Welcome, friend! It’s the last post of this year and apart from wrapping up blogging, I am sharing the final post about finalists and winner for the inaugural Small Spec Book Awards — this time in the Horror category. As you know, I have been covering these awards throughout the year, including spotlighting the semi-finalists back in September, the Fantasy and SciFi finalists and winner earlier this month.
Each title was rated by readers on a scale of one to ten across ten questions, from whether the characters were memorable to whether the story delivered that elusive wow factor.
Let’s hear from the Horror authors about their book and what this recognition means to them.
Featured Finalists + Winner
Alvar Theo’s Benothinged (Haunt Publishing)
Finalist
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
What are 5 words you would use to describe your book?
Funny; Dark; Bleak; Hopeful; Nostalgic
How does it feel to see your book recognized this way?
Wonderful. SSBA did a really great thing promoting books from smaller presses, they did an amazing job and should be proud. Becoming a finalist was a lovely surprise. It’s touching to be getting recognition for Benothinged a year after it was published and it’s been nice having an excuse to talk about it again.
What do you find most compelling about exploring the unsettling or uncanny?
I think it’s cathartic. There’s something about choosing to dive into the negative emotions you’re feeling instead of attempting to fight them off. Wallowing in your own misery but in a way that’s actually productive and arguably healthy. Like working through the darkness in your mind/life/ the world around you. And, because it’s fiction, you can write your way back out of the hole in a way you can’t do in real life.
Carson Winter’s A Spectre is Haunting Greentree (Tenebrous Press)
Finalist
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
What are 5 words you would use to describe your book?
Weird folk horror scarecrow uprising.
How does it feel to see your book recognized this way?
It’s always incredible to see my work recognized. Virtually all indie authors write in their free time, before or after work—one small part of a full and busy life. Having anyone acknowledge our work is a dream come true. I’m very grateful to be among those lucky enough to receive some kudos.
What do you find most compelling about exploring the unsettling or uncanny?
At the heart of the uncanny is a friction that I find very interesting to explore. I love finding the root of a fear, whether it be primal or societal. Uncovering the uncanny shines a light on what makes us tick as humans.
Michael Merriam’s Terror at Tierra de Cobre (Queen of Swords Press)
Finalist
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
What are 5 words you would use to describe your book?
Sapphic Magnificent Seven Weird Western.
How does it feel to see your book recognized this way?
This is an absolute thrill. Writing can be an awfully lonely business. Except for the occasional piece of fan mail, most authors are left unsure whether their stories are connecting with readers. Getting this kind of recognition is exactly what helps keep the poor writer beast moving forward to the next project.
What do you find most compelling about exploring the unsettling or uncanny?
The truth is, reality is more unsettling and uncanny than fiction any day. I never really had not thought of myself as a horror writer; I just kind of stumbled into it. But now that I’m writing horror (along with other genres), I realize I truly enjoy the freedom it gives me to explore the dark and the macabre, share it with—or maybe inflict it on—the reader, but always with a hint of hope, the promise that the sun will rise tomorrow, even if that sunlight is the very thing driving you insane. After all that narrative darkness, I get to sit on my sun porch and pet my cat in the unsettling and uncanny thing we call life.
R.A. Busby’s You Will Speak For The Dead (Stelliform Press)
Winner
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
What are 5 words you would use to describe your book?
Fungus. Memory. Death. Impermanence. Connection.
How does it feel to see your book recognized this way?
It feels amazing, to be honest, and I am grateful to the Small Spec Book Awards for recognizing my work and to Selena Middleton of Stelliform Press for all of her tremendous help. I’m so glad this award is drawing more attention to presses and authors who don’t always get visibility.
What do you find most compelling about exploring the unsettling or uncanny?
I’d say that for me, the trappings of horror—ghosts, revenants, vampires, etc.—are mask, and like all masks, their real job is not to disguise the truth, but reveal it. Horror is the place I can tell the most truth.
Other Horror Finalists
Also recognized in the Horror category:
- Resisters by Chris Campeau (Anuci Press) – Add to your Goodreads shelf
Thank you to the authors who took the time to participate, and to the readers who supported and engaged with the awards along the way.
It’s been a pleasure following the Small Spec Book Awards throughout the year and celebrating the stories that resonated most strongly with readers.
Check out the links below for updates on the Small Spec Book Awards: Official Page, X, Instagram, BlueSky.
And that’s a wrap all around!!
Happy New Year!! 🙂
Fantasy 2025 SSBA
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