Available Now!
A Wisconsin Harvest of Horror
“Dare to delve into Wisconsin’s nightmares—where foggy horrors grip your soul
and bumps in the night give a fright!”
-A Wisconsin Harvest of Horror, WWA Press
I am so very pleased and excited to announce that the horror anthology featuring one of my short stories, is now available for purchase where all books are sold! A Wisconsin Harvest of Horror anthology features some truly spine-chilling stories from authors that know Wisconsin well and will be sure to frighten and delight!
My story, The Gray Mare, won a spot in this anthology through a contest run by the Wisconsin Writers Association in conjunction with the Wisconsin chapter of the Horror Writers of America. The resulting A Wisconsin Harvest of Horror anthology includes 15 spooky stories set in Wisconsin.
The contest judge, Claire Harris, is a literary agent for Helm Literary. Out of 48 submissions, she chose the top three winners that were to be included in the anthology published by the Wisconsin Writers Association Press, along with other Wisconsin based horror authors.
The Gray Mare is a story that had been lingering in the back of my mind for some time. Months before the contest was announced, I read about a Scottish folktale featuring a ghostly gray mare that went about the countryside seeking vengeance against those who mistreat animals. The story lingered with me. For one, I had never heard of that folktale before. Another, bigger, reason, is that I spent many years as a humane investigator for large animals and still have a lot of lingering emotions at the unfairness and cruelty that animals often endure.
The resulting story centered around bringing this mythology to a small Wisconsin town near Roche-a-Cri State Park. The famous rock outcroppings in the park are home to ancient Native American petroglyphs and pictographs. The history there has always captured my imagination and made a perfect setting for my story to unfold.
As a humane investigator, I documented many cases of mindless cruelty and some even of purposeful cruelty, but I also dealt with cases where people truly loved their animals and simply didn’t have the means to provide for any better. My resulting short story was a way to explore the different ways people interact with animals and what type of cruelty a vengeful ghost horse might choose to punish!
Please consider purchasing the horror anthology to not only read some great, spooky stories (including mine), but to also support the truly fantastic authors of Wisconsin!
~Elise Posledni
