One night during a writers’ group meeting, Lisa Morton (former president of the Horror Writers Association and multiple Bram Stoker Award winner) was telling us about a series of horror anthologies she’d taken part in with four other authors. Each author edited one book in the series and contributed a story to each of the other four books. It sounded like a really fun premise.

Last December I woke up with a brainstorm: Why didn’t the Wily Writers do that? I’d joined the group of writers in September and it was really helpful for writing support and community. Why couldn’t we put together a series of anthologies to showcase our work?

By the end of the meeting of potential editors in January, we had titles, a publishing schedule, and various roles all sorted out. I was amazed how easily everything was coming together.

Last month, Lisa Morton’s Tales of Dread came out. It’s the first book in the Wily Writers Presents series. It includes my story “Guardian of the Golden Gate.” You can read the story behind the story here.

As of today, the second book in the series — Tales of Nightmares — is out! I had the honor of editing it and:

• In “La Japonesa” by Lisa Morton, a college professor chasing tenure comes face to face with something with sharp claws and even sharper teeth.
• Weston Ochse cuts deep in “Glue and the Art of Supermodel Maintenance.”
• Officer Warren Hastings can’t escape the crime he didn’t prevent in Yvonne Navarro’s “Recall.”
• In Jennifer Brozek’s “Twenty Questions,” Sara discovers some games must be played until the end.
• E.S. Magill reminds us that every civilization has its myths of supernatural protectors of the natural world. During a hiking expedition, Harris Kimball encounters the spectral guardians of California’s Santa Lucia Mountains, whose mission is to stop the greatest threat to nature: humans.
• In Angel Leigh McCoy’s “The Haunting of Mrs. Poole,” Amelia seems to have it all: wealthy husband, devoted sister, perfect daughter…and a gothic mansion on the shore of the James River where nothing is what it seems.
• The line between reality and delirium blurs for an exhausted new mother in Alison J. McKenzie’s “Into the Quiet.”
• In Bill Bodden’s “The House on River Road,” Ed and Jerry discover some urban legends are more than legendary…and some abandoned houses are better left alone.

You can score yourself a copy in paperback or ebook on Amazon.

Reviewers/bookbloggers/bookstagrammers/booktokkers, if you’d like a copy for potential review, please contact me and link me to one of your reviews!