I invite you to read and celebrate their stories, listed below. You will find the location (of their inspiration), the genre, and a description of their stories. Choose what excites you. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be diving into these story one by one via posts, interviews, and live readings hosted right here on Substack. So, let’s support these writers because they put in some serious work!

Paranormal Horror | Kansas, USA

Having just moved into a Midwestern suburban hellscape, Ben’s life is overwhelming. When his best friend Carver learns about the unnerving legends of Stull, Kansas, Ben and Carver go on a road trip to discover some hells are more literal than others…

Shane Wilson Writes

Sunflowers In Hell

This paranormal horror story is part of Vanessa Perry’s Local Folklore collaboration project—specifically the infamous cemetery in Stull, Kansas. While I’ve never been to Stull, I’ve lived my whole life in Kansas. I wanted to tackle themes of decidedly Midwestern racism, classism, and unbelonging, plus some teenage crises I had before going into college…

Read more

5 days ago · 1 like · 1 comment · Shane Wilson

Horror | Tokyo, Japan

Substack Live: Sat, Jun 6 • 6:30 PM – 7:00 PM ESt, Watch Here

During Obon, Japan's summer festival for the dead, a young man encounters a beautiful, mysterious woman accompanied by a young girl carrying a peony lantern. Despite warnings from the staff at his residence, he spends the night with the woman and learns the frightening truth. Based on a 17th-century Japanese legend.

Jon O'Bergh

The Peony Lantern

This tale is based on a famous ghost story that takes place in Tokyo’s Nezu neighborhood, about 45 minutes from my home in Yokohama. “Botan Dōrō” (translation: The Peony Lantern) entered Japanese literary culture in the 17th century through the translation of a Chinese ghost story. In 1666, author Asai Ryoi adapted the story and set the tale in Nezu. It…

Read more

a month ago · Jon O'Bergh Horror

Horror | West Virginia, USA

The story of a group of cruel boy’s pursuit of a wounded cat into the haunted Big Bend Tunnel becomes a reckoning delivered by the haints dwell there.

Haints~Hollers~Heresy

The Monkey Haints of Big Bend Tunnel

Read more

5 days ago · 5 likes · 4 comments · Jared

Mythic Fantasy | Romania

Substack Live: Sat, Jun 6 • 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST, Watch Here

A young shepherdess welcomes a group of benevolent fairies to her village, but doesn't rejoice as much as the rest of her community.

Laura Teodorescu

The Billows

This is my entry for Vanessa Perry’s collaborative folk-inspired writing event. Writing this was an honour, because I felt I could include a lot of small details that relate to the folklore I grew up with. In the Author’s Note at the bottom, I talk a little about the greatest sources of inspiration…

Read more

5 days ago · 2 likes

Speculative Urban/Rural fantasy | Southern Rhode Island, USA

On a crisp October morning, a circle of persecuted witches gathers in a Rhode Island church, seeking solace, solidarity, and perhaps a bit of free food. Each brings her own tale of injustice, loss, and dark power, but not all who attend come in good faith. When the final refreshments are served, the true purpose of the gathering is revealed, and not every woman will leave alive.

The MichaVerse

Support Circle for the Persecuted Witch

Read more

21 days ago · 5 likes · Micha Rogers

Horror | New York, USA (The Catskills)

Live: Sat, Jun 13 • 5:00 PM – 5:30 PM EST, Watch Here

Juniper moves to a sleepy town after growing tired of city life. But, there's an abandoned property at the end of the road, and she can't seem to stop thinking about the barn...

The Night Garden Paths

Considering the Veil

“Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.” ~ Madeleine L’Engle…

Read more

5 days ago · 1 like · Artemis Quinn

Fantasy | North Shore, MA, USA (Salem, MA area)

The Gloucester serpent was first seen centuries ago…

ProbablyRead.ing

Sea Dragon Holding Tight

I could feel the hot sun on my back as I swam deeper under water…

Read more

18 days ago · probablyreading

Low Fantasy | Southeast England (hometown of Marlow, and London)

Written Interview Coming Soon at !

In nineteenth-century London, a young woman loses her sight. Her mother convinces her to drink from a fabled well-spring which supposedly cures blindness. The water restores the woman’s sight, but at what cost?

Notes from the Edge

Eyes Wide Open

This tale was inspired by the stories surrounding the well-spring near Bisham Abbey, close to Marlow in the southeast of England. It was a sacred site long ago, before the abbey existed. In fact, the holy men complained of the heathens that still flocked there after they began living at the abbey, and stories exist of a hermit who inhabited an oak besid…

Read more

5 days ago · Katharine Kapodistria

Horror | Sierra Nevada

A grieving hiker scatters his father’s ashes along the Pacific Crest Trail, but the wilderness begins answering back, first through silence, wind, animal suffering, and the dead man’s voice.

J.A. Evans Speculates

The Mountain Takes: Part 1

Read more

10 months ago · 50 likes · 57 comments · J.A. Evans

Speculative | Finger Lakes, NY, USA (specifically Cayuga Lake)

Live: Live: Sat, Jun 13 • 5:30 PM – 6:00 PM EST, Watch Here

Ruth works on a dinner cruise on Cayuga Lake and begins noticing strange, unexplained movements in the water that seem to follow her boat and match old reports of a lake monster. As she investigates, evidence from past records and her own close encounter suggests something large may have been living in the lake for over a century...

Existential Dread and Other Hobbies

The Wake Below

Ruth Ruth runs the last dinner cruise across Cayuga Lake the same way she always has—by routine, by instruments, and by checking anything that doesn’t match either of them…

Read more

5 days ago · 10 likes · Tina Crossgrove

Speculative Horror | Southern, CA, USA

Black Mirror meets California mission folklore.

The Viridis Survival Guide

FRED

This short story was submitted to the Speculative Fiction Stories Inspired by Local Folklore Project hosted on Substack by Vanessa Perry…

Read more

17 days ago · 3 likes · Helena Ward | Author

Folk Horror | Colchester, Essex, England

Interview Coming Soon at !!

Now autumn has come and the oysters are dredged,

The great and good gather to toast and break bread.

Seek our goddess's favour yet still soil her land,

They'll learn justice is dealt with a heavier hand.

Wee Tall Tales with Sophie Thompson

Short Story | Moruin, Mamm, Rigan

Hello hello! If we’ve not met, I’m Sophie - writer of (mostly) dark and / or folky fiction. If that floats your boat, why not subscribe…

Read more

6 days ago · 1 like · Sophie Thompson

Ghost Story; Horror | Milwaukee, WI, USA

Interview Coming Soon !

Every Saturday night, a young woman waits in the brewery tunnels for her boyfriend to finish his shift, certain he would never leave her alone in the dark. But as strange lights and unfamiliar voices invade the caves, she begins to uncover the terrible truth about the night she lost him—and why she’s still waiting.

Meadoe's Mythology Corner

The Amber Hour

This ghost story is inspired by an urban legend of the famously haunted Miller tunnels in Milwaukee…

Read more

16 days ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Meadoe Hora

Historical Horror | The Ozarks, USA

Interview Coming Soon at !!

A bone-chilling howl follows two Bald Knobbers as they flee through the pitch-black Ozark wilderness after a vigilante raid ends in blood. Lost and injured, the two men are stalked through the night by an unknowable evil. Has the dying curse of their victim come to life?

Through a Glass, Darkly

Howl

Through a Glass, Darkly is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber…

Read more

5 days ago · 3 likes · Jean Marie Bauhaus

Horror | New Jersey, USA/ NJ Pine Barrens

Interview Coming Soon at !!

Deep in the New Jersey Pine Barrens is a tiny town that doesn't appear on any maps, kept alive by its allegiance to a mythical, legendary cryptid with its own plan for survival of the species.

The Ghost Register

From "In The Pines": Chapter One

Authors Note…

Read more

14 days ago · 1 like · Janelle 🐇

Folk Horror | Flathead National Forest, Montana, USA

Live: Sat, Jun 6 • 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM EST, Watch Here

Devon only needed to survive a week long forced-fun family camping, but Schafer Meadows might have something else in store for him.

AcheronitaStyx: A Horror Compendium

Not Everyone Comes Back from Schafer Meadows

Author’s Note: The folklore I decided to go with (at the very last minute) is the hauntings at Schafer Meadows, which is a local legend about how a herd of pack animals got trapped and died in the Flathead National Forest many, many years ago. A lot of people report hearing bells when they’re hiking, or they have horses/mules …

Read more

5 days ago · R. Gratz

Speculative Sci-Fi/Realism | Michigan, USA

Interview Coming Soon at !

Atlas Sterling, a young teen based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is failing his classes, but gets a last-ditch effort to pass his English class, barely. He has to prove the chronicled adventures of an officer gone missing while testing high stakes habitats across the United States, specifically for Atlas, the central habs throughout Michigan. Whether Officer Grayson was deluded, a liar, or died of something more mysterious, nobody knows, but Atlas is set on finding out even if it kills him--his life and future might depend on it.

Pseudonymous Stuff

They Exist

Author’s Note…

Read more

13 days ago · Atlas Pseudonym

Southern Gothic Fantasy | South Carolina

Why did the Southern ferryman choose his job? This story explores mourning rituals and who they are for, as shown through folkloric customs.

Mythmount Press

Betwixt & Between: The Boatman’s Story

Author’s Note: I think Amos is my favorite character from my substack serial, Beyond the Holler: Betwixt & Between. He’s basically like Southern Chauron. I mean, the ferryman should be an empathetic charmer, right…

Read more

5 days ago · 1 like · Vanessa Perry