novella

“Possession No. 239 in E Major, Op. 1” and TGONG paperback cover

Previously only available as a limited edition direct from the publisher, Playlist of the Damned has now released wide! Nearly 30 stories of music-based horror from cursed albums to doomed cosmic concerts. My story “Possession No. 239 in E Major, Op. 1” follows what happens when a song won’t stay stuck in your head, but wants the rest of you as well.

Also previously only a limited edition hardcover, I’m excited to share the paperback and ebook cover for The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow!

Hardcovers have been landing over the last few weeks, and the wide release should spread sometime in August.

Last but not least, haunted hotel novella Cranberry Cove is coming to audio from Tantor and the incredible Jenn Lee, who also narrated Queen of Teeth and Cruel Angels Past Sundown. That releases on July 30th, so not long from now!

Release day: Song of the Tyrant Worm

Posted on 2024-06-08 by Hailey Piper even the worm will turn New release novella song of the tyrant worm the worm and his kings

The end has come.

It began in 2020 with The Worm and His Kings, continued in 2023 with Even the Worm Will Turn, and now concludes with Song of the Tyrant Worm, out today in ebook and paperback from Off Limits Press and audiobook from Tantor and available from Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Amazon, Libro.FM, Audiobooks.com.

Cassie Daley drew up the gorgeous cover art, depicting the Gray Maiden against eerie cosmos.

I’ve already listened to the audiobook and Allyson Voller brings the narration to a haunting close.

This has been a long journey. I could’ve never foreseen a short story I wrote and abandoned in early 2019 would become a book, and then two books, and then a trilogy. I’m ever grateful to the readers, reviewers, booksellers, and other authors who’ve taken this story of kings and gods and New York into their hearts, as well as a massively supportive publisher who’s weathered delays from me, changes of plan, and more to bring this book into the world.

Thank you all. Now to follow the Gray Maiden beneath Manhattan one last time.

“New York City, 1990: The Gray Maiden has served the almighty Worm and his faithful for her entire life. Recently that has meant abducting women off the street to find the Worm’s destined Bride, but any brutality is worth his promise of a better world to come.

Until two strangers reveal a horrifying truth—there is no future anymore. No past. Unfathomable forces have broken all sense of the world, stranding Gray in a repeating nightmare, cut off from godly promises. Her only hope is to follow these strangers out of the catastrophe, first to safety, and then to answers.

But a sinister presence lurks beyond the universe’s skin, a cosmic hunger that has haunted Gray since before she knew its name.

Time breaks and starlight dies beneath uncompromising gods in the reality-shattering conclusion to The Worm and His Kings saga.”

“Between the Mind and the Dark” in Cosmic Horror Monthly

Posted on 2024-05-07 by Hailey Piper novella short story song of the tyrant worm the worm and his kings

I have a new story out today!

I’m pleased to return to the wonderful Cosmic Horror Monthly in their 47th issue with my tale “Between the Mind and the Dark,” set in the summer of 1977, when a widower’s art project becomes an otherworldly obsession.

You can check it out here!

Also the final book in The Worm and His Kings trilogy, Song of the Tyrant Worm, is up for paperback pre-order at Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Amazon. The Worm saga’s finale releases June 8th!

These two pieces of news just might be related. You’ll have to see!

Worm pre-orders + limited edition

Posted on 2024-04-22 by Hailey Piper Announcement even the worm will turn novella song of the tyrant worm the worm and his kings

Two bits of The Worm and His Kings news today!

First, the final book in the trilogy, Song of the Tyrant Worm, is up for Kindle pre-order alongside audio options. The paperback will go up soon, too.

In the meantime, Thunderstorm Books will be publishing The Worm and His Kings Saga, which will contain all three books in a limited edition signed hardcover. This is a collector’s item, only available until May 19th, with unique artwork by Evangeline Gallagher, who gave their dazzling touch to the eerie blend of New York City and the cosmos.

Expected ship date is July, but again, these are only available until May 19, and then they’re gone.

From the publisher:

“Long ago, in a time now dead, one note changed our world forever.”

Manhattan 1990: Monique’s girlfriend Donna has vanished without a trace. Only after the disappearances of several other impoverished women does she hear the rumors of a gray creature rising from the underground to snatch victims off the street, and Donna might be one of them. When Monique decides to give chase, she’ll plunge into a subterranean world of monsters, monarchs, cultists, and gods both beyond her understanding and closer than she thinks.

So begins the sprawling trilogy of the almighty Worm. Join Monique, Donna, the Gray Maiden, and more in desperate searches for lost lovers, dire revelations, and shattered futures, where every step brings the discomforting touch of celestial cruelty.

Hailed as a modern cosmic horror classic, exploring queerness, worship, connection, transcendence, and fate, the original novella The Worm and His Kings has been gathered here for the first time in a single volume with its sequels, Even the Worm Will Turn and Song of the Tyrant Worm. Together, they invite you down mysterious caverns within the earth, into strange histories, and out of the world you know, where you’ll come face-to-face with a darkness that stretches from the dawn of time and across the stars.

Signed by Hailey Piper

Release day: Cranberry Cove

Posted on 2024-04-02 by Hailey Piper cranberry cove novella

At last, it’s release day!

My supernatural crime novella Cranberry Cove is loose in the world from Bad Hand Books. Tremendously grateful to them, Lynne Hansen with her stunning, eerie cover art, Eric LaRocca and Booklist for their kind words pre-release, and everyone who’s pre-ordered checking it out. No Gods for Drowning was my first foray into crime fiction with its genre stew, and getting to wade deeper in with this supernatural crime novella is a treat. The doors are open.

Available in paperback and ebook from: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop

Something unspeakable is happening at Cranberry Cove.

For decades, the chilling mystery within the derelict hotel has claimed those foolish and unwary enough to go inside.

Following the violent assault of a criminal kingpin’s adult son, enforcer Emberly Hale takes a dark journey into the haunted core of Cranberry Cove—and her own past—to find out the horrible truth.

“The best crossover episode of Law & Order: SVU and X-Files that you never knew you wanted and now cannot live without.”

—Booklist

“Cranberry Cove feels like a more thoughtful and nuanced episode of Tales from the Crypt with its harrowing examination of masculinity and gender roles inside a carnivorous hotel. Exquisitely written with Piper’s signature lush and haunting prose, this bleak and undeniably upsetting novella will provoke and excite like all excellent works of art should.”

—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

Events, upcoming books 2024

Posted on 2024-02-27 by Hailey Piper audiobook convention cranberry cove novella song of the tyrant worm the worm and his kings

A few quick things!

This weekend (Saturday, March 2nd) I’ll be in McCordsville, Indiana at the Scarlet Lane Brewing Company for the Scarelastic Book Fair with plenty of cool horror folk. It’s going to be a fantastic time!

Also, look what’s arrived!

These are the copies of Cranberry Cove pre-ordered directly from the publisher, Bad Hand Books. There are a couple hundred to sign, and then hopefully they’ll be getting out before the April 2nd release date. Can’t wait for the doors to open on this abandoned hotel. It’s also still up for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Lastly, and perhaps out of the usual chronology (fitting for the Worm series), Song of the Tyrant Worm audiobook is up for pre-order. The other format pre-orders are still to come, but if audio is your jam, you can find this one on Libro.FM.

Song of the Tyrant Worm cover reveal

Posted on 2024-02-11 by Hailey Piper novella song of the tyrant worm the worm and his kings

Excited to reveal the cover for the final book in The Worm and His Kings trilogy, Song of the Tyrant Worm!

Cassie Daley is the artist, and she’s captured all the cosmic weirdness of the book and the series as a whole in this dazzling visage of portals and planets and starlight.

Plot synopsis and pre-order is still to be announced, but Song of the Tyrant Worm will be out from Off Limits om June 8th! The end is coming.

In other book news (now’s a good time to remind I have four books releasing this year, right?), the paperback for Cranberry Cove is now up for pre-order on Barnes & Noble.

Cover reveal: Cranberry Cove

Posted on 2023-12-07 by Hailey Piper cranberry cove novella

It’s cover reveal day! Excited to let loose the cover of Cranberry Cove, my upcoming supernatural crime novella, out from Bad Hand Books on April 2, 2024. So I guess it’s also a release date reveal.

The art comes from legendary artist Lynne Hansen, who I’ve wanted to work with for the longest time, and she’s truly captured the book’s eerie uncertainty and sense of being watched.

Ebook pre-orders are already up on Amazon, along with a brief plot summary:

What’s been happening at Cranberry Cove? It’s unspeakable. It’s unspoken.

Emberly Hale is about to take a dark journey inside the derelict hotel—and inside her own past—to find out the horrible truth.

“The Ruins of Elfland,” Even the Worm Will Turn audiobook

Posted on 2023-11-07 by Hailey Piper audiobook even the worm will turn flash fiction novella short story

My final (I’m pretty sure) short story of 2023 released today in The Seventh Terrace’s new anthology, Solstice in Purgatory, a flash fic snowstorm of winter holiday horror. My tale, “The Ruins of Elfland,” shows the secret cost of Christmas in a world going cold for the sake of toys.

Also, on Halloween the audiobook for Even the Worm Will Turn released from Tantor! Allyson Voller reprises her role as narrator from The Worm and His Kings to bring this sequel to audio, and she’ll be returning for the final book next year, Song of the Tyrant Worm.

Audio at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, LibroFM

2024 title reveals: Worm 3, new TPONG

Posted on 2023-09-02 by Hailey Piper Announcement collection novella song of the tyrant worm the ghostlands of natalie glasgow the possession of natalie glasgow the worm and his kings

Two pieces of exciting news!

First, the title reveal for the final book in The Worm and His Kings trilogy from Off Limits Press: Song of the Tyrant Worm is coming in spring 2024, concluding the queer cosmic horror trilogy with a mind-bending bang!

Next, my debut novella The Possession of Natalie Glasgow has been out of print for a bit, but it’s at last coming back next summer when Rooster Republic Press (publisher of Queen of Teeth) unleashes my new collection, The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow. Check out that beautiful cover art by Nicholas Day!

This is a little different than your usual collection. It includes the original TPONG novella, along with six new interconnected stories (one of them a novelette) involving the characters of TPONG in years-spanning encounters with hauntings, possessions, and the unexplained.

Also exciting, pre-orders are up for the hardcover, which comes in the standard hardcover (can be ordered until April 30th, 2024) and the deluxe edition, of which there will only be 30 copies. There won’t be more of these later, and they’ll ship ahead of the wider paperback and ebook releases in summer 2024. Check it out here!