Forgive and Forget?
A bonus prologue to my Christmas extreme horror novelette!
(Note: The following is a fictional phone conversation between the characters Mona and Colton Townsend, who are adult siblings in my Christmas extreme horror novelette, Home for the Holidays. Their mother is scheduled to be released from prison, after serving 20 years for attempted murder of her husband.)
Mona pushed the button on her phone to call her brother then waited as it rang. Her brother’s voice sounded both stern and tired when he finally answered. “This better not be about that hit again. I told you that I wasn’t followed.”
Mona smiled. He always answered her calls with some bizarre greeting, even if he was with friends.
She checked the time on the stove she stood in front of, catching sight of the blue numbers through the steam rising from the wok containing her dinner as the food continued to cook. It wasn’t too late in the evening and his class at the university had ended hours ago. “Hey.”
“What’s up?”
“You busy?” she asked, stirring the combination of stir-fry vegetables, chicken and sauce in her wok.
“Just chilling. How about you?”
She shrugged. “I’m just cooking dinner. So. You remember that I’m picking Mom up from the jail next week, right? And then coming to get you after?”
Silence hung between them. Then Colton finally spoke. “Yeah.”
Mona didn’t know what to make of that silence, or of the hesitant sound of her brother’s voice. “You are still coming over, right?”
“Of course. I can’t stay in the dorm during winter break.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’m just … wondering if it’s going to be a problem. With Mom here.”
Another stretch of silence ensued. Mona tried to think of what her brother was dealing with right now. He’d gone to therapy because of what happened between their parents, but he had told her before that he was still struggling to forgive their mother for stabbing their father. Still, it had been twenty years. That was a long time to hold a grudge.
“It’s fine,” Colton said now, bringing her out of her thoughts.
“Are you sure?” she asked, biting her lip. She looked at the time again and used her free hand to switch off the burner. She removed the wok from the stove and set it on a pot holder on the counter.
“Not really, but where else am I going to go?”
Mona smiled. “So you don’t have some sugar mama willing to hole you up for Christmas?”
“Very funny,” Colton dryly replied. His tone sounded lighter as he continued. “Anyway, it’s Christmas, and I want to spend it with my sister. And I guess our mom, too.”
“But are you okay with being around her? I know you never went to visit her.”
“So?”
“So, you don’t know what she’s like. She’s sorry for what she did to Dad, Colton. She really is. She’s a different person now.”
Colton remained silent for a long time. When he finally spoke again, Mona could almost detect a hint of anger in his voice as he said, “We’ll see.”
Book Reviews
I recently reviewed the poetry collection Turn Your Back on the Shore: The Surf Poetry Collection by Scott Rosin at Dawn reviews Books
What’s New at SPARREW?
Check out my interview with author Kelly Miller, which was published in the November 2025 issue of the SPARREW Newsletter.
Read it here.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!
Week of Terrors Anthology series
Twisted Dreams Press is now accepting submissions for a new anthology series! It is seven books with ten stories in each book.
The first anthology will be published in June. The others will follow in the subsequent months. Submissions of stories for all anthologies opens the beginning of April.
Open until each anthology has ten stories. We will announce when an anthology is no longer accepting submissions.
Series Name: A Week of Terrors!
Here are the themes:
Monster Monday: Creature Horror Stories
Terrifying Tuesday: Evil Clowns
Werewolf Wednesday
Thriller Thursday: Zombies
Frightening Friday: Mix of horror subgenres: psychological horror, eco-horror, cyberpunk horror, erotic horror, etc.
Slasher Saturday: Slasher horror
Spooky Sunday: Ghost stories
Payment: One print and digital copy.
Submit your stories today!
Length: 3K-10K words
Reprints welcome! Simultaneous submissions welcome but please let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere.
Email your stories as a Word .doc or .docx file. Google Docs are okay as long as you grant Dawn permission for access.
No PDF submissions, please.
Stories written with AI will NOT be accepted!
When you submit your story, please put the following in the subject line:
Submission: WOT Anthology, (Title), (Day of the week your story is for)
Please include in your email if the story is a reprint as well as your bio.
Please send your stories to Dawn at submissions@twisteddreamspress.com
We look forward to reading your story!
Friday the 13th Summer Camp Horror Anthology
It’s that time of year again! Time for writers everywhere to start writing some summer camp horror!
At Twisted Dreams Press, however, we horror fanatics just can’t get enough of Friday the 13th!
We are announcing a call for summer camp horror stories that take place on a Friday the 13th for our anthology: Friday the 13th Summer Camp Horror! This anthology is scheduled for publication on Friday, March 13, 2026!
Start submitting your summer camp horror stories now!
NEW DEADLINE: December 31, 2025
Send us your Friday the 13th summer camp horror stories to get in on this!
NOTE: A tie-in to the movie is not required. No fan fiction, please. Stories must take place at the summer camp.
BONUS CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!
Kitchen Work
“Kitchen Work Issue #11 will be devoted to stories about FOOD OUTSIDE OF CITIES!
Please send us writing about markets, cafes, remote picnics, tiny kitchens, and big dinner tables in your favorite location. The deadline to submit for Kitchen Work Issue #11 ‘Off the Beaten Path’ will be announced soon.
Submissions to kitchen work are gauged for literary quality, focus and intrigue, and not for gastronomic sophistication. We are eager to print stories about fine dining, and also about your mother’s corned beef, or a 14-year-old’s impressions of her school lunches. Of course, all submissions about the work of the kitchen are especially welcome.”
Original work only.
Length: 3K words max
Payment: “Authors of accepted submissions are paid $0.20 per word. Illustrators are paid $100 per accepted illustration.”
Deadline: Unknown, but the site says “The deadline to submit for Kitchen Work Issue #11 ‘Off the Beaten Path’ will be announced soon.“
MAPS
In a Flash
“Please submit according to each month’s theme. Submissions must be previously unpublished. Only one submission per author for each theme.”
Submissions are read blind. Simultaneous submissions accepted. No AI writing.
Length: “500 words or less. No exceptions; we’re serious about this one.”
Payment: $25
Deadline: December 15, 2025
See also this link.
DreamForge Magazine / DreamForge Anvil
“For this call we will be especially but NOT exclusively looking for tales that fit our current year theme: Open Channel: The Art of Connection.” In a world divided by algorithms and “us versus them” narratives, we want to explore connection as the ultimate form of resistance. Rather than fighting division with more division, the stories focus on opening hearts and minds through unexpected forms of communication. (Advice: don’t self-reject. If you have a tale you believe to be in line with our core theme, send it along.)”
Must have a Duosoma account in order to submit. No multiple submissions. No AI-generated text. Simultaneous submissions accepted.
Length: “We are looking for flash fiction (stories between 200 and 1000 words) and stories (between 1000 and 7000 words). Speculative Fiction poetry is also welcome.”
Payment: “DreamForge pays $0.08/word for original fiction up to 7,000 words. Payment on acceptance.” “Payment for reprints is $0.04/word
Poems are paid at the rate of $25 to $100”
Deadline: December 31, 2025 or until full
Hawthorn & Ash
“We are seeking FANTASY, SPECULATIVE FICTION and HORROR short stories. No Science Fiction.”
Multiple submissions accepted. No reprints. No simultaneous submissions.
Length: “Between 100 and 500 words, excluding title (Maximum of 1 500-word story and 5 drabbles per author)”
Payment: “0.01c per word. (between $1USD and $5USD)”
Deadline: December 31, 2025
JMS Books
“We are looking to release a new anthology of flash fiction featuring stories under 4k in length. This is something new to us, and we are opening it to new authors as well as existing JMS Books authors. If there is enough interest, it may become a series like our Top Ten Gay Romance books.
We want stories that embrace queer life and love. In today’s volatile world, we cannot be silenced, and writing our stories is one way to fight back against racism and homophobia and tyranny in all its forms.
So send us scenes featuring existing characters or new couples. Or experimental pieces you couldn’t pull off in a longer format. The stories can be any genre, though each MUST focus on LGBTQ+ characters (whether in a relationship or not). They must also be complete within the word limit of 4,000 words. No “to be continued” or “read my book to find out what happens.” You’re welcome to expand the story at a later date for publication elsewhere (or with us!), but the contract will be for 6 months’ exclusivity after publication, which will convert to nonexclusive rights after that time.
These aren’t anthology calls -- stories swill be released as individual ebooks with unique covers. Stories over 60k will also go into print”
All stories submitted must contain an LGBTQ romance (any heat level). May submit up to three stories. Adult stories only (no YA). Reprints accepted as long as the author has exclusive rights. No multiple or simultaneous submissions.
Length: 1200 words and up
Payment: “Payment is 50% net royalties from all channels, paid quarterly”
Deadline: For Valentine’s Day stories, December 31, 2025
This week’s Book Promo
There was another book birthday this week!
My Christmas extreme horror novelette, Home for the Holidays, has been out for a whole year! Yay!
Here is the book’s blurb:
Mona Townsend was five years old when her mother tried to kill her father.
This crime cost her and her brother, Colton, 23, twenty years with their mother.
Finally reunited on one December morning, the siblings are willing to forgive all and create a fresh start with their mother.
With Christmas coming up, Mona wants to make the occasion extra special.
Knowing that her mother has had a long-term rift with her own mother, she and her brother hatch a plan: Why not surprise their mother with a family reunion so that the two women can bury the hatchet and have a relationship again? After all, if she was capable of forgiving her mother for the past, why wouldn’t her own mother want to set things right with her mother too?
It was Christmas, after all. A time for miracles and family.
But what Mona and Colton don’t know is that their mother had a very good reason for severing ties with her own mother, and that some families are too toxic to appreciate the holiday spirit.
And here is the excerpt!
Excerpt from Home for the Holidays
Copyright © 2024 by Dawn Colclasure
Once they returned to Mona’s apartment, Colton hit the refrigerator as their mother got settled in. She took a shower and put on the new clothes Mona had bought for her.
By the time she emerged in the kitchen, dressed and wearing make-up, Colton had a plate of fresh-baked cookies on the table. He sat in one of the chairs, happily chomping them down.
Mona sat across from him, smiling as she held a cup of cocoa between her hands. She watched as their mother elected to have a cup of coffee instead.
Once she sat down at the table, she looked at them and smiled. “I can’t believe I am finally sitting down with you two. It’s a dream come true.”
“And perfect timing, too,” Colton said. “Today is the beginning of my Winter Break.”
“Wonderful!” their mother cried, smiling. “That means we can spend lots of time together.” She looked at Mona. “How about you, Mona? Any time off from your job?”
Mona grinned. Her mother knew she was teaching at the local elementary school. What she didn’t know is that, even with the school’s students on their own Winter Break, she still had a ton of work to do.
“Well, us teachers still get a Winter Break too,” she finally replied. “But I have a ton of papers to grade. Still.” She shrugged. “I will probably be able to get in some family time as we get closer to Christmas.”
Her mother’s grin broadened. “Christmas! Another thing we’ll finally get to share together again! And after so long.”
She wiped tears from her right eye, and Mona placed her hand on her mother’s shoulder. “It will be extra special this year.”
Sniffling, her mother smiled at her and nodded. “Yes. It really will.” She pulled her new smartphone from her pocket and studied the screen as she tapped at a few icons.
Mona smiled. “How are you managing with it?”
Her mother nodded. “I think I’m figuring it out.” She sighed, lowering her arms to the table as she shook her head. “I can’t believe it’s been twenty years since I’ve used a cell phone.”
“They’re called smartphones now,” Colton pointed out.
“Only the real smartphones,” Mona reminded him. “They do still have cell phones.”
“Yeah, the sucky kind that folds shut,” Colton agreed.
Their mother laughed then looked at Mona again. “Well, thank you for not getting me the sucky kind that folds shut.” She looked back at her phone and tapped at the screen a few times. Then looked at Colton again. “What would you like to do on Winter Break, Colton?”
Mona looked up from her cocoa. Their mother’s question caught him mid-bite. She didn’t know why he was scarfing down the cookies like there was no tomorrow; they were store-bought baked chocolate chip cookies. The same cookies they had eaten millions of times.
Then she noticed the look of excitement on her brother’s face. “I want to build a snowman!” he exclaimed with his mouth full.
Mona laughed, and she didn’t know if it was because of how her brother’s words came out of his mouth while it was stuffed with chunks of cookies or because of the reference to a popular movie.
Or perhaps she laughed because she had never known of a 23-year-old man actually wanting to build a snowman.
“Don’t you think you’re a little too old for building snowmen?” she asked her brother now, who had finished chewing the cookies and swallowed them.
“If he wants to build a snowman, he can,” their mother reminded, making notes on her phone.
“Yeah, Mona,” her brother said. “We didn’t really get to do that with Mom very much in the past, you know?”
Mona shot a worrying look to their mother, wondering if the reminder was going to ruin the mood.
But their mother was only nodding in agreement. “Well, now I’m back, and we can get caught up on all of the things we missed out on.” She smiled at Colton. “Like building a snowman.”
“And go ice skating!” Colton added with a more enthusiastic tone of voice, looking at their mother. “And make a gingerbread house! And bake Christmas cookies!”
“And go see the Christmas lights,” Mona added.
“With cocoa!” Colton agreed, smiling at her.
Their mother nodded, tapping away on her phone. “All good ideas.”
Then she looked at Mona. “What about you, Mona?”
Mona chewed her lip, thinking. Then she smiled at their mother and sat up in the chair. “I want us to go see Grandma!”
The smile disappeared from their mother’s face, and a look of dread came over her. She stiffened in her chair, almost reacting as though Mona’s words had been a slap in her face.
Finally, she seemed to recompose herself. She looked at her daughter with a serious gaze. “Absolutely not,” she said. She stood from the chair, clutching the smartphone in her hand against her chest. “And don’t ever suggest such a thing ever again.”
She turned away from their confused looks and walked out of the room.
Thanks for reading! See you next weekend!
Wow, Colton's opening line really grabbed my atention. "This better not be about that hit again" is pure gold. It instantly sets such a dark, intriguing tone for their relationship. My mind is already spinning with theories. And Mona just making stir-fry! Chefs kiss for the contrast.
My Aunt Rose, widowed young, married into our family when she wed one of my grandmother's brothers. (This was Rose's 2nd marriage.) * * WIDOWHOOD: One morning in Brooklyn, NY, Rose's MOTHER fatally shot Rose's first husband Antonio as he shaved in the bathroom - - using her son-in-law's gun. This incident made the NYC newspapers. It's a fascinating story that our family has discussed as we piece together details not covered in the news.