It’s been a few months since I had any fun publishing news, but I’m excited to inform everyone that I have a story published in the unique horror anthology, Readings From Cursed Room 301 by Mad Axe Media, which you can purchase now.
If you watched the short promo above, I can assure you that your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. My story actually is called The House of Shit. Readings From Cursed Room 301 is an anthology that has fun with classic horror tropes. My story is about a terrible haunted house and plays with the idea of overused jump scares. The funny thing is, I didn’t write this story for this anthology. It just so happened that I stumbled upon Mad Axe Media’s call for submissions one day and remembered that I had a story that fit their needs. If you want to go back to The House of Shit’s origins, we need to hop back in time a few years.
During the first summer of COVID, I began to get a bit stir-crazy with all the lockdowns. My friend (a coworker at the time) felt the same way. We were considered essential employees so we never got a single day off work. Despite the lockdowns, we decided a weekend trip was needed. Our destination? Shenandoah National Park.
As it turned out, Shenandoah sucked ass. And because of all the COVID restrictions, there wasn’t a damn thing to do in the area. Figuring a second, better trip was in order, we headed to Virginia Beach. Guess what? It sucked ass too!
Our beach trip was hit by stormy weather and hundreds of tourists who must have had the same idea we did. Long story short, we went to a horrific haunted house on the boardwalk that was horrific for all the wrong reasons. Upon entering the haunted house (I do not remember the name of the establishment), we purchased our tickets and were promptly informed by the only employee working that we’d entered “The House of shit!”
What transpired might have been the dumbest six minutes of my life. The employee, a portly fellow wearing a ridiculously cheap Halloween mask, followed us through the crappy haunted house yelling “This is the House of Shit” at random intervals. Or as he pronounced it, “Thee House of Sheet.” It was incredibly stupid and I barely remember anything about the place besides his weird, made-up accent.
Leaving “Thee House of Sheet” ten bucks lighter and with a slight headache from the dirty fog machine, I vowed then and there to write an equally dumb story about my experience when I returned home. And I did! I wrote The House of Shit (the PG title was The Haunted Pillow for submissions) in a single sitting. Most of the story is a retelling of my experience in the dumpy haunted house, but for the sake of entertainment, I gave it a more sinister ending. Duh!
I only submitted the story to two publications before I found Mad Axe Media. I remember searching for places that published weird fiction and one that was recommended was Fiction Southeast. The House of Shit sat in limbo with them for years (it turns out they publish actual literary stuff) until I eventually withdrew the submission years later when Mad Axe accepted the story. I’m still annoyed I didn’t get my three-dollar submission fee reimbursed. The other publication I submitted to is called Intrinsick. As far as I know, they’re still around but never responded to my submission. I queried them twice. Once after the first year of waiting, and again after the second. Who knows, maybe ten years down the line they’ll finally read the story.
Regardless, I’m more than happy to have the story published in Readings From Cursed Room 301. It’s such a cool anthology with some truly incredible writers. I really hope you all pick up a copy. Not just for my story, but for all the great stories in the collection.
Caleb James K. 