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A.C. Hessenauer

@a.c.hessenauer

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Going to the Six, via @cemeterydancepub, @simonmaverickbooks
Repped by Mark Falkin/Falkin Literary
EIC @dreadhousepublishing

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🥹 Amazing new blurb from the master of madness and mayhem himself. ☠️ Thank you @claymcleod for giving Going to the Six a read and your kind words! 🙏 by @a.c.hessenauer

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5 months ago

😱👀 I'm thrilled to be able to share that Going to the Six is going trad! The audiobook will be produced by @simonandschuster via Simon Maverick. A huge thank you to the editing team, and to @falkinmark and the amazing folks at Cemetery Dance for giving this book a shot! I can't wait to hear the story come to life! 🎥⛴️🪓☠️

Going to the Six is a found footage style horror, releasing in print on June 16th. You can snag the ebook for pre-order at the moment for $0.99. by @a.c.hessenauer

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4 months ago

Huge thank you to @michaelwehuntauthor for taking the time to read and blurb! 😭😱 I totally geeked out over The October Film Haunt. If you haven't read it yet, and you consider yourself a found footage fan, you need to. It's absolutely a masterpiece and I was a bit nervous to hear Wehunt was willing to give Going to the Six a read. 😬 So relieved it had the creep factor! 🙏🥹 by @a.c.hessenauer

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4 months ago

It's been 84 years since I sat at my desk in a children's clinic in Connecticut, miles away from Sandy Hook Elementary. I watched and listened as my coworkers with children made phone calls, crying, leaving to go pick up their kids while their hands shook. My heart broke that day. I'll never forget thinking to myself that at least something like this would never happen again. I couldn't even imagine a world in which we would allow that.

Just one of the horrors touched on in Difficult Woman. I wrote this book terrified; worried I was saying too much. But this is the novel that got me an agent. This is the novel that got multiple full requests, and multiple offers, and this is the novel that will be my trad debut. I can't wait to share it with you all. Part of me is still afraid, knowing some people out there will hate it. But I didn't write it for them. I wrote it for me, and for you. by @a.c.hessenauer

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7 hours ago

Sharing a reminder that submissions open November 1st for the Subliminal Anthology. We've tried to respond to anyone who sent in a submission early with a message back. Please wait until the submission window opens so your submission does not get lost in the shuffle. See full submission guidelines below 👇and on our website at www.dreadhousepublishing.com

Subliminal: Below (Sub) + threshold (limen); Existing or operating below the normal limit of conscious awareness.

Give us your best horrors hovering just below the threshold … think spaces, transitional states, moments of suspension, the in-between, metamorphosis of consciousness … stretch the limits of our perception and imaginations, and expose what lurks just below the surface.

Dread House Publishing is looking for stories which fall in the category of horror only for this anthology.

This will be an open call. The submission window opens November 1st and closes November 30th.

ABSOLUTELY NO AI!!! 📢 Period. If you use AI in your writing, your cover art, or to promote your work on socials, this is not the press to submit to.

Word count limit is set to 6,000 words max.

Reprints will not be accepted for this anthology.

Simultaneous subs allowed. Only one submission will be considered per author.

Selected stories will receive $20 and a copy of the ebook. Paperback author copies may be ordered at printing cost.

Release date TBD, featuring cover art by @druhuf

Submissions may be emailed to info@dreadhousepublishing.com starting November 1st.

Please submit your story as an attachment following Shunn formatting guidelines, with both the story title and your last name in the file name. Please include your name and contact information in the header of your document along with your total word count. An author bio may be included in your email as well. by @a.c.hessenauer

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a day ago

This. The things we stay silent about are the things we tolerate and allow to perpetuate. We cannot stay silent about Nolan Wells, the Cornell 7, the Epstein Files, Genocide, or the crumbling of our democracy. Normalize calling out acts of injustice when you encounter them, or they become normal. For those triggered by me calling out white men in particular remaining silent at this moment in time, ask yourself why you're taking that personally.

You may feel helpless or powerless, but you aren't. Together, when we all speak out and get loud, we are extremely powerful. Every single moment of social change occurred because enough people stood up and said they wouldn't allow what was normal, or even legal, to continue. Speak out online, but better yet, speak out in person, at rallies and protests, to your friends and neighbors. Call out misogyny and racism when you encounter behaviors in your day to day life. When enough of us do, things change. It's that simple.

A study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania showed that a critical tipping point of 25% of committed individuals is the threshold needed to change the behavior of an entire group. This remains true no matter the size of the group involved, whether it's ten people or hundreds. All it takes is 25% of individuals committed to changing a behavior, or calling out an unwanted behavior, to enact change. As soon as that tipping point is reached, the other 75% of the community will fall in line.

This is an alarmingly small percentage when the behaviors are negative. Only a quarter of the people in a group need to enact awful behavior to sway the remainder. But it's a hopeful percentage when you consider that only a quarter of people in society need to be committed to enacting positive change. I think at least 25% of us are sick of the status quo and see a better way forward. Are you one of us? by @a.c.hessenauer

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2 days ago

Happy release day to two fabulous ladies of horror 👏🎉🙌 Snagged a copy of This B Just Won't Die, by @tanya.pell, and my copy of The Patch, by @vslawrence.author is on it's way! 🪾🍂🍁 So many good books releasing this month!!! *Screams in old school slasher* by @a.c.hessenauer

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3 days ago

I. Can't. Wait. 👏🔥🙌 by @a.c.hessenauer

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3 days ago

Um, apparently this came out in 2014 and has a found footage aspect, and I've never heard of it. I exclaimed this animatedly to my husband and his response was, "Clearly that means it's terrible." My response? "I don't know ... but I'm about to find out." 😂🙌 I went through a massive Egyptian phase as a child, and never really grew out of it. If this is terrible, don't tell me, I'm watching it anyway. 🫠 by @a.c.hessenauer

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4 days ago

📚👀👏 Full review for Turn, by @meganstocktonauthor 🫠 My goodness, this is my first book by Stockton, and it won't be my last. This is a hefty one; I think the print version clocks in at around 500 pages. I was forewarned that it was a gruesome read, and there's certainly body horror and gore in abundance. Turn follows a couple on their honeymoon during a stay at a remote cabin in the woods. Werewolves are obviously involved, and the title was well chosen. This novel is the most detailed, most complex and complete description of what it would (probably, I can't speak from personal experience) feel like to endure the process of turning into a werewolf. But, the novel is so much more than that.

Stockton gives us pain and transformation, mixing hunger with love, and investigates the intersection of hunger and consumption with desire. The main characters are extremely well done, with the novel alternating between the POV of the couple, one of whom is slowly changing while the other does everything he can to save him, and to still see him for who he is. The alternating POV, occasionally showing the same experiences/same scenes from two different sets of eyes was a fun element.

The fact that the main characters share a love of horror allows for copious references and humor mingled throughout the novel, as they navigate being thrust into their own horror story.

Stockton is a master at one liners and scenery depiction. I found myself underlining descriptions that were just so deliciously delivered and spot on ... that which may sound simple on the surface, captured so smoothly in words that the scene becomes visible instantly in the mind's eye. You can imagine what that sort of capability conjures for the more gory scenes. Thankfully I've found I have a strong stomach for gore, and was unaffected, but let this be a warning if you're not a fan of devouring human flesh. 😂

In short, Turn is excellent reading, and you should add it to your TBR for spooky season. 🪾🍂🍁 by @a.c.hessenauer

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4 days ago

Spooky reads that we think are not talked about nearly enough on Booksta! 👻🩶

QOTD: see any you’ll be adding to your TBR? taken in BOOKSTA by @a.c.hessenauer

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This is my spoiler free review, but Amanda and I dive into the mysteries, hidden clues, and our theories about We Used to Live Here in the newest episode of Night Reads!

Link to episode is in my story. Like and subscribe!

We Used to Live Here is exactly my kind of horror: surreal, bizarre, deeply unsettling, and completely uninterested in explaining itself to death.

What begins with an incredibly simple and uncomfortable premise, a family showing up at a couple’s house claiming they used to live there, slowly becomes something much stranger. Reality starts slipping. Identities become uncertain. Time and space stop behaving the way they should. And the deeper the story goes, the less you can trust your understanding of what is actually happening.

What impressed me most is the restraint. Marcus Kliewer gives us clues, recurring imagery, hidden messages, contradictions, and pieces of what feels like a much larger mythology, but he never hands us a neat explanation. There are answers here if you want to construct them, but Kliewer leaves enough empty space for the reader to participate.

And that’s where this book really worked for me. I don’t need every strange hallway mapped or every supernatural occurrence given a rule. The unexplained is what makes weird fiction linger. When a book ends and I immediately want to sit down with someone else who read it and spend hours arguing about what Thomas is, what Old House is, what happened to Eve, and what the title really means, that’s a successful horror novel.

It’s surreal without feeling random, ambiguous without feeling empty, and strange without sacrificing the emotional horror underneath it all: the terrifying idea of knowing exactly who you are while reality itself insists you’re someone else.

The best mysteries don’t always need solutions.

Sometimes they just need enough clues to keep you thinking long after you’ve closed the book.

#Bookstagram #Bookpodcasts #NightReads #HorrorBooks #Bookreviews by @a.c.hessenauer

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