writing

A Trail Mix of Horror…WHERE THE SHADOWS ARE SHOWN Out Now in Audiobook! 

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A Trail Mix of Horror…WHERE THE SHADOWS ARE SHOWN Out Now in Audiobook! 

You may have been sleeping on—or deliberately avoiding—the recent release of my first horror short story collection, WHERE THE SHADOWS ARE SHOWN, which one reviewer called “a trail mix for horror lovers.” But never fear, the audiobook narrated by the talented if upsettingly creepy voice actor, Tony Deurmier, is out now in time for Black Friday!

How can a book be anything like sweet, salty, crunchy “trail mix”? The fact that I cover nearly every subgenre of horror fiction in existence! I’m talking about biological to body. Cozy to eco. Fan fiction to funny. Noir to nonsense. Parable to psychological. Sci-fi to scatological. And some other categories yet to be defined!

Also, don’t forget my money back guarantee where, if you don’t find one story you LOVE and one you HATE, feel free to return the book to Audible for a full refund!

If you haven’t picked up a copy yet of the paperback, e-book, (and now audiobook!), here’s your chance to support an indie horror author who has yet to be officially “canceled” (coming in 2026!). And if you already have (thanks again!), you can get one as a gift for that social outcast horror fan in your life.

Just a warning that, since publishing WHERE THE SHADOWS ARE SHOWN through Josh’s Worst Nightmare, I’ve written another full collection of brand-new eco-horror short stories, a true crime screenplay, close to 40 horror lyrics (with about 15 set to music thus far), dozens of Two Sentence Horror tales, as well as most of another eco-folk horror novel, some of which I’ll be releasing at JoshsWorstNightmare.Substack.com. But I told myself I can’t get those out into the world until I’ve gotten this one into more people’s grubby little hands.

So, do society a favor by ensuring that my darkest thoughts stay safely within the pages of fictional stories, rather than forcing me to unleash such havoc in real life. I’m giving you all a chance to save yourselves, and, if you don’t act now FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, you’ll have no one to blame but yourselves.

Darkly,

Josh Schlossberg

Can Horror Fiction Fight Illiteracy?

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I don’t need to tell you that people are reading less and less these days.

One poll reveals how one-quarter of American adults haven’t read a single book in the last year. Another survey finds that only seventeen percent of thirteen-year-olds read for fun every day, with three in ten saying they either never or hardly ever do so. Even more shocking is the fact that men make up only twenty percent of all fiction sales in the US, UK, and Canada!

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Why I Sold My Soul To Nozama, The Dark One

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This post is a combination of three things:

1. An announcement of my forthcoming horror short story collection, WHERE THE SHADOWS ARE SHOWN, due out in September through my own small press, Josh’s Worst Nightmare.

2. Rationalization of publishing the book through Amazon (who, from this point on, will be called Nozama, the Dark One).

3. Confession of succumbing to the lesser of two evils.

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Yin-Yang Shadow & Light in Horror

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Some parts of who we are as human beings are self-evident. We all also have our “shadow,” which Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1842-1896) defined as “the dark aspects of the personality.” What’s more, Jung believed awareness of this shadow to be “the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.”

To go even deeper, not all our shadow traits must be negative, merely hidden. For instance, while the shadow of a goody-two-shoes might be bitter resentment, a rageaholic’s could be a touching vulnerability.

Thanks, Josh, for the pop-psychology lesson. But what does this have to do with horror fiction?

Oh, I don’t know. How about…everything?

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Pulling the Trigger Warnings?

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TRIGGER WARNING: Non-ideological discussion of every trigger warning I can think of.

Now that you’ve been cautioned, dark reader, I want to start off by admitting that I don’t have a problem with trigger warnings. I fully understand that some people have been traumatized by certain life experiences, and to read about them can make them feel anything from discomfort to extreme distress. And in my own writing, I’m completely willing to provide trigger warnings for any editors or publishers who ask for them.

But as a reader I don’t have much use for them, especially in horror, as dark fiction for me is about pushing through the shadow into the light. Personally, I’ve found that refusing to explore something that scares me only makes it loom larger in my life. Yet, mostly, I tend to skip them because I like to avoid anything remotely resembling a spoiler.

So, while I totally get the point of trigger warnings and honor those who advocate for them, the tricky question that no one wants to answer is: What subjects qualify?

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The Three “CONS” of Writing Horror

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Not long ago, I messaged a horror fiction “gatekeeper” to thank them for their work and to ask if they’d be open to reading more indie horror authors. They responded by listing a few well-known names they were promoting, including one whose “Big 4” published novel had years ago been made into a popular Hollywood movie. And then basically told me that all good writers eventually become famous, which is when this person will read and share their work.

As an author, editor, small press publisher, and reader, everything I write about horror fiction is a conflict of interest. That being said, I also have the privilege of seeing the landscape from a variety of perspectives. On top of that, I’ve interviewed scores of writers, followed their careers, and listened to podcast after podcast with some of the biggest names in the genre. The one thing most of them have in common? They were thinking about giving up until that one big break.

After years of processing this information, I believe I’ve come up with the essential elements for getting one’s horror book published and selling. I call them the three “CONS,” as in: CONTENT, CONTACTS, AND CONTEXT.

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Why I’m Giving Up On Writing Horror

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I’ve been “seriously” writing horror fiction for the last six years. During that time, I’ve had a bunch of short stories and one novella published, edited and/or published three anthologies, and just finished a brand-new novel. I also co-founded Denver Horror Collective, a horde of over fifty horror authors helping one other spread the horror.

As a weirdo, my fiction tends to be a bit “unconventional.” Therefore, it’s not been easy to get the products of my mind through the mainstream literary gatekeepers, which is why I’ve so often built my own gates.

For instance, my latest book is a Jewish ecological folk horror novel, and I truly feel it’s the best thing I’ve ever written. Although publishers wouldn’t touch my previous two novels, I believe this one is far more marketable and way less controversial. Yet two rejections I’ve gotten thus far—one from an agent, the other from a publisher—are total head-scratchers.

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