Тази година няма да се спра да ходя по събития! Какъв прекрасен проблем да има човек.
Краят на май ме води в Русе на “Реката на историите и световете,” който се случва за първа година и регионалната библиотека “Любен Каравелов” се е раздала на макс. Аз имам щастието да съм на няколко панела и да водя работилница за писане на странен разказ. Ето къде ще можете да ме намерите.
It's Publishers Weekly!
And it's a starred review!
And it's still surreal that it's about my book. To have your work seen, understood and appreciated on such a big scale feels incomprehensible as I imagine all first times feel for a debut author. You will hear me not shut up about it for the foreseeable future; you debut once, right!
#debutauthor #horrorbooks #shortstories #weirdfiction
Welcome to the third collage in my series promoting my book “The Language of Knives,” where I create a mixed-media collage for each short story in the collection and give you a little bit of a backstory.
The third story in the collection is “When Raspberries Bloom in August,” which is also one of my deep cuts. I applied for Clarion 2014 with this story and I was incredibly grateful when @jeff_vandermeer123 decided to publish it in Weird Fiction Review the following year. It’s my first true foray into weird fiction and it started with a simple prompt; what would be the reason for a plant to bloom out of season and what would happen next. Raspberries do not bloom in August, but rather in late May or early June depending on the region. So, what happens when nature goes against its own cycles?
The story very much took shape immediately as I was following the logical conclusions of such a mysterious unnatural phenomenon. It’s one of the few short stories of mine that sprung organically (ha!) and didn’t require heavy rewrites unlike most of my work. Perhaps one of the reasons for this was drawing from my memories of summers spent with my grandparents in a small town similar to Sapareva Banya. In a sense this story is a love letter to them through a somewhat grotesque and unfathomable way. My grandfather has since passed a little after the publication of this story and it’s perhaps why it will remain a favorite of mine.
“When Raspberries Bloom in August” is what I would call my own flavor of pastel horror (on account of the body horror that takes place here). Nature’s unnatural beauty against a backdrop of nightmarish flesh and drunken abandon.
Welcome to the second collage in my series promoting my book “The Language of Knives,” where I create a mixed-media collage for each short story in the collection and give you a little bit of a backstory.
Now onto “The Town the Forest Ate,” which chronologically is one of my earliest published stories. I am very fortunate enough to be invited by Jaym Gates to submit for "Genius Loci, Tales of the Spirit of the Place," which came out in 2015 from Ragnarok. At the time of writing, I was early in my journey to mine my homeland for inspiration and decided to make the samodiva my subject. These fair maidens that enchant men with their beauty and waste them in the end are perhaps our best-known folkloric export, and I wanted to explore how they can be of nature as well as haunt nature.
As much as body horror drives the story, “The Town the Forest Ate” remains a ghost story (as you will learn, I am obsessed with hauntings), but the twist came in how the haunting extended over an entire community. My initial jump-off point was a hoax story that got reprinted in several online tabloids about a small village, whose residents were terrorized by a samodiva, who apparently blinded several people. Thinking ‘now we’re cooking with gas,’ I decided to crank up the consequences for angering a nature spirit. The result is a multi-generational curse with unnerving, gruesome repercussions. What sort of life can you lead in such an environment? How can a queer person exist in rural life? Very much questions I was interested in at a time in my life where I was living as a closeted queer person in a rather homophobic city (sans curse).
What you’ll find in “The Town the Forest Ate”: familial guilt, angry nature spirits, horrifying transformations, gays, birds (heinous), tress (ominous), survival horror and questionable home decor.
#collageartist #collage #debutauthor #horrorfiction #artistsofınstagram
I have been thinking about how to promote my collection “The Language of Knives” since the day I received my offer from @mythicdelirium . Unfortunately, as I am not based in America and do not have the extra funds to travel internationally at this point, live appearances at cons are not possible. TikTok is very much outside my comfort zone (unless somehow the BookTok decides to bless me and you never know with a cover this hot; thanks@functionalneighbour ).
I thought long and hard, and decided to merge my writing with my collage work. I have been itching to create pieces for a new exhibition and a series based on my short stories isn’t a half bad idea. Beginning today I will share a new collage along with a bit of backstory about each story every single week to coincide with the publication of “The Language of Knives” on July 7 and my solo exhibition in Sofia.
With that said, let me introduce you to “Nine Tongues Tell Of,” initially published in Eurasian Monsters from Fox Spirit Books and edited by Margrét Helgadóttir. The whole Monsters series is well worth checking out as the anthology series explores lesser-known creatures from all around the world. When I was invited, I immediately gravitated towards the hala, who doesn’t receive as much love as the samodiva, for instance. By 2020, I had firmly decided to set my work in Bulgaria and explore ways to reframe the local and the familiar into the unfamiliar and the uncanny.
As with every folkloric interpretation, I took some liberties with the hala and its abilities, but tried to stay true to the legends and folk songs I used as a reference. It’s a fascinating spirit of winds and storms. I decided to set the story in my home town, Varna, which can be unnerving to walk during the dead of night. Something I had to do working late nights and certain places once devoid of people raise the hairs on the back of my neck.
Writing “Nine Tongues Tell Of” was a fun challenge as it’s part written as podcast transcripts. How do you explain what a podcast is to a mythical being? Honestly, the story has everything you might want: grief, murder, tunnels, brutalist architecture and existential crises (human and monster alike).
For as long as I have written with the goal of publishing a book, I've always fantasized about getting a review from Kirkus. Fantasy, no more! I'm ecstatic with the praise!
The Language of Knives comes out July 7 2026 from Mythic Delirium.
I won't be on here for about a month not that I've been posting much. I have been growing more and more dependent on social media to help me deal with real-life stress and I've been wasting a lot of hours in the day through mindless scrolling (ironically not very conducive to removing said stress), when I should be writing, editing and working on creative projects. I'm mostly fine, but my attention has been whittled to about nothing and my feed is filled with some pretty hopeless headlines. The bombardment of information leaves me pretty much hollowed out and overstimulated at the same time. I am working on several graphic novel scripts, preparing for a new exhibition, planning presentations for convention appearances and looking at incoming finals edits on the collection, which I need to prioritize and have failed to do so for months. Hopefully, I'll be able to share more when I've been able to make headway.
This is not so much as a 'woe is me' post, but to inform people that I will be available only through email and Discord until mid-April, and then in some limited capacity. If I owe you some kind of work, those are the best places to find me. Until later when I have straightened out my commitments!
I have been waiting for a couple of months to reveal the cover for my debut collection “The Language of Knives,” because it’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a cover. I told @mythicdelirium that if I never get to publish another book, at least I’ll have this beauty out in the world.
Art by long-time collaborator and friend, Diana Naneva, who understood the assignment and captured what I’ve always imagined the cover to look like. It’s pure pastel horror, which if you know me, know that it captures my writing very, very well.
“The Language of Knives” has everything: beauty, nature, death, queerness, the transmutation of body and soul into the unthinkable. I find the stories to exist at the highest, mid-coitus between Eros and Thanatos; the desire to live through the impulse to die.
Ann VanderMeer has been gracious enough to write an introduction, which is another dream off the bucket list, and the collection is slated to release just weeks before my birthday.
In many ways, 2026 contains unimaginable, unwanted horrors and being excited about books and art feels somehow superficial, but at least I can usher one horror that’s welcome. I hope you have to join me on this journey through the delights and fells of the body.
#debutauthor
#coverart #coverreveal #horror queerhorror
COVER REVEAL! Mythic Delirium Books is thrilled to share @functionalneighbour 's stunning cover art for THE LANGUAGE OF KNIVES: STORIES, the debut short fiction collection by @somethinghaunted ! (With a wonderful introduction written by @annvander18 !) Release date July 7; pre-orders are live now!
Find a link to the pre-order page in the Linktree in my bio; and also a link to the review copy download page on @this_is_edelweiss !
We also have trade paperback ARCs available—if you’d like one, feel free to DM me with your pitch.
