Over these past weeks, authors have set off to explore their local folklore. Then, they wrote fiction stories inspired by what they found. As awesome as it is to seek inspiration from times and places far removed from ourselves, my goal was to show how awesome the inspiration beneath our own feet can be.
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!
Shane Wilson
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…
Jon O'Bergh Horror
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.
Jared
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.
Laura Teodorescu
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.
Micha Rogers
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.
Artemis Quinn
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...
probablyreading
Fantasy | North Shore, MA, USA (Salem, MA area)
The Gloucester serpent was first seen centuries ago…
Katharine Kapodistria
Low Fantasy | Southeast England (hometown of Marlow, and London)
Written Interview Coming Soon at Mythmount Press!
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?
J.A. Evans
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.
Tina Crossgrove
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...
Helena Ward | Author
Speculative Horror | Southern, CA, USA
Black Mirror meets California mission folklore.
Sophie Thompson
Folk Horror | Colchester, Essex, England
Interview Coming Soon at Mythmount Press !!
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.
Meadoe Hora
Ghost Story; Horror | Milwaukee, WI, USA
Interview Coming Soon Mythmount Press !
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.
Jean Marie Bauhaus
Historical Horror | The Ozarks, USA
Interview Coming Soon at Mythmount Press!!
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?
Janelle 🐇
Horror | New Jersey, USA/ NJ Pine Barrens
Interview Coming Soon at Mythmount Press !!
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.
R. Gratz
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.
Atlas Pseudonym
Speculative Sci-Fi/Realism | Michigan, USA
Interview Coming Soon at Mythmount Press!
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.
Vanessa Perry
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.
Can't wait to read everone else's stories! This was such a cool idea! :D
Thanks for running this event!!! Can't wait to read