When Death Trips Us Up
Sometimes we can write after losing a loved one, or sometimes the words need more time
We are writers, and what writers do is respond to events in their lives by writing. We also respond to events going on outside of our lives – in our society, in our nation, and things affecting our world – in the only way that we know how: By writing. Whether we choose to write how we are affected by events personally or how we are affected as a whole, we need to put into words the things going on around us, as well as things happening to other people.
In my case, in the week before last, there was a death in the family. My brother-in-law passed away while he was on a business trip. While he and I were not close and hadn’t spoken for years, I was still saddened by his passing. I was even more saddened for my sister, his wife, as well as for the three adult sons he is leaving behind.
I have spoken before about how writing can be a form of therapy, but sometimes, writing helps us to process what we are thinking and feeling. Writing helps us put into words the things we don’t understand, as well as the things that affect us in some way that seems to make time stand still.
With this event, however, it affected me differently, and I struggled to figure out how to write about it. I wrote about why in my latest blog post.
Did writing help me during those first few days of learning of my brother-in-law’s passing? It mainly served as a distraction. When I was writing, I didn’t have to think about the fact that there was a death in the family. That a family member was now GONE. I didn’t have to face my own mortality (like me, he was in his fifties), nor did I have to contend with Death as a reality we all must face in our own lives at some point. When I was writing, I didn’t have to focus on what I was feeling, because I was focused on what fictional people were feeling.
Still, the fact that I was able to write at all is surprising. Because when there is a death in the family, some people can’t write. They don’t turn to words, but other things.
When it comes to dealing with loss, a writer may put their skill with words to use in other ways. They might write a heartfelt note of condolence to the bereaved. They might write something to honor the memory of the person who passed away. They might use their craft to create something new – be it a book or a collection – that was inspired from that very loss. Either way, the words will come.
And it is only when those words make their appearance that the writer will be ready to put them down. They may not be what everyone else expects to be written, but for the writer, it will be enough.
What’s New This Week
My article “Seven Inspirational and Informative Juneteenth Books for Kids and Adults” was published in the June issue of First Chapter Plus Magazine. It is on page 24. Read it here.
Pumpkin Hill Haunters, a group that I am a member of, is promoting my fantasy-themed poetry book, Follow That Dream, in their online store. You can check it out here.
Book Reviews
I recently reviewed the poetry book Hawking the Surf by Diana Hayes at Reader Views.
I recently reviewed the fantasy novel Slaying Paradise by T.V. Holiday at Reader Views.
What’s New at SPARREW?
Check out the article “Fight the Machine” by Lindsey Beth Goddard, which was published in the May 2026 issue of the SPARREW Newsletter.
Read it here.
The June 2026 issue of the SPARREW Newsletter will be published on Tuesday, June 30. Stay tuned!
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!
An Update on An Old Anthology Call!
If you missed out on the anthology call for the Friday the 13th Summer Camp Horror anthology, you’re in luck!
This anthology is reopening to submissions!
Learn more about that on the Twisted Dreams Press blog here.
New posting on the Twisted Dreams Press blog about more anthologies open to submissions!
Twisted Dreams Press is thrilled to announce a brand-new call for submissions for THREE anthologies. These anthologies will be published in 2027. Learn more about them here.
NEW anthology calls from Dreamweaver Press!
Dreamweaver Press, a division of Twisted Dreams Press, is also accepting submissions for anthologies! Get the details here.
BONUS CALLS FOR SUBMISSION
“The Quiet Ones is a free-to-download e-zine that centers LGBTQIAP+ and women’s voices in the subgenres of quiet horror and intimate dystopian fiction, both for YA and Adult audiences.
Genre: Quiet Horror and Intimate-Scale Dystopian Fiction (see our updated FAQ page for more on how we define Quiet Horror and Intimate Dystopia).”
“Work previously published elsewhere may be submitted so long as all publishing rights have been returned to the original author. Please include a note that informs our editors which outlet your work previously appeared in so that we may verify rights agreements.” They request four month’s of exclusivity following publication. For this issue’s call, they accept short stories, flash fiction, and micro fiction, as well as fiction-in-verse. Simultaneous submissions allowed. Up to two submissions per author allowed.
Length:
Flash and micro fiction: Up to 1200 words
Short Stories: Up to 2500 words
Fiction-in-Verse: Up to 1200 Words
Payment: $25
Deadline: July 1, 2026
It Came From The Trailer Park Anthology: Creature Feature
Three Ravens Publishing
“After the success of the previous Trailer Park anthologies, we’ve decided to bring it back for another release of fun Creature Feature Horror.
Stories should be original creature-feature, horror-comedy with the same feel as The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Shaun of the Dead, or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. And of course, our heroes winning the day in all of their redneck glory.
The added challenge this year, should you choose to accept it, volume 6 submissions should have an “Exiled/Outcast/Alien Prisoner” twist to it.
Not sure what we’re looking for? Think of those cryptids that have been abandoned on our remote ball of mud, exiled from their home planets and left here to fend for themselves.”
Length: 5K-10K words
Payment: Royalty share
Deadline: July 1, 2026
AM Ink
“Dark Ink, the publishers behind Tom Savini, Kane Hodder and numerous other legends biographies as well as film related titles like the In Search of Darkness Coffee Table book and Never Sleep Again: The Nightmare on Elm Street Legacy is looking for new short stories for a movie themed anthology.
THE CALL
We are currently accepting submissions for an upcoming horror anthology centered on movies, filmmaking, and the act of watching films—where cinema itself becomes the doorway to terror.
Each story must involve movies or filmmaking in some capacity.
Submissions must be completely original and may not reference, depict, or include copyrighted films, characters, franchises, or real-world movies directly.”
They want horror or dark thriller stories. Reprints allowed. They require one year of exclusivity following publication.
Length: 2500-6K words
Payment:
$20 Flat Pay
1 Print Copy
1 eBook Copy
1 Audiobook Download Code
Rights to Buy Author Copies
Deadline: July 1, 2026
Circus sideshow horror / carnival horrors / strange attractions
M Presents Publishing
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step right up and see what we have to offer at the Carnival of Spectacular Curiosities! M Presents Publishing is looking forward to its next anthology, Sideshow. It is a horror themed anthology based on the circus sideshow of yesteryear complete with carnies ready to drag the horror out of every visitor. The Sideshow has everyone talking, anticipating the carnival’s arrival. What horrors are hiding under the big top, in cages and tents; that’s up to you.
Stories should focus on individual acts or attractions rather than the carnival as a whole, with room for psychological horror, creature horror, ghost stories, and dark suspense.”
No generative-AI use in stories.
Length: 1K-3K words
Payment: Royalty share plus a digital copy
Deadline: July 1, 2026
Buck Yeah!
See also here:
Raconteur Press
“The genesis of the anthology is that Buck Rogers is now in the public domain, at least to an extent. The original novellas, and the first two years of the comic strip (where he first acquired the nickname “Buck”) are now fully ascended to the public domain.
Should it be a tribute to early space opera in general? To Philip Francis Nowlan exclusively? Should I ask for new Buck Rogers adventures adhering strictly to what is in the public domain relating to the character?
I decided to offer guidelines, more than rules.
A new Buck Rogers adventure that fits into the feel of the two novellas and/or the comic strip as shown in the linked public domain works.
Must Buck be your protagonist? No. He can be a supporting character, or just loom large with his legend without appearing in the story at all. But if you want to do a brand-new Buck Rogers adventure, great!
Do you have to slavishly follow the tech that Nowlan set out, or the world building he did in the novellas and/or comic strips? Absolutely not. Stick to the adventurous feel, the good versus evil ideals, and the fun of the original works, and you’ll be doing well.”
Requires one year of exclusivity following publication.
Length: 5K-8K words
Payment: Royalty share
Deadline: July 3, 2026
This Week’s Book Promo
In honor of FINALLY releasing one of my poetry books as an ebook, I promoted this book, Savage World, this week.
Here is the book’s blurb:
“In America, there is the “State of the Union” annual address. This collection of poems is more of a “State of the World” address -- a report of all of the things going on in the world hurting both the planet and those who inhabit it, all taken from the headlines of news media. Homelessness, animal abuse, greed, domestic violence, discrimination, religious wars, bullying, lies, oppression and outrage; these are what make up the world that we live in today. Gathered in this book are poems that force the reader to look at these issues up close, with the goal that perhaps something can be done, change can be made, and hope for humanity can be restored.”
And here is an excerpt!
Excerpt from
Savage World
Copyright © 2020 by Dawn Colclasure
(NOTE: 2020 is the book’s year of release, as a paperback. The date is different for the ebook because I’m an airhead and it took me six years to think about releasing it as an ebook.)
Everything You Know is a Lie
Turn the news on the TV.
War, pain and suffering is all I see.
I start to feel afraid and panic over what to do
Even when some "fact" goes against what I knew.
Injustice and fear are glorified on the Internet.
They use fear to hold our interest and control us.
We are told things are a lot different now
Than the world we knew it to be what it was.
Everything you know is a lie.
Some kind of twisted fabrication.
We live in a world of misinformation.
We need to question everything.
Hate! Anger! Such injustice has been done!
We are twirled around by all their lies and twisted fact.
We have forgotten how to reason.
We have forgotten how to act.
They twist the truth to suit their own agendas
And tell us we can't trust the media anymore.
They lead us along with their stories and twisted tales,
Even when those stories contradict things we knew before.
Everything you know is a lie.
Some kind of twisted fabrication.
We live in a world of misinformation.
We need to question everything.Thanks for reading! See you next weekend.
Please accept my condolences on the death in your family.