It's horror month at Cetera Magazine, so this week I'm publishing a short story I've been dreading to share for deeply personal reasons. But I'm so glad it's finally out!

Here's "Housekeeping for the Dead" (with an audio version where partway through I start crying!)
@ceteramagazine.bsky.social

Horror month at @ceteramagazine.bsky.social continues with a bonus short story just for our members!

"The Ghost Census" follows a nonbinary necromancer named Kye who is tasked with counting the votes for if humanity gets to continue another century. And the ones placing the votes are the dead...

artwork for Thursday's story and it's an emotional one

perfect way to kick off our horror month.

We're kicking off our October of Horror with (you guessed it) a new horror short story by Natalia Emmons. Audio version narrated by @jonnegroni.bsky.social

Read "The Morrow Twins" if you dare...

From our archives, and absolute honesty this short story might be my personal favorite we’ve ever published. Kicks the teeth of the entertainment industry and how America makes a commodity out of death. By @jonnegroni.bsky.social

Over at @ceteramagazine.bsky.social we'll soon be kicking off our "October of Horror" with a gothic horror debut from our managing editor Natalia Emmons. Here's a sneak peak at the artwork she did for her piece, "The Morrow Twins!"

We will only be publishing horror stories for the entirety of October! Our goal is to cover a different subgenre each week from gothic to slasher and plenty in between. If you haven't already, become a free subscriber so you never miss a story from us. ceteramagazine.com

Instantly obsessed with everything about this cover.

I am so so so excited to share this story!! Really proud of how it turned out and how Natalia's edits made it actually releasable

Story and artwork by Jon Negroni @jonnegroni.bsky.social, edited by Natalia Emmons (me). Our advance readers were @willashton.bsky.social and @bridgetserdock.bsky.social.

Our new short fiction this week. "I Am the Wolf, I Am the Boy" is a dark romantic fantasy about a bard who finds a cursed prince in the woods. The cursed prince tells him almost in the first breath: "Do not love me."

Anybody can write something tidy. Anybody can play it safe. But if you never risk making something crooked, you’ll never get to that moment where the work feels alive, where it even scares you a little.

Our story for Thursday is shaping up nicely...

The clock is ticking on submitting your story to Chestnut Review for their Winter Issue. Keep in mind they allow free prose submissions for Black and Indigenous authors:
chestnutreview.submittable.com/submit

- "A Butcher's Fable" from our archives.

You can read the full story (or listen to our audio version) right here: www.ceteramagazine.com/a-butchers-f...

"Juan Albizú had always been an industrious man. His shop, a narrow sliver of whitewashed stone wedged between the haberdasher and the baker’s wife’s miserable excuse for a confectionary, was a place of unimpeachable respectability."

Truly one of the best interpretations of Arthurian legend in modern times. We need more books pushing for this type of innovative storytelling that is both fresh and familiar without compromising character and cultural commentary.

Both of your support categories are vitally important to your career. Your network has mouths. Word of mouth is an excellent way to grow your brand. Positive recommendations from trustworthy people helps you grow. Each patron or fan is a SEED.

#writingcommunity #booksky #fans #patrons #seeds

"Men used to ask for our siren songs.

Now they ask if we’re real. Real enough to kill them."

Hey there, Bluesky! We publish multi-genre fiction every week for both free subscribers and paid members (they get extra stories once in a while). All our work is AI-free, so please consider sharing word of our existence to your friends!

ceteramagazine.com