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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS is out now!!!

A shadow-black ghost holding a candle and a copy of THESE FAMILIAR WALLS

In 1998, desperate loneliness pushes preteen Amber to ignore the misgivings of her family, particularly her younger sister, when she befriends the troubled new kid in the neighborhood—a boy with dead eyes, a fascination with fire, and no remorse. Their turbulent relationship is brief but creates lasting consequences.

Twenty-two years later, in 2020, he resurfaces to kill Amber’s parents, and is in turn betrayed by his accomplice and killed in Amber's childhood home.

After the deaths, Amber inherits the house and, in an effort to save money, moves in with her husband and two children, hoping to reclaim some sense of stability in the grief and chaos surrounding her. Instead, she finds that the familiar walls are haunted by more than just bitter memories and lockdown stress. She shifts in and out of dreamlike trances, her reflection won’t meet her gaze, and a menacing voice whispers to her from the gathering shadows. Although she tried to brush off the strange happenings as stress-fueled hallucinations, Amber is soon forced to admit that something much more real—and more dangerous—haunts her family. But
Amber has deadly secrets of her own,
and she must resolve these long-
buried truths or lose the life she’s
contrived for herself.

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

My husband and I become concerned when we don't know where our 7-yr-old's baby doll is.

The kind of baby doll with a soft stuffed body and hard plastic head and limbs, sans doll clothes, with chunks of play-doh that's been all mixed together into a dark, grayish color stuck onto the doll's lips, cheeks, eyelids, knees, fingertips, toes, and all about its head and face, on an unsettling manner, laying on a floral bedsheet

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

It's been a rough week and it's only halfway done, haha. I am trying not to forget about the countdown so much! Today's snippet is from page 41 of the ARC for THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, coming out in 41 days!

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out in 45 days!!

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

47—NO, wait! 46 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out! (I had yesterday's whole post made and typed and just...forgot to click the button.) Anyway! Yesterday and today's snippets, from ARC pages 47 and 46! Add it on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

A black cat sits on a hardwood floor next to a copy of an ARC of the book THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, which is leaning against a wood wall. Beneath the book and beside the cat are the words "47 DAYS"

A black cat sits on a hardwood floor next to a copy of an ARC of the book THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, which is leaning against a wood wall.
Around this, text reads:
Amber took another tiny sip, suppressing her grimace. Nathan had already finished his wine, faint purple coloring his lips, and Amber licked hers self-consciously. Nathan saw and grinned, raising his eyebrows in a way she didn't entirely understand. Awkward silence fell. Amber took a longer sip of her wine and tried to think of something cool or funny to say.

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

48 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out! Today's snippet is from page 48 of the ARC. Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

A black cat sits on a hardwood floor next to a copy of an ARC of the book THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, which is leaning against a wood wall. Around the book and cat, text reads:
Through the kitchen a door opened to the basement stairs. Amber glimpsed an unfinished room, all concrete floor and cinder-block walls, piled up with unopened cardboard boxes. There must have been small windows out of sight, because dim light cast the room in blues and grays and deep shadows.
“Come on,” Nathan whispered.

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

49 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out! And a snippet from ARC page 49, in which 12-year-old Amber has been caught making some bad decisions. Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out in 50 days! Poor Amber, it's hard to be 12 and still figuring everything out! Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

A black cat sits on a hardwood floor next to a copy of an ARC of the book THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, which is leaning against a wood wall.
In the image's negative space, text reads:
"I assumed you knew better." Mom's voice was cold. "That's not a mistake I'll make again."
Amber's stomach clenched with the injustice--punished for a rule Mom admitted had never actually been given to her!

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

51 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS! When you're little, awake in bed listening to grownups getting to stay up late, you don't even really notice the comfort and familiarity under the envy that you don't get to stay up that late, too. Goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

Warmly lit by three candles in the lower left corner, image is of a stone wall with a small, rounded door type opening leading into deep darkness, festooned with cobwebs. The book THESE FAMILIAR WALLS stands in the opening, and emerging from the darkness is text reading "51 DAYS"

a warmly lit stone wall with a small, rounded door type opening leading into deep darkness, festooned with cobwebs. The book THESE FAMILIAR WALLS stands in the opening, and surrounding the book is the quote:
Darkness shrouded her room when a sharp sound pulled her itno a bleary wakefulness.
She sat up. From downstairs drifted the murmuring voices of her parents and the canned laughter of a sitcom.
The out of place noise had been nearer than that.

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS! 52 days! Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

53 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out! Dual timelines! Eerie mirrors! Too many candles! Coming-of-age! Spooky suburbia! Horrible haunting! 90s nostalgia! Creeping dread! goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out in 54 days! I'm so excited for the bookstore visits and everything I'll be doing in April, and as the countdown keeps going I am also getting nervous again. Happens every time I have an event! 😆 Add it on GR: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

a stone wall with a small, rounded door type opening leading into deep darkness, festooned with cobwebs. The book THESE FAMILIAR WALLS stands in the opening, and surrounding that is pale text with darker outlining, reading:
Half an hour later her parents were out the door and Amber sat on the floor beside her bedroom door, ear pressed to the wood, waiting for Hannah to leave. An unexpected knock startled her, and she scrambled a little away, not wanting Hannah to know she'd been listening, before answering.
"What?" she grunted, the first she'd spoken to her sister all week.

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Enjoy some more 90s nostalgia with today's snippet from page 55 of the ARC of THESE FAMILIAR WALLS. Only 55 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS is out in the world! Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

In 56 days, THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out! If you like dual timelines, ghosts, 90s nostalgia, dread, complicated and messy characters, coming-of-age stories, and unsettling mirror activity, you'll dig this book. Add it on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

A paperback ARC of THESE FAMILIAR WALLS set against the backdrop of a night-dark window and framed by sheer curtains, lit from above, with darkly glowing lettering above reading "56 DAYS"

A paperback ARC of THESE FAMILIAR WALLS set against the backdrop of a night-dark window and framed by sheer curtains, lit from above, with off-white font above reading:

Hands on her hips, she studied her parents' room. Nothing interesting jumped out at her.
Amber pressed her lips together. Where would she hide something?
With her own diary's hiding place in mind, she made her way to their walk-in closet, a narrow but deep and ill-lit space.

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out in 57 days! Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out in 58 days! Here's a moment of Amber at age 12, snooping around a bit while she's grounded and home alone. Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

In 59 days, THESE FAMILIAR WALLS hits shelves! Enjoy a moment of "remember when the internet wasn't Everywhere All The Time" nostalgia with today's snippet from page 59 of the ARC! Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Only 60 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS is out! Writing a dual-timeline story and exploring Amber's personality as a preteen and as an adult was so fun. This excerpt is from the first 1998 section of the book. Goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

61 days til THESE FAMILIAR WALLS hits shelves! Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

A picture of an ARC of THESE FAMILIAR WALLS (dark green cover with the lower third taken up by an image of a house as seen from a high corner angle, also green-tinted but for the ominously orangey-glowing windows, all overlaid in large but thin all-caps white lettering wreathed in slender flames, reading "THESE FAMILIAR WALLS", under that much smaller all caps thin white no-flames font reads "A NOVEL" and at the bottom in medium-small white thin flameless font it says "CJ DOTSON"), paperback, before a red curtain, surrounded by lit candles, with the words "62 DAYS" above the book

An image of a house seen from a high corner angle, the background and most of the house are dark shades of green, with ominous orange glow from the windows, from the cover of THESE FAMILIAR WALLS

Above that, in orange font, a snippet from the book reads:
Amber had never met anyone so open about being angry all the time, his intensity undiminished after weeks had passed.

“It’s not fair.” This line always closed out his tirades. Nathan had rigid ideas about fairness.

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

62 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out! Dual timelines, 1998 and 2020 90s nostalgia Coming-of-age Murder Angry haunting Creeping dread Don't look in the mirrors Don't light that decorative candle Don't listen to the whispering... GR: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Preorder: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS is coming for you in 63 days! If you like dual-timelines, late-90s nostalgia, and hauntings then you'll dig this book! Today's sisterly snippet is from a 1998 section of the story, from page 63 of the ARC. Add on GR: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

64 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out! Check out today's excerpt, from page 64 of the ARC, in a section set in 1998 Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

65 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out! Here's a brief sisterly-strife moment between Amber at 12 & her 10-yr-old sister Hannah, from a 1998 section of my upcoming dual-timeline haunted house book Add it on GR: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS! 66 days! Snippet from page 66 of the ARC, in 1998 D'you enjoy dual timelines, unsettling suburbia, coming-of-age elements w 90s nostalgia, & an angry haunting? Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on GR: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

A picture of the hardcover of THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, with a house seen from a high corner angle, the background and most of the house are dark shades of green, with ominous orange glow from the windows, big but thin all caps white font wreathed in slender flames reads THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, small flameless white text beneath reads A NOVEL and medium sized flameless white text at the bottom says CJ DOTSON

Next to that, off-white, shadowed lettering reads "66 DAYS"

All set against a yellow background that corresponds with the window glow

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

67 days until THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out! Here's a line from page 67 of the ARC This is a dual-timeline haunted house story, so for a while here the countdown will be sharing snippets from a 1998 section Add WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out in 68 days! If you like haunted houses, dual timelines, 90s nostalgia, and mirrors misbehaving, you should check out THESE FAMILIAR WALLS! Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

THESE FAMILAR WALLS comes out in 69 days! Today's corresponding page is still an between-parts-transition-page, so again today we've got a fun fact instead of a snippet. Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

70 days! THESE FAMILIAR WALLS! The transitions between timelines have blank pages, so some countdown days won't have a corresponding snippet. Instead we'll have fun facts! Add WALLS on gr: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Pre-order WALLS: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr Get 99 TINY TERRORS here: tinyurl.com/y9w8jrn3

Image of the paperback of 99 Tiny Terrors, a dark gray background with lighter gray symbols of stylized/cartoonish ghosts, monsters, emojis, etc, with large all caps blood-reminiscent font reading 99 TINY TERRORS

In smaller white lettering beneath that it reads A HORROR ANTHOLOGY EDITED BY JENNIFER BROZEK

Even smaller white lettering at the very bottom reads: “99 TINY TERRORS is an absolutely wild ride through some truly weird territory. Fast, freaky, furious, and fun! Highly recommended!”
—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of INK and V-WARS

The book cover image is set against a gray background matching the lighter gray symbols on the cover. Above the book on the gray background white text with a reddish shadow reads: From "Eyes Like Empty Windows"

Below that, next to the book, thinner white text with reddish shadows reads:
Before sunrise, black night outside makes mirrors of every window in our new house. I can't look at any of them. Three times I've hung curtains.

I keep finding them ripped down.

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out in 71 days! Here's a little line from page 71, about a nosy neighbor. Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: tinyurl.com/3jkvwhf5 Or pre-order it here: tinyurl.com/vd9xf3nr

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

72 days until my dual timeline haunted house novel, THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, comes out! Here's a couple lines from page 72 of the ARC. Add THESE FAMILIAR WALLS on goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/23... Or pre-order it here: read.macmillan.com/lp/these-fam...

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS will be on shelves in 73 days! Today's snippet is from page seventy-three of the ARC. If you like haunted houses, dual timelines, coming of age stories, suburban horror, and creeping dread, then you'll like THESE FAMILIAR WALLS pre-order: read.macmillan.com/lp/these-fam...

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

The January issue of my newsletter is live! cjdotsonsdreadfuldispatch.substack.com/p/hello-2026 I talk about writing, reading (generally, but also a book recommendation for Our Winter Monster), & where I'll be having author events soon! Check it out, and if you enjoy it, you oughta subscribe!

Image that says

Hello, 2026!
Welcome to the 31st issue of the Dreadful Dispatch!

cjdotsonsdreadfuldispatch.substack.com

C.J. Dotson's Dreadful Dispatch

and below that a picture of the top half of my face with my eyes wide and kind of alarmed but looking at something down out of the shot

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

74 days until my dual-timeline haunted house novel comes out! Here's today's snippet, from page 74 of the ARC for THESE FAMILIAR WALLS!

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

There's only 75 days until my dual timeline haunted house novel, THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, is out in the world! Starting today I'll be sharing a snippet for every day of the countdown to release! Each snippet will come from the ARC page that corresponds with that day's countdown. Here, from page 75:

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Crossed the 50k mark in the new WIP!!

Screenshot of a closeup of the word counter at the bottom of a word document. Text reads "50216 words"

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Hey friends, guess what! There's another goodreads giveaway for THESE FAMILIAR WALLS! US/Canada residents, enter for your chance to win one of 25 paperback advance reader copies of my upcoming dual-timeline haunted house novel! www.goodreads.com/giveaway/ent... THESE FAMILIAR WALLS comes out 4/14/26

The cover art for THESE FAMILIAR WALLS, sans title and author name, a view of a house seen from a high corner angle, the background and house all tinted green, except the windows that glow a menacing orange. Superimposed on this in orange lettering, a description of the book reads:

In 1998, desperate loneliness pushes preteen Amber to ignore the misgivings of her family, particularly her younger sister, when she befriends the troubled new kid in the neighborhood—a boy with dead eyes, a fascination with fire, and no remorse. Their turbulent relationship is brief but creates lasting consequences.

Twenty-two years later, in 2020, he resurfaces to kill Amber’s parents, and is in turn betrayed by his accomplice and killed in Amber's childhood home.

After the deaths, Amber inherits the house and, in an effort to save money, moves in with her husband and two children, hoping to reclaim some sense of stability in the grief and chaos surrounding her. Instead, she finds that the familiar walls are haunted by more than just bitter memories and lockdown stress. She shifts in and out of dreamlike trances, her reflection won’t blink, and a menacing voice whispers to her from the gathering shadows. Although she tried to brush off the strange happenings as stress-fueled hallucinations, Amber is soon forced to admit that something much more real—and more dangerous—haunts her family. But Amber has deadly secrets of her own, and she must resolve these long-buried truths or lose the life she’s contrived for herself.

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Noodles came pair-bonded with another cat, Jupiter, who is a living muppet and wants to be on someone and licking someone at all times, and last year we adopted four kittens who came out of the woods, and their attitudes are so varied, haha

A long-haired cat, mostly gray but with white on her paws and her throat, lays on a couch looking like the Being Cozy World Champion

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

We've got six cats, so there are a lot of personalities! One of them, Pebble (who is one of the four we adopted as stray kittens who came out of the woods by my house), only likes me if I am in my bedroom. In the rest of the house she does not care about me at all.

A shiny gray cat of about a year old (who doesn't look like a tough guy, but this baby would fight god without a second thought) sitting behind a pumpkin (but most of what you can see of the pumpkin in this picture is just the stem), and staring just off-camera in a very unimpressed way

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

WHICH BECOMES A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY because she waits SO long to come snuggle that she ALWAYS comes over when I'm 5 minutes or less from having to get up. 💔 (This isn't a metaphor or anything, by the way, but if you read it & thought it was you might want to consider if that means anything?)

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

But she hates being moved. So when you sit down, she spends a LONG time observing, making sure you're not going to need to get up and have to move her, before she comes to snuggle.

A picture of a white cat's face turned less away and less down, looking less sleepy

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

One of my cats who we rescued as an adult, Noodles, took a long time to warm up. She always liked us, but it was only after 2 years that she started snuggling me, & 1 year after that before she'd snuggle anyone else.

A picture of a white cat's face, turned slightly down and away, looking sleepy and cute

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Woke at 3 to a godawful clanging and came downstairs to find three of the cats trying to disassemble one of the baseboard radiators to get at the mouse hiding up inside it. (mouse has been removed, cats have been given treats to assuage their disappointment)

Two sleek black cats huddle around the end of a baseboard radiator, a fluffy gray cat watching as they try (loudly) to pry open the metal cover to get at the mouse inside

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Good morning, friends! Happy Friday! I've made a 2025 awards eligibility post for my published horror fiction this year!

C.J. Dotson's 2025 Awards Eligibility: Debut Novel
The Cut - published by St. Martin's Press in April of 2025

What do the things that go bump in the night--and drip in the walls, squirm in the tub, and slither in the halls--at L'Arpin Hotel want with Sadie Miles and her unborn child? She must find out, because until she and her toddler get back on their feet after escaping their abuser, they're stuck here.

Order a copy: https://tinyurl.com/56zn6jts

C.J. Dotson's 2025 Awards Eligibility: Short Fiction

No Biting - produced by Creepy Podcast in May of 2025
Tensions are already rising after a long day of travel, when a family vacation goes suddenly and very unexpectedly wrong
Listen for free: https://tinyurl.com/ydxf3u3u

Every Last Gossamer Strand - produced by Pseudopod in May of 2025
A pregnant woman with a secret lures her unsuspecting photographer into the woods surrounding the beautiful lodge where they're holding her maternity photoshoot.
Listen for free: https://tinyurl.com/4vzhpp7t

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

tempted to end today's writing session a couple hundred words early...

screen shot of MS Word's word count tracker, at 6666 words

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Good morning, friends! Look, a giveaway! Between now & Halloweeeeeeeeeeen (which is coming up way too soon, gosh I don't want October to end) you can enter for a chance to win a paperback ARC of my upcoming dual-timeline haunted house novel, THESE FAMILIAR WALLS! www.goodreads.com/giveaway/ent...

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

When I was young, I had a cassette tape of Shel Silverstein reading some of his own poetry from Where the Sidewalk Ends. Now when I read those, I hear them in his voice. The way he repeated "How did it go?" at the end of Forgotten Language always made me sad, in a way I didn't understand as a kid.

Forgotten Language

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

NOT NOW, researchers awakening 40,000-year-old frozen microbes

a screenshot of a science headline reading "Researchers awaken ancient arctic microbes frozen for 40,000 years" with a picture of someone in PPE boring a hole in what I'm assuming is very dirty forty-thousand-year-old ice

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C.J. Dotson @cj-dotson.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

If you hadn't heard, Thrift Books is having an 8 Days of Horror special--for a limited time, earn double points with every horror purchase! So hurry and grab THE CUT in hardback (or pre-order the upcoming paperback edition), & pre-order THESE FAMILIAR WALLS! www.thriftbooks.com/w/these-fami...

8 DAYS OF HORROR
2x Points
on horror books
thriftbooks

Buy Now:
The Cut
hardcover

Pre-Order:
The Cut
paperback
available 3/17/2026

These Familiar Walls
hardcover
available 4/14/2026

A historic hotel long past its prime and huddled along The Cut, a questionable Lake Erie beach, isn’t Sadie Miles’ ideal place to raise a toddler while also navigating her second pregnancy. After finally fleeing her abusive ex-fiancé, though, Sadie’s new housekeeping position and free room at L’Arpin Hotel are the best she can manage.

On her first night, Sadie runs to help a guest struggling in the hotel’s pool only to find the water calm and empty when she gets there, leaving her with a lingering unease. When a guest then goes missing and her manager insists they simply left without checking out, Sadie suspects he’s covering up darker goings-on in the hotel.

After her ex, Sadie won't let anyone convince her that what she’s experiencing isn’t real again. So, she keeps digging, quickly uncovering suspicious interactions with the staff, mysteriously vanishing security cameras, more missing guests, and things that go bump in the night...and drip in the walls, slither in the tub, and squirm in the halls. Everything isn't as it seems within the dim hallways of L’Arpin. Sadie has nowhere to go and nowhere to hide; she'll need to keep her wits about her to survive and keep her toddler and unborn child safe from whatever lurks nearby.

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