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Pete Ward

@phenryward.bsky.social
607 followers 1.4K following 832 posts

Books, art, theatre, telling people I liked the thing they made. Weird / Gothic / Noir short stories published or forthcoming in Rock and a Hard Place, Cosmic Horror, Macabre, Frost Zone, Rat Bag and elsewhere. Editorial reader at Gavagai.

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Reposted by Pete Ward
Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Cheers James. Just got some promo art from @edgeandbusby.com for Witnessed: An Anthology of Literary Horror. Out next year, it features stories "where the worst things happen between people". I know that's exactly what some of you sickos (complimentary) are looking for...
Gore drips from ornate keyhole on cover for WITNESSED, out next year
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 20h
Jesus Christ, you offer someone a coffee at a meeting and the WSJ calls you a socialist. Youre supposed to put one coffee out for every three attendees and make them fight to the death over it.
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 20h
"Whats behind the popularity of liminal time-loop horror?" Meanwhile the state invents a way of killing you to not-death *twice*
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 8h
Watching my idea for this sail past the word limit, and now have to come up with a new idea
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Rat Bag @ratbaglit.bsky.social · 10h
Open now! And totally was opened at the start of today... not at all late on getting that up. ... That's what she said. duotrope.com/duosuma/subm...
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 18h
An exciting call for which I am at least a 100 miles too south, but have a crack if you're eligible! (If you're even half-thinking "But where does the North start *really*...?", that's exactly the type of slipperiness they're expecting from Southerners, and you should have more self respect.)
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 20h
"Whats behind the popularity of liminal time-loop horror?" Meanwhile the state invents a way of killing you to not-death *twice*
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 20h
Jesus Christ, you offer someone a coffee at a meeting and the WSJ calls you a socialist. Youre supposed to put one coffee out for every three attendees and make them fight to the death over it.
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William Beck @thatwilliambeck.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Also, just as I see some newer faces; one second promotion is for the #HorrorWritersChat anthology, featuring 19 fantastically talented authors from this chat (and 1 by me) with 100% of the profits going to Macmillan charity, in honour of the creator of this group, Matt Mason. amzn.eu/d/0gbq9DIm
amzn.eu
The Shadows That We Carry: A Horror Anthology eBook : Beck, William: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
The Shadows That We Carry: A Horror Anthology eBook : Beck, William: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
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Trish Wilson @trishcwilson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Thanks James and everyone for yet another great #HorrorWritersChat! Did you like WIDOW'S BAY? Wanna party? The show was filmed where I live in MA & there will be a Sunset Cocktails gathering in May '27 for season 2. I'm on a team setting it up. If you want to go keep an eye on my page for updates.
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James Ryan @jamesryan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
#HorrorWritersChat Encore: "We hope you have enjoyed the show..." That was fun. Tell us in the Comments on THIS post what you're promoting on the road right now, putting the answers into this post with the hashtag: #HorrorWritersChat
Two tone red image of theater in the background

Text:
"We hope you have enjoyed the show..."

That was a great set you did tonight.
Come on out for an encore and tell us what work this tour's being done for.

COMMENT on this post with your self-promotion and use the hashtasg
#HorrorWritersChat
To help increase visibility, like, repost, quote post, and comment on the promos. Let's make it into a monster if we all pull together as a team...
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A little out of my wheelhouse here so i'll instead hype someone else's work. Alison Rumfitt's Tell Me Im Pretty has the most astonishing use of Morrissey. An extraordinary novel that I can't stop thinking about. #HorrorWritersChat
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J. Neira - cozy horror author & slush reader @jneiraauthor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Ooh, I might pitch The World/Inferno Friendship Society with a story like Fright Night or the Burbs. Something fun but creepy that explores the shadows of suburbia! #HorrorWritersChat Q3
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M.H.Urban - Horror Author @mhurban.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Thinking about what I'm writing, it would be Robert Johnson in a Southern Gothic setting steeped in poverty, racism, and broken dreams, with a demon waiting at a crossroads to make a deal. Oh, wait! 😅 #HorrorWritersChat
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Nate Crowder @natecrowder.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
My punk rock x folk horror novel starred an old punk musician, but his playlist was indie folk-girls and that built my writing playlist because it helped solidify the mood of the book. But I constantly reference songs and artists, and even wrote a song for that novel. #HorrorWriteresChat
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The Last Something @thelastsomething.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I did a series called "We Took the Long Way Home" about a spooky road that never ends. I listened to what the characters would be listening to on their drive, the very best of the 80s. Several songs made it into the story. Most notably, Billy Joel's "You May Be Right" #HorrorWritersChat
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Not at all, really! Some mood-setting personally, maybe, but my cultural references in writing are lit and visual art and I write in silence / white noise. But I see it done elsewhere with awe: thought Hari Kunzru's White Tears was terrifying and fascinating about music and American culture.
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Hey all, I'm Pete and write all sorts of grim tales usually featuring terrible people. I'm a write-in-silence kind of guy, but have a higher than average tolerance for drone-y minimalism if im listening alone. #HorrorWritersChat
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This was excellent. A random punt on something (and someone) id never heard of before. Any Jocelyn Brooke -heads out there? Is his other stuff anything like as weird?
Cover of The Image Of A Drawn Sword, by Jocelyn Brooke. Melancholic image of an Abbey near the shore in black and white.
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Rock and a Hard Place @rhppress.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
SUBS OPEN OCT 1: For November, we’re looking for stories of revolutionaries, rebels, agitators, and terrorists. Show us what happens when their good plans go bad, or their bad plans go worse. Subs close Oct 4. Send us your <2k flash story: bit.ly/4fQLeGx
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Kirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We get this a lot
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Last night I dreamt I went to Kirkdale Bookshop (for the first time). A priest ran it, spoke eloquently about books before dashing off to a service held beyond the shelves where the room opened up cathedrally: dark arches and stained glass. Now I see the subject of the sermon, im glad I woke...
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Wilson @wilsonjettone.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The Magnificent Cuckold is magnificently funny. A deeply bitter and ultimately ironic look at male jealousy, but played as witty farce. It is gorgeously filmed sex comedy, directed with real skill by Antonio Pietrangeli, the camera moves elegantly, the framing is exquisitely upper-class.
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Mike Pinnington ✍️ @doublenegativem.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Niche request - but I feel like certain people here will know. Can anyone recommend some hauntological sci-fi? Can be as narrow or broad an interpretation of that framework as you like. For example, I'd put Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men in there - big lost futures vibes at its core.
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 25/09/2026
“PUT THAT ICED COFFEE DOWN.”
Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, yelling about coffee
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Jordan Harper @jordanharper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The car I left in neutral and parked on a hill has gone rogue and run over several school children.
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A heuristic for Weird fiction - the more clear and certain the narrator declares themselves, the less they should be believed.
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Excellent exchange in the comments below this:
El Snacktator @elsnacktator.bsky.social
I realized Pinterest has chat when my bil was using it for his affair.

Sheo @sheologian.bsky.social
I would be extra mad if my husband was cheating on me and using the chat function in Pinterest was involved

A Simple Tailor @especiallythelies.bsky.social
“You don’t know the name of our kids’ pediatrician but you know how to use Pinterest to communicate with another woman?”
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A heuristic for Weird fiction - the more clear and certain the narrator declares themselves, the less they should be believed.
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A final draft polish: despite my pathological monologophobia, narrator awkwardly refers to things becoming 'clear' three times in the space of two paragraphs. Of course, this is when things are *least* clear to her, the tragic fulfillment imminent - so we'll call that irony, and 'hidden intention'.
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Wallace Polsom @wallacepolsom.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Mike Mignola, “The Sabbath” (2026), watercolour on illustration board, 38.2 x 46.4 cm.
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Ell Huang ♠️🩶🤍💜 @nocturnalxlight.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
#HorrorWritersChat Ok IDEALLY, if I could truly just dream, Guillermo del Toro. We’d talk so passionately about all of it: our adoration for The Little Mermaid and Frankenstein and then doing it our own reimaginings, love of the craft of storytelling and integrating folklore and religion, etc.
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Nate Crowder @natecrowder.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I would thank Joe R. Lansdale for teaching me the importance of being true to my voice, Jeff Vandermeer for showing me the value in taking big, weird swings, late-night TV for the nightmare fuel, & @erinys.bsky.social for encouraging me to pursue writing seriously many years ago. #HorrorWritersChat
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Tom [ghostly voice] Coooooooooooombe @calmtomb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Thank you to my friends and loved ones, to all the readers and my fellow writers, to every editor who liked what they saw in my work and to my awful, awful job for driving me to write stuff that doesn’t poison my blood. #HorrorWritersChat
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Slush readers and editors for occasionally picking my work from the massive pile! It's genuinely lovely and surprising every time! #HorrorWritersChat
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Elizabeth - hand-crafted unique dolls & more @elizabethdollmaker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Shirley Jackson. The mind behind such chilling and disturbing stories is one I would find inspiring to interact with. And she had a way with interacting with negative people... #HorrorWritersChat
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Robb // R.M. Sayan @rmsayan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
#HorrorWritersChat I would love to sit with Robert W Chambers just to pick his brain about the King in Yellow... My man just invented the cosmic horror genre and then left!! Did gardening and photography for the rest of his life!! GET BACK HERE IM NOT DONE WITH YOU!!!!!
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Oli Jacobs - Author @olijbooks.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
#HorrorWritersChat It’s him again: Thomas Ligotti. I feel our mutual social anxiety, depression, anhedonia, and general pessimism would create a negative vortex so powerful that no one would be able to resist being sucked into our dark horrors on sale. Or we’ll awkwardly ignore each other. 👀
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Joel Lane. Discovered his work thanks to Influx Press just after moving to his home town, so we can natter about the neighbourhood as well as scar tissue. #HorrorWritersChat
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AC Cross @aaronccross.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Q2: #HorrorWritersChat Ooh, tough one. I don't know who'd necessarily be on the panel, but it would definitely be about Bleak Endings and how they can not only be thematically appropriate within a story but NECESSARY at times. We'd discuss how creating that sick pit in the stomach can be massive.
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A. McAnarney-Castro @deusexmaquinarney.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
#horrorwriterschat: Damn. I gotta throw in some filmmakers in there too. If I were to do a panel on the abject body, the state, and its terrors I would do: Georges Bataille Ken Russell Única Zurn Piere Paolo Pasolini
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Serious close criticism of literature and film is a pure joy. Sentence level analysis and speculative reading of themes and historical context. God I love it, and there's not enough, though Jon Greenaway and Lelia Taylor have great books with Repeater so maybe they could be panellists?
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Shantell Powell @shanmonster.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
#HorrorWritersChat I'm Shan, & I write ecohorror, fairytales, religious horror, & weird stuff. Yesterday, I finished writing a novella called House Wife. Caught in a bad marriage, a climate refugee forms a strange relationship with her house. Think "The Yellow Wallpaper" by way of Cronenberg.
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Anna Orridge @anna-orridge.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Hi I'm Anna. I write eco and cosmic horror. My current WIP seems to be turning into Jan Morris' Hav x Jumanji Which is... a combination. #HorrorWritersChat
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Hey everyone! Im Pete, write Gothic / Weird stories with an emphasis on underlying political conditions. WIP currently about a dead body found in a hotel room, and the junior night porter who gets locked in with it... #horrorwriterschat
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Roseanna Pendlebury @chloroformtea.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The goodreads reviews of The End of Everything are just phenomenal.
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Pete Ward @phenryward.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My wife actually stops and smells flowers. Never seen it done before. Revolutionary.
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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
in my talk today, as an example of the strange things you can do in comics given their sequential but also spatial/simultaneous nature, I included this gonzo panel from 1950s Batman, which I just love in all its weirdness! Yes, I have more intentionally clever examples, but something about this...
part of a page from a batman comic. In one panel, batman leaps from off panel onto a diving board, the motion lines of his rebound travel across to another panel, where we see him finish his leap and crash into the crooks to save the day
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