Short Stories
TORMENT
Meet the Narrator in Ezra Wren’s short story ‘A Bloom of Daffodils’ in this gothic anthology curated by Juniper Lake Fitzgerald
10 March 2026
Contributing Authors:
DemonApologist – Marat Earendel – Bailey Elizabeth – Juniper Lake Fitzgerald – Tyler Isaac – Artemy Mandus – T. L. Morgan – Tabitha O’Connell – Bay Shuford – W. Payne Sillavan – Ezra Wren
TORMENT: A GOTHIC ANTHOLOGY comes to you from a creative collaboration of authors sharing gothic stories ranging across the genre from the horrific to the romantic.
The Gothic: Having a prevailing atmosphere of mystery and terror, characterized by grotesque, macabre, or fantastic incidents.
A Bloom of Daffodils
‘A Bloom of Daffodils’ is a dark romantic gothic horror with a tragic undertone along the lines of Black Mirror x The Picture of Dorian Gray x the Myth of Narcissus, in which an unsocialized person of undefined gender with no memory of their time before the house in which they live, enters a room with a mirror for the first time and gets a glimpse at their own reflection. The awe and preoccupation with the self only intensify as the hours pass, and combined with the suspicion that the house has been playing tricks on them, these new emotions and sensations lead to an obsessive downward spiral that complements the dark weather outside their forest dwelling.
‘A Bloom of Daffodils’ brings to the page themes of psychological horror, narcissistic obsession with the self, the fragility of the mind and the self, a sense of inescapability, and preoccupation with external forces, all set to the backdrop of a remote dilapidated location that seems to the narrator alive and sentient, and gradually worsening weather.
CW: Masturbation; possessive sentiments; sexual fantasies; blood; pleasure in injury; psychological horror; death by drowning.
Remnants of Relics
Meet Oscar in Ezra Wren’s short story ‘Sewing Scissors’ in this queer indie anthology curated by Jake Vanguard
Out Now
Remnants of Relics brings you the work of sixteen authors with a curated selection of short stories and poems around the themes of queerness and the importance of parts; be it body parts or more abstractly, concepts like the part identity plays in our lives.
Want a taste?
Contributing Authors:
Kay Claire – Talli L. Morgan – Annalisa Ely – A.E. Bratchford – Frederick A. Zaberisk – Jaydell – Nico Silver – Ezra Wren – Atlas Laika – Franklyn S. Newton – Obinna Tony-Francis Ochem – S. Jean – Minerrale – Harper Kinsley – Jake Vanguard
Sewing Scissors
Oscar has always known who he is: papa’s favorite, mother’s nightmare, and a boy.
On the day of his top surgery appointment, Oscar finds himself journeying across the defining moments of his quest to become Oscar. While he recalls his mother’s vocal resistance to every manifestation of his gender identity, Oscar finds solace in fond recollections of his father’s unwavering support.
For Oscar, power is a metal thing, a tool by which he can affirm his own identity, whether that’s through fumbling haircuts in front of the bathroom mirror or life-altering surgeries at last.
With an unexpected cozy twist at the end, ‘Sewing Scissors’ is a hard-hitting journey exploring grief, gender dysphoria and the parts of ourselves we are willing to let go of to break out of our shells and emerge the beautiful butterflies we truly are.
CW: Gender dysphoria; explicit language; death of a parent; tense family dynamics; self harm; references to surgical intervention
Blood, Sweat & Queers: Vampiric Love Stories
Meet Ambrose in Ezra Wren’s short story in the queer vampiric anthology by Contrarian Publishing
Out Now
CRACK OPEN THE COFFIN AND UNLEASH THE VAMPIRE.
An ancient beast stirs in the shale beneath an oil rig. A dancer languishes in a lakeside cottage. A man swipes right, hunting flesh with a predator’s patience. A woman reels from government-sanctioned body horrors.
All queer. All ravenous. All vampires.
Vampires have always been vessels of longing, craving not only blood, but sex, power, and the sanctity of the taboo. And what hunger is more righteously denied, more persistently policed, than queer love? Like the vampire, the queer spirit endures, unkillable and unashamed.
With a foreword by vampire scholar Margaret Hall, Blood, Sweat & Queers presents decadent tales of queer love from eight LGBTQ+ authors, all intertwined with the eternal allure of the vampire— stories of desire unbound, of passion unending, and hunger that threatens to consume everything in its path. Crack open the coffin, if you dare.
Edited by Margaret Hall and Jamie Ryu
Featuring U.M. Agoawike, Andi Astra, L.A. Barron, Lyndall Clipstone, Austen Lee, Anna McG, Mae Murray, and Ezra Wren