ Stories, Yesteryear Fiction, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Deadman’s Tome, Necrology Shorts, Bewildering Stories, State of Imagination, Death Head Grin, Corner Club Press, Pulse Literary Magazine, Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k), The Legendary, The Fringe Magazine, and many others.
Click here for a PDF of Late of Cherry Street.
In Martin Shelby’s short story, “Missy,” the wintery dark months can sometimes bring out darker things. For some, there is protection, at a price. Do read.
By: Martin Shelby
Born in Missouri, Martin developed a love for dark fantasy and horror as soon as he could read. He enjoys billiards, RPGs, like World of Darkness, and an occasional foray with an Xbox when he isn’t writing. He has had work published in The Horror Zine and will be featured in the forthcoming Pathfinder Chronicler Anthology vol. 2. For more of Martin Shelby’s work visit http://gemininight.wordpress.
Click here for a PDF of Missy.
Death Muses on His Joys, is a monologue by Mr. Death himself. While the second poem, Beasts, is a tongue-in-cheek piece. Do read and enjoy.
By: Milan Smith
Milan Smith’s poetry has been published in various magazines such as Clockwise Cat, Every Day Poets, and Dreams and Nightmares. After getting his bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, he worked for two years and realized that he not only hated the business world, but most business people too. Then he got job as a reporter for a year and hated that because he had to write on someone else’s deadline. Finally, he decided to try writing, and that makes him very, very happy.
Click here for Death Muses on His Joys & Beasts
We all have our obligations in life. Sometimes our obligations can lead to distractions and sometimes these distractions can be tragic. In Greg Mollin’s haunting short story “Where the fault lies,” he takes us through the mind and panicked state of a moment gone terribly wrong.
By: Greg Mollin
Greg Mollin is a fiction writer living in Orange County, California. He has been involved in everything from hardcore punk music to graphic design and even a stint as writer/performer on a popular cable television sketch comedy show. His short story, The Monster on Myers Avenue, was recently published in Dark Moon Digest #3. He is currently at work on his first novel.
Click here for a PDF of version of Where The Fault Lies or read it below.
This story appears in the Gothic Blue Book, get your copy today!
