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.
Description: Two brothers, living in virtual isolation with their mother and family friend, are forced to confront the mysteries and horrific realities of their past, as well as surviving the menacing presence of their mother’s alter ego—“The Witch.” As The Witch becomes more prevalent in their lives, the young boys grow increasingly desperate, until finally realizing they have to resort to extreme and unspeakable measures… if they’re ever going to survive.
AND
READ
THE TRILOGY’S SECOND, MOST BRUTAL TALE…
Read Montgomery’s short story “When I Come Back” in Horrific Scribes, September 2025.
Description: A chance reunion… an invitation to “catch up” on old times… another game has begun. What happens when somebody has an opportunity to seek revenge on a childhood tormentor, many years later? What will it take to heal from years’ worth of trauma and grief? Sometimes, in order to free yourself from your demons, you must confront them head-on. And sometimes, you have to play one last game to end it all… forever…
AND
THE
TRILOGY’S
CONCLUSION
Read “The Tree People” in Horrific Scribes, January 2026.
Description: A young boy returns home after going missing for twenty-four hours. Despite being relieved that he is safe, his family notices that something is wrong. Horribly wrong. Along with losing the ability to talk for several hours, the boy has also sustained serious injuries that he is seemingly unaffected by. Most disturbingly, he gradually reveals family secrets to his older brother…secrets he shouldn’t had known. And it’s these secrets that have awakened and angered the mysterious, “Tree People,” who steadily march closer through the forest to take the boy back with them…at a horrific cost.