Just in time for Halloween, I got a chilling story in a horror anthology! My fic’s called “The Homebody,” and if you attended my reading at Armadillocon 2022, you know the significance of the title ;D
When Sloane Leong and Cassie Hart announced their project, I started thinking about my submission. Well, I recalled a recent trip to Presidio. I remembered driving past miles of gorgeous, desolate desert. In the distance, the mountains were sentinels; at great speeds, the foreground passed quickly, but the mountains didn’t seem to move, until I looked away for long enough. Twenty, thirty minutes. Then, the peaks changed. Maybe they vanished. Or grew. The desert shifted, but it took hours to escape. Anyway …
The South TX landscape–and the people who call it home–partially inspired “The Homebody.” I was also inspired by monster movies, in which powerful supernatural creatures or curses have “rules”: e.g., the vampire cannot step into the sunlight (er … usually), the ghost cannot leave the mansion, the curse is dispelled by salt, and so on. I wondered: if I lived in a horror movie, would I trust the “rules?” What if nobody else did? Would I doubt myself? Should I?
People who backed the Kickstarter are gonna receive paper or electronic copies, while e-copies will be available online after 10/1/2022 (for example, here’s the Kobo link). The cool thing is, every story is illustrated. “The Homebody” was paired with art by Apolo Cacho (Instagram), whose work captures the dark soul of the desert. I want to hang it on my wall, the piece is so beautiful. Overall, the visual art in this anthology is really special, y’all, and I had a fun time reading the other stories. Thanks Sloane and Cassie!!!
Little Badger Diary 