Happy September, everyone. As some of you may know, a year ago, I posted a list of horror creator recommendations, and I’ve decided to create another, because they got me through a tough period from about early to mid-July to early August. There I was, stranded on a deserted island surrounded by irradiated piranhas. The only thing I had to eat was expired packaged rice cakes and water. My phone had died on me, so I had to rely on my backup for entertainment. Luckily, I had the foresight to compile a bunch of E-books as well as stories from Substack onto it.
Thanks to them, I held on long enough to have the strength to flag down a passing pirate ship (which turned out to be full of ghosts and we had to fight a kraken and a sea serpent), but they got me home safe. Then I finally got a new phone, and all became right with the world. Okay, I’ll admit I may be embellishing things just a tad. Long story short, I like some kind of stimulation when I am out walking, and I prefer books in audio format, so I used Evie, which is a text reading app. Obviously, I would much rather listen to an actual person, but it’s customizable, which makes it a lot less grating to listen to compared to other apps, even if it does sometimes mispronounce words.
Thanks to this, I was able to listen to the works of various indie authors who kept me entertained when I was out during some of the longest few weeks I’ve had in a while. To show my gratitude, I’m going to be including them in a list. Now, this isn’t going to be in any particular order, and it won’t just include them. I’m also putting in people whom I feel should be boosted. Also, this won’t include anyone I have talked about in my previous list.
Lastly, I’m going to be keeping this to ten again because let’s face it. This is a super easy way to fill my one article a month quota, so why not save some other names for a rainy day? Oh yeah, and if you decide to check out any books I mention, be sure to leave a review. Even if it’s a short one, it massively helps boost indie writers. Anyway, enough stalling, let’s get into it.
- Nikki (aka Nocturnal Narrator): This woman is the embodiment of “Takes Zero Shit”. Low key and don’t tell her I said this, but she kind of scares me. She has a unique style of storytelling that feels clinical while still carrying a lot of emotional weight. I
I know that sounds almost contradictory, but she manages to pull it off. If you want to see what I mean, check out her Ben and Olivia series.
I’ve also gone through some of her more sci-fi work. It’s a doozy and in transcript style, which I always love. You can find both in her Substack publication here. If you want to follow her outside of Substack, she also has a BlueSky.
- Andy Futuro: Speaking of sci-fi, his name is always the first one I think of when it comes to the genre on Substack, especially sci-fi horror. Something that his work has in common with Nikki’s is that both have stories that feel like looking into a mirror. There’s no narrative, no agenda, just a cold, uncomfortable truth you’re forced to confront. If I had to protect whose stories convey this more effectively, gun to my head, I’d have to go with Andy (Nikki, please don’t kill me). If you want to read Andy’s work, you can find it on Substack here.
- Travis Knight: Huge shoutout to this guy. He’s always liking and restacking my stuff. He’s versatile in his storytelling. His series Moonium is dripping with eeriness, and his Bingo Killer series has it all. There’s mystery, horror, an implied romance, and just enough comedy so that it doesn’t detract from the tone of the story. If you like that sound of that, check out his Substack here. If you want to read the Bingo Killer all at once, you can find it on Amazon.
- Matt Mason: I feel bad because I meant to write an article about his Salmonweird books while they were still fresh in my mind. Hopefully, I’ll get around to it before the holidays are over. I don’t want to give too much away, but they consist of a supernatural crime comedy series about a retired detective living in a town full of ghosts. In each story, someone is murdered, usually one of the ghosts (Just go with it. Trust me), and it’s up to our protagonist to bring whoever or whatever is responsible to justice, with some help from his friends, of course. If you want to check them out, you can find them on his website here.
If you want to follow him on social media, check out his BlueSky. He’s an alternating host of the Horror Writers’ Chat, which is a ton of fun and hosted each Wednesday. If you decide to participate, don’t forget to include the tag #HorrorWritersChat in your posts and no using the tag for self-promotion unless you responded to all the questions that day and only under the appropriate post. If you can follow those simple rules, I’m sure you’ll have a great time.
- Will Soto: I’ve listened to a lot of horror narrators over the years. Each one covers stories in their own unique way. However, there are few who I feel manage to capture that classic Creepypasta atmosphere. One of the people who manages to do this is Will through his podcast, The Red Treehouse. On it, he hosts a variety of topics sure to as he says “Keep you up at night.”
Not only does he read online horror stories (and has gotten into writing his own, and I’m pretty sure he’s working on a novel), he also covers classics such as Frankenstein or The Most Dangerous Game. He also talks about true paranormal events, including ones that tie into true crime events. I don’t really enjoy that sort of stuff because it makes me angry, but he always addresses it tactfully and sensitively. If you like what I’ve described about him, be sure to give him your support, as his podcast is still fairly new, and I would love to see it get the recognition it deserves. It’s available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
I listen to it on the second one, so I’ll link it here. If you want to keep up with The Red Treehouse on social media, you can find its Threads (and by extension, Instagram) account here.
- Uncovering Dark Falls: Okay, so when I say this podcast is new, I mean brand new. We’re talking, there are only five episodes as of me writing this. Here’s what it’s about. Did you like Goosebumps growing up? Do you remember being under the covers with a flashlight shining down on the pages of Stay Out Of The Basement or Monster Blood?
Do you remember being unable to take your eyes off your TV when the Goosebumps show came on? If you answered yes to either of these, this is the podcast for you. The short of it is it recaps Goosebumps stories by making them in-universe events. In the context of the podcast, everything is set in the town of Dark Falls (which is the town from Welcome To Dead House, the first Goosebumps book). Gideon Brooks, the host, details his investigation of these events throughout each episode. This is a fantastic premise, and I hope it catches on.
Do you remember being unable to take your eyes off your TV when the Goosebumps show came on? If you answered yes to either of these, this is the podcast for you. The short of it is it recaps Goosebumps stories by making them in-universe events. In the context of the podcast, everything is set in the town of Dark Falls (which is the town from Welcome To Dead House, the first Goosebumps book). Gideon Brooks, the host, details his investigation of these events throughout each episode. This is a fantastic premise, and these events are investigated by a man named Gideon Brooks. I hope it catches on.
Also, one of the people who works on it commissioned yours truly to write one of the episodes. I’m not giving any hints, because if you’re at all familiar with Goosebumps, you’ll probably know which story I picked right away, but I hope you enjoy it when it comes out. I know you can find it on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube. I’ll link it here. You can also find them on Threads, and their account is fun. It’s in character, but also a bit tongue-in-cheek at times. You can find it here.
- Grace Anderson: If you recall, I wrote an article about her book, The Thing In The Basement, which you can find here. What I like about her stories is that they aren’t just horror. They tend to have a dark fairy tale vibe. There’s always this sinister background force at work. I also enjoy that her writing feels very minimalist at times.
Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes, long descriptions are necessary. However, it’s a nice change of pace to come across stories that are able to convey a lot of emotion and information with fewer words. She does that extremely well and deserves more recognition for it.
Her Substack publication includes a mix of fictional and nonfictional horror posts that are sure to entertain you or give you some fruit for thought. Her profile includes links to her Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and author site. You can find it here. She also has an Amazon page, which you can find here.
If you don’t want to support Amazon, don’t worry. She has alternative means of purchasing her paid stories on her website. Be sure to give your support.
- Cassandra L. Thompson: A witch! Actually, she’s a part of WitchTok, which (see what I did there?) might end up exclusively becoming WitchGram soon if TikTok goes dark again permanently. She’s another person who inspired one of my articles. In her case, I wrote one about her novel, Welcome To Meadowbrook (one of the most mind fuck stories I’ve read by the way). You can find my thoughts on it as well as I link to it here. She’s a skilled gothic writer and is very good at creating atmosphere.
Keep in mind, she’s also managing her own publishing site on top of this. If you want to follow her on social media, you can find her Threads account here. As for her publishing site, you can find it here.
- Gil Nobodi: This dude has some of the best body horror I’ve come across with his Priests Of 2122 series. I usually don’t have visceral reactions when it comes to writing, but this made me cringe. I don’t want to give a lot away, but it involves a transformation of sorts. Let’s say that’s not your bag. He has other series you may enjoy, like Microhell, a satire torture series, The Crooked Snake, which is like horror possession, I think? Divine Intervention, which is high fantasy, and Homunculi, a sci-fi with magical elements at its core.
If you want to know more about these stories, you can find them on his publication’s about me page linked here. If you want to follow him on Substack, I’ll link it here.
- Victor Sweetser: Before I joined The Shadow Box Archives, I had been posting to r/NoSleep for five years and r/Odd_directions for three years. Then I find out Reddit basically stabbed their users in the back with this AI shit. Therefore, I sought out somewhere else to post my stories and made a post explaining this on r/NoSleepOOC. Someone mentions SBA, and then I get a DM from Victor sending me an invite to join the Discord and to become a featured writer for the Patreon. He does a lot of work on Patreon and now Substack, since we got one set up now, which I’ll link here.
Unlike the Patreon, the publication is open for anyone to post there so long as they have contributor status. Keep in mind, this is meant to be entirely free, meaning don’t join under the assumption of getting payment from it. Also, make sure you read the rules first. If you want to know more information, check the about page here. Okay, as for Victor’s stories, they get intense in an extremely bizarre way. His Haunted House series, which you can find here, is about some adults having to deal with traps in a haunted house they set up when they were kids that became real through supernatural means.
His Submechanophobia story results in a woman giving birth to an animatronic baby. It’s crazy stuff. If you want to follow him, you can find him on BlueSky here and Substack here. Be sure to give your support.
Also, since it’s worth repeating, make sure you do the same thing for all these people, because God damn it, indie creators work hard as hell and deserve to be compensated for it.
Well, that’s it for this article. If any of my fellow creators who read this don’t see their name mentioned, don’t worry. You’ll likely end up on the next list. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this list. Next time, I’ll have a proper article. Thanks, and happy reading
If you want to support me, check out my Reddit’s pinned posts linked here (one of them has my tipping links) or join the writing Patreon I am a part of, linked here, where we post horror stories. Thanks, and happy reading.
