Authors: I – Q
Tom Johnstone
Tom Johnstone (he/him) is the author of a trilogy of novellas, The Monsters are Due in Madison Square Garden, Star-Spangled Knuckle Duster, and The Song of Salomé, and the collections Last Stop Wellsbourne, and Let Your Hinged Jaw Do the Talking. His fiction has appeared in various venues, including, in 2024 alone, Chthonic Matter Quarterly, Supernatural Tales, Creepypod, Shadowplays (PS Publishing, co-writing with Colleen Anderson), Body Shots (Subtle Body Press), Medusa (Flame Tree Press), Ethereal Nightmares: The Second Sleep (Dark Holme Publishing) and Infernal Mysteries, or a Compendium of Gothic Reveries and Dolorous Tales (Egaeus Press). His story “Body Worlds,” which first appeared in Body Shots, was selected for reprint in Best Horror of the Year, Vol. 17 (Night Shade Books). More information at tomjohnstone.wordpress.com.
Read Johnstone’s short story “The Herman Condition” in Horrific Scribes.
Kasimma
Kasimma is an author from Igboland–obodo ndi dike. Visit her at https://kasimma.com/.
Read Kasimma’s short story “Funky D” in Horrific Scribes.
Douglas Kolacki
Douglas Kolacki began his writing career while stationed with the U.S. Navy in Naples, Italy. Since then, he has placed fiction in Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Liquid Imagination Online and The Fifth Dimension, among other outlets. He currently haunts Providence, Rhode Island.
Read Kolacki’s short story “Clarence Darrow and the Murder Victim” in Horrific Scribes.
Emmanuel Komen
Emmanuel Komen is an African contemporary poet, philosopher, and thinker based in Nairobi, Kenya. His works explore themes of identity, nature, and the human experience. He is a dedicated tours and travel agent, guiding visitors to breathtaking destinations such as the Masai Mara for the wildebeest migration, as well as Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro for adventurous climbs. A passionate motorsport enthusiast, Emmanuel is an avid fan of the safari rally and proudly supports Team Toyota GR.
Read Komen’s Whispering Walls and Other Haunting Verses in Horrific Scribes.
Zoltán Komor
Zoltán Komor was born on June 14, 1986. He lives in Nyíregyháza, Hungary. He writes surreal short stories and has been published in several literary magazines, including Horror, Sleaze and Trash; Drabblecast; The Phantom Drift; Gone Lawn; Bizarro Central; Bizarrocast; Thrice Fiction Magazine; The Missing Slate; The Gap-Toothed Madness; Wilderness House Literary Review; Weird Fiction Quarterly, and more. His first English book, Flamingos in the Ashtray: 25 Bizarro Short Stories, was published by Burning Bulb Publishing in 2014. That same year, his second English book, Tumour-Djinn, was released by MorbidbookS. His third collection, Turd Mummy, came out in 2016 via StrangeHouse Books. His latest novel, The Radiator Boy and The Holly Country, was published by Potter’s Grove Press in 2021.
Read Komor’s short story “The Vacuum Castrator” in Horrific Scribes.
Christine Lajewski
Christine Lajewski is a writer and retired alternative high school teacher, and she currently works at Mass Audubon. She spent 22 years as a haunt actor. She was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and now lives in Cumberland, RI close to her adult daughter and son.
Her first novel, Jhator, was published in 2014. It is a spiritual fantasy in which a grieving woman’s conversations with animals help her find joy again. Her collection of horror short stories, Erring on the Side of Calamity, and a horror novel, Bonebelly, were published in 2018. She has had short stories published in Dark Tales, Sanitarium, The Flash Fiction Press, Siren’s Call, 34 Orchard, Crystal Lake Shallow Waters and the anthologies A Shadow Over Deathlahem, The Misbehaving Dead, A Bird In The Hand and Still Waters (poetry), Wicked Women (New England Horror Writers), and Dancing in the Shadows: A Tribute to Anne Rice.
Website: https://www.christinemlajewski.net
Author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Christine-Lajewski/author/B00P1TCBS4
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CLajewskiauthorpage
Read Lajewski’s short story “The Indignities” in Horrific Scribes.
Leonardo J. Lamanna
Leonardo J. Lamanna (he/him) is an Italian archaeologist with a deep love for dark speculative fiction and poetry. Whether set in a prehistoric jungle, an urban labyrinth, or a post-apocalyptic future, his stories explore Homo sapiens‘ fragile bond with life—and its inevitable end.
Read Lamanna’s short story “The Flesh Factory” in Horrific Scribes.
John Leahy
John Leahy has had three novels published – Harvest, CROGIAN, and Unity. His story “The Tale in the Attic” attained an honorable mention in L Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest. His short story “Singers” has been included in Flame Tree Publishing’s 2017 Pirates and Ghosts anthology, alongside tales by literary greats such as Homer, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.P. Lovecraft, and H.G. Wells. When not writing he spends his time teaching and performing music, working out, and keeping abreast of the stock market and current affairs. He lives in Killarney, Ireland.
Read Leahy’s short story “Flowers” in Horrific Scribes.
Gerri Leen
Gerri Leen (she/her) is an award-nominated poet from Northern Virginia who’s into horse racing, tea, and collecting encaustic art and raku pottery. She has poetry published by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Dark Matter, The HWA Poetry Showcase, Dreams & Nightmares and others, and in 2024 published her first poetry collection Unwilling: Poems of Horror and Darkness. Visit gerrileen.com to see what she’s been up to.
Read Leen’s short poetry selection Luminous Darkness: Escape and Transgression in Horrific Scribes.
Devin James Leonard
Devin James Leonard’s tales often take place in rural, blue-collar settings, featuring working-class characters who go to great lengths to avoid legitimate work. His writing has appeared in over forty magazines and anthologies, including Flash Fiction Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, BULL, Maudlin House, and Fiction on the Web. His debut novel, The Buddy Snatchers, was recently acquired by Crystal Lake Publishing and is set for release in October 2026. His first short story collection will be published by Twisted Dreams Press in 2027. You can find his publications on Instagram @devinjamesleonard
Read Leonard’s short story “King of Hearts” in Horrific Scribes, June 2025.
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Read Leonard’s short story “Squatters” in Horrific Scribes, January 2026.
E.J. LeRoy
E.J. LeRoy is a Pushcart Prize nominated writer whose work has appeared at After the Storm Magazine, Androids and Dragons, Fiction on the Web, Neon Dystopia, NonBinary Review, and in several speculative fiction anthologies. She also published the novelette Fusion and has a light body horror, science fiction, mpreg novella forthcoming at The Whumpy Printing Press in March 2026. Visit her website at http://ejleroy.weebly.com.
Read LeRoy’s short story “Remy de Montfort of Dubcon Palace” in Horrific Scribes.
Susan L. Lin
Susan L. Lin (she/her) is a Taiwanese American storyteller who hails from southeast Texas and holds an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts. Her novella Goodbye to the Ocean won the 2022 Etchings Press novella prize, and her literary/visual art has appeared in nearly a hundred publications. She loves to dance. Find more at https://susanllin.com.
Read Lin’s short story “No Vacancy” in Horrific Scribes.
Pamela Love
Pamela Love (she/her) was born in New Jersey. After graduating from Bucknell University, she worked as a teacher and in marketing before becoming a writer. Her dark speculative fiction has appeared in the anthologies Bitter Become the Fields and Havok: Animal Kingdom, as well as the magazines Tales from the Moonlit Path and The Lorelei Signal. She lives in Maryland.
Read Love’s short story “We Read by Rot” in Horrific Scribes.
Grigory Lukin
Grigory Lukin (he/him, rhymes with “story” and “win”) is an award-winning filmmaker and an internationally published author of fiction and nonfiction. He’s also a vagabond with three passports and far too much free time. His writing has appeared in Phano, Black Cat Weekly, and several anthologies. He enjoys pastries, museums, and hiking from Mexico to Canada. His secret lair is in Montreal. Find him at www.linktr.ee/grigorylukin
Read Lukin’s short story “To Dream of Better Worlds” in Horrific Scribes, January 2026.
Lene MacLeod
Lene MacLeod (she/her) is a Canadian author of quiet horror and poetry. Her short story collection Fringes of Grey was published in 2024 by DarkWinter Press. Work has appeared in various venues including Chthonic Matter Quarterly, Schlock! Webzine, and Polar Borealis Magazine. She edits and publishes a biannual litmag/anthology series featuring other authors.
Read MacLeod’s short story “Slippers from Hell” in Horrific Scribes, December 2026.
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Read MacLeod’s short story “Smashing in the New Year” in Horrific Scribes, January 2026.
Steven Mathes
Steven Mathes lives miles from the nearest pavement with a spouse and a dog. When he isn’t writing, he tends a garden. He gardens because he likes to cook. He cooks because he is passionate about eating. He is a full member of SFWA. Links to some of his stories can be found at stevenmathes.com.
Read Mathes’s short story “Swimmer” in Horrific Scribes.
Thomas C. Mavroudis
Member of the Denver Horror Collective, as well as the Horror Writers Association, Thomas C. Mavroudis has an MFA from the University of CA, Riverside – Palm Desert under the direction of Stephen Graham Jones. His debut collection, Rabbit Face and Other Awful Encounters, was released in April 2025 from JournalStone. His short stories have recently appeared on Creepy-A Horror Podcast, The NoSleep Podcast, and in Cosmic Horror Monthly, NonBinary Review, Carpe Noctem, Frontiers of Fright, and the Shirley Jackson Award nominated anthology Mooncalves.
Read Mavroudis’s short story “From a Trail Cam Pointed at Our House” in Horrific Scribes.
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Read Mavroudis’s short story “Revelations of a Shadow Person” in Horrific Scribes.
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Read Mavroudis’s short story “In the Bleak Christmas Market” in Horrific Scribes.
Jon McGoran
Jon McGoran is the author of eleven novels for adults and young adults, including his latest science fiction thriller, The Price of Everything, which Publishers Weekly called “a page-turning thrill ride.” His other works include the YA SciFi thrillers Spliced, Splintered, and Spiked and the science thrillers Drift, Deadout, and Dust Up. He is a developmental editor, ghostwriter, and teacher in Drexel University’s Creative Writing MFA program. He lives outside Philadelphia with his wife Elizabeth, a librarian. For more, visit www.jonmcgoran.com or @JonMcGoran on social media.
Read McGoran’s short story “Christmas Angel” in Horrific Scribes.
Trisha Ridinger McKee
Trisha Ridinger McKee (she/her) is a multi-genre author of seventeen novels and over 100 published short stories. Her stories have appeared in publications such as Chicken Soup for the Soul, Crab Fat Literary, Deep Fried Horror, Myslexia, and more. While her novels are romance/women’s fiction, she indulges in her darker side with short stories in the genres of horror and sci-fi.
Read McKee’s short story “The Inheritance” in Horrific Scribes.
Mavrik McMeekan
Mavrik McMeekan is a writer from Northern Illinois, currently residing near Portland, Oregon. He has previously been selected as a winner of the PlayOn Playwriting Competition, and his fiction has appeared in Dug Up Magazine, The Salmon Creek Journal, and the Sauk Valley Works. His novella Four Nights on a Riverbank is forthcoming from Graveside Press. When not writing, he enjoys studying Japanese, training in martial arts, and getting lost in the woods.
He can be found on Bluesky: @mavrikm.bsky.social
Read McMeekan’s short story “This Sickness Will Not End in Death” in Horrific Scribes.
Jen Mierisch
Jen Mierisch’s dream job is to write Twilight Zone episodes, but until then, she’s a website administrator by day and a writer of odd stories by night. Jen’s work can be found in The Arcanist, NoSleep Podcast, Scare Street, and numerous anthologies. Jen can be found haunting her local library near Chicago, USA. She is an active member of the Horror Writers Association.
Read Mierisch’s short story “Kitty’s Hobby” in Horrific Scribes.
Nenad Mitrović
Nenad Mitrović is a Serbian author of five novels published in the Serbian language on the Serbian market. Other items of note include…
- His short story “Line 54(4)” became the winner of the annual contest of the “Mirko Petrović” library in Negotin (east Serbia) in 2022.
- His short story “The right to die” became a winner of the annual competition “Miodrag Borisavljević“ (Serbia) in 2024.
- His short story “Belgrade Butcher” was published in the US magazine Dark Harbor in 2025.
- His short story “Samsara – The house of pain” was published in The Gothic Gazette: Withered Love in 2025.
- His short story “Gospel of Ashes” was published in Smitten Land Issue 3: Televangelism in 2025.
- Baynam Books Press (UK) has contracted to publish his novella Indigo.
Website: www.nenadmitrovic.rs
email: office [at] nenadmitrovic.rs
Read Mitrović’s short story “An Advertisement” in Horrific Scribes.
Shawn Montgomery
Born and raised in upstate New York, Shawn first watched John Carpenter’s Halloween when he was seven years old. Although utterly terrified that Michael Myers would kill him in his sleep that night, he became forever hooked on horror.
Mesmerized by a melange of horror movies and novels throughout the 1980’s, Shawn began writing scary stories when he was eleven years old and hasn’t stopped. He has had stories featured in Horrific Scribes, Disturbed Digest, Thirteen Podcast, Hellbound Books’ Anthology of Suburban Horror, Stolen: A Horror Anthology, The Horror Zine, and others.
Shawn self-published his first novel, The Buchman, and has since been tinkering with several subsequent novels, as well as shorter works. He lives in the mighty Pacific Northwest with his wife and two daughters.
Read Montgomery’s short story “Burn the Witch” in Horrific Scribes, May 2025. It’s the first in the thematically related Hell Is for Children trilogy.
Read Montgomery’s short story “When I Come Back” in Horrific Scribes, September 2025, the second in the trilogy.
Read “The Tree People” in Horrific Scribes, January 2026, the third.
Adam Murray
Adam Murray (he/him) is a speculative and horror writer, filmmaker, and tattoo artist based in Iztapalapa, Mexico. His work explores systems, myth, grief, and collapse—where ancient structures surface beneath modern life. His fiction has appeared in Larina’s Lit Lounge and Horrific Scribes, and his work has been shortlisted by multiple genre editors. He writes at the intersection of cosmic horror, dark science fiction, and surreal apocalypse.
Read Murray’s short story “January” in Horrific Scribes, January 2026.
Jason Frederick Myers
Jason Frederick Myers (he/him) suffered from horrible nightmares as a child, so the irony of growing up to write dark fiction is not lost on him. As a young adult, he became obsessed with the writings of Shirley Jackson, Clive Barker, and Stephen King, authors from whom he draws inspiration today. When not reading or writing, he is likely exploring a secluded mountain or forest, as he only goes to town to acquire new Halloween decorations. A member of the HWA, he has fiction in or forthcoming at DarkWinter Lit, Black Sheep Magazine, Exquisite Death, Dark Harbor Magazine, Black Petals, The Horror Zine, and various anthologies.
Follow him on X: https://x.com/jasonfmyers
Read Myers’s short story “Of Gnarled Roots and Rot” in Horrific Scribes.
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Read Myers’s short story “Death is a Local Term” in Horrific Scribes.
Eric Nash
Eric Nash (he/him) is a short story writer from South West England. His dark tales have been published in numerous venues including Horror Library 8 by Dark Moon Books, Coffin Bell Journal, Dark Horses magazine, and Demain’s Short Sharp Shocks! series. His work also made it onto Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year recommended list vol 16.
His short fiction collection, Corpse Road Blues: an exploration of contemporary hauntings, is out now from Demain Publishing (here for the UK link).
Find out more: https://eric-nash-inked-up-and-earthbound.com/
Connect on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ericnash.bsky.social
Read Nash’s short story “The Imposter Syndrome” in Horrific Scribes.
Edward Newton
Edward Newton is an award-winning author. He was published twice in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. He received the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Best First Short Story. His novels include Horrorfrost, Horroricane, and Horrorquake. He has written the contemporary fantasy Truth to Light and the YA time-travel novel The Infinite Minute. His latest novel is a fast-paced near-future political thriller called The Divided States of America.
Read Newton’s short story “Sleepwalkers” in Horrific Scribes, January 2026.
Lena Ng
Lena Ng (she/her) roams the dimensions of Toronto, Canada, and is a monster-hunting member of the Horror Writers Association. She has curiosities published in weighty tomes including Amazing Stories and Flame Tree’s Asian Ghost Stories and Weird Horror Stories. Her stories have been performed for podcasts such as Gallery of Curiosities, Creepy Pod, Utopia Science Fiction, Love Letters to Poe, and Horrifying Tales of Wonder. “Under an Autumn Moon” is her short story collection.
Read Ng’s short story “Darkly Dreaming from the Abyss” as well as seven horror haiku (or “horrorku“) in Horrific Scribes.
Lira Palmer
Lira Palmer (she/her) lives, for now, in the northern Dutch city of Groningen. As a scientist, she has written several outreach and popular science pieces when not pipetting samples and handling beakers. Stepping away from the quantifiable and explainable, she is an emergent fiction writer, with a taste in horror, weird and unexplainable fiction, for a good measure of balance. You can find out more at Lirapalmer.com.
Read Palmer’s short story “Calypso” in Horrific Scribes.
Dimitry Partsi
Dimitry Partsi (he/him) is an Australian writer who specializes in finding the absurdity in modern corporate and social life. His work frequently appears in online literary magazines and humor publications. He is currently working on a collection of short stories.
Read Partsi’s short story/script “A Promising Void: The Memo-morphosis” in Horrific Scribes.
Jennifer Peaslee
Jennifer Peaslee’s (she/her) work has recently appeared in Breath & Shadow, Every Day Fiction, BarBar, and Moonday Mag. She lives outside Atlanta with her mischievous cat, Trouble, and runs The Bleeding Typewriter, a creative writing advice blog and online community. Her religious horror short story collection, Divine Dread, is available on Amazon. Her upcoming novella, Sorority Zombies in Space!, will be released in 2025.
Read Peaslee’s short story “Dinner and a Show” in Horrific Scribes.
Nick Porisch
Nick Porisch (he/him) is a Minneapolis-based writer who likes to explore the bizarre, the mundane, and everything in between. His favorite modes of procrastination are running laps around a lake or watching movies with his girlfriend and cat. You can find more of his work on the Creepy Podcast, Alphanumeric Podcast, and more, or follow him on Instagram @porischn.
Read Porisch’s short story “The Rivers Styx” in Horrific Scribes.