Sneak Peek: Origins of My New Book

Something Wicked This Way Comes…

I am so excited to begin dropping teasers for my newest book, a horror anthology from Dark Village Publications.

While we’re keeping the title, cover, and exact release date to ourselves for the moment, I’d love to share the book’s origin story with you.

May is mental health awareness month (Yes, you weren’t expecting that, were you?) and I am a staunch supporter of going to therapy. I see a counselor regularly myself. She’s a peach. In a recent session, I admitted to feeling envious of someone for a very specific achievement they had accomplished. I was happy for them, but I fully admit, the green monster had reared up and taken notice. My counselor said something along the lines of, “You shouldn’t be ashamed of feeling envious, it’s a helpful emotion that shows you what you really want in life.” I still felt like kind of an as"*hole, but she was right. And I’m doing the work to reach my goals.

I thought about what she’d said more and more over the next few days, and of course, my twisted brain said … you know, this would make a great horror story — if envy wasn’t healthily dealt with, and allowed to fester … what might happen? It didn’t take long before I was on the horn with my publishing partner, who as usual, hopped right on board and added more to the idea. It grew wings and soon we had the bones of a new project. (In record time, even for us.)

I’d already been looking for a reason to loop in and write with the little circle of Indie Horror Authors I’d gotten close with, and a few voicenotes dropped into a group text later, the project was born.

With six of us on board, but seven sins requiring attention, each of us has tackled two or more sins in each of our short stories. We’ve each taken the basic building blocks we needed and from there blossomed full, emotive, twisted tales for your amusement and disgust.

We call ourselves the Troubles, and our tales are coming at you this June.

Prepare thyselves.

xoxo - Mallory