Outsider Publishing
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Coal Drop Christmas Chapter 5
Snowstorm on Ridge Road The snow had started as a soft dusting that morning, a whisper over the rooftops and hills, the kind that made everything look gentler. By midafternoon, the whisper had become a roar. The wind swept down from the ridge in sharp gusts, and the sky had gone the color of slate.Read More
3 Sisters Cover Reveal
A vicious, haunting collection of extreme and psychological horror. From 3 sisters battling the monstrous legacy left by their father, to a man devolving into his own delusions, to teachers, bosses, lovers, and ghosts who carve and claw their way into the bodies and minds of their victims, and the reader, these stories explore the many forms violence takes in the modern world. 3 Sisters Fight A Ghost is a brutal, challenging, occasionally darkly funny, and always emotionally honest collection of survival, power, and the horrors we inherit. A Look at the included stories:“Three Sisters Fight a Ghost”3 Sisters setsRead More
Ghosts of the Past The Christmas craft fair in Ashford Hollow has always smelled like pine needles, glue guns, apple cider and nostalgia. The high school gym is packed wall to wall with booths: hand-knit scarves, hand-made candles, homemade fudge, wood carvings of coal miners, eagles and angels. It’s the kind of event my mom used to drag me to when I was a kid, promising we’d “just look.” We always left with two bags of things we didn’t need and three slices of Miss Mary’s pie, something we always needed.Now, walking through it again as an adult, it feelsRead More
Christmas Lights and Small-Town Nights I never thought in a million years I’d find myself standing in the middle of Main Street again, holding a spool of electrical wire while snow drifted through the air like ash. The cold here has a different kind of bite: dry, mineral, carrying the smell of coal dust evenRead More
Coal Drop Christmas Chapter 2
Old Scars, New Snow The morning came slow and gray, the kind of Pennsylvania winter light that never quite wakes up, just kinda stumbles into the day, right out of bed. I stood at the kitchen window with a cup of tea, staring out over the narrow street as snow drifted down in lazy spirals. The old coal hill loomed faintly in the distance- a black silhouette against the pale sky, quiet now, the machinery long since silenced. When I was a kid, the hum of the mine had been a heartbeat you could feel in your bones. Now itRead More
Coming Home to Ashford Hollow The town looked exactly the way I remembered it, exactly as it had always been and would likely always be…and exactly the way I didn’t want to remember it. Main Street was dusted with a thin layer of snow, salted and slushy from the morning’s traffic, piles of dirty brown snow on every corner, the streetlights glowing against the haze of early afternoon. The diner’s neon sign flickered like a stubborn beacon: “Bruiser’s Diner – Since 1967.” Never mind that Bruiser himself had died when I was just a kid, the Diner was and alwaysRead More
The Drive The highway stretched out ahead of me like an unending escalator, fading into the low winter haze that swallowed the Allegheny hills. I was unsure if I as on the stairway to heaven or the highway back to hell. Three hours of asphalt, of snow-flecked trees, of towns I’d once memorized and nowRead More
Kevin!!!!!!!!! (Even Though It Technically Came Out in 1990… But C’mon, It’s More ’80s Than Leg Warmers and New Coke) If you were a kid anytime between the late 80s and early 2000s, chances are you had three December traditions: Sure, the film technically debuted in 1990, but spiritually… stylistically… culturally it’s as 80s as neon ski jackets and Chevy Chase. In the sacred canon of kids’ Christmas entertainment, Home Alone sits atop the tree like a golden angel made of micro-machines, aftershave, and pure childhood chaos. So let’s deck the halls, jingle the bells, and argue respectfully, festively, andRead More
Breaking Down the Publishing Paths: Traditional, Small Press, and Self-Publishing
Let’s be real—publishing is a wild world. You’ve got your manuscript, your baby, and now you’re staring down three doors: traditional publishing, small press publishing, or self-publishing. Which one do you kick open? The truth? None of them are “right” or “wrong.” They’re just different paths through the same forest. Some are paved and patrolled by gatekeepers.Read More
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Coal Drop Christmas Chapter 4
Ghosts of the Past The Christmas craft fair in Ashford Hollow has always smelled like pine needles, glue guns, apple cider and nostalgia. The high school gym is packed wall to wall with booths: hand-knit scarves, hand-made candles, homemade fudge, wood carvings of coal miners, eagles and angels. It’s the kind of event my momRead More
Coal Drop Christmas Chapter 3
Christmas Lights and Small-Town Nights I never thought in a million years I’d find myself standing in the middle of Main Street again, holding a spool of electrical wire while snow drifted through the air like ash. The cold here has a different kind of bite: dry, mineral, carrying the smell of coal dust evenRead More