iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

One of my favorite stories just made it to the final round of choices… god I hope it gets picked. 🤞

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Stephen King @stephenking.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

All roads lead to Derry. #ItWelcomeToDerry is coming this October to HBO Max.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

I do find it funny that Thomas Ligotti is a Cancer ♋️🦀🤣 (I am also)

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

My favorite story I have ever written just keeps getting rejected and I’m like 🤪😫

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

What’s the chances that @stephenking.bsky.social would let me use a line for an epigraph for my novel? I know he loves a good epigraph. If he did, I’d use “We lie best when we lie to ourselves” said by Mike Hamlin in “IT”. “IT” is one of my favorite books, and also why I love living in Bangor. 🎈

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Looking for both agents and editors. Send me your recs!

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Basically finished with my novel but I am finding that a lot of publishers will not accept any submissions containing SA. On one hand I am wondering if I need to rewrite and remove that part. On another hand, in a few different ways it’s an integral part of the story. So not really sure what to do..

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Reading “We like it 🍒right after reading #BHH 2 books before also hit different for me. Really want to read more Native American Horror novels. Also i pictured the titular 🍒 scene in the book almost in an absurdist lynchian way. What’s great story @jacymorris.bsky.social @tenebrouspress.bsky.social

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Just finished @jacymorris.bsky.social ‘s We Like It Cherry. Me definitely like it 🍒! An awesome amalgamation of mythology, horrific imagery, survival and love. It will have you ponder the impact of climate change while also wondering what a human eyeball might taste like @tenebrouspress.bsky.social

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Just finished up Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes and now onto We Like It Cherry by Jacy Morris @sabarnes.bsky.social @tenebrouspress.bsky.social @jacymorris.bsky.social

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Looking for some kind folk to read a draft of my novel “Behind the Veil”. Thematically I’d call it a story inspired by House of Usher, Hill House, Rebecca, Ligotti, Barron, and local WNC historical research. Looking for kind words and constructive criticism. Let me know if you’d be interested!

criticism.me

Domain Details Page

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Submitted my first non-fiction piece for publication, entitled “ Maine’s Foggy Liminality and its influence on Horror & Art”

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

I always fail to write a seasonal story in time for the actual season. Tried to write a springtime story by May 1st and epically failed at that 😂 Oh well, at least I found this book at the library.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Between Neil Gaiman and now Neil Degrasse Tyson, I’m pretty upset at the two Neil’s I used to look up to. I own multiple books by these Neil’s. Next time I have a bonfire I have some kindling I guess. “Death by Black Hole”, “Sandman”, “Stardust”, “Smoke & Mirrors”, “American Gods”, all in the fire!

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Finally diggin in to the @tenebrouspress.bsky.social Split Scream series and started with “The Guts of Myth” by @carsonwinter.bsky.social . I loved the exploration of a person as a liminal space or gateway. The backstory and dynamics are compelling. The ending is a gut puncher too. Bravo

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

I identify with HP Lovecraft in the fact that, most of the time, I’m more interested in the lore, history and the aesthetics of the setting of the story than I am the characters. Characters feel like the vocals of a song—- they’re important, but they aren’t always what make a song great.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I think I first gravitated to horror when I lost my belief in god. I realized the fairytale I’d been fed about a god who loved everyone was a lie, and once that happened the horrors of the world were revealed. Horror, in all of its forms, taps the vein of reality more than anything else.

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Protato @protato42.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Happy Trans Day of Visibility

A picture of David Lynch with the caption Fix your hearts or die

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Nothing like receiving 5 rejections in 48 hours 🥴 #numbersgame

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

“I’ve heard our elders and many-faces men and even chiefs say that it’s the napikwans who are ruining the world, but napikwans are just what happens when we forget we’re Pikuni. When we think a many-shots gun is more important than beaver medicine.” @sgj.bsky.social #buffalohunterhunter

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Thanks to The Briar Patch in Bangor for having a fun “Derry-free” horror book club meeting this evening! Good discussions about how messed up Fred is.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Super frustrating when you feel like the stories you work the hardest on or are the most unique get rejected more than the ones you don’t feel as strongly about

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Going to this on Wednesday. Found Feito’s “Victorian Psycho” a fun disgusting day read. There are certain turns of phrase that they use that really turn the stomach. And the colorful Victorian vocabulary is the cherry on top.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Just got my copy of Gothic Tales by Thomas Ligotti from Chiroptera Press 🤘🏼🦇

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Spring and summer are my least favorite seasons so I guess it’s a good time to get a head of my autumnal and winter horror stories 😂

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Going to the grocery store at night, you encounter people that look kind of cool like I would wanna go get a drink with them. Then others look like strange night beings out Renfielding for some Dracula. Both of them could be Stephen King characters. Which makes sense considering I’m in Bangor.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Finds a new small publisher: :D Closed to submissions: 😒

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

There are two wolves inside me. One says “basketball is a stupid human activity, another sport used to sublimate the human desires of violence and competition, the desire to crush an opponent.” The other says “wow it would really be cool if Montana won since they’re an underdog”

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

When you get a notification that your copy of “The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein” by Ligotti is on its way 🕺🤠

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Fun fact: my new story “The Sideshow of the Void” is not a direct sequel to “tragedy of the Laughing Clown” which was produced by @thenosleeppodcast.bsky.social , but you may see a familiar clown within the story! Check it out on Dark Harbor Magazine! www.darkharbormagazine.com/the-sideshow...

darkharbormagazine.com

The Sideshow of the Void

From time to time, murmurs and mutterings concerning the carnival spread amongst the houses of town like an unseen plague This signals the carnival’s imminent arrival.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Just finished @ivygrimes.bsky.social new book and WOW. The Ghosts of Blaubart Mansion is equal parts a Lynchian Grimm’s Fairy Tale and a literary southern gothic. Like Dunsany’s Why the Milkman Shudders When He Perceives the Dawn, The Ghosts from Crimson Peak, and a precocious child’s daydream.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Found out my stories “The Sideshow of the Void” and “Honeymoon” will appear in the March and April issues of www.darkharbormagazine.com 🤘🏼🤘🏼

darkharbormagazine.com

Dark Harbor Magazine

A New Home for Horror

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Just wanted to take this opportunity to say Fuck You Donald Trump

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Maria Haskins @mariahaskins.com · 25/02/2025

😭 *cries in pro-rates 112 years later*

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

I’ve submitted more stories these past two months than the entirety of 2024. And I have received a ton of rejections 😂 but it’s a numbers game and I know I just need to find the right publication! #dontgiveup

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Right now I am writing a story for the “Monstrous Angels” collection from @conquestpublishing.bsky.social … writing a truly spooky Angel has been super challenging! Something that helped set the mood was re-reading Matt Cardin’s essay “The Angel and the Demon” which explores the origins of both.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

So far I have written a story about a hidden sideshow within a strange carnival that seems to periodically haunt a small seaside Maine town. Another is about 2 Homeymooners spending time in Maine who find out what really happens to tourists. Another involves a preserved mummy found in a sinister bog

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

In 2024, I worked on my upcoming gothic romance/weird horror tale which is tentatively called “The Greystone Suitor”, and I got my story “The Tragedy of the Laughing Clown” produced by @thenosleeppodcast.bsky.social which has always been a literal dream of mine. Can’t wait to see what 2025 holds!

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Zachary Gillan @megapolisomancy.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Feeling very grumpy about the void here so l've channeled that into a list of weird or weird-ish or weird-adjacent or theoretically-weird collections by Black authors (some of which I’ve read and too many of which I have not)

Text reading

Linda Addison - How to Recognize a Demon
Has Become Your Friend
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - Friday Black
'Pemi Aguda - Ghostroots
Lesley Nneka Akrimah - What It Means When A Man Falls From the Sky
Paula D. Ashe - We Are Here to Hurt Each Other
Eugen Bacon - A Place Between Waking and Forgetting; Chasing Whispers; etc
Andre Bagoo - The Dreaming
DeMisty D. Bellinger - All Daughters Are
Awesome Everywhere
Chesya Burke - Let's Play White
Octavia Butler - Bloodchild
Elwin Cotman - Weird Black Girls; Dance on
Saturday
Kwame Dawes - A Place to Hide Samuel R. Delany - Aye, and Gomorrah Tananarive Due - Ghost Summer; The Wishing Pool
Henry Dumas - Ark of Bones
Danielle Evans - The Office of Historical
Corrections
Dare Segun Falowo - Caged Ocean Dub

Text reading

Curdella Forbes - A Permanent Freedom
Craig Laurance Gidney - The Nectar of Nightmares; Sea, Swallow Me
Nalo Hopkinson - Skin Folk; Falling in Love With Hominids
Alex Jennings - Here I Come
Alaya Dawn Johnson - Reconstruction
Stories
Cherie Jones - The Burning Bush Women & Other Stories
RJ Joseph - Hell Hath No Sorrow Like A Woman Haunted
John Keene - Counternarratives
Jamaica Kincaid - At the Bottom of the River
Breanne Mc Ivor - Where There Are
Monsters
Mo Moshaty - Love the Sinner Kenya Moss-Dyme - Daymares
Yvette Lisa Ndlovu - Drinking from
Graveyard Wells
Tobi Ogundiran - Jackal, Jackal Ben Okri - Stars of the New Curfew; A Prayer for the Living
Nuzo Onoh - The Reluctant Dead
Vanessa Onwuemezi - Dark Neighbourhood

Text reading

Helen Oyeyemi - What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
Suzan Palumbo - Skin Thief
Leone Ross - Come Let Us Sing Anyway
Eden Royce - Who Lost, I Found Sofia Samatar - Tender
Sumiko Saulson - The Void Between
Emotions; Things That Go Bump in my Head Rion Amilcar Scott - The World Doesn't Require You; Insurrections
Tamika Thompson - Unshod, Cackling, and Naked
Gianni Washington - Flowers from the Void
L. Marie Wood - The Unholy Trinity

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

The Onion and Black Mirror writers must be mad that reality is the way it is right now

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Going to NYC in May, wanted to go to sleep no more but I just found out they closed in January? So bummed. Need new recommendations. Any similar experiences out there? Any strange Ligottian sideshows? Any dancing mannequins inside a club like an @lcvonhessen.bsky.social story? Maybe I’ll find one.

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Zak Cowell @reprobvte.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Finally finished this story about a big body found in Maine. Time to submit it! Fingers crossed…

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