It’s been a long and relatively uneventful year on the writing front. I’ve been made redundant twice, and I’ve home-schooled my three kids, Not that these are excuses, but my writing time was already limited, and it doesn’t take much to obliterate it altogether. Or maybe it does…
On Friday 3 September, Dread Stone Press will publish The Pumpkin Agent, an urban legend story where the antagonist doesn’t take kindly to families who fail to decorate their homes for Halloween.
I originally wrote The Pumpkin Agent for The Arcanist’s 2020 Halloween contest, but I couldn’t enter it because I was invited to be the guest judge! So I banished it to my hard drive, and life went on.
In 2021, with summer on the horizon, I started to look around for submission opportunities, and came across a new flash horror publisher. I wanted to send something in, so I dug out The Pumpkin Agent. The story was accepted pretty quickly, and Alex asked if he could save it for the Halloween season.
Dread Stone Press (Michigan) is a relatively new independent publisher, publishing twice-monthly tales of dread on the website. Definitely one to check out.
The Pumpkin Agent was published on 3 September 2021 and is available to read now.
When Only Words Are Left 