In 2021, I wrote a short story called “Special Interest” which appears in the Volume Blue edition of Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging published by Improbable Press.
The editor, Atlin Merrick, did an amazing job of curating tales that are creepy and spooky, but that always deliver a satisfying (if not happy) ending. It was as if I were reading a horror equivalent of a cozy mystery. I trusted Atlin’s choice completely and devoured both the Blue and Silver volumes through the cold winter.
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About this Anthology
Improbable Press is an independent press that amplifies Queer and Neurodivergent voices. The call for this anthology was for a theme of emerging cryptids, but it also specified the tone. The stories were to have a happy or satisfying ending. They could have horror elements, but shouldn’t leave the reader feeling the heebie-jeebies of an open conclusion. There were so many stories submitted that the press chose to do three volumes. The initial two, Volumes Blue and Silver, and a follow-up Volume Green, which focuses on a YA audience.
Even more exciting for a book nerd like me, these books have hardback editions!
It has been years since I read both the Blue and Silver volumes cover to cover, and I can honestly say that I still think about some of these stories. “Raising Thom” by Brett Stanfill may qualify as one of my favorite short stories of all time. “The Chicken Monster Hotel” in Volume Silver by Keyan Bowes is so wildly unexpected and imaginative.
My favorite thing about these anthologies is that they did hold true to the promise of happy(ish) endings. It amounts to what you might call “cozy horror”. It’s creepy, but not leave-the-light-on creepy. I devoured every story happily, trusting that the ending would be satisfying.
About the story “Special Interest”
My own story in this anthology is – believe it or not – the first story I’ve written about a unicorn since my first-grade entry for Young Authors. Unicorns were one of my earliest, and longest-lasting autistic Special Interests, and I owned that fully in this little story.
The “horror” elements of the tale are relatively tame, but they are actually a fictionalized retelling of a particularly harrowing night in my own history in 2014. Camping solo on the AT in October, I definitely got creeped out. I channeled that creeped-out feeling into what ended up being a light-hearted story celebrating my neurodivergence.