Well, it’s that time of year again. Time to recount the things I’ve written and published. 2023 was another big year for me. In addition to short story publications, I had a couple non-fiction pieces published, had my novelette “So Quiet, So White” published as part of Split Scream Volume 3 and…oh yeah…had my debut short-story collection Pre-Approved for Haunting published via Keylight Books / Turner Publishing at the end of September. Not too shabby!
Long Fiction
"The End of the Horror Story"
Description: In the mid-90s, a film crew prepping a low-budget slasher in post-Cold War Siberia encounter a sinister, witch-y presence in the woods.
Appears in: AHH! That's What I Call Horror
Publication Date: January 2023
Publisher: PIT
Word Count: 8,034 words
Website: https://www.chelseapumpkins.com/ahh-thats-what-i-call-horror
"So Quiet, So White"
Description: Roger Grimsby, a small-town curmudgeon known for his ‘80s horror paperback cover art, believes an ancient, bloodthirsty entity with ties to his family may have reemerged. But how does this connect to his wayward grandson, who prying police detectives and grieving parents blame for a recent knife attack massacre at a nearby summer camp? “So Quiet, So White” is cosmic folk horror that balances the act of creation through destructive forces, with the Grimsby family at the fulcrum. Prepare for bloodshed, and the beauty found within.
Appears in: Split Scream Volume 3
Publication Date: July 2023
Publisher: Dread Stone Press
Word Count: 10,366 words
Website: https://dreadstonepress.com/split-scream/volume-three/
Short Fiction
"The Treasure Map Inside Your Face is Covered in Bees"
Description: A scorned lover convinced his ex is a changeling will stop at nothing to find the treasure of the faeries, including taking a face off to find a treasure map inside.
Appears in: The Old Ways Vol. 1
Publication Date: February 2023
Publisher: Eerie River
Word Count: 2,300 words
Website: https://www.amazon.com/Old-Ways-Anthology-Ritual-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0BTFFKYV3
"The Other David"
Description: A well-to-do family man visits a violent, bigoted criminal who shares his name, and over the course of the visit finds himself slowly transformed into his counterpart.
Appears in: Cosmic Horror Monthly Issue 32
Publication Date: February 2023
Publisher: Cosmic Horror Monthly
Word Count: 4,220 words
Website: https://cosmichorrormonthly.com/store/issue-32/
"Slip into My Fur"
Description: Reeling from a tragedy perpetrated by her father, a woman finds solace and a means to revenge in the embrace of an old bearskin at her family's hunting cabin.
Appears in: PULP Literature Winter 2023
Publication Date: March 2023
Publisher: PULP Literature
Word Count: 1,052 words
Website: https://pulpliterature.com/subscribe/back-issues-2/issue-37-winter-2023/
"The Wolf in the Witch's House"
Description: A fairy-tale mash-up that sees Red Riding Hood as Hansel & Gretel's stepmother and Red's grandmother living alone in the woods in a house made of candy. The children find an unlikely ally in the ghost of the wolf who provides them the means for a bloody, biting vengeance.
Appears in: Chthonic Matter Issue 2
Publication Date: June 2023
Publisher: Chthonic Matter
Word Count: 3,333 words
Website: https://chthonicmatter.wordpress.com/chthonicmatter/
"Head Games"
Description: As the world adjusts to life in the zombie apocalypse, a gamer earns a new reputation for himself by dominating competitions where opponents use neural uplinks to control zombies in brutal fights.
Appears in: Two-Thousand Word Terrors
Publication Date: June 2023
Publisher: Rooster Republic Press
Word Count: 1,998 words
Website/Read for Free: https://roosterrepublicpress.com/head-games-by-patrick-barb/
"All the Other Toys Faced the Walls"
Description: Told from the POV of a young girl's teddy bear who begins to suspect there's something sinister going on behind the eyes of the human child he's supposed to love...Toy Story x Hereditary.
Appears in: The Cellar Door: Forbidden Magic
Publication Date: April 2023
Publisher: Dark Peninsula Press
Word Count: 4,890 words
Website: https://www.darkpeninsulapress.com/the-cellar-door-issue-2---forbidden-magic.html
"Under the Mountain Their Coven Grows"
Description: Exiled to a mountain for suspicion of witchcraft, a group of women have their revenge when a volcanic eruption unleashes their fiery, true potential.
Appears in: The Crow's Quill: Covens
Publication Date: March 2023
Publisher: Quill and Crow Publishing
Word Count: 1,520 words
"Red Rovers"
Description: Leading the first mission to Mars with a bunch of spoiled elites, an astronaut deals with killer Mars rovers.
Appears in: The Darkness Beyond the Stars
Publication Date: August 2023
Publisher: Salt Heart Press
Word Count: 5000 words
Website: https://www.saltheartpress.com/darkness-beyond
"The Scare Groom"
Description: A folk horror tale of a young woman forced to marry a scarecrow, the duo's unlikely love and bloody quest for revenge.
Appears in: Come October
Publication Date: October 2023
Publisher: Chthonic Matter Press
Word Count: 6250 words
Website: https://chthonicmatter.wordpress.com/come-october-2/
"The Dream Weavers"
Description: Young campers encounter mysterious tiny creatures that feed on dreams, sending one kid scrambling through layers of unreality to escape their energy-draining powers.
Appears in: The Nightmare Never Ends
Publication Date: October 2023
Publisher: Exploding Head Fiction
Word Count: 3910 words
Website: https://a.co/d/5HpgmUn
"Skin-a-Max"
Description: An erotic horror tale about a call to a phone-sex line that leads to a messy end for a caller who doesn’t know enough about late-night premium cable erotic thrillers
Appears in: Cult Horrotica Magazine
Publication Date: October 2023
Publisher: Infernal Gates Press
Word Count: 2842 words
Website: https://www.infernalgatespress.co.uk/product-page/cult-horrotica-magazine
"Don’t Log-Off, It’s Only the End of the World"
Description: As a group of gamers attempt to beat a multi-player game set in the zombie apocalypse, the real thing is happening all around them.
Appears in: Pyre Magazine Fall/Winter Issue
Publication Date: November 2023
Publisher: Pyre Magazine
Word Count: 1219 words
Website: https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/2669240?__r=3100496&s=w
"..."
Description: Epistolary tale told via text message exchanges. High school student finds his cellphone's been switched with one belonging to a counterpart from another dimension and in that reality, he's been murdered.
Appears in: Dead Letters
Publication Date: December 2023
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Word Count: 2578 words
Website: https://a.co/d/74XTccd
Short Non-Fiction
"The Mash-up Mythos: A Parent's Guide to the Monsters Your Kids Are Obsessed With"
Description: Essay/article giving a broad strokes look at the new monsters of mascot games, memes, RoBlox, YouTube,and more, plus how new generations of horror fans are using these as sources for their own creative horror tales.
Appears in: Interstellar Flight Magazine
Publication Date: October 2023
Publisher: Interstellar Flight Press
Word Count: 2,300 words
"The Witch of the A&P"
Description: A personal essay about my first instance of confusing fantasy and reality and how it started me on my path to writing horror. See what (maybe) happened when young Patrick thought he saw the witch from "Hansel & Gretel" in line at the grocery store.
Appears in: Interstellar Flight Magazine
Publication Date: October 2023
Publisher: Interstellar Flight Press
Word Count: 1090 words
Website: https://magazine.interstellarflightpress.com/the-witch-of-the-a-p-538600668178
Short Story Collection (plus original short fiction included in collection)
Pre-Approved for Haunting and Other Stories
Publisher: Keylight Books/Turner Publishing
Publication Date: September 2023
Word: ~73K
In this new collection, Patrick Barb explores themes of family found and lost, media consumption and the dangers of runaway nostalgia, the supernatural in our lives, and the impact of violence in both the long- and short-term.
A young couple's reunited with their lost son whose favorite fuzzy bear suit connects him to the ghost of a vengeful mama bear while he's alone in the forest.
A jaded screenwriter can’t escape the haunted screenplay that’s ruined his career.
A man returns to his small hometown, where the people are gone and the trees have taken over.
A slasher and final girl brother and sister duo match wits and blades against a sentient, dimension-hopping apocalypse at a never-ending summer camp.
From rural backwoods to Park Slope brownstones, Barb's characters face impossible, awful situations, testing their inner strength and understanding of reality. Covering quiet horror, weird fiction, supernatural horror, slasher horror, topical dark fiction, and more, these stories spotlight supposedly familiar terrors and fears in new and unexpected ways.
"Wry, edgy, and satisfyingly dark. Pre-Approved for Haunting deploys modes of traditional horror to hit a very contemporary nerve." —Laird Barron, author of Worse Angels
"With a distinctive voice and subtle dark humor, Patrick Barb infuses classic horror scenarios with a touch of the surreal. This book feels mythic and yet very much of-the-moment." —Christi Nogle, author of The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future
"Barb's debut collection not only seems to touch on every type of horror: his stories cross-pollinate different horror subgenres to create a number of entirely new—and surprising, and satisfying—species. An ambitious collection that both knows the rules, and knows exactly when to break them.” —Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell
"Meta creepiness that celebrates the thrill of horror fiction, short sci-fi shocks, hauntings that bite deeper because they are so heartfelt: Patrick Barb shows an impressive range in this debut collection. I’m reminded of hands with too many fingers. Unnerving, yes, but each of those fingers has its own unique grasp of storytelling, and I had great fun reading these stories and their voices. A writer worth keeping a close eye on—for both your safety and your entertainment." —Michael Wehunt, author of Greener Pastures and The Inconsolables
“Pre-Approved for Haunting and Other Stories is filled with the unique, inventive, and unexpected, along with clever reveals. Patrick Barb is a natural at maneuvering between different voices and creating slow burn dread. A careful guide for readers down the tunnel of weird and strange, Barb’s stories guarantee you will not come out of the other side unchanged.” —Ai Jiang, Nebula and Locus Award finalist and author of Linghun
"Patrick Barb is a name that is currently lighting up the horror genre. His new book, Pre-Approved for Haunting and Other Stories, is a serious page-turner, and every tale in the table of contents is dynamite. I can't wait to read whatever he writes next." —Gwendolyn Kiste, three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals
"Rose from the Ashes": A young woman working at a crematorium and ripping off ghosts runs afoul of a recently departed elderly woman who's crafty even in death.
"Putting Down Roots": Bringing his wife to his hometown, a writer discovers the people have all disappeared and been replaced by trees.
"Iggy Crane and the Headless Horse Girl": A young woman working as a horseback riding instructor at a posh girls' boarding school is drawn in by the viral tale of a headless ghost pretending to be a horse.
"Shattered": A neglectful, a-hole of a husband finds the tables turned when a hypnotic mind-virus grants his wife and others an immunity to glass-inflicted wounds, while also lowering their empathy.
"The Giallo Kid in the Cataclysm's Campgrounds": At the end of summer camp, a young woman working as a counselor is almost killed by her little brother who's a slasher. Then, the world ends. Now the 2 (slasher and final girl) are trapped in a weird sprawling summer camp while a cosmic evil pushes them to finish their story.
In addition to my awards-eligible work, I was also grateful to have my short story “Haunting Lessons” (originally published in The Arcanist) published as a chapbook via Shortwave Publishing. Featuring illustrations by Caitlin Marceau, the book is available here.