“A Soliloquy of Tongues” in Shakespeare Unleashed; Dragon Award finalist

I’m a little behind on updating, but I have a couple of cool entries to post!

Shakespeare Unleashed came out near the end of July, an anthology of horror stories and sonnets inspired by works by William Shakespeare. My Hamlet-inspired story, “A Soliloquy of Tongues,” focuses on Queen Gertrude of Denmark and the lengths she’ll go for a little peace and quiet.

Also, in news of last year’s work, No Gods for Drowning is up for a Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel! I’m honored and excited to see it up there with such brilliant work. Winners will be announced in a few weeks at this year’s DragonCon!

Cruel Angels Past Sundown release day

It’s release day!

Overjoyed that my new novel Cruel Angels Past Sundown is out at last from Death’s Head Press and flashing that amazing Justin T. Coons cover art like its Splatter Western fellows.

It’s out in paperback and ebook today, which can be ordered at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, and soon enough the audiobook will be out, narrated by Jenn Lee, whom you might have heard on the audiobook for Queen of Teeth.

New Mexico Territory, 1882: She comes to the Klein ranch at sunset, a strange naked pregnant woman dragging a cavalry saber. Annette Klein and her husband have built peace between their marriage and secret relations beyond, but their serenity dies in bloodshed tonight through a cannibalistic demon and a mad preacher.

Annette barely escapes the bloodbath to the nearby town of Low’s Bend. where she might find safety with a shotgun-toting barkeep, two no-nonsense boarding house ladies, and the gunslinging bounty hunter who’s captured Annette’s heart.

But hell is at her heels. If she’s going to survive until dawn, she’ll have to forget everything she knows about peace and mercy, and face a hollow malevolence more ancient and ruthless than she’s ever imagined.

One of Paste Magazine’s “15 Horror Books We Can’t Wait to Read in Summer 2023

Cruel Angels Past Sundown is a gorgeous, bloody, surreal nightmare with a palpable, pulsing heart. Piper’s innovative prose is tactile and immersive. It binds you to Annette’s soul and the people of Low’s Bend and makes you want to fight for them. Long live queer horror in the face of those who would call us blasphemous. Thank you, Hailey, for this battle cry in the darkness. This book is a treasure.”

– Suzan Palumbo, Nebula Finalist, author of Skin Thief

“From its unforgettable opening image through to its furious, apocalyptic-in-the-original-meaning-of-the-word climax, Cruel Angels Past Sundown moves with the implacable dread of a nightmare. But the slashes it leaves in your gut, and the hardpan dust it rubs in the wounds, are all too real.”

– Nat Cassidy, author of Mary: An Awakening in Terror

Recent article appearances

Short update as we approach mid-July!

First, Becky Spratford wrote “The Scares Keep Growing | Horror Preview 2023” for Library Journal, which highlighted a bunch of the exciting horror books coming in the second half of the year (there are many!), among them my upcoming novel from Titan Books, A Light Most Hateful.

And just today, Neil McRobert published “These Are the Writers Shaping Horror’s Next Golden Age” for Esquire Magazine! It’s a deep dive into horror’s recent surge in popularity, both for the past decade and right now, plus profile and interview bits for several of us. I was excited to get to be part of it!

That’s it for now. In two weeks, my Splatter Western novel Cruel Angels Past Sundown releases from Death’s Head Press. So soon!

“Bad With Secrets” in Unspeakable Horror 3

It’s the final day of Pride Month, and it’s only fitting I have a grim story in a special book.

Unspeakable Horror 3: Dark Rainbow Rising is a queer historical horror anthology, with each story delving into a different point in history from way back to recent, exploring queerness in the time and the horrors surrounding.

My arcane tale “Bad With Secrets” is the first story in the book after Chad Helder’s opening poem, telling of a woman’s escape across the country during the McCarthy Era from the most powerful man in Washington, D.C. with a folder of evidence that needs to reach California … just as her breaks down in the desert.

A lot of people know about the Red Scare at the time, but less known is the Lavender Scare which targeted queer individuals as being a national threat. I’m proud to have a story about it alongside tales in this book full of talented authors and all the horrors they’ve conjured.

Pride Month might be ending, but queer horror is forever.

Novel announcement: All the Hearts You Eat

Exciting news—I have a new book coming from Titan, publisher of my still-upcoming novel A Light Most Hateful.
All the Hearts You Eat is a monstrous vampire novel about a dead girl, a haunted coast, an ancient curse, and a thirst for blood, and it will release in October 2024! This will be my fifth novel after the two still releasing this year. It’s gutting and harsh and personal, but also a bloody beastly time.
Halloween season 2024 and its vampires are still a long ways off, but we’re getting the word out early as this book is a chunky monster, and I can’t wait for everyone to read it!

“A Riddle to the Death” in Les Petites Morts

I’m back from a wonderful StokerCon just in time for a new short story release!

It’s publication day for Les Petites Morts, the new anthology from Ghost Orchid Press. Here find 14 stories of erotic horror inspired by fairy tales, myths, and folklore, and some of them are illustrated! It’s a fantastic TOC, featuring Sara Tantlinger, K.P. Kulski, Joe Koch, S.T. Gibson & more.

My spicy sphinx tale “A Riddle to the Death” has the honor of opening the volume, and it has an illustration by Daniella Batsheva. This is an exciting, heart-pounding anthology, perfect for lovers of horror and dark romance alike!

“She Tasted of Good Fortune” in We’re Here + more

I’m heading to StokerCon in Pittsburgh this afternoon, but a quick update before hitting the road on two new stories.

We’re Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror is out today in ebook! All stories by queer authors, and all proceeds go to the Trevor Project, and with it releasing during Pride Month, what could be more perfect?

I have a novelette inside, “She Tasted of Good Fortune,” which takes place in the world of No Gods for Drowning and tells of curses, criminals, and a sultry deal to find a fortune teller before the night is done. It’s a standalone tale, so whether this is your first dive into the No Gods for Drowning world or you’re returning from reading the book, you’re good to go.

I’ve added a hub page for No Gods for Drowning as a series/setting, where you’ll be able to find links to the current book and novelette, as well as future books and stories as they’re announced/released.

Also if you’re attending StokerCon, I have a flash fic in the new souvenir book, The Monsters That Made Us, which isn’t available beyond the con. “The Black Lagoons of Our Eyes” is my queer love letter to The Creature from the Black Lagoon and series, and how I see myself in its titular creature. I’m delighted it can appear with many top-notch essays and stories of horror origins.

Cruel Angels Past Sundown in Paste Magazine

Jazzed to see that my upcoming Splatter Western novel Cruel Angels Past Sundown in Paste Magazine’s hot article “The 15 Horror Books We Can’t Wait to Read In Summer 2023.”

There are a bunch of incredible books coming out, some I’ve read early, some I can’t wait to read! Check it out and these other books too!

Cruel Angels Past Sundown releases on July 25th from Death’s Head Press!

“The Girls With Claws That Catch” in Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic

My last new short story for May is out today! The awesome magazine Cosmic Horror Monthly presents their new anthology, Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic: An Anthology of Hysteria Fiction, a book that “is rage-made-art, an unsettling meditation that also serves as a charitable platform to support abortion rights in the United States. Inside are twenty-six haunting speculative tales that explore the social, political, and personal dimensions of hysteria.”

Among those 26 is my story “The Girls With Claws That Catch,” about navigating a life far removed from what your parents wanted and expected of you, told through the lens of Lewis Carroll’s “The Jabberwocky.”

Tech Horror, two new stories

I have two new stories out (and one more to come a little later this month).

First up, What Draws Us Near, an anthology of forbidden media, released on Saturday, the first anthology published by the lovely bookstore Little Ghosts Books in Toronto. It’s an amazing TOC, and I’m excited to be part of it with my story of a suspicious VHS tape, a dead mother, and a dark secret, “There Is No Cult, This Is No Classic.”

And today, Shortwave Media has released Obsolescence, a Black Mirror-esque anthology of future tech gone wrong. My story opens the books with The Fly meets Society in “Why a Bicycle is Built for One.”