Out now: La Reina Dentada

It’s release day for La Reina Dentada, the Spanish edition of my Bram Stoker Award-winning novel Queen of Teeth!

Dilatando Mentes Editorial has done another amazing job both in translating the tale of Yaya, Doc, and the vagina monster Magenta, and in the presentation, with a beautiful cover by Raúl Ruiz, as well as lots of tentacled sweetness inside the book.

Imagina que, un buen día, te levantas y haces un descubrimiento sobre tu cuerpo, uno tan sorprendente, que provocaría que tu vida cambiase drásticamente; imagina descubrir que tienes dientes en partes de tu cuerpo donde no deberían estar. Eso es lo que le sucede a Yaya Betancourt, una mujer que padece una rara afección genética causada por unos experimentos llevados a cabo hace décadas por la Farmacéutica AlfaBeta, cuando ella, y miles de personas más, a las que se les denomina quimeras, aún estaban en el útero de sus respectivas madres. Lo que no puede imaginar Yaya, es el alcance y las repercusiones que tendrá su descubrimiento y la metamorfosis que este acarrea, no solo en su vida, sino en la del resto de la humanidad.

«Una historia de terror tan poderosa como hermosa». (Kirkus Reviews)

Cruel Angels Past Sundown, now in audio!

Posted on 2023-09-22 by Hailey Piper audiobook cruel angels past sundown novel

It’s release day for the audiobook of Cruel Angels Past Sundown!

A couple months ago, paperback and ebook readers met Annette Klein in 1880s New Mexico in this queer Biblical horror Splatter Western, and now audiobook fans can sink into this night from hell too. Jenn Lee’s voice will be familiar to anyone who’s listened to Queen of Teeth, and she’s just as stellar here, delivering a gripping read of Annette, Gloria, Balthazar, and everyone involved in the bloody clash at Low’s Bend.

Available on LibroFM, Audible, Barnes & Noble, and everywhere else audiobooks are sold!

Cover reveal: La Reina Dentada

Posted on 2023-09-09 by Hailey Piper novel queen of teeth translation

I’m so pleased to share the cover to La Reina Dentada, the Spanish edition of Bram Stoker Award-winning novel Queen of Teeth, coming from Dilatando Mentes Editorial this fall!

Dilatando Mentes also published the Spanish edition of The Worm and His Kings last year, El Gusano y Sus Reyes. It’s a beautiful book through and through, and having seen their edition of Queen of Teeth, it’s just as gorgeous inside (and full of tentacles). The cover art is by Raúl Ruiz is so beautiful and striking (and also full of tentacles).

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!

New articles in CrimeReads and Writer’s Digest

Posted on 2023-08-18 by Hailey Piper article cruel angels past sundown novel

I have a new article up on CrimeReads! With my new novel Cruel Angels Past Sundown having recently released and being a mix of religion and horror, my new article includes seven recommendations for other books/stories on the subject. Check it out here!

And for writers, I also have a new article up on Writer’s Digest: “5 Tips for Adding Otherworldly Elements Into Your Novel.” I use Cruel Angels Past Sundown as an example in a few steps for addressing and incorporating speculative elements. Remember, the weirder, the better!

Starred PW review for A Light Most Hateful

Posted on 2023-08-10 by Hailey Piper a light most hateful novel

I’m still jittery with this exciting news, but I’m bravely typing anyway! My upcoming small-town survival horror novel A Light Most Hateful has received a STARRED REVIEW from Publishers Weekly!

I could not be more thrilled right now.

“Piper’s prose crackles with energy and wit as it ties the novel’s wilder excesses together into a story at once comfortingly familiar in its themes and cosmically alien in its execution. The story twists reader expectations into knots, flipping genre conventions and connecting unlikely elements to make something truly singular.”

A Light Most Hateful releases October 10th from Titan Books!

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

Posted on 2023-08-08 by Hailey Piper award short story

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

Posted on 2023-07-25 by Hailey Piper cruel angels past sundown New release novel

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

Posted on 2023-07-11 by Hailey Piper article

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

Posted on 2023-06-30 by Hailey Piper short story

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.

Hailey Piper