So I’ve already been screaming from the rooftops about this, but just in case you missed it: earlier this year, I was seriously over the moon to announce my brand-new horror novella, When We Were Brutal, coming in summer 2027 from Shortwave Publishing!

*shrieks merrily for joy*

My last widely released novella was Pretty Marys All in a Row way back in 2017. (I did have a limited-edition novella, In the Rose-Colored House Where They Died, from the truly fabulous Thunderstorm Books, but that was limited to 45 copies and has long been sold out.) So it will be a total of TEN YEARS between Pretty Marys All in a Row and When We Were Brutal, which kind of blows my mind.

So let’s talk about When We Were Brutal, because seriously, this is beyond a doubt one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. It’s an ode to the kind of rage-filled female-centric horror that I love so much. It literally started with the question of “what if Jennifer Check and Carrie White didn’t die at the end of their stories?” From there, it turned into an exploration of toxic friendship, sapphic longing, middle age, and learning how to live with the past in order to move forward.

And since my work sometimes doesn’t end up categorized as such, I’m going to say this loud and clear right now: there’s most definitely queerness in When We Were Brutal. This is absolutely a queer book. A bisexual book. Which honestly, how could it not be bi, considering it was inspired in part by Jennifer’s Body?

At any rate, for those of you who would like to know a little more about the book, here’s a bit of a teaser for everyone!

An homage to Carrie, Jennifer’s Body, Ginger Snaps, and all the monster girls who never got to leave high school, WHEN WE WERE BRUTAL is all about the toxic bonds of best friends, growing up and growing older, and what it means to be the boogeyman lurking in your own town.

Delilah Fisher was always the weird girl, the one who got pushed down in the school hallway, taunted mercilessly by her peers. Meanwhile, her best friend Bonnie Smolak couldn’t be more different: sweet and popular and perfectly normal. But growing up, the two of them were inseparable—that is, until the night four high school boys ended up burned to death at the local roller rink after attacking Delilah. No one could explain how it happened, but the town of Newland Falls still blamed the strange Delilah, which caused a frightened Bonnie to flee town as soon as she could.

Now it’s thirty years later, and Newland Falls is preparing a memorial celebration to commemorate the tragedy. With her job as a television reporter on the line, Bonnie returns home for the first time since graduation to cover the event for her news station. She’s desperate to avoid Delilah, but with long-buried secrets rising from the grave, the two slowly rekindle their bond, all while the simmering rage of the town is ready to boil over, threatening to destroy Delilah and her supernatural powers once and for all.

So at this point, we’re still two years from the release, which might seem like a long while, but the truth is that time will go by way too fast. That’s one of the shocking things about a writing career: releases feel like they won’t be here for forever, and then suddenly the book is out and the promotion cycle is over, and it’s wild how life goes by in a blink. So needless to say, you’ll be hearing more from me about this book over the coming months. I’m looking very forward to spreading the word about this one!

Happy reading!