Blog Posts

Just when I think I might not have any more stories to write an author's note for, I think of two or three more. As odd as it seems, I haven't written a note about Bishop yet, so here goes. Some days I really wish that I had a bigger reason as to how my stories originate, or where their idea came from, but the truth is most of my work comes from conversations with my family and friends. Bishop came from a conversation that I had with my oldest friend in the world. My only f

SKINS Published by Jack Bantry in Splatterpunk's Basement of Horror. This was quite a strange tale of terror, but more so, despair, sadness, and betrayal. It follows a young woman that was doing her best to fit in, to accommodate what she thought everyone else wanted her to be, and to deal with rejection by trying to be accepted. At the height of her despair, we see just how far she went and how far another went to try to save her from herself. It's told through a series of f

Family Ties is a short story that I wrote for the TUMBLE BLEED Anthology, edited by Merrill David in conjunction with the Texas Reader and AuthorCon. This short story takes a couple of unexpected twists and turns as a lonely young woman, Nash, is looking for any means of escape from an abusive foster home. Dealing with the loss of her mother, struggling with the fresh hell that her life has become, and desperately trying to find her place in the world, Nash flees from the tra

Transformation is another creature feature story, set in the Pacific Northwest, and most importantly, along the Pacific Northwest trail. This one is a bit different than my other stories though, as I feel like this one has a bit of a happier ending once all is said and done. Just in case you have not yet read this one, that's all I'll say about the ending. The story focuses on a young man named Garrison. A rather horrible young man, late teens when the story opens, that spent

Safety First appears in Dead Girls and Dead Things 2, edited by RJ Roles. Safety First is a twisted short story that my younger daughter planted the seed for while we were out running errands one day. The rest of it seemed to just fall into place from there, almost a what if scenario meshed with worst ways to die. My daughter's comment that sparked the idea happened while we were driving past a runaway truck ramp, going down a steep hill that leads into the city. This particu

Zippers is one of my favorite stories and I've not done a note on it yet so here we go. I've mentioned a few times how some of my ideas come from my kids, and I'll be honest, most of my more bizarre stories come from their ideas, not all... but most, so far. LOL. Zippers is essentially a story based on the mannerisms, dark humor, and intrusive thoughts of my oldest daughter, whom most of you know as Katie, but in fact, her full name is Katrina. She is the Katrina in the story

Today's note is on NUBS, another one of my bizarre novellas in which a young woman falls victim to her own intrusive thoughts about a rather unique phenomenon. NUBS, like so many of my short novellas came from an idea my daughter had. My oldest daughter has a professional interest and fascination, in an empathetic way, with the phantom limb pain that so many amputees speak of. The idea of it has always held some intrigue for her and has led to many conversations about how the

Since we just passed the Thanksgiving holiday, I was reminded of this brutal little tale that I wrote just about two years ago, about another Thanksgiving holiday, long ago. Lisa Vasquez invited me to an anthology, VIXENS OF HORROR: VINTAGE EDITION, she was putting together of feminine rage, and I had this idea just pop into my head almost fully formed. Oddly enough, the only major thought I had to put into it was the array of kill scenes, because, well, I am known as an extr

It's been a few weeks since I've done an Authors Note for you all. Ironically enough, I had almost forgotten about this short story that I wrote for Jack Bantry's Splatterpunk Zine Issue 14, last year. It's short, brutal, and has, in my opinion, a rather well-deserved ending. This time, I went with the idea of elderly people getting revenge on those that choose to prey on them. When Jack approached me for a story, I remember seeing yet another horrible story on the news of

Moloch was a “live” Patreon story that was written in weekly installments for all patrons as part of my ongoing Story In Progress series....

Sirens & Seaweed was a second 10- Day challenge project that I participated in with Judith Sonnet, Lucas Mangum, Chisto and Healy. The...

So, fun little fact for everyone. A few years ago, I wrote under the pen name Candle Phillips as an experiment for a series of short...

VENUS By Candace Nola Ten-Day Story Challenge Venus was written as a godless short story, part of a series of Ten-Day challenges that I...

This story was part of a three-story tribute chapbook published by Joe Monks, featuring stories by Joe, Franklin Wales, and myself. The...

Double Feature is my homage to the campy gorefest films of the 80s and 90s. Just gore, violence, absurdity, and more gore, soaked in...

This story is one of my lesser known and less extreme horror stories but is loosely based on a few facts taken from the Harry Powers, or...

The Final Stake is my first vampire story and I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. While the original concept I had in mind ended up...

DESPERATE WISHES is a story that I am very proud of. It was first released by Thunderstorm Books in July of 2023 as part of Mary San...

Inherent from WEREWOLVES by KJK Publishing. I’ve done several stories for the Horror Collection from Kevin Kennedy, but this one was for...

Back Road from "Y'ALL AIN'T RIGHT" published by Evil Cookie. Back Road was one of those ideas that began as one thing, then morphed...