Greetings, wondercats. Recently, I have fallen in love with Folk Horror. Reading it, absolutely, but more deeply, writing it. Specifically, the story that will be appearing in Dark Lake Publishing’s stunning anthology Their Ghoulish Reputation. As soon as I saw the title, I knew I needed to try to weasel my way in—and weasel I did. Over a mad couple of weeks, I wrote “Foxmother”.

This story is close to my heart for several reasons. Firstly, it is the longest story of mine currently out in the wild—or rather, currently accepted for publication—at a lovely 7,500 words, give or take. Secondly, it features a fat main character, whose fatness is not the source of her troubles (though, like most people, she has hang-ups). Thirdly, our main character lives with excoriation disorder—something I live with myself but never see represented in fiction. Until 2020, I didn’t know excoriation disorder was a thing, despite having been struggling with it for more than half of my life. It feels really important to give that a voice in fiction—it also feels terrifying. (Wish me luck.)

And finally: this story has been haunting me for a while. It will be wonderful to finally see it out in print!

Their Ghoulish Reputation comes out in October but you can pre-order it right now from the Dark Lake Publishing website! (You might get some fun freebies if you order it direct.)

This book looks like it’s going to be stunning, if the social media graphics and digital booklet are anything to go by. Check out the booklet if you want to know more about the other eerie tales and authors.