When I was still a child and picked up my very first Goosebumps book by R. L. Stine, I knew I'd fallen head over heels in love with all things horror. It's a love affair that has only grown stronger over the years, a borderline obsession with stories that explore the darkest recesses of the human imagination. I guess you could say I'm like Thorny Rose in that way...always stalking down those special stories that have the ability to invoke a creepy-crawly feeling right down in the marrow of my bones.

As I grew older I discovered the work of some of my biggest inspirations like Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker...and the work of those authors sent me deeper down the path of the macabre. During my teenage years I had the little tradition of reading Stephen King's The Stand each summer to lose myself in the devastation of the superflu and marvel at the sadistic magnetism of Randall Flagg.

I've devoured horror fiction for as long as I can remember and reading the words weaved by the greats of the genre inspired me to begin writing. I wanted the opportunity to tell my own tales with the intent to terrify, to disturb; to capture the morbid curiosity of the reader just as my own was caught so early on in life.

If I've managed to inspire some of those feelings in you, my readers, then I feel that I've accomplished something just a little bit magical. There's still some magic left in this world, and I think it's most powerful when manifested in the form of words scrawled across many blank pages. Granted any magic contained within my work will be of the dark variety...but I wouldn't want it any other way. ;)

I live in Martinsburg, West Virginia with my little old pug Cerberus. When I'm not writing, I enjoy hiking mountain trails, weight training, getting tattooed and being a garden variety introvert in his late 20s. Oh, and reading too (duh).

Connect with me online:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/JMHorrorFiction

Instagram: @xbadmoonrising

AIDEN MERCHANT is the author of numerous story collections and screenplays, including Sickness is in Season, Gina, Extreme Mall Walking, and Crossing Red. His short fiction has appeared in Pulp Harvest (Blood Rites Horror), Slice of Paradise (DarkLit Press), Horror on the Hook (Dead Seas Press), and Wild Violence (Blood Rites Horror). With Julia C. Lewis, he edited and published Blackberry Blood: A Dark Selection of Poetry and Fiction in late 2021. He is also the publisher of the backwoods horror novella, Milk Teeth, by Andrew Post (author of Chop Shop and Mondo Crimson).

www.aidenmerchant.com

Carla is a UK writer of horror, supernatural thrillers, and dark fiction. Five of Carla’s short stories can be found in several Blood Rites Publishing anthologies. Her work has also been published by Black Hare Press, Ghost Orchid Press, Quill & Crow Publishing House, Jazz House Publications, and Night Terror Novels. To find out more about Carla and her writing, visit carlaeliot.com or search for @writecarla on Instagram and Twitter.