S.J. Shank
@sjshank.bsky.social
Writer of the grim fantastic
Dark Fantasy // Historical Horror
Books: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒, 𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓
sjshank.com
Dark Fantasy // Historical Horror
Books: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒, 𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐀𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓
sjshank.com
My Xmas tree looks evil.
December 11, 2025 at 1:15 PM
My Xmas tree looks evil.
Bearing gifts to someone special this season? 🎁
Why not give the gift of dark fantasy and horror? 💀
🔗 below
"Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
breathes a life of gathering gloom;
sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
sealed in the stone-cold tomb."
- We Three Kings 🎵
Why not give the gift of dark fantasy and horror? 💀
🔗 below
"Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
breathes a life of gathering gloom;
sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
sealed in the stone-cold tomb."
- We Three Kings 🎵
December 9, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Bearing gifts to someone special this season? 🎁
Why not give the gift of dark fantasy and horror? 💀
🔗 below
"Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
breathes a life of gathering gloom;
sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
sealed in the stone-cold tomb."
- We Three Kings 🎵
Why not give the gift of dark fantasy and horror? 💀
🔗 below
"Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
breathes a life of gathering gloom;
sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
sealed in the stone-cold tomb."
- We Three Kings 🎵
My haul from the Friends of the Merril Collection book sale this weekend, featuring a complimentary copy of @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social Issue 0 from editor @obrackenbury.bsky.social!
#bookhaul #merrilcollection #swordandsorcery
#bookhaul #merrilcollection #swordandsorcery
December 8, 2025 at 1:45 PM
My haul from the Friends of the Merril Collection book sale this weekend, featuring a complimentary copy of @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social Issue 0 from editor @obrackenbury.bsky.social!
#bookhaul #merrilcollection #swordandsorcery
#bookhaul #merrilcollection #swordandsorcery
Got some great tips from three terrific editors at today's panel hosted by the Friends of the Merril Collection.
Featuring:
+ @ourmankoto.bsky.social (Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction)
+ @obrackenbury.bsky.social (New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine)
+ Lloyd Penney (Amazing Stories)
Featuring:
+ @ourmankoto.bsky.social (Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction)
+ @obrackenbury.bsky.social (New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine)
+ Lloyd Penney (Amazing Stories)
December 7, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Got some great tips from three terrific editors at today's panel hosted by the Friends of the Merril Collection.
Featuring:
+ @ourmankoto.bsky.social (Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction)
+ @obrackenbury.bsky.social (New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine)
+ Lloyd Penney (Amazing Stories)
Featuring:
+ @ourmankoto.bsky.social (Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction)
+ @obrackenbury.bsky.social (New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine)
+ Lloyd Penney (Amazing Stories)
After by Drew Starling was my most gut-wrenching read of 2025. A cross between The Road and All the Fiends of Hell, the book features its share of gore and depraved psychos, but it’s deeply meditative too. Relentless, raw and beautiful. Highly recommended.
December 4, 2025 at 1:15 PM
After by Drew Starling was my most gut-wrenching read of 2025. A cross between The Road and All the Fiends of Hell, the book features its share of gore and depraved psychos, but it’s deeply meditative too. Relentless, raw and beautiful. Highly recommended.
My books to date. Links below.
December 2, 2025 at 1:45 PM
My books to date. Links below.
Kalivas! by @nmamatas.bsky.social is a re-imagining of The Tempest for our AI-accelerated end times. This techno dystopia draws plenty of inspiration from the old-fashioned kind. It’s bleak, absurd and charming, and I couldn’t stop laughing. Highly recommended!
November 23, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Kalivas! by @nmamatas.bsky.social is a re-imagining of The Tempest for our AI-accelerated end times. This techno dystopia draws plenty of inspiration from the old-fashioned kind. It’s bleak, absurd and charming, and I couldn’t stop laughing. Highly recommended!
Mitchell Lüthi’s In the Name of the Worm is an absorbing medieval horror and a worthy successor to His Black Tongue. The squalid streetscapes and gnarly brawls remain, but the cast is broader, the backstories richer, and the diabolical terrors are now streaked through with the cosmic. 1/3
November 9, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Mitchell Lüthi’s In the Name of the Worm is an absorbing medieval horror and a worthy successor to His Black Tongue. The squalid streetscapes and gnarly brawls remain, but the cast is broader, the backstories richer, and the diabolical terrors are now streaked through with the cosmic. 1/3
It's fall. Time to wear a cardigan and profit from all those corpses.💀
Check out THE KNAVE OF GRAVES, my new dark fantasy novel about occult deals gone wrong.
Available now!
🔗 www.amazon.com/dp/B0F68GKJ1G
#darkfantasy #graverobber
Check out THE KNAVE OF GRAVES, my new dark fantasy novel about occult deals gone wrong.
Available now!
🔗 www.amazon.com/dp/B0F68GKJ1G
#darkfantasy #graverobber
October 29, 2025 at 6:56 PM
It's fall. Time to wear a cardigan and profit from all those corpses.💀
Check out THE KNAVE OF GRAVES, my new dark fantasy novel about occult deals gone wrong.
Available now!
🔗 www.amazon.com/dp/B0F68GKJ1G
#darkfantasy #graverobber
Check out THE KNAVE OF GRAVES, my new dark fantasy novel about occult deals gone wrong.
Available now!
🔗 www.amazon.com/dp/B0F68GKJ1G
#darkfantasy #graverobber
Extremely jazzed to see my historical horror story "Ars Logica" appear today in the new anthology, THIS WORLD OF VILE WONDER: HORROR TALES OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION, edited by @coyhall.bsky.social
🔗 Mybook.to/vilewonder
🔗 Mybook.to/vilewonder
October 20, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Extremely jazzed to see my historical horror story "Ars Logica" appear today in the new anthology, THIS WORLD OF VILE WONDER: HORROR TALES OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION, edited by @coyhall.bsky.social
🔗 Mybook.to/vilewonder
🔗 Mybook.to/vilewonder
Discovered today in the wild - Count Orlok's costume from Nosferatu (2024).
Orlok was a big guy!
Orlok was a big guy!
October 18, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Discovered today in the wild - Count Orlok's costume from Nosferatu (2024).
Orlok was a big guy!
Orlok was a big guy!
In honour of the Halloween season, I've dropped the price of all my ebooks to 99¢. Whether you're looking for grimy dark fantasy or chilling medieval horror, I've got a book for you.
Excerpts for my books can be found on my website sjshank.com.
Please help spread the word!
Excerpts for my books can be found on my website sjshank.com.
Please help spread the word!
October 13, 2025 at 2:03 PM
In honour of the Halloween season, I've dropped the price of all my ebooks to 99¢. Whether you're looking for grimy dark fantasy or chilling medieval horror, I've got a book for you.
Excerpts for my books can be found on my website sjshank.com.
Please help spread the word!
Excerpts for my books can be found on my website sjshank.com.
Please help spread the word!
Today's secondhand find:
✧ Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages by Patrick J. Geary
✧ Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages by Patrick J. Geary
October 10, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Today's secondhand find:
✧ Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages by Patrick J. Geary
✧ Language and Power in the Early Middle Ages by Patrick J. Geary
I'm sad to hear On Spec Magazine will be closing. I'm grateful to their team for publishing my story "Storm Surge" (a personal favourite) back in #116.
October 10, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I'm sad to hear On Spec Magazine will be closing. I'm grateful to their team for publishing my story "Storm Surge" (a personal favourite) back in #116.
The Guest Children by @patrickt.bsky.social is a ghost story that's full of mystery. Set in a crumbling and isolated northern lodge, the book explores where ghosts come from and how we allow ourselves to be trapped by their hauntings. It's also a damn spooky page turner. Highly recommended!
October 8, 2025 at 9:38 PM
The Guest Children by @patrickt.bsky.social is a ghost story that's full of mystery. Set in a crumbling and isolated northern lodge, the book explores where ghosts come from and how we allow ourselves to be trapped by their hauntings. It's also a damn spooky page turner. Highly recommended!
I had a fantastic time at @littleghostsbooks.bsky.social Festival this weekend!
Thanks so much to the LG gang for putting on the event and giving me the the chance to read alongside a slate of stellar writers (who I unfortunately didn't get a picture of).
Here's a pic of my book haul instead.
Thanks so much to the LG gang for putting on the event and giving me the the chance to read alongside a slate of stellar writers (who I unfortunately didn't get a picture of).
Here's a pic of my book haul instead.
October 5, 2025 at 10:08 PM
I had a fantastic time at @littleghostsbooks.bsky.social Festival this weekend!
Thanks so much to the LG gang for putting on the event and giving me the the chance to read alongside a slate of stellar writers (who I unfortunately didn't get a picture of).
Here's a pic of my book haul instead.
Thanks so much to the LG gang for putting on the event and giving me the the chance to read alongside a slate of stellar writers (who I unfortunately didn't get a picture of).
Here's a pic of my book haul instead.
I'm excited to be reading at Little Ghosts Festival this weekend!
Come out on Sunday (Oct. 5) at 4pm to hear me read from my latest, The Knave of Graves.
Hope to see you there!
@littleghostsbooks.bsky.social #horror #reading
Come out on Sunday (Oct. 5) at 4pm to hear me read from my latest, The Knave of Graves.
Hope to see you there!
@littleghostsbooks.bsky.social #horror #reading
October 3, 2025 at 12:45 PM
I'm excited to be reading at Little Ghosts Festival this weekend!
Come out on Sunday (Oct. 5) at 4pm to hear me read from my latest, The Knave of Graves.
Hope to see you there!
@littleghostsbooks.bsky.social #horror #reading
Come out on Sunday (Oct. 5) at 4pm to hear me read from my latest, The Knave of Graves.
Hope to see you there!
@littleghostsbooks.bsky.social #horror #reading
I bought yet more books. Today's secondhand finds:
✧ The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 B.C. by Robert Drews
✧ Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh
✧ The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 B.C. by Robert Drews
✧ Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh
September 18, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I bought yet more books. Today's secondhand finds:
✧ The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 B.C. by Robert Drews
✧ Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh
✧ The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 B.C. by Robert Drews
✧ Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World by Tim Whitmarsh
I still have editing to do on my previous manuscript (and the one before that), but it's time to look ahead to my next writing project. I'll be spending the next few months with these guys.
#historicalhorror #fancydress
#historicalhorror #fancydress
September 9, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I still have editing to do on my previous manuscript (and the one before that), but it's time to look ahead to my next writing project. I'll be spending the next few months with these guys.
#historicalhorror #fancydress
#historicalhorror #fancydress
It's always a thrill to see my baby on the shelves at @bakkaphoenix.bsky.social.
#theknaveofgraves #shopindie #darkfantasy
#theknaveofgraves #shopindie #darkfantasy
September 8, 2025 at 12:45 PM
It's always a thrill to see my baby on the shelves at @bakkaphoenix.bsky.social.
#theknaveofgraves #shopindie #darkfantasy
#theknaveofgraves #shopindie #darkfantasy
Yesterday I went to @bakkaphoenix.bsky.social to attend the book launch of The Malevolent Eight by @decastell.bsky.social. He was joined by @phokion.bsky.social for a lively and insightful conversation about the writing life.
I also hung out with the authors and fellow fans at the bar. Good times!
I also hung out with the authors and fellow fans at the bar. Good times!
September 7, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Yesterday I went to @bakkaphoenix.bsky.social to attend the book launch of The Malevolent Eight by @decastell.bsky.social. He was joined by @phokion.bsky.social for a lively and insightful conversation about the writing life.
I also hung out with the authors and fellow fans at the bar. Good times!
I also hung out with the authors and fellow fans at the bar. Good times!
My new novel 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒 is a dirt-smeared dark fantasy about bungled enchantments and occult deals gone wrong.
Read the first chapter on my website.
🔗 sjshank.com#tkog-sample
Or buy it today!
🔗 www.amazon.com/dp/B0F68GKJ1G
#darkfantasy #graveyardgothic #newrelease
Read the first chapter on my website.
🔗 sjshank.com#tkog-sample
Or buy it today!
🔗 www.amazon.com/dp/B0F68GKJ1G
#darkfantasy #graveyardgothic #newrelease
September 5, 2025 at 12:45 PM
My new novel 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒 is a dirt-smeared dark fantasy about bungled enchantments and occult deals gone wrong.
Read the first chapter on my website.
🔗 sjshank.com#tkog-sample
Or buy it today!
🔗 www.amazon.com/dp/B0F68GKJ1G
#darkfantasy #graveyardgothic #newrelease
Read the first chapter on my website.
🔗 sjshank.com#tkog-sample
Or buy it today!
🔗 www.amazon.com/dp/B0F68GKJ1G
#darkfantasy #graveyardgothic #newrelease
I'm now the lucky owner of a few choice pieces from @jacobblanchet.bsky.social.
I've been a long-time admirer of his work online, but it's quite another thing to see these pieces in the flesh, so to speak. Absolutely stunning work.
I've been a long-time admirer of his work online, but it's quite another thing to see these pieces in the flesh, so to speak. Absolutely stunning work.
August 27, 2025 at 12:45 PM
I'm now the lucky owner of a few choice pieces from @jacobblanchet.bsky.social.
I've been a long-time admirer of his work online, but it's quite another thing to see these pieces in the flesh, so to speak. Absolutely stunning work.
I've been a long-time admirer of his work online, but it's quite another thing to see these pieces in the flesh, so to speak. Absolutely stunning work.
The art wagon keeps rolling!
Today I finished the first draft of a short novel, code name VP3. This is the third in a planned series of bite-sized historical horror novels. VP1 and VP2 should be coming out in 2026, and VP3 and VP4 (to be written) in 2027.
Let the editing begin!
Today I finished the first draft of a short novel, code name VP3. This is the third in a planned series of bite-sized historical horror novels. VP1 and VP2 should be coming out in 2026, and VP3 and VP4 (to be written) in 2027.
Let the editing begin!
August 26, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The art wagon keeps rolling!
Today I finished the first draft of a short novel, code name VP3. This is the third in a planned series of bite-sized historical horror novels. VP1 and VP2 should be coming out in 2026, and VP3 and VP4 (to be written) in 2027.
Let the editing begin!
Today I finished the first draft of a short novel, code name VP3. This is the third in a planned series of bite-sized historical horror novels. VP1 and VP2 should be coming out in 2026, and VP3 and VP4 (to be written) in 2027.
Let the editing begin!