Houston Southard
a name that looks so fake you'll care just as little to learn it's not
Houston Southard, et al. - Sinister
Sinister is as good a word to describe today as it is the rest of this sorry year. Petty territorialism inciting a new world war. Worse territorialism dressed up as a proxy war. Petty politics. All sinister in their own regard.
Today is sinister at face value because of the holiday. To some it might signify the time of year where whoever's devil holds most influence over people. For others it might remind them of halloween's roots in class revolts and flipped power dynamics.
That last one is most ironic this year as we see it play out in geopolitical scuffles, at home and abroad, but for most its meaning remains the same: a day to escape behind a mask and embody the strength of whatever form we're cosplaying.
The stories in this horror anthology, two of which were written by your's truly, were put together by the newly-minted ink and quill press. In it you can find disturbing tales about a dropout god who starts a universe on his own terms. In another, an altar boy gets sucked into his church's computer and uncovers something worse than death.
And those are just mine. Packed in are 13 other stories of supernatural horrors and psychological terrors, where ancient evils awaken, where deranged minds wilt and sanity disintegrates.
Horror has a special place in a lot of special people's hearts because fear is as strong an emotion as sadness, rage and happiness, and emotions are addictive. When we find a conduit for whichever one makes us feel most alive, we chase it.
But I think those who seek fear out missatribute why. They see evil carried out by inhuman entities and feel that sympathetic feary rush, but there's something inside that lets them know stories like those will always remain just that. Fictions only dissimilar from the evils the real monsters of the world commit, because in the real world, the monsters look like us.
Sinister now sits in 89th for all horror anthologies on amazon.
Click the story link to get yourself a copy, especially for my honorable mentions "Through A Drive, Darkly" and "God State University"