I Was a Teenage Featured Creatures: Midwestern Horror Writers Share Recent Fictional Horrors

Hello and welcome to the fifth installment of our annual Halloween collection of thrilling, chilling, and fear-fulfilling fictional recommendations from several Chicago area and Midwestern horror writers. A few of our contributors have returned (perhaps THEY WON’T STAY DEAD!) to suggest other Chicago-, Illinois-, and Midwest-based purveyors of horror, supernatural, and similarly dark fiction, art, music, and miscellany. Several, coincidentally, have recommended others on this list. No surprise there. Chicago has an active and mutually supportive chapter of the Horror Writers Association, which remains open to other horror creators, as well as writers. Many thanks to our contributors. Be sure to check out both their recommendations and their own work (see links in their bios). Happy Halloween! —Dan Kelly

Recommended by Bryan Alaspa

Let me tell you about a guy named Joe. I am specifically talking about Joe Scipione. If you are a fan of horror and unfamiliar with him, well, there is no time like the present to meet Joe. Joe happens to also be a really nice guy, part of the Chicago Horror Writers Association, and someone I have met and talked with—but that’s not what we’re here to talk about.

A good place to start is with his terrifying debut novel Mr. Nightmare. A tale of a group of young friends who decide to tell each other scary stories. Each person who tells a tale earns a point if anyone within the group has nightmares. It turns out, one of them has a secret, namely that he has been visited by the terrifying supernatural entity known as Mr. Nightmare. What follows is a journey into the terrifying and, ultimately, the heartbreaking. It is truly an amazing debut in the world of horror for Joe.

Joe Scipione has not sat upon his laurels. He quickly turned prolific by cranking out a sequel to Mr. Nightmare. Then came Never Dead and most recently The Gods Among Them. Before long, he’ll have a dozen novels out there. Better add him to to your To Be Read list now before it gets away from you.

Bryan Alaspa is the author of more than 60 books and novels in the horror, thriller, and suspense genres. He is the author of the bestselling The Man From Taured as well as Devoured, Feral, and his newest work, Newcomers. He is also the writer and co-producer of the horror fiction podcast When the Night Comes Out.

Recommended by Shawnna Deresch

Halloween is my favorite holiday. And this year I’ve discovered an author I’ll be reading even after Halloween is over.

Chicago born and bred author Bryan Alaspa has written more than 30 fiction and nonfiction works. Alaspa writes true crime, history, horror, thrillers, mysteries, detective stories and tales about the supernatural. His latest novel, Newcomers, debuts on Halloween. 

For Rose and her family the move to a small Colorado town seems like a new start in a safe environment. However, from the start, Rose feels like something about Bloomfield is wrong. Her elderly neighbor keeps looking at her strangely. Why does everyone go to church on Sunday, but her family is never invited? Everyone says Rose is crazy, but something is very, very wrong here. The more she digs into the town’s history, the more worried she becomes and she fears she and her family might actually be in mortal danger.

Newcomers comes right after the success of Alaspa’s novel Feral, published through his own publishing house Guffawing Dog Publishing. Feral’s protagonist is named Garland. A move to California is just what Garland's family needs to finally find comfort and success. After years of failed businesses, this may be their last chance. However, making the journey across the dangerous Sierra Nevadas is potentially deadly business in the 1800s. The journey is long and arduous. This time, though, Garland’s friend Silas says he met a man who has found an easier and safer way to make the journey. Little does he know that his son is having ominous dreams about their trip and that something lurks deep within the woods. The long trek becomes harder and more difficult, taking longer than promised. Soon, the entire train of wagons, horses, and people is trapped in the mountains.

Then, the snow comes and buries them. As a small party sets off for rescue, no one knows that the thing within the woods that has been calling to the children is ready. Beneath the snow, as the travelers fight off starvation, a true nightmare starts—an ancient nightmare with sharp teeth that affects the children. Now, the screaming starts, and the absolute horror begins.

Alaspa is an advocate for independent and self-publishing authors and supports all authors with his blog and guest blogging. He has been obsessive about writing since he was young and first sat down at his mom’s electric typewriter in the third grade and typed out a three-page, single-paragraph story that ripped off the movie Jaws

Learn more about Alaspa by visiting his website.

Shawnna Deresch is a Chicago-based horror and dark fiction author. She’s one of the co-chairs of the Horror Writers Association Chicagoland Chapter. For more information on her work, check out her website: www.shawnnaderesch.com. You can find her on Instagram: @shawnna_deresch_author and X: @shawnnaderesch.

Recommended by John Everson

If you haven’t read the work of Mort Castle, the man with the best name in horror, this is the perfect season to start! Mort is a south suburban Chicago author who has been publishing since 1967. In June, the international Horror Writers Association (HWA) awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award, one of its most prestigious awards. Mort has also won three Bram Stoker Awards®, two Black Quill awards, the Golden Bot (Wired Magazine), and has been nominated for The Audie, The Shirley Jackson Award, the International Horror Guild award and the Pushcart Prize. In 2000, the Chicago Sun-Times News Group cited him as one of 21 “Leaders in the Arts for the 21st Century in Chicago’s Southland.”

Mort has edited horror anthologies, and the HWA’s Writing Horror nonfiction “how to” book, and mentored hundreds of writers through his college classes and horror convention seminars. I myself have a note from him taped to my desk wall—sage words of encouragement that kept my own fingers returning to the keyboard when things seemed dark—but not in a good “horror” way.

But Mort doesn’t just teach and encourage others. He wields words like perfectly honed weapons, each one carving just the notch he intends on your heart. I had the pleasure of publishing an anthology called Mighty Unclean 15 years ago, which includes five pieces by Mort, including the jazzy, literary quiet horror of  “Moon on the Water”  and “I Am Your Need”—tales that have always stuck with me.

Check out Mort’s novels The Strangers (which will make you question if the people you know could be killers in hiding!) and Cursed Be the Child (about a girl whose imaginary playmate is actually the tortured soul of a murdered child), novels which have remained in print for over 30 years, for good reason.

John Everson is a former newspaper reporter, a staunch advocate for the culinary joys of the jalapeno and an unabashed fan of 1970s European horror, giallo and poliziotteschi cinema. He is also the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 15 novels, including his latest giallo murder-mystery thriller, The Bloodstained Doll and The House by The Cemetery, a novel that takes place at a real haunted cemetery—Bachelor's Grove—near where he grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. His first novel, Covenant, was a winner of the prestigious Bram Stoker Award, and his sixth, NightWhere, was a finalist for the award. Both deal with demonic and erotic horror themes.

Recommended by Christopher Hawkins

For me, the best way to learn about a city’s history is through its ghost stories. In Chicago, there’s no better chronicler of those stories than Ursula Bielski. Ursula is a historian, a paranormal investigator, and the author of a dozen books on the subject of hauntings throughout every corner of our city and the communities that make up the Chicagoland area. She’s chronicled the ghosts of famous landmarks, haunted cemeteries, and the spiritual vestiges of people and places now lost to time. Reading one of her books is like opening up a time capsule, and one can’t help but come away from it with a deeper understanding of the place in which we live.

Christopher Hawkins is the multi-award-winning author of Downpour and Suburban Monsters, whose short stories have appeared in over a dozen magazines and anthologies. He is the former editor of the One Buck Horror anthology series and the co-chair of the Chicagoland chapter of the Horror Writers Association. When he's not writing, he spends his time exploring old cemeteries, lurking in museums, and searching for a decent cup of tea.

Recommended by Aleco Julius

Punishing. Crushing. Brutal. Miserable. These are not words associated with a good time. Unless, that is, you attend a Bongripper show. In that case, the incredibly heavy, slow, and loud music issuing from the gloomy stage is something akin to transcendent. For nearly 20 years, the Chicago doom metal band has annihilated audiences with their epic tracks and ultra-thick riffs. Ever since their tremendous debut album, The Great Barrier Reefer, the quartet has released an impressive series of monumental albums, including my personal favorite, 2014’s Miserable. Their most recent release, this year’s Empty, continues the gloriously ruinous tradition.

How is this music related to horror, you might ask? Take a look at Bongripper’s album covers. Dreadful monstrosities, nightmarish scenes of demons and devils. Paintings of eerie landscapes and eviscerated carcasses. If you have not seen Bongripper live, you will have that chance on Friday, November 1, where they will headline the Heavy Chicago festival at Avondale Music Hall. I strongly recommend that everyone experience the bath of sonic density at least once. Long live dooooooooom!

Bongripper

Aleco Julius is the author of Weird Tales of the Great Lakes and Endless Depths: Cosmic Themes, Weird Lore, andHidden Knowledge. His writing has appeared in Dark Matter Magazine, Hellebore, Myth & Lore, and more. He lives beneath the airplane flight paths of Midway Airport.

Recommended by Ananda Lima

It is hard to pick just one Chicago horror writer to recommend. We have so many fantastic writers who are perfect for October and beyond (Juan Martinez, Gus Moreno, Cynthia Pelayo, Puloma Ghosh to name just a few). But this October, the task was a little easier because I am in the middle of a single writer reading binge. I have been entranced, and at times a tad horrified (in the best way) by the work of Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. With demons, severed heads, gods, gangbangers, and so much Chicago, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr’s work is perfect for the season. Horror fans will love it, but so will those who don’t usually read horror (or those wimpy scaredy-cats who read it only during the day, ready to close the book and run at any minute, like some horror writers I know (okay, me)). There’s the gorgeous language, the witty knowing dialogue, and such richness of imagination. I recommend it to everyone. It is also essential Chicago reading. The city is so beautiful and alive in his work. If there is a Chicago canon, Van Alst Jr.’s work has to be in it.

A great place to start is Van Alst Jr.’s gorgeous contribution to the best-selling anthology he co-edited with Shane Hawk: Never Whistle at Night (Vintage): “The Longest Street in the World”. From there, head to his sacred story cycle trilogy (University of New Mexico Press): Sacred Smokes, Sacred City, and Sacred Folks (which just came out this October). Theodore C. Van Alst Jr is a Chicago Native Writer (enrolled Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians), which is beautifully reflected in his characters and stories. He grew up in Chicago, and was just here earlier this Fall, as a Historical Fiction Artist-in-Residence Fellow. He now lives in Portland, OR, where he is Professor of Indigenous Nations Studies and Director of the School of Gender Race and Nations at Portland State University.

Ananda Lima is the author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil and Mother/land, winner of the Hudson Prize. Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Poets.org, and elsewhere. She is a contributing editor at Poets & Writers and Program Curator at StoryStudio, Chicago. Craft, her fiction debut, has received starred reviews from Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, and it has been long-listed for the New American Voices Award and the ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in fiction. The New York Times describes it as “a remarkable debut that announces the arrival of a towering talent in speculative fiction.” Originally from Brazil, she lives in Chicago.

Recommended by Peter O’Keefe

Downtown Kenosha is the final stop on the Chicago Metra Union Pacific North line. And the last place I ever thought I’d find one of my favorite horror hangouts. Donovan Scherer’s Studio Moonfall—in Donovan’s words a “tiny, haunted bookshop”—can be found on a quiet side street just off Kenosha’s main drag, next to a vacant Chinese restaurant.

The entrance to the storefront is a portal between two worlds. Entering the store from the tranquil street, you emerge into a mad scientist’s hoarder attic where Halloween never ends. Packed floor-to-ceiling are books, coloring books, comics, graphic novels, artwork, Dungeons & Dragons ephemera, and games, in addition to ghoulish oddities like hand-made gelatinous cube soap. The overflowing shelves and fixtures create a lurid visual overload with an inventory that appears to have been curated by Boris Karloff reanimated as a spooky librarian. And, behind the counter, framed by hanging tapestries of stickers and nearly engulfed by thickets of horror geegaws, T-shirts, games, puppets, and creepy dolls, is the little shop’s master of ceremonies himself: Donovan Scherer.

Artist, self-published author, and independent bookstore owner, Donovan’s boundless energy and creativity keep this place going. His focus is on local and independent horror and sci-fi authors. He makes a kooky video for each new author the store carries and has guest authors in the store every Friday. Donovan established and runs the Kenosha Book Festival in the parking lot across the street every summer. And he’s a regular presence at horror and sci-fi-themed book fairs and events. With Donovan, the hustle never stops. I’m a traditionally published author but Donovan’s energy and love for the genre won me over. I’m thrilled to have my book Counted With the Dead on the shelf at Studio Moonfall. Kenosha native Orson Welles would have loved this place. Who knows? Maybe he does. After all, this is a “haunted” bookstore.

Studio Moonfall is celebrating its fifth anniversary on October 27, 2024. Check it out.

Peter O'Keefe started out writing for George Romero's Tales From the Darkside. His first novel, the horror/crime hybrid Counted With the Dead, was released by Grendel Press in June 2024.

Recommended by J. Rohr

Too often, horror forgets to be fun. Fans of the genre may disagree but consider how roller coaster enthusiasts don’t mind flying backwards faster than their screams. Granted, fun is as relative a term as scary, yet reasonable people can see the difference between a spook house ride and witnessing an autopsy that turns out to be a real murder. Amanda Cecelia Lang amusingly proves this point with Saturday Fright at the Movies: 13 Tales from the Multiplex.

This collection of short stories is a love letter to the horror aisle at video stores of old. Several reads easily inspire visions of VHS covers. Even without the book’s introduction, the author’s love of 80s era horror is evident. Her ability to conjure her own fictional versions as well as allude to classics in a word or two is unparalleled. In a sentence she can inspire the whole plot to a fictive Friday night fright flick or summon nostalgic allusions in three-word phrases.

Amanda Cecelia Lang offers several satisfying tales which flirt with metafiction. However, these are hardly snarky postmodern deconstructions. Instead of mockery, her characters’ awareness of the genre acts like cosmic horror, either endangering them because of an awareness no one else has or empowering them with the knowledge necessary to survive.

This allows her to look at several very human notions through the lens of fandom. For instance, the latchkey kid scared of growing up, or the misfit who finds strength embracing their oddity. Her work often embraces the empowering elements of horror, exploring how there’s a freedom only darkness can offer. Still, it’s the humanity, sometimes heartbreakingly so, at the center of her stories which makes them potent, while the horror is an odd caramel coating making her sinister stories go down darkly sweet.

Eye-hooking titles instantly intrigue any reader. If “Zombie Unicorns from Galaxy 13” doesn’t spark your curiosity, you are undoubtedly no fun at parties. And the execution of the tale is the kind of B-movie pulp pleasure that makes for a phenomenal Friday night fright. What’s more, this collection can be casually consumed or devoured in a binge with equal satisfaction.

Saturday Fright at the Movies: 13 Tales from the Multiplex by Amanda Cecelia Lang is for the child inside every horror fan. Sometimes scary can inspire smiles. That’s the magic of this book. 

J. Rohr is a Chicago native with a taste for history and wandering the city at odd hours. To deal with the more corrosive aspects of everyday life he makes music in the band Beerfinger. His fiction has appeared in works such as Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror and No Trouble at All: Tales of Polite Horror. Currently, he writes articles and film reviews for Film Obsessive

Recommended by Michael Rose

Many years ago, I wrote a short story about a man who wakes up one morning to find a gigantic mouth in his backyard. It was a fun little short story—weird and somewhat horrific—and something I enjoyed reading aloud to a crowd of my peers at Bizarro Con out in Portland, OR. I couldn't sustain the story too far beyond the main points: Man finds mouth, man is confused and terrified by mouth, man becomes strangely attracted to mouth and tries to befriend it, man realizes the folly of his hubris, story ends with an ambiguous darkness of what is to come. You know the drill. 

So, imagine my surprise when I discovered the book Mouth, by screenwriter Joshua Hull. The premise is very similar to my own ridiculous story. A man is given charge of a giant mouth in the ground of some property he's inherited. The usual sinister implications of a giant mouth are explored. Pop cultural scientists would call this an example of parallel thinking, like when two movies about volcanoes come out in the same blockbuster summer. But Hull does something I never could—he expands the premise into a full length novella, with thrills, suspense, blood, humor, and clashing character motivations that make this read absolutely electric. 

We have a large, toothy, dangerous hole. We have a drifter thrust into the role of caretaker. We have a young, punky filmmaker willing to do anything to make it. We have so many volatile combinations, the results can only be explosive. I have decided Hull is now my nemesis, because I am blown away by his ability to take the giant mouth idea and do things with it I couldn't have imagined. Crisp writing, fun dialogue straight out of a grindhouse movie, and personality-driven characterization make this a fun book to plow through. I love it. If I had a giant mouth to mind, and I read this book to it, I can only imagine the epic, sinister grin it would generate in response.

Michael Allen Rose is the Wonderland Award winning author of such books as Jurassichrist and The Last 5 Minutes of the Human Race. He is also a musician, performer, and editor, based in Chicagoland. He loves tea and cats. You can visit him at michaelallenrose.com.

Recommended by Richard Thomas

If you haven’t heard of (or read) Daniel Kraus, then you haven’t been paying attention to the world of horror. Collaborations with George A. Romero and Guillermo del Toro immediately come to mind. But the book I think I’m most excited to talk about is his latest novel, Whalefall. Of course we’re going to think about the Biblical story of Jonah, but Whalefall has just as much in common with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, while also being a fascinating thriller. It was good enough to make The New York Times list of best thrillers of 2023, so it’s not just a surreal, deep-sea, Lovecraftian horror story. A tense read and hard to put down. This experience was reminiscent of my experience with Josh Malerman’s Bird Box, which I read in a single sitting, the day after Thanksgiving, by a roaring fireplace, sweating as I turned the pages—hypnotized. To say this novel is claustrophobic is putting it lightly. It’s also quite original, subverting cliches and expectations—so unpredictable. Daniel Kraus is balancing science with science fiction, and thrillers with horror, creating hybrid speculative fiction that will take you places you’ve never been before.

Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of four novels, four short story collections, 175 stories in print, and the editor of five anthologies. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker (twice), Shirley Jackson, Thriller, and Audie awards. His latest book, Incarnate, was called “a must-read for fans of strange, surreal horror” by The New York Times. Visit whatdoesnotkillme.com for more information.

Recommended by Chloe Waryan

One of my favorite 2024 horror releases is Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima. My best friend saw the cover, read the synopsis, and immediately texted me “this is a book that is made for you.” And they were right.

These eight short stories are loosely intertwined with the character of the Devil, the theme of immigration, and authorship. The collection opens with our unnamed narrator at a Halloween party waiting for her love—who is actually in love with someone else. Then, the Devil appears. They discuss the nature of storytelling as implementing lying, influencing, and creating. As the collection continues, I noticed that craft (as in witchcraft) and craft (as in storytelling) seem to be in conversation with each other within these pages. While I enjoyed every single story in this collection, my favorite was “Antropofaga,” where an immigrant woman becomes addicted to eating bite-sized Americans out of a vending machine. “Idle Hands” is another favorite, as readers aren’t privy to the actual story. We only told snippets through MFA workshop critiques, often contradictory and vague. What a cool device!

These stories are structurally abstract and don’t tie up loose ends for their readers, landing in the unsettling and unnerving vein rather than bloody or frightening. I highly recommend this collection for those who love complex literary horror and magical realism, like in the stories of Kelly Link and Carmen Maria Machado. I could also tell that The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov was a big influence here, and is even explicitly mentioned a few times in the text. According to her website, Ananda Lima is an author and poet originally from Brazil, living here in Chicago. We are so lucky to have Lima sharing her work with us, in the Windy City and the world. Pick up Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil in book or audiobook format (and the audiobook, narrated by Taylor Harvey, is great).  

Chloe Waryan (she/they) is a writer and a librarian in Chicago. At work, she conducts reference and training sessions on the horror genre, reviews horror books, and runs a successful speculative fiction book club. At home, she writes horror fiction and articles about horror media. You can keep up with her writing projects on chloesnotscared.com or follow her on Instagram @ChloesNotScared.


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Dan Kelly

Dan Kelly has been a writer and editor for 30 years, contributing work to Chicago Magazine, the Chicago Reader, Chicago Journal, The Baffler, Harvard Magazine, The University of Chicago Magazine, and others.