"Ship of the Dead" published in The World of Myth Magazine

As of July 15th, 2026, the fourth and final installment of my serialized horror story, "Ship of the Dead" became available in issue #151 of "The World of Myth Magazine." 

Also in this issue, a drabble: "Prayers of Dread: Matthew 5 Heresy," and my humorous science fiction poem, "Jenny's Junkyard Rocket."

Beginning in April serialized chapters began appearing in consecutive issues, beginning with 

"A Fateful Meeting" in issue #148;

"A Perilous Invitation" in issue #149

"Night of Catastrophe" in issue #150

And concluding with, "Nightmare Seance," in issue #151

Meadowsweet and the Eldritch Codex (The Witch, Ghost, & Troll Rise from the Dead)

On May 7th, I blogged that my short story, "The Witch, the Ghost, and the Troll," intended for the Black Hare Press "Emerald City" anthology had been rejected for incorporating obvious Wizard-of-Oz references, owing to a misread of the submission guidelines (including an emphatic warning to avoid Oz mythology or "fan-fic".)

Fortunately, those Oz-related details were not essential to the story, and I was invited to rewrite and resubmit, since plenty of time remained before the submission deadline. A helpful critique which I was advised to heed if I followed through, was that my story had ended with a key emotional thread unresolved. Honestly, this happened because I believed my story had already reached the maximum word limit, and so I chose a rushed ending. It wasn't until much later someone else pointed out that the word limit was 10k, not 5k. *Heavy sigh*.

Anyway, while still believing my revision had an upper limit of 5k, I was forced to cut mercilessly in order to make room for a more complete ending. Somehow, I completed a new, more satisfying draft in fewer than 5k words. The ending was poignant, but summarizing. I was still being economical. 

And then, because as I was preparing to submit, I noticed that the actual word limit was 10k words,  I explored a more thorough, descriptive ending. My own readers assured me this 6k-word version was the strongest yet, and so I submitted it this week. No word yet, whether it has been rejected.

Time Travel Drabble Published by Black Hare Press Patreon

"Belated Foresight," a time-travel-themed drabble I submitted for the Dark Moments monthly contest, did not win one of the twelve, top spots, yet was accepted for an "honorable mention" of sorts, to be published on the publisher's Patreon site, and should be reprinted in the year-end, Dark Moments/Patreon drabble anthology.

Unfortunately, only subscribers to the Black Hare Press Patreon can read the story until then: https://www.patreon.com/blackharepress/posts/belated-by-shawn-161943208

Since I've been experiencing a publishing dry spell while working on longer projects, I was delighted to have anything published. The $4 payment was welcome, too. Just enough to tip the  time-travel taxi driver.

The Witch The Ghost and the Troll--Rejected

 

For a recent anthology call, I wrote a story about the title characters (a witch, a ghost and a troll) traveling to the Emerald City. Unfortunately, I but failed to read the stipulation that it should NOT directly reference Oz. Today, I received a friendly rejection notice for my submission, making that point. Sad face.

I believe the story can be rewritten and reused elsewhere. I'm just sorry I was never given a chance to fix it for the intended anthology. Oh well. Onward.

[Really cool image by ChatGPT]

Ship of the Dead

I recently re-edited a rather long short story, "Ship of the Dead", that has been languishing in my unpublished manuscripts file for a few years.

It was first conceived for an invitation-only, ship-themed horror anthology before some sort of issue between the editor and publisher led to a change of publishers. Ultimately, I missed the deadline and had to finish the story on my own, anyway. As far as I know, the intended anthology was never published (though I may be wrong about that). 

There aren't many markets for a story in the 8,935 word range, so I decided to submit Ship of the Dead to an online magazine that accepts serials (provided the individual chapters are less than 3,000 words in length). I divided it into four chapters, finding the most interesting breaking points available in the necessary ranges.

Below is a scene directly from the story, rendered by the CoPilot AI in two versions: Film Noir and Vintage Poster. (From numerous available styles, these two seemed period appropriate and I couldn't resist seeing both options.)

 As of this moment, I haven't heard back from the publication about whether they have even received the story, much less whether they intend to publish it. Once i do, I'll update this post.

 

 As a side-note, there's a greater than zero chance that I may refine this story still further, if it's not published before I have the chance.