The Night Foundry’s debut anthology The Decagon Key of short fiction will haunt you, pulling you into a vortex of
Continue readingThe Decagon Key | Night Foundry Publishing’s Short Story Collection
The Decagon Key | Night Foundry Publishing’s Short Story Collection
The Night Foundry Holds Wonder…
Be careful what you wish for The Foundry might deliver From the pool of maleficence Crawl all things to make you shiver Brought to you on nightmare wings Tied with bows and pretty strings Be careful what you wish for The Foundry might deliver.
It crackles with power and heat. Fed by your nightmares, the dreams that wake you in the night sweating and scared. Don’t check under the bed! You know what is waiting for you there.
The Night Foundry plunders the recesses of your consciousness for abandoned thoughts, morsels of imagination to forge new creations. There are by-products of the foundry. Little demons.
An independent publisher weaving together nightmarish speculative anthologies. Crafting fever dreams of horror, dark fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal short fiction to keep you up at night.
The Decagon Key
The Night Foundry’s debut anthology The Decagon Key of short fiction will haunt you, pulling you into a vortex of nightmarish realms both near and far, past and future.
Two people in love, one wish, and one ten-sided key. What The Grim Reaper doesn’t know won’t hurt him, but the Demon Merchant gathers pain from The Night Foundry’s byproducts for his own gain in these twelve stories from twelve authors.
🗝 “Marital Rites” by Ross Young
‘Till Death they do part’ wasn’t what one couple had in mind, so they go to great lengths to recharge and reconnect. Featuring the dark-robed half of the comic “Beezy and Grim”, the head honcho from Dead Heads himself: Grim.
🗝 “Halo” by Elizabeth Eckstein
Industrial and arcane, macabre and quirky, the world of Hazehaven is home to the Night Foundry and, unfortunately for him, Pavel Hatskin. A ring in the mire catches his eye and sparks his greed, but it’s more than he bargained for.
🗝 “Museum Piece” by Marios Eracleous
You think you’re having a Monday? First Dr Tyler Thorne has a nightmare and oversleeps, then when he heads to his job at the museum, an odd invitation awaits him. His assistant’s deception and the Decagon Key take him beyond his wildest dreams. This is the first of the Archive stories.
🗝 “The Faceless Witch” by Melissa Rose Rogers
Ida, granddaughter to a sycophantic merchant, will do anything to get Prince Emmerich’s attention. When an ornate knife catches her eye, a merchant mentions its ritualistic purpose, setting her on a path of blood and lust and magical creatures. This is the first story to be in print in the Threads of Fate universe.
🗝 “@Biligrates” by S. J. Covey
Wanting to encourage her younger sister, a woman invents an urban legend and a social media account to back it up. Before she knows it, her life is changing for the better, until it’s not. @BILIGRATES is a stand-alone short story. You can follow SJ on Twitter https://twitter.com/SJ_Covey or maybe @BILIGRATES will follow you.
🗝 “Pushing Limits” by Cix and Victoria Zander
The Pushing Limits story that takes place in this anthology is part of the main Fulcra series. Heroes and villains come together as they solve the mystery of a blank tablet that shouldn’t be. Their journey drags them suddenly into an impossible situation. A tiger, an elf and a warlord assemble their team to go demon hunting.
🗝 “Worst Case Heroes” by Kayla Hicks The Worst Case Heroes story in the anthology takes place in Kayla Hick’s BackUp Superhero universe. In this story, Tanser Girl, Seed, Dwighter and Frank are joined by longtime superhero vet Karper to save New York City when former Level A superhero Goffman makes his return. The catch? This time he is somehow taking other superheroes under his control while the citizens flee the city. The question is, how is he doing it.
🗝 “On Track” by Jethro Weyman
Aided by a ten-sided Die, a woman makes a desperate, breakneck journey past a menagerie of creatures and substances straight out of nightmares within The Night Foundry itself.
🗝 “Three Wishes” by Trixie Pereira When Sean picks up a shell off the beach after a fight with his girlfriend, things escalate quickly and it changes his life (and the world). His wishes for his own success, convenience, and comfort come at a great cost but it seems he won’t have to pay the price.
🗝 “Party to Die” For by Peter James Martin
Old Bob’s throwing a party! Everyone whose anyone has been invited. Apart from Gabriel. Not to worry though! What good is a party without a gate crasher, one who intends to make it a party to die for…
🗝 “Deliver Unto Him” by Ross Young A special delivery gives The Grim Reaper food for thought.
Contributors
Ross Young is the author of the Gloomwood series of novels set in the Grim Reaper’s afterlife. He writes offbeat fantasy and speculative fiction infused with the noxious aroma of humour. Having lived in numerous countries around the world he attempts to affect the air of the windswept and interesting, badly. Ross now lives in France with his wife, daughter, and an Egyptian street dog that follows him around the world. He does not write from experience as, despite his appearance and demeanor, he is not dead. His novels, comics, and assorted gibberish, can be found at Rossyoung.ink.
Elizabeth Eckstein is a storyteller and lover of thunderstorms, a coffee-soaked alchemist who lives amongst the pages of books. When not creating worlds with words, she brings them alive in digital art as book illustrations and covers. A devourer of classics and folder of origami birds, she is the mother of two cats and enjoys such domestic adventures as vegan cooking and gardening. She is the creator of The Crucible of the Crimson Lion series.
Marios works as an Early Years Nursery Nurse during the day but by night he sits at his laptop working away creating new stories of fantasy, mystery and horror. Marios’s first pieces of work can been seen in the Harvey Duckman Anthologies but since he has his own series of Unexplained Anomalies that was released in 2020 and his first paperback novella The Unwanted Guests is out now in paperback and kindle. Marios enjoys going to comic cons such as London Film Comic Con and MCM. He is a big fan of the sci-fi cult series Doctor Who and enjoys watching cult series from the 60s 70s and 80s. In his spare time he enjoys being with his family and friends, gym, making peg people, and completing puzzles.
Melissa Rose Rogers writes speculative fiction and recently moved to Denver, CO, with her husband, daughters, and kitties. Board games and ice cream make her smile. She would rather be scuba diving and has weird dreams. Her fiction appears in Bear Creek Gazette, Tales from the Moonlit Path, 96th of October, Harvey Duckman Presents, and Bewildering Stories.
SJ Covey lives in Penistone, England, with her husband and their Labrador. She is currently querying her first novel, a young adult fantasy, The Order – FamiLIES, with 2 more in the series drafted. SJ recently won FLAMETREE PRESS–BEST ORIGINAL HORROR for her short story, “Grace me with your presence”. You may recognize one of the characters from this anthology, he has blue eyes. You can follow SJ on Twitter https://twitter.com/SJ_Covey or maybe @BILIGRATES will follow you. https://www.facebook.com/SJCoveyAuthor
Cix and Victoria Zander are new authors starting out in the speculative and science fiction genres. They have a published novel that sets the stage for their planned series. Other upcoming projects include a horror short and a sci-fi rewrite honoring The Great Gatsby. Their series is titled Fulcra, with the first published book subtitled The Witness. Cix and Vic bring a unique perspective, being a chimera—two genetically distinct people sharing a body but with individual minds.
Kayla Hicks has hopped through a few genres during her time in writing. You can find books by her in Dystopian Sci-fi, Contemporary Romance, and Fantasy Adventure. Her books include Kale Stone: An Outliers Tale, The BackUp Superhero, and a short story collection called Ventures and Visions.
Jethro is a full-time neurophysiotherapist, a part-time boulderer, a fair-weather cyclist and a bad-weather writer. He is a friend of the animals, whether or not they think the same of him. They generally disapprove of his poor form in any given yoga pose. With a mixture of flowery prose and twisted thoughts, his dark tales can be found scattered amongst the pigeons of the internet and jotted on various pieces of paper, some of which are printed in a mostly-professional manner. He dreams of turning this writing business into a professional one, to escape the confines of the NHS, and to graze alongside the industry greats… perhaps at a buffet with vol-au-vents and finger sandwiches. For more madness, and a mild sprinkling of method, why not try Bang to Begin?
Trixie prefers to write about characters rather than focus on a particular genre. She flirts with low-fantasy, romance, sci-fi, and paranormal, and evidently has commitment issues. Trixie loves bubble tea, tigers, and roaming aimlessly at malls. In her spare time, you will find her either drawing mediocre digital art or watching gaming streams. Find some of her stories on https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/trixie-pereira/
Peter James Martin hails from the North East of England, from a sleepy place nestled on the banks of the River Tees. When not surviving the rigours of raising a family, he writes to quell the voices in his head. Aside from his incursion in The Decagon Key, the majority of his published work revolves around the paranormal antics of Brennan and Riz. This anthology marks the first time that Gabriel will have been let loose, and with hopefully more tales to follow. Keep an eye on the Author’s twitter page for more Information and short snippets of Gabriel and those who may try to stop him…
Guidelines & Submissions
Authors, writers, readers. Feed the foundry and we’ll forge phenomenal fiction.
Our ore requires the sowing of dreams, the cultivation of nightmares. Without these we have no fuel so we turn to you, dear author… Take them to another place and aid our harvest!!
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