Finding a publisher that appreciates your fiction is a godsend for a writer, because it really ups your chances of acceptance. In the coming month I have short stories appearing via two publishers with whom I’ve worked in the past: Scare Street and Dragon Soul Press.
On April 26, I’m making my third contribution to Scare Street’s bestselling Night Terrors series, with ‘The Bowels of Hell’ to appear in Night Terrors #13. A horror-comedy in the vein of 1980s flicks such as House II and Evil Dead 2, it was one of those stories that almost got published a number of times, but editors always wanted it to either be scarier or funnier and I just didn’t see it as a straight comedy or straight horror piece. (Fellow 1980s VHS nerds will know what I mean – horror-comedy is a delicate balance.)
The other story, ‘Bigger’, is a coming-of-age sci-fi piece that draws on elements of erotica and horror (“interesting and crazy” as one editor described it in a personal rejection). It’s going into the Dragon Soul Press anthology Space Bound, due out in May. The publisher previously ran another long story of mine, ‘Blood and Light’, in the apocalypse-themed Lethal Impact anthology.
I’m also on the hunt for an agent to represent my new horror novel, Demon Drink. So agents, if either of the above-mentioned stories suitably impresses, please get in touch!
Kris Ashton 
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