I Spent Easter in Bed (And That’s Just How It Went)

/ Winona Morris / 2 Comments

Happy Easter, friends. Or, well… it was Easter anyway. I was there for some of it.

I woke up sick. Not ER sick, just that low-grade awful where every option feels bad and the bed feels like the only reasonable place to be. That is so normal for me that I know better than to try to fight it. So bed is where I mostly stayed.

My husband and kids headed to Grandma’s to dye eggs without me. Then they went to church without me. I watched all of this happen from the same four walls, which is a peculiar kind of holiday feeling.

There’s something strange about watching your family’s holiday carry on through a doorway, being present enough to see it, too worn down to be part of it.

The parts I did catch

I did drag myself out of bed for the egg hunt. And I’m glad I did. Watching kids hunt eggs is one of those things that’s exactly as simple and exactly as good as it sounds. It doesn’t matter that one of those kids is nearing “young man” and the other is usually a surly pre-teen. Today they were just my eager little boys again.

My oldest went back to Grandma’s to help cook supper. My youngest chose to stay home and played Fortnite in the bed beside me while I played a little Animal Crossing, then drifted in and out of a light sleep watching him mplay.

We had supper together, and Grammas. It was quiet and normal and fine.

Here’s the honest timeline of my Easter:

  • Morning: Bed. Family leaves for egg dyeing without me.
  • Mid-morning: Still bed. Family goes to church.
  • Afternoon: Made it outside for the egg hunt. Back to bed.
  • Later: More bed. Fortnite sounds in the background. Oldest at Grandma’s cooking.
  • Evening: Supper together. Hot bath. Reading. Now this.

What I keep coming back to

The holiday happened. My kids had a good day. Grandma had help in the kitchen. The eggs got dyed and hidden and found, multiple times over apparently, because that’s what kids do when you give them eggs and a yard.

I didn’t ruin Easter by being sick. And honestly, writing that out is a bit of a relief.

Now I really should go back to bed. Still don’t feel great, and I’ve got to go to work in the morning.

Ever had a holiday go sideways on you? Sick days, travel disasters, plans that fell apart? I’d love to hear how your Easter went, good or messy. Drop it in the comments.

When You Have Nothing to Blog About: A Late-Night Honest Look at Writer’s Block

/ Winona Morris / Leave a comment

It’s 10pm, and I have nothing to write about. Not “nothing interesting”. Nothing. A blank where blog ideas should be.

I know the stakes of skipping tonight. Miss one day, and missing the next becomes easy. Then the day after. Then suddenly it’s the end of the month and I haven’t published a single word. So here I am, writing about having nothing to write about. Which, if you’re a blogger, especially a personal blogger like me, is probably one of the most relatable things you’ll read all week.

The honest truth about a “boring” life and blogging

Here’s my reality: I go to work. I come home. I sleep. Months pass without me leaving the house for anything other than those two destinations. I don’t even do the grocery run anymore, my husband handles it. Work. Home. Sleep. Repeat. You can see how that’s not exactly fertile ground for content creation.

And yet here’s the strange thing…I used to be a prolific blogger/journaler. As a teenager, I filled journal after journal. Handwritten, no internet, nowhere near as “eventful” a life as I have now. And I never ran out of things to say. My life was just as uneventful, arguably more so, and I wrote as though every day was worth documenting in full.

I wrote as if my life were the most interesting thing in the world. What changed?

The real reason writer’s block hits harder as we get older

I think I’ve landed on something. Teenage me wasn’t writing about what happened. She was writing about what might happen. Hopes. Plans. Dreams she was still building toward. The future was open and full of possibility, and that possibility was endlessly interesting to explore on paper.

Now? The future has arrived. And some of those plans didn’t pan out the way I expected. It’s harder to write with the same breathless wonder when you’re no longer looking forward to an unknown life because you’re living the known one.

That’s not hopeless, by the way. It’s just different. And maybe the work now is finding that same sense of meaning in the ordinary that younger me found so naturally.

So what do you do when you have nothing to blog about?

Tonight, my answer is: you write exactly this. You write the struggle. The blank screen. The 10pm desperation. The surprising philosophical detour about hope and aging and what it means to document a life.

Turns out, “I have nothing to write about” is itself something to write about.

As for the rest of tonight, I’m signing off for a long hot bath and a book. I’m torn between the horror ARC I’m working through and a possum shifter romance I picked up on Kindle Unlimited. (Yes, that’s a real genre. Yes, I’m reading it. No, I’m not sorry.)

Then bed. Because I really am a thrill a minute.

Do you ever blog through the blank? If you’ve ever stared down writer’s block and published anyway — or have your own theory about why we run dry — I’d love to hear it in the comments. And if you have a nighttime ritual more exciting than mine, please share. The bar is genuinely on the floor.

Review: Pumpkin Seeds: The Indie Horror Debut That Almost Made Me DM the Author at Midnight

/ Winona Morris / 10 Comments

Pumpkin Seeds by Tyler Downs

Release date  April 9, 2026Series  Standalone (for now)Format  ARC Review

Tyler Downs is a relatively new face in the indie horror community, but the trajectory is already unmistakable. His debut collection, Fifteen Eyes, delivered on every promise of its eye-catching cover by containing sharp, memorable short fiction that announced a writer with real instincts. Now, having read an advance copy of his debut novel, Pumpkin Seeds, I can say with confidence: Downs is about to start running with the big dogs of horror, indie and traditional alike.

Pumpkin Seeds follows Ed, Wren, and Sam who are paranormal investigators operating out of Salem with a rather unusual complication: one of them is dead for 51 weeks of the year, one is essentially a ghost, and one is a teenager. For the final week of October, they band together to solve Salem’s supernatural crimes. This year’s case is the worst yet: a family dead, a small child missing, and the 31st bearing down on all of them like a freight train.

Ed and Sam anchor the story, and while the setup is technically “private investigators,” the dynamic reads far more like a boy and his reluctant father figure and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. It’s warmer, stranger, and more affecting than any buddy-cop pairing could have been.

What Downs does especially well is characters. Even the side characters carry main-character energy, each one of them fully realized, scene-stealing, and deeply deserving of their own spotlight. I’d love to see him follow the cozy mystery model: a series set in this Salem, each book pulling a side character forward. You’ll know exactly who I mean once you read it.

Fair warning: this book made me cry. Twice. It’s the kind of story that lands harder than you expect, sneaks past your defenses, and leaves a mark. In the best possible way.

I had to fight the urge to send Mr. Downs a midnight DM just to call him an asshole. I didn’t, cause he’s actually a pretty chill guy. The book, however, is not.

The verdict

5-Stars

Read Pumpkin Seeds now, so you can say you were there before Tyler Downs went mainstream. That day is coming, and probably sooner than he expects.

The 3am Lie (And What the Sun Shows)

/ Winona Morris / 10 Comments

Yesterday was April Fool’s Day, and the universe took that personally.

My body decided to mark the occasion with a hormonal symphony (the kind that only people with uteruses truly understand) and paired it, generously, with a manic peak. Then I forgot to take my melatonin. So 2am, 3am, and even 5am found me flat on my back, blinking at the ceiling, drafting blog entries in my head and mentally crafting things I’ll never actually make.

Every time I drifted off, my brain jolted me back awake like it had something very important to say.

It did not.

Somewhere in those restless hours, I was struck by a profound and generous thought: I should embrace life’s circumstances. Take the bad, alchemize it into good. Lean in.

Nighttime lies to you like that.

There’s something about the dark, whether you’re in pain, sick, sleepless, or just running on scrambled brain chemistry, that warps your perception in both directions. When you’re suffering at 3am, everything feels catastrophic and permanent. But when your mind is buzzing with too much serotonin at midnight, you feel invincible. You feel chosen. You draft manifestos. You solve problems. You decide, with full conviction, that you are finally going to become the person you were always meant to be.

Then the sun comes up.

And the sun is honest in a way the night never is.

In the daylight, the catastrophes of 3am shrink back to their actual size so they feel more manageable, ordinary, and survivable. But the grand plans? The invincibility? That shrinks too. The world, it turns out, does not reorganize itself around your 3am epiphanies. The world just keeps going, indifferent and unimpressed, and now you have to put on pants and participate in it while running on three hours of sleep and whatever is left of your dignity.

Last night, the world was my oyster.

This morning, my neighbor’s dog will not stop barking, and I am fantasizing about consequences.

The gap between the 3am visionary and the 9am wreckage is one of the more humbling places to live. But maybe that’s the actual insight that survived the night: you don’t have to be the person who has it all figured out in the dark. You just have to be the person who shows up when the sun comes up anyway.

Pants and everything.

My “Morning Ritual” (Or: How to Fail at Being a Morning Person)

/ Winona Morris / 4 Comments

To call anything I do at any point of the day a “ritual” is a bold statement. Ritual implies ceremony and layers symbolic meaning onto mundane habits, bestowing reverence on something that probably doesn’t deserve it. Not the way I do things, anyway.

I like the idea of being a morning person.

In some parallel dimension, there’s a version of me who rises before the sun. She takes her coffee out to the porch and watches the sky turn pink. She reads a little, maybe journals a bit, all before the rest of her household stirs. That version of me wakes up refreshed. No gunk in her throat. No sleep crusted in her eyes. No gravitational pull back toward the pillow.

I love that woman. I will never be her, but I love her.

I’m an owl. Years of closing shifts spent not getting home until 10pm or later have rewired my brain to believe that nighttime is my time. So I’m often up until 1 or 2am, hunched over my laptop, clicking out horror stories into the dark.

Then I sleep until 10am. Later, if I’m lucky.

My “morning” routine starts closer to lunchtime. I begrudgingly surrender to consciousness, plod to the bathroom (because let’s be honest, that’s where everyone’s morning actually begins) then shuffle to the kitchen to start the coffee. And wait. Because the chemical salvation isn’t instant. That is one of life’s great cruelties.

Eventually I make it to my desk, where I do a little work for The Butchered Writers, the horror writer collective I’m part of. I post the daily writing prompt to the group, then update our Pinterest page with whatever new articles we’ve published.

Glamour, thy name is morning routine.

By the time that’s wrapped up, it’s usually time to leave for my day job, where I’ll spend the next 8 to 11 hours being emotionally battered by the general public, courtesy of a career in retail.

Ritual? Sure. Let’s call it that.

Daily writing prompt
What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?
View all responses

Chills Without the Gore: Reviewing the Horror Anthology A Twinge of Terror

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Horror doesn’t always have to shock, gore, or terrify you into sleepless nights. Sometimes, the most enduring chills come from subtle unease, clever twists, and eerie atmospheres instead. A Twinge of Terror embraces that gentler side of horror with 16 light horror stories. These tales offer stories that are more about shivers than screams. Each story in this anthology tiptoes along the line between the unsettling and the whimsical, proving that fear can be delivered without blood or brutality. Sometimes, the most haunting stories are the ones that play with your imagination rather than your stomach.

The stories in this collection were gathered by The Butchered writers as part of their first anthology that wasn’t written by group members alone, so it offers up some new and different horror talent from their past collections.

Originally aimed at a young adult audience, A Twinge of Terror might not have anything for the splatter loving horror fan, but is good for someone just easing into the genre.

The stories inside include.

  1. TAPPED IN – First things around her house start being destroyed under mysterious circumstances.  Then the trees start tapping…..
  2. THE CANDLE IN THE WINDOW – An old fashioned haunted house story where one girl becomes a self appointed guardian.
  3. A GILDED BUTTERFLY – A woman on the run from her husband finds herself living in a boarding house with some unusual occupants.
  4. THE BELDAM OF BEDLAM – A man set on disproving the existence of witches visits an accused witch in the asylum that houses her.
  5. BLANKY – A unique take on a child’s favorite blanket and the monster in the closet.
  6. CRUISING WITH HONEY DOWN DIABLO ROAD – A young man on the hunt for his estranged mother finds her, on Diablo Road.
  7. FRIEND – A girl bullied by her older brother asks her imaginary friend for help, only to find out it might not be that helpful after all.
  8. SALLY’S RIDE – A classic radioactive creature feature, and the family dog gone wrong.
  9. THE FEBRUARY PACT – An old family curse means someone is lost every February. Leah is determined to break the curse, but will the price be too much to pay?
  10. THE GIRL WITH THE FLOWER BONNET – When a family acquires an antique painting, and the family dog immediately hates it, you know it’s not going to end well.
  11. THE GOOD PEOPLE – A man becomes a census taker in an attempt to escape a more dangerous job, only to find there are some jobs you can’t get away from.
  12. THE HANDPRINT – There is civil unrest among the humans and the paranormal citizens and a proposition on stronger rights is up for vote. But people keep turning up dead, and solving the case might be the turning point in the vote. 
  13. THE HANDS OF OTHERS – A man purchase a place he worked at once, to revisit a tragic past.
  14. THE PERFECT WORLD DOESN’T NEED YOU – In a future where strong emotions are forbidden, a teenager must face the consequences of hers.
  15. THE SURPRISE PASSENGER – A young man picks up a very surprising hitchhiker.
  16. THE TENNENT – The moral of this story might be, be careful what you invite in with a Ouija board.

Taken together, the stories in A Twinge of Terror show that horror doesn’t always need blood and brutality to work. Sometimes a strange knock on the door, a cursed painting, or an imaginary friend that might be a little too real is more than enough to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. If you’re looking for a collection that leans into eerie concepts and classic spooky storytelling rather than graphic scares, this anthology is an easy and entertaining read.

The Butchered Writers is a global writing collective with over thirty members who explore many different corners of the horror genre. When you open a volume from The Butchered Writers Presents (formerly Terror Monthly), you might encounter quiet psychological horror, creature features, paranormal stories, or splatterpunk. There’s a wide range of styles and themes, ensuring that each volume offers something different for horror fans.

Readers can also sample the group’s work through the free stories available on their Patreon.

Dark Web Horror Done Right: Reviewing Caught in the Web

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If you enjoy dark web horror stories, extreme horror anthologies, and disturbing internet-themed fiction, Caught in the Web from The Butchered Writers dives deep into the most terrifying corners of the online world. This collection explores the hidden side of the internet through brutal, unsettling stories perfect for fans of dark fiction and splatterpunk.

Caught in the web book cover

Most of the internet we use every day exists on the visible “surface web.” These are sites easily found through search engines like Google. Beneath that lies the far larger Deep Web, made up of private databases, email accounts, and password-protected pages. Deeper still is the Dark Web, a small but infamous corner of the internet accessed with tools like the Tor Browser. Designed to allow anonymous communication, it has become surrounded by rumors of secret markets, hidden communities, and disturbing content—making it the perfect setting for modern horror stories about curiosity, anonymity, and the dangers of clicking the wrong link.

The Butchered Writers deliver all of that and much more with Caught in the Web: A Dark Web Anthology. This collection contains fourteen stories exploring the darkest corners of the internet, along with a bonus story that takes the idea of the “dark web” a little more literally.

This anthology goes extremely dark, and readers should be aware that it contains graphic horror, extreme violence, and sexual assault.

The stories included are:

ROOM_404.EXE – A sneak peek at a brand-new virtual game turns out to be far more real than expected.
HIGHEST BIDDER – After a night of partying with friends, a young man wakes up strapped to a trolley and caught in a bidding war.
THE DEVIL’S FOOT FETISH – Malcolm is tired of his girlfriend nagging him to find a job, so he discovers a way to make money from one of their shared interests—even if she doesn’t know about it.
CUNT HUNT – Wealthy men pay to hunt women for sport. But what happens when the hunters become the hunted?
NIGHTGLASS – A college student steals a tablet from a thrift store, only to find it has one mysterious app that will change his life forever.
UNICORN – A man searching for a new high orders a designer drug from the dark web, with devastating consequences.
DEAD MAN LIVE – A father will do absolutely anything to keep his family alive.
THE FACILITATOR – The perfect family man hides a dark side hustle.
HOW DARK CAN IT GET – Two young girls believe they’re meeting boys from a dating app. They couldn’t be more wrong.
THE BABY MAMA SHOW – A man discovers a way to profit from his pregnant girlfriend—without her knowledge.
IDENTITY THEFT – Digital stalking and revenge show how the dark web can both harm and help.
DANNY BOY – A once-in-a-lifetime trip to Hawaii might turn out to be a journey “to die for.”
JEFFREY – An epicurean traveler searches the world for the ultimate taste. This story reveals what happens when he finally finds it.
PAY IT DARKWARD – A novella-length story and one of my favorites in the collection. What happens when the dark web gets under your skin… literally?
THROUGH RUSTLING WILLOWS THE SPIDER MAN COMES – Inspired by the dark web from a different perspective, this tale follows a young man’s grim fate and his encounter with Anansi, the trickster.

Overall, Caught in the Web delivers exactly what fans of dark web horror, and extreme horror in general, are looking for: unsettling, inventive, and unapologetically grim stories. From psychological terror to shocking splatterpunk, there’s something in this anthology to disturb and captivate every kind of horror reader. If you’re ready to dive into the darkest corners of the internet, this collection is not to be missed.

The Butchered Writers is a global writing collective with over thirty members who explore many different corners of the horror genre. When you open a volume from The Butchered Writers Presents (formerly Terror Monthly), you might encounter quiet psychological horror, creature features, paranormal stories, or splatterpunk. There’s a wide range of styles and themes, ensuring that each volume offers something different for horror fans.

Readers can also sample the group’s work through the free stories available on their Patreon.

In Vine and Other Swamp Stories – A Review

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In Ink Vine and Other Swamp Stories, Elizabeth Broadbent take us on a trip to Lower Congaree. A poverty-stricken South Carolina town surrounded by swamp and sadness. Lucky for me, I was able to read an ARC copy, and meet the inhabitants of Lower Congaree early.

There are 9 stories and one novella in this collection, and it would be worth it for the novella alone. In Ink Vine, we meet Emmy Joiner, an exotic dancer who desperately wants nothing more than to be allowed to be herself and not whoever everyone expects her to be. That one is also a sapphic romance that is achingly beautiful and tragic all at once.

Each of the other 9 stories have that same beauty and ache to them. Southern gothic to the core, and embodies a wistful nostalgia for anyone who may have grown up in that type of small town.

You’ll see recurring characters moving in and out of the stories, each one making you wish you could follow them a little bit longer and get to know them a little bit better.

The only story in here that wasn’t a perfect 5 star from me was To Sing is to See. While it was a perfectly wonderful story of its own (which kept the book as a whole a 5 star read), it just doesn’t have the same feel (to me) as the rest of the tales in this collection.

If you like a good southern gothic style story, I highly recommend you grab this book when it becomes available on March 6, 2026. You will not be disappointed.

Book Review: Baby by Cyan LeBlanc

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Imagine, if you will, being in a relationship with a someone who is needy, possessive, overprotective and sometimes a little bit jealous. Now imagine that it’s a man eating guitar. That is what you get with Baby, a novelette by Cyan LeBlanc.

In the 70’s Dougie Fowley was the manager of rock star Mickie Crash. It wasn’t a bad gig, even if he did have to clean up some questionable things after Mickie’s after parties, and let him indulge in two of life’s big vices, drugs and rock n roll.

Mickie loved life, and love her guitar, Baby. Unfortunately for Mickie, and Dougie, something happens that ends her carrier and his.

Fast forward to the the 80s, and we meet Victoria Shane, who wants to be a rock star. After a falling out with her mom she grabs a bunch of things that used to belong to her step dad (our friend Dougie), and hits the road with her best friend Billy. One of those things…a bright read guitar with the word BABY on it.

It doesn’t take long to realize Baby has the ability to give Vikki talent she’s never had before, but also that Baby is in love with her new master and will do anything to protect her. As Baby helps usher Vikki’s rise to stardom, her human relationships start falling apart, even with her best friend Billy. And when Vikki is unhappy, Baby is unhappy.

This story was absolutely full to the brim with sex. And while working a sentient guitar into such actions was unique enough, it was way more spicy than what I typically read.

There was also one line early in the that someone involved in the first sex scene “might not have been of age” but that didn’t slow anyone down on the action, and that might be a little tone deaf for the current climate, but horror’s gonna do what horror’s gonna do.

If you like Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll, then you’ll Probably enjoy Baby.

(I received an ARC copy of Baby through BookSirens. The release date will be 3/13/26)

Nightmares at the Asylum

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Nightmares at the Asylum by Andy Holberry and D.L. Garvin is a gruesome collaboration from two captivating storytellers.

As the title might lead you to believe, this collection takes place at an asylum. We have two men, one new to the place, and one who has worked there a while. The new arrival is getting a tour from the old hand and getting to learn a little about the best, or worst, of the asylums patients.

Richard Walden: The Painter

Richard is a struggling artist. He can’t quite keep up with the best of the best, largely do to an art critic with a lot of pull. In a drunken rage he accidentally creates his most astounding work of art yet, and spends the rest of his story trying to chase down that perfection again, no matter what the cost.

Austin Wilcox: The Sniper

Serving one tour too many, Austin Wilcox suffers a loss that causes his sanity not just to slip, but to collapse on itself. Safe and sound, but thinking he’s still surrounded by the enemy, we get to see what kind of damage a highly trained sniper can do in a civilian area.

Mary Smith: The Teacher

Being forced into a nature trip with a misogynistic coworker and students that she didn’t really want to give up her precious free time for, Mary finds herself being the only “responsible adult” left standing after a freak accident. Unfortunately for her the kids don’t want her around as much as she doesn’t want to be there. Their attempt to create some adult free time has dire consequences all around.

Marcus: The Scoutmaster

Marcus, a seasons scoutmaster has chosen a handful of scouts to join him and Scoutmaster Scott on a yearly camping trip. This one isn’t going to be a walk in the park though, it is all about basic survival. When the scouts want to whine and complain more than camp and hike, something in Marcus frays then snaps completely.

Randal Clarke: The Clown

Randal dons his grease paint one last time. He had been a clown for 30 years, but the job was getting harder every day. Laughter didn’t come easily, but disrespect did. He has a few new tricks up his sleeve though, and goes out one last time knowing that if he can’t make them laugh, he can at least make them scream.

Margaret: The Nurse

Margaret never wanted anything other than to be a nurse. She did everything possible in her life to make sure her dream came true. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it, and she was good at what she did. Then God spoke to her, and told her how she could be even better….

Alistair Monroe: The Mortician

Alistair is having a little trouble at home. His wife and children just don’t give him the respect he deserves. When his job leads him to meet a family much more to his expectations, he decides to take a much deserved vacation. Surely he’d get it right this time around.

Amy: The Housewife

Amy and Ezera were destined to be together from the beginning. Highschool sweethearts, they had the perfect marriage for 30 years. Sure, there were bumps along the road, but they always made it work. They had the kind of marriage that made other’s jealous. Until one tragedy led to one transgression that led to the ultimate housewife crashout.

Thomas: The Student

Thomas is a good kid. A smart kid. A bullied kid. And like all the quite smart kids that get bullied, he eventually decides enough is too much, and fights back, the best way he knows how. The aftermath exceeded even his own

Marco Anderson: The Chef

Marco is the ultimate foodie. He dedicated his entire life to world travel, chasing the PERFECT taste. There is nothing, vegetable, animal or otherwise, that he won’t try at least once. When he gets a once in a lifetime chance to dine with an isolated tribe he discovers the taste he has been looking for all these years, and will do ANYTHING to get his hands on it again.

Marvin: The Hypnotist

Marvin has an impressive ability, and a great distaste for everyone who isn’t him. Then a news report turns him on to unique opportunity perfect for his particular…skillset.

And that brings us full circle, back to two men touring a facility. And one of them is not who he claims to be. But which one is it? And who is he really?