Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

E. L. Chen

@elainechen.com

1.3K followers 560 following 890 posts

Horror writer, UI/UX designer, child-rearer, bunnyhugger. Rep: Dorian Maffei at KC&A. SWEETSIDE MOTEL (IFP Mar 2026), SLASHER SUMMER (Michael Joseph/Crown summer 2026) She/her elainechen.com 🇨🇦

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · Aug 8

Snoopy dance! So excited I can finally announce this. Forget hot girl summer, get ready for SLASHER SUMMER in 2026! 1/

A Publishers Marketplace Deal Report: E. L. Chen's SLASHER SUMMER, pitched as a love letter to the campy horror movies of the 1980s, in which a group of friends reunite at the cabin where a cult film was filmed, only to discover a real life killer waiting for them, to Peter Joseph at Crown, for publication in summer 2026, by Dorian Maffei at Kimberley Cameron & Associates (NA). Rights to Jorgie Bain at Michael Joseph (world).

3 5 30

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 15h

Oh no! :(

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 23h

Kid has joined school stage crew so I need to buy him some black clothes.

a woman in a black dress is holding a cup of coffee and smiling in goth .

Alt: Angelica Huston as Morticia Addams, lifting a silver teacup to her mouth and smiling secretively. The caption reads, "Smiles in goth."

media.tenor.com

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 1d

I got this twice in a row, so I guess it must be true 🤷‍♀️

A graphic with a red and black blood-spatter pattern with the words "THE KILLER" written in large white block letters.

Reposted by E. L. Chen

Little Ghosts Books @littleghostsbooks.bsky.social · 2d

The Little Ghosts Screenwriting Workshop is BACK in November !

This 5 week crash course by @jkrawczyk.bsky.social will have you leaving with your own short film script. No matter if you are adapting existing work or making something new, we welcome you to join!

Details here:
square.link/u/OpFJONSy

A poster has a Ghost in a director’s chair. It says SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP. $99 for writers of all skill levels. Wednesdays 7:30pm-9:30pm Nov. 5 - Dec. 3rd (5 Week Course)
At Little Ghosts Books 930 Dundas St W

9 14

Reposted by E. L. Chen

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 2d

Just another reminder that I have a newsletter that I send out quarterly, unless I have extra news to impart 👀 buttondown.com/chaoticrespo...

spongebob and patrick are standing next to each other in a cartoon

Alt: Patrick Star and Spongebob Squarepants whistling nonchalantly with their hands behind their backs (if starfish and sponges can be said to have hands)

media.tenor.com

1 1

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 2d

Just another reminder that I have a newsletter that I send out quarterly, unless I have extra news to impart 👀 buttondown.com/chaoticrespo...

spongebob and patrick are standing next to each other in a cartoon

Alt: Patrick Star and Spongebob Squarepants whistling nonchalantly with their hands behind their backs (if starfish and sponges can be said to have hands)

media.tenor.com

1 1

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 4d

Heh, that's true. It makes you feel like you know the work already. (But in the case of TITANIC, I've just never been interested? The combo of historical, romance, action and adventure and necklace subplot feels like too much.)

1 1

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 4d

I've never seen TITANIC. It was HUGE when it came out, but I simply had no interest even though I liked James Cameron's films.

Pop culture has made me familiar with all the meme-able bits, I feel like I don't need to see it (plus I know how it ends 😅 ).

Hannah Fearn @hannahfearn.bsky.social · 5d

Inspired by a post I just saw in which someone admitted they hadn’t seen a single episode of Friends nor the film Love Actually… what cultural hole do you have that’s a bit weird for your generation?

I’ll go first: I haven’t seen Dirty Dancing.

1 3

Reposted by E. L. Chen

Kate Blair @kateblair.bsky.social · 5d

I have a new book out today! We Bury Nothing is a YA historical/present day murder mystery set at a Canadian camp for German POWs.
kateblair.com/we-bury-noth...

A book cover with a guard tower and barbed wire against a cream background. We Bury Nothing, by Kate Blair

1 2 6

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 5d

On a TV on the Radio kick and ah, the lyrics to this are hitting hard. Love is the province of the brave indeed.

Suddenly, all your history's ablaze
Try to breathe, as the world disintegrates
Just like autumn leaves, we're in for change
Holding tenderly to what remains

Province

YouTube video by TV On The Radio - Topic

www.youtube.com

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 5d

25 years! Fun fact: I helped redesign the SH website over 20 years ago. Basic CSS and HTML and Verdana, back when a "responsive" site meant the text would reflow to any screen size. I recall I was designing with the assumption that penniless writers did not have the newest monitors. 😅

Maria Haskins @mariahaskins.com · 9d

Strange Horizons turns 25 this year, which is pretty much an eternity in the world of spec fic zines, and I had the privilege of going through the archives for a special short fiction roundup: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives

strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fi...

A Short Fiction Treasures Special: 2 x 25 Gems from Strange Horizons’ Archives

Going through the archives of Strange Horizons for this special column has been a bit like exploring a treasure chamber. I’ve picked fifty stories. I could have picked hundreds. Meaning: I left a l…

strangehorizons.com

1 3 14

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 6d

Bing Crosby's "They All Laughed", but I wouldn't slow it down, I'd leave it as is.

ɪᴍᴍᴀɴᴜᴇʟ ᴋᴜɴᴛ @soberthots.bsky.social · 6d

question for the timeline

Reposted by E. L. Chen

Suzan the chalant goth @sillysyntax.bsky.social · 6d

Toronto, tomorrow we're festing for free at Little Ghosts Fest by @littleghostsbooks.bsky.social I'm going to hang out all afternoon to watch all the panels and check out the vendors and then I'll talk queer villains on a panel and read something :P. And I'm bringing my devil horns. It'll be fun. 😀

The Little Ghost Fest Schedule for panels.

Saturday: 1pm Horror in Comic Books, 2pm Wet Screams: Horrotica+Monster Romance, 3pm Queer Fears LGBTQIA+ Scares.
4pm Inhumanties book launch and readings.

Sunday: 1pm Eco Horror and Climate Fiction, 2pm Horror on Film, 3pm Toronto is Terrifying City as Setting.
Author readings and last chance for book buys!

Reading Schedule
Saturday: Andrew Robertson Launch of Inhumanties short story collection
Lor Gilason, Sephera Giron, Suzan Palumbo, Madison Mcsweeney.
Sunday: Elijah B. Wilder Launch for How it Feeds ecohorror novella
Syr Beker, Ai Jiang, SJ Shank, Charlene Elsby, Daniel Perry.

3 14 32

Reposted by E. L. Chen

Kaya Skovdatter 🏳️‍⚧️ (She/They) @gothgreenwitch.bsky.social · 7d

Oh shit, we are indeed rolling now. :D

Up to 4/15 new Huldra House subs toward helping me yeet my deadname! I would be very happy for this trend to continue.

$9 USD gets you 24 Hulderotica stories, and the collected edition w/extras once released.

Kaya Skovdatter 🏳️‍⚧️ (She/They) @gothgreenwitch.bsky.social · 8d

Currently at 1/15 of the new subs goal for the Huldra House Samhain Sale.

Why that number? Trying to pull together enough to legally change my name. Having to work professionally under my deadname is ... not doing me good.

So come help me yeet the old name! :D

www.huldrahouse.com/shop/samhain...

Samhain Sale — Store 2 — Huldra House

www.huldrahouse.com

4 1

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 9d

Oh man. The cast in that movie is ridiculously stacked and yet it's so terrible. The only good thing I remember is the fantasy world actually had POC in it, although they were ethnic stereotypes.

1 1

Reposted by E. L. Chen

Amitha Jagannath Knight @amitha.bsky.social · 10d

I run a support group video chat for #SouthAsian #kidlit and #yalit #writers and #illustrators. I started this chat in 2020 and we just had a wonderful chat tonight. Email me to join my mailing list to learn about the next one. #kidlitart

1 6 12

Reposted by E. L. Chen

Bandcamp @bandcamp.com · 10d

This Friday is Bandcamp Friday! On October 3rd, from midnight to midnight PST, we'll once again waive our revenue share and pass the funds directly to artists & labels.

This Friday is Bandcamp Friday

daily.bandcamp.com

5 76 130

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 10d

(Much sympathy and respect for customer service phone reps, I could never do that job.)

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 10d

I have just finished talking to four different customer service reps (for three separate issues) and I fear my face may be frozen like this for the rest of the day

(ironically I was also texting friends about autistic masking at the same time)

Mia Goth as Pearl in the eponymous 2022 movie, her face frozen in a wide, strained smile as she stares at the camera.

1 8

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 11d

Once again noting that parenting is 10% yelling "I'm in the bathroom!" whenever you are in the bathroom

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 11d

I don't do online dating but if I did, I'd be adding the criteria "must be able to help kid with high school math." Never thought I'd look fondly on the ex with the engineering PhD, but here we are.

(I am paying for regular math tutoring, but it isn't enough.)

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 15d

I need a pimple patch, but in the shape of my whole face. Like a sheet mask made of pimple patch material. Someone please make this.

The "is this a pigeon meme", i.e. a frame from an anime showing an earnest, bespectacled young man with his hand outstretched toward a butterfly, with the caption, "Is this perimenopause?"

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 15d

👋 I'll be there! Thank you!

1 3

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 17d

Though is it really brain fog if you misplace something or forgot laundry in the machine? Is it possible it's because there were twenty other things we had to do that day *and* had to help a moody teenager with their homework??

E. L. Chen @elainechen.com · 17d

Oof.

Salon.com @salon.com · 17d

"As the last generation to come of age at a time when both neurodivergence and menopause were considered shameful secrets, Gen X includes a lot of women who arrive at middle age feeling like their brains are broken and not knowing why."

Gen X women are going through it

Many Gen X women are navigating the

www.salon.com

1 2