short story

Queen of Teeth release dates update; Pride Month stories

“… one of the best horror books of 2021.” – Rue Morgue

My debut novel from Strangehouse Books, Queen of Teeth, is closer than ever now! Limited hardcover orders carry on to the end of June, and now we have new release dates for other version.

Paperback: August 1, 2021

Ebook: September 1, 2021

Kindle pre-orders are up on Amazon! Paperback soon to come!

I’m excited for readers to meet Yaya, Doc, and Magenta all the sooner!

In the short story realm, I have two new ones out for Pride Month! The first is not horror at all, strangely enough, but a steampunk western romance flash fic, “The Heart Is a Spare Part,” which appears in Baffling Magazine #4, available right now on their Patreon and then in July on their main page.

Next, The Wicked Library has unleashed their super-stuffed Pride Month Special, with stories by many wonderful queer horror authors. My sci-fi horror tale “A Little Too Late for Little Green Men” kicks off the festivities!

“Crepuscular” in Far From Home; “In Subspace” in Year’s Best Hardcore Horror 6

Posted on 2021-05-21 by Hailey Piper reprint short story

A couple of short story updates today!

First, I have a new queer horror story through Off Limits Press in their first anthology, Far From Home: An Anthology of Adventure Horror. “Crepuscular” follows two mothers and their ill daughter to a Pacific island that may cure their troubles or ruin everything. The TOC is brilliant; check it out!

Then, my final 2020 short story, an erotic horror tale “In Subspace, No One Can Hear You Scream” has been reprinted among last year’s most graphic stories in Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Volume 6: Masquerade, in print, ebook, and audiobook! This is my second time having fiction appear in a Red Room Press best-of anthology, and as with “Feast for Small Pieces” in Volume 5, it’s a wonderful honor.

Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy release day!

Posted on 2021-05-07 by Hailey Piper collection flash fiction short story unfortunate elements of my anatomy

At last, it’s release day for Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy! My first short story collection comes from The Seventh Terrace, stuffed with 18 tales of queer horror, isolation, and the monstrous feminine. It includes my first novelette in two years, “Recitation of the First Feeding,” and a host of body horror, sci-fi horror, and all things macabre.

Check it out in paperback and ebook

Praise for Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy:

“In Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, Hailey Piper masterfully crafts a resolutely modern gothic, unearthing the rotten, the broken and the strangely beautiful. Piper wields incisive prose with empathy and deep intuition, carefully dissecting the monstrous bodies herein and spilling their stories onto the page. A compelling and essential collection.”

– Laura Mauro, British Fantasy Award-winning author of Sing Your Sadness Deep

“With surgical precision, Hailey Piper’s stories slice through the skin, fat, and muscle of her characters’ lives, all the way down to the living bone and what is written on it. In terms of their prose, their wit, their insight, their compassion, their terror, these are the sharpest of stories. Read them, but be prepared for the cuts.”

– John Langan, author of Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Fisherman

“That Ye Shall Transgress” in ProleSCARYet; “The House of Shapes” in Dark Matter Magazine

Posted on 2021-05-01 by Hailey Piper audio short story

Happy May Day to all! It’s a double publication day, with two new short stories appearing.

First, “That Ye Shall Transgress” unites with a thrilling TOC in ProleSCARYet: Tales of Horror and Class Warfare, in which an alternative to vacation reveals an all-consuming system we dwell in every day.

Over in Dark Matter Magazine #3, visit “The House of Shapes,” where the titular house vexes and isolates an already alienated young girl. She’ll have to get rid of it. There’s an audio version, too!

“Why We Keep Exploding” in Stitched Lips

Posted on 2021-03-17 by Hailey Piper interview podcast short story

New story out this month. Stitched Lips, edited by Ken MacGregor and published by Dragon’s Roost Press, features horror stories of silenced voices. Find my trans tale of occult and misogyny, “Why We Keep Exploding,” by checking out the book.

Recently I appeared on Books in the Freezer, a fun podcast episode where we discussed short story collections, some in depth, some just in name-dropping, because there are so many incredible ones. We also talked a little about my upcoming collection, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, which will be releasing May 7 from The Seventh Terrace. The ebook is up for pre-order!

Last, Cinema Crazed interviewed me for Women in Horror Month right here.

This is probably the last short story until the collection releases and then there will be an onslaught this summer, around when the hardcover of my upcoming novel Queen of Teeth will be arriving at the homes of those who pre-ordered. It’s going to be a busy year!

“Succubus Tips for Succu-Bliss” in Twisted Anatomy; Women in Horror Month Article

Posted on 2021-02-19 by Hailey Piper article short story

A few bits of news!

I have a new story out today! Sci-Fi & Scary has put together a 30-story anthology of body horror, Twisted Anatomy, for which all proceeds will go to charity. The editors did me the honor of letting my story close out the anthology with a self-help article on handling your bodily monsters in “Succubus Tips for Succu-Bliss.”

Dead Headspace was good enough to host my new article on the importance of Women in Horror Month, “February’s Pesky Psychological Entrails: Why Women, Why Horror,” and you can find that up on their site.

“Every Lady Echoes in the Mycorrhizal Hymn” in Boneyard Soup Magazine, “Cycle of the White Hart” in The Wild Hunt

Posted on 2021-01-26 by Hailey Piper short story

I have two new stories out to wrap up January 2021! First, “Every Lady Echoes in the Mycorhizzal Hymn” appears in Boneyard Soup Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue #1, a folk horror tale of a wandering woman, a secluded town, and its rotted apple orchard with a pale secret.

In the anthology The Wild Hunt: Stories of the Chase, dreams and reality mix through nights of chasing and being chased in “Cycle of the White Hart.”

Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy – cover & details

Posted on 2021-01-13 by Hailey Piper collection short story unfortunate elements of my anatomy

The body of this post features a treasure trove of unfortunate elements. Feast your eyes on the cover for Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, my upcoming and first short story collection, published by The Seventh Terrace. Cover and interior art by the amazing Janice Blaine; introduction by the wonderful Laurel Hightower.

The collection releases on May 7, 2021 and the ebook is up for pre-order on Amazon. I can’t wait to share with you.

Synopsis:

Love twisted into horrific shapes, nightmares driven by cruel music, and a world where what little light remains fractures the sky into midnight rainbows in eighteen stories tracing the dark veins of queer horror, isolation, and the monstrous feminine.

The universe unwinds to the tune of a malicious ice cream truck jingle in “We All Scream”. “The Law of Conservation of Death” dictates that a ghost pursue his prey across her every reincarnation. Superstitions thrive even in the distant future and across the stars when a colony shuttle mounts a witch trial in “Hairy Jack”. And try to “Forgive the Adoring Beast” as it scavenges a world of dead gods for tokens of bloody affection.

Including two new short stories and a never-before-published novelette, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy digs deep inside us and clings to the beating nightmare heart you always knew was there.

“The Bird With the Clownish Plumage” in Campfire Macabre; Worm translation

Posted on 2021-01-06 by Hailey Piper flash fiction novella short story the worm and his kings

Welcome to the world of 2021! It comes with clowns in my neck of the woods. Campfire Macabre is a flash fiction anthology of monstrous proportions, boasting dozens of stories by incredible horror authors. This publication also marks a personal milestone: my woodsy tale “The Bird With the Clownish Plumage” marks my 50th published short story.

Check it out.

Also, I’m pleased to announce that my queer cosmic horror novella The Worm and His Kings will be translated into Spanish for a release in Spain by Dilatando Mentes Editorial, a wonderful publisher that has been translating works of horror in beautiful new Spanish editions. More details and cover art to come.

Best Lesfic Award; Inkheist; “In Subspace, No One Can Hear You Scream” in Mycelia, Issue IV

Posted on 2020-12-22 by Hailey Piper award novel novella podcast queen of teeth short story the worm and his kings unfortunate elements of my anatomy

Today I had the fantastic honor of winning the Best Lesfic of 2020 Award for Best Horror, for my queer cosmic horror novella, The Worm and His Kings! Make horror gay AF!

Also, I had the pleasure of reappearing on the Inkheist podcast to talk about The Worm and His Kings as well as writing process, queer representation, my upcoming 2021 releases Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy and Queen of Teeth, and whether psychic powers fit into supernatural horror or form their own subgenre of psychic horror. Give a listen!

I expect this will be the last update of a long, long year. Ending it with a bang is my erotic horror story, “In Subspace, No One Can Hear You Scream” that appears in Mycelia issue IV. At this club’s show, there’s more happening than meets the eye. Check it out.