Spring Scares: A Celebration of Horror

On Saturday, May 11th the Totem Lake Barnes & Noble is hosting a celebration of horror. We've partnered with Sadie Hartmann, KC Jones, Liz Kerin, Scott Leeds, and many members of the Horror Writers Association Seattle Chapter to make this event possible and to bring a variety of work within the genre into our store. Twelve authors will participate in round-robin discussions and book signings beginning at 12 PM. The event will end at 4 PM, after the last discussion. 

Whether you're a long-time fan of horror or have considered dipping your toes into the genre, we'd love to celebrate with you! 

Schedule

12 PM Beyond the Ordinary: Horror in Poetry and Comics

Learn about creepy prose and gory panels with Brianna Malotke, Evan J. Peterson, and Josef Wilke. 

1 PM Creatures and Cryptids: A Discussion on Supernatural Horror

Dive into the dread-inducing imagined and unknown with J.P. Barnett, Conor Metz, and Clay Vermulm. 

2 PM Liz Kerin Celebrates Recent Release, First Light 

Liz Kerin is joined by Sadie Hartmann, KC Jones, and Scott Leeds in a discussion about her new novel, First Light. First Light is the much-anticipated sequel to Night's Edge.

3 PM The Art of Dread: A Literary Horror Discussion

Join Jennifer Brozek and Jaq Evans in their discussion on the craft of horror writing and their experiences with creating thought-provoking and chilling tales. 

Authors

J.P Barnett

The author of the award-winning Lorestalker series, a collection of horror adventures about two college-aged women who hunt cryptids instead of going to class. The six-book series has won multiple awards, including the 2022 Kindle Book Award for best Horror novel. When he’s not writing, he’s reading books, playing guitar, or spending too much time on Xbox. J.P. currently resides in Redmond with his partner and hellion of a cat, both of whom look at him dubiously with some frequency.

Jennifer Brozek

An award-winning author, editor, and tie-in writer. A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods, Never Let Me Sleep, and The Last Days of Salton Academy were finalists for the Bram Stoker Award. She was awarded the Scribe Award for best tie-in Young Adult novel for BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident. Grants Pass won an Australian Shadows Award for best edited publication. A Hugo finalist for Short Form Editor and a finalist for the British Fantasy Award, Jennifer is an active member of SFWA, HWA, and IAMTW. She keeps a tight writing and editing schedule and credits her husband Jeff with being the best sounding board ever.

Visit Jennifer’s worlds at jenniferbrozek.com.

Jaq Evans

Jaq Evans is a horror and speculative fiction author who grew up running around the woods in Virginia's Blue Ridge foothills and now lives near different mountains in Seattle. A graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program, Jaq writes fiction, narrative nonfiction and poetry. What Grows in the Dark (MIRA, March 5 2024) is her first novel.

Follow Jaq's work on Instagram @anomisting, on Twitter @jaqwrites, or online at www.jaqevans.com.

Sadie Hartmann

Sadie Hartmann A.K.A. "Mother Horror" is the co-owner of the horror fiction subscription company Night Worms, and the editor-in-chief of her own horror fiction imprint, Dark Hart. She had an award-winning Halloween costume in the seventh grade but was not invited to sit with the cool kids. 

Born and raised in the small town of Grass Valley, CA, she now makes her home with her husband of 20+ years in the Pacific Northwest where they celebrate cloudy days, stare at Mt. Rainier, eat street tacos, and hang out with their three kids. They have a Frenchie named Owen. 

KC Jones

After graduating from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a degree in film production, KC Jones returned to the Pacific Northwest to focus on a career in screenwriting before making the leap to novels. When not writing, he can be found cooking, playing video and board games, or exploring the local wilderness with his wife. Black Tide is his debut novel. 

Website: kcjonespnw.com
Twitter: @PNWScribe

Liz Kerin

Liz Kerin is the author of the Night's Edge duology, and a playwright, screenwriter, and graduate of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch School of Arts. She is also the author of The Phantom Forest. She lives in Southern California. 

Website: lizkerin.com
Instagram: @lizkerin

Scott Leeds

Scott Leeds lives in the Pacific Northwest. Schrader's Chord is his first novel. 

Instagram: @scott_leeds
Twitter: @LeedsCommaScott

Brianna Malotke

Brianna Malotke is a writer based in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to being a member and on the social media team for the Horror Writers Association, she’s also co-chair of the Seattle Chapter. She has work in Beautiful Tragedies 2 and 3, The Dire Circle, The Nottingham Horror Collective, Under Her Skin, and HorrorScope: A Zodiac Anthology Volumes 1 and 4. In fall of 2023 her debut horror poetry collection, Fashion Trends, Deadly Ends, was released and she was a “Writer in Residence” at the Chateau d’Orquevaux in France. Malotke’s next collection, Lost Cherry, will be published with January Ember Press fall of 2024. She also has a romance novella series, Sugar & Steam, written under the pen name of Tori Fields.

Conor Metz

Conor Metz is a horror writer out of Bellevue, Washington. He has loved monsters since the zombies from Michael Jackson’s Thriller gave him his first reoccurring nightmare at 4 years old. Most of his life has been spent in the Seattle area, with about a decade in Los Angeles writing screenplays. 

When Conor isn’t writing novels, he’s hard at work seeking out obscure horror films and trash cinema. He also may be found scaling random structures without thought of how he’ll get down or poorly practicing martial arts. Eventually, he plans to use this experience to become the notorious Seattle Ninja.

Evan J. Peterson

Evan J. Peterson is an author and game writer whose works include Drag Star! (Choice of Games), the world’s first drag performer RPG, as well as METAFLESH: Poems in the Voice(s) of the Monster and The Road to Innsmouth: Arkham Horror. His writing has appeared in Weird Tales, PseudoPod, Queers Destroy Horror, Nightmare Magazine, and Best Gay Stories. In 2024, Broken Eye Books will publish Evan's first novel, Better Living Through Alchemy, an occult noir mystery set in Seattle.

Evanjpeterson.com can tell you more.

Clay Vermulm

Clay is a Montana-born, Washington-based writer and editor from Everett, Washington. He writes horror stories because he loves monsters, and monsters love him. Every time he tries to write something else, they end up creeping into the narrative. Clay is a member of Cascade Writers, the Seattle Chapter of the HWA, Grendel Press, The Authors of the Flathead, and many other writing organizations. You can find his three published books on his website and learn all about what he's got coming up by following his newsletter on Substack.

Josef Wilke

Josef B. Wilke is a writer residing in a tomb underneath Seattle, Washington. Born in 1431, Josef was first published in 2020 with House of Doom, then again in 2021 with Coffee House of Doom. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association where he sits as the Seattle Chapter’s Co-chair.