Richard Thomas's Blog

Issue Eleven Intro
November 2024

As the seasons change, and the colors come out, so many interesting creatures and stories lurk in the woods, waiting to pounce. We have four fascinating new stories in this issue: “Had You Been a Dragonfly” by Charlotta Amato explores strong emotions as the title contemplates how things might have been different; “She-Wolf” by Arden Powell is a gruesome and original take on Little Red Riding Hood; “Families Are All Alike” by Kristin Peterson explores the manipulation and gaslighting of a charismatic cult leader; and “Aardvark” by Jackson Vrana taps into the uncanny for an original story about tiny elderly people hatched from eggs. As for reprints, we have three very cool stories: “Nelly’s World” by Arthur H. Manners explores grief and loss in a powerful tale about fatherhood; “Pepper Honey and Cedar Smoke” by K. S. Walker is an intense folk horror story; and “Mr. and Mrs. Kett” by Sam Hicks is a surreal, unsettling story—one of my favorites in recent memory. We have two original non-fiction essays this month: “El Rumbo de la Muerte” by Jess Simms, which explores the Day of the Dead and “My Greatest Irrational Fear: When Proteins Turn—The Insidious Horror of Prion Disease” by Veda Villiers which is a fascinating essay that really got under my skin (pun intended). And finally, our two non-fiction reprints are: “13 Tourist Destinations for Horror Lovers” by Annie Neugebauer, showcasing some captivating and haunted places around the world, as well as “In Defense of Anti-Science” by J.H. Siegal a controversial essay about science and anti-science that asks some compelling questions. Cover art this month is once again by the talented Lynne Hansen. Enjoy!

—Richard Thomas
Editor-in-Chief / Creative Director

Today, The Off-Season is out. It contains my 2,001-word, one sentence story, “Sunk.” A great TOC. Pick up your copy today. Thank you, Marissa van Uden and Dark Matter. Pick up your copy today.

I’ve added some Advanced Creative Writing Workshops to my 2025 calendar. If you would like to join us, please drop me an email to richardgthomasiii@gmail.com. I’m offering this to my students, peers, and friends before I open it up to the world. For more information on what the classes entail, click over. These workshops are small—eight students—and we read The Best Horror of the Year, The Best American SF&F, and The Best American Short Stories (literary) and workshop four of your stories over 16 weeks. It’s all about critical analysis. Come on in, the water’s fine.

https://storyvilleonline.com/advanced-creative-writing-workshop-1

We have a lot of creepy unsettling stories and essays for you this month. We have four amazing new stories in this issue: “What is Lost, What is Claimed, What Remains Unretrieved” by Avra Margariti—a harrowing clown story; “Momentary Brightness” by Robert Helfst—a stargazing body horror tale that is quite original; “Pile” by Martin Cahill—a truly unsettling bit of body horror; and “The Amassing Man” by David Corse—a fascinating weird western rippling with horror. You may be sensing a theme this month. As for reprints, we have three fantastic stories: “You Must Cut It From You” by Andrew Kozma—a visceral ghost story; “B Sharp Minor, or The Suicide Choir: An Oral History” by Gemma Files—a recent favorite of mine, so unique and one of the best epistolary stories I’ve read in some time; and “In Pursuit of the Black Chuck Wagon” by Michael Boulerice—a brutal folk horror woven into a terrifying western. We have two original non-fiction essays this month: “Horror and Romance in Films: The Perfect Marriage” by Emma Cole and “The Horror of Isolation: Exploring Solitude and Madness in Horror Fiction” by Staci Layne Wilson. Both essays are fascinating reads. And finally, our two non-fiction reprints are: “Mastering the Metaphor” by Melissa Burkley and “You Are Not Your Writing” by Angela Slatter. Great advice from both authors here. Cover art this month is by the always exciting, and perennial favorite, Lynne Hansen. Enjoy!

—Richard Thomas
Editor-in-Chief / Creative Director

Incarnate got a great review in THE NEW YORK TIMES! Thank you, Gabino Iglesias. In great company, too. “This is a must-read for fans of strange, surreal horror.”

Today is the official launch day for my fourth novel, Incarnate. I can’t thank you all enough for your continued support. What can you do for me today? Incarnate is a very important book. It’s some of my best work, and it can lead to so much for me—foreign sales, awards and nominations, getting my backlist into print (Disintegration and Breaker), etc. I totally need your help. (1.) If you can, please buy a copy in whatever format you like. (2.) If you can’t afford it or it’s not your cup of tea, please spread the word—across social media, your newsletter, your blog—whatever you have. (3) Talk about it, put up kind words and reviews at Goodreads and Amazon when you get done, nominate it, etc.

Special thanks go to everyone that blurbed this book: Jonathan Maberry, Lee Murray, Laird Barron, Mercedes Yardley, Angela Slatter, Gwendolyn Kiste, Gus Moreno, Lisa Morton, Sam Rebelein, John Palisano, and Clay McLeod Chapman.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! Blurbs below if you want to see what people are saying.

“This is not the conventional sort of horror novel in which something monstrous intrudes upon a recognizable reality; instead, the very fabric of Thomas’ world is fragile and subject to reorganization. Fans of Brian Evenson will enjoy—and perhaps cower from—this cold-weather tale. A haunting horror novel set in a dire wasteland.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Incarnate is a stunningly creepy supernatural thriller set in the remote arctic. It captures the terror of being alone in the frozen darkness with something dreadful. Weird and thrilling!”—Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of The Sleepers War and NecroTek

“A numinous slow burn blending foul and folklore from one of horror’s best, Richard Thomas’s Incarnate is a sumptuous and sinister exploration of human sin.”—Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of Grotesque: Monster Stories

“Thomas is one of the best when it comes to the art of visceral horror. Incarnate is as cold and immaculate as winter in the deep arctic.”—Laird Barron, author of Not a Speck of Light (Stories)

“Thomas creates a detailed, transcendental world full of both beauty and brutality. There are too many monsters to count, and yet we still dare to hope. My favorite work of his to date.”—Multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author, Mercedes M. Yardley

“Thomas’s characters peer behind the thin veil between worlds, mapping a landscape that’s sinister but not hopeless. Incarnate will stick with you long after the last page.”—Angela “A.G.” Slatter, award-winning author of The Briar Book of the Dead

“Richard Thomas is a major name in the horror genre, and his latest book, Incarnate, once again proves why. This is a strange, profound, and powerful tale about good and evil, and it’s one that will stick with you long after you’ve turned the final page.”—Gwendolyn Kiste, Lambda Literary and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Reluctant Immortals and The Haunting of Velkwood

“Incarnate is a harrowing look into the world of a sin-eater stationed at the end of the world. Richard Thomas manages to harness the northern lights into a brutal story about weathering the frozen tundra as well as the suffering of all mankind. Graceful, cosmic, and heartbreaking, Incarnate is a universe unto itself.”—Gus Moreno, author of This Thing Between Us

“In Incarnate Richard Thomas shows himself to be a master alchemist who can spin elements of a survival tale, healing magick, cosmic horror, and true environmental dread into pure dark gold that’s enchanting, truly weird, and utterly frightening.”—Lisa Morton, six-time Bram Stoker-Award winner

“Richard Thomas’s Incarnate burns like cold ice. Forged from classic weird fiction, the feeling of isolation never lets up, even as the stakes rise to impossible heights. Incarnate 
offers a glimpse into a dark portal where nefarious things are all too anxious to cross over. This is Thomas at his best: dark, unforgiving, and painfully redemptive.”—John Palisano, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of Requiem and Placerita

“Reading Incarnate is a visceral experience—weird cosmic horror at its purest. Brutal and unforgiving, Thomas’s novel is epic in its scope and ideas. The creature horror is mind-blowing—endlessly unique and fascinating in its variety. In his skilled hands, even the wildest beast is human and capable of redemption. I truly don’t know how else to describe this meditative, monstrous, delicate, icicle-sharp novel. You’ll just have to taste it for yourself.”—Sam Rebelein, author of the Bram Stoker Award-Nominated novel Edenville

“Incarnate is a mournful meditation on the solitude of sin and the connective cosmic web that binds both man and monster together. Richard Thomas writes of our fall from grace with such transcendent eloquence, such astute empathy for the wicked and divine, it’s enough to rekindle a reader’s faith in the power of horror literature.”—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

We have four fantastic new stories in this issue: “A History of Ghosts” by Jeffery Reynolds is a haunting story about rewriting history, and the consequences of ignoring the truth; “The Facility” by L. Marie Wood, an immersive, uncanny tale of family and community; “Belladonna” by Cressida Blake Roe, an intense tale of time travel, love, and fate; and “The Boy With the Painted Face” by Steve Toase, a hypnotic flash fiction ghost story that grabs hold and doesn’t let go. As for reprints, we have two: “The Tissot Family Circus” by Angela Slatter—unsettling and moving, as any good circus horror story should be, as well as “The Bright Crown of Joy” by Livia Llewellyn, one of my favorites of Livia’s, epic and sprawling in its wonder and Lovecraftian horror. We have two original non-fiction essays this month: “The Exorcism of Taylor Swift” by Lauren Salerno—a fascinating and compelling read, as well as “Cyborgs, Spiders, and Designing for the Space Age: The Place Where Sci-Fi and Fashion Meet” by Anne Marie Molloy, which educates as it speaks to innovation. And finally, our two non-fiction reprints are by Gamut editors: “Voracious Black” by Mercedes M. Yardley, a story about mines collapsing and the power of darkness, as well as “Smiley” by Maria Haskins, in pursuit of an eclectic detective, the mystery and thriller genres always fascinating to me. And of course our amazing cover art again this month is by Daniele Serra. Enjoy!

—Richard Thomas
Editor-in-Chief / Creative Director

Richard Thomas on Writing Incarnate

The audiobook for Incarnate is on sale right now for 78% off. Listen to the above sample, and if you dig it, order your copy today over here—

https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Incarnate-A-Novel/dp/B0CQZ2JJDN

Hope you enjoy it!

We’re giving away TEN COPIES of my fourth novel—Incarnate, over at Goodreads. If you like The Thing, The Terror, The Giver, The Only Good Indians, and/or The Fisherman—this may be for you. Enter, and spread the word! Thanks! https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/394212-incarnate-a-novel