Flash Fiction Friday
Spiders, Short Stories, and Cover Reveal!
Throughout this week, I’ve been prepping to attend StokerCon 2026! I will be assembling with a number of other horror writers in Pennsylvania next week and have quite a busy schedule ahead!
This will be my third StokerCon. With my friends and colleagues, KC Grifant and Dennis K. Crosby, we co-hosted StokerCon 2024 in our hometown of sunny San Diego. It was an absolute honor serving on the committees to bring this academic conference of over 700 spooky people together back then and I am so looking forward to seeing everyone again!
In this year’s edition of StokerCon, I will also be participating in an in-person pitching my horror novel Hoard to an agent. Eeek! I am so excited for this opportunity and will be sure to report back to you all about how it goes.
What I’m Reading
I’m currently just about done with Stephanie Sanders-Jacob’s Dropshipped, which I mentioned was my beach read in last week’s post. My next read will be The Villains Club: A Delightfully Devious Anthology edited by Janina Scarlet and E. M. Noller, whose book launch I was able to attend this past weekend. I’m super excited to read this collection and I am thrilled for my friends who are members of this club.
What I’m Writing
In the last week, I spent every moment toward wrapping up my collection of horror and dark fantasy stories, Tiny Dreadfuls. Last week, I asked for prayers to help me get the book together in time to ship before I leave for my conference and by golly, y’all sent out some powerful prayers!
Eeeek! I am so excited for these Advance Reader Copies (ARC) to arrive! I worked my tail off to get these stories in proper enough condition, formatted, revised, and analyzed in a very short period of time. Will these ARCs be perfect? Absolutely not. But that’s a part of the ARC culture. With ARCs, you establish to people who receive them that the work is not in its final phase. If you’re not sure what advance readers are, they are your team that help you identify any remaining issues as well as (hopefully) blurbs to include in your marketing prior to publication. Blurbs may be used on the cover, inside the book, or on the internet as ways to generate hype for your piece. I’m hoping to pass out all three of these copies at StokerCon next week.
Currently, my friend and editor is reading through the pages and I’m crossing my fingers for an August 1 launch. The ebook is listed on Amazon for pre-orders now, BUT I will also be listing this piece for independent bookstores for pre-order, so I will be providing those links in the very near future.
And now, here it is, the official cover reveal!
I cannot wait to hold this book and I cannot wait to hear what you think! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. And THANK YOU for your support and encouragement. This would not have happened without you all.
Flash Fiction Friday
Last week, I posted late, so my apologies and gratitude for your patience. This week, we’re back in action for the middle-of-the Pacific night posts. Here we are, the two prompts for your Flash Fiction Friday pleasures! If you decide to play along, please either tag me in your post or drop the link to your story in the comments below so we may all enjoy what you create!
Prompt 1: There’s no more coffee in the break room.
AND/OR
Prompt 2: There's a spider in the shower.
For those following me on Substack notes, you may know that prompt 2 was something that happened to me this week. I posted the following note this past Wednesday:
I really appreciated the comments - some suggested I destroy the entire house, others suggested that it was time to move. While all viable options, I chose to runaway like the knights in Monty Python to our guest bedroom for freshening up that morning. As for the spider, I waited until my husband awoke to address the situation. There’s a part two to this story, which I will continue next week…
And while that was my real life experience, I thought some of our horror-writer friends might enjoy a go at that prompt this week. Being that the trauma is still too fresh for me, I took a go at prompt number 1.
There’s Smoke in the Galley by Sarah Faxon
A thin dark cloud filled my office. I winced. A burning sick mix of sweetness and tar filled my nostrils.
My eyes shot from my screen and toward the galley. Though the light inside the break room was off, a wave of smoke stared back at me.
I flung my papers and dashed out of my chair as the burning liquid tainted the air.
In a flash, I turned on the light and smacked off the coffee maker's hot plate.
Black charcoal fingers clutched the bottom of the glass coffee pot. Any chance for a second cup looked like a long shot.
© Sarah Faxon 2026
Funny enough, this was also a true story.
Cheers to everyone who played along regardless of my late post:
Rajnikant Sanghavi - with a cool palindrome story
If I missed anyone, please let me know in the comments! I highly encourage you all to read the stories about tooth fairies, palindromes, and karma coming to collect. There is a powerful collection of tales from those writers above.
That’s all for now, folks. Have a wonderful weekend and cheers, dears!
-Sarah
Love the book cover. Looking for to it.
Each of these prompts is a certified banger! And I love your own story.