On sale NOW!

December 1, 2021 – Author Kevin M. Folliard’s middle-grade fantasy adventure novel Grayson North: Frost-Keeper of the Windy City is now available from Dark Owl Publishing!

He’s going to be late to work, again. And it’s not like he doesn’t have enough troubles. His older brother Jason is cool and handsome and never makes mistakes, and his younger brother Mason is a book smart genius. Grayson is caught in the middle, never quite good enough, and now that their parents are separated and Dad isn’t around anymore, Grayson feels like he’s all alone.

All that changes when Grayson inherits a silvery key with copper bands. He becomes the Frost-Keeper, gaining wintery superpowers and a world of epic responsibility. Grayson must protect the City of Chicago from fiery extra-dimensional monsters called Sulfurians. Disguised as humans, the Sulfurians use mesmerizing flames to control the Slynt Hotel, where Grayson’s family works.

With the help of Mason and Lucy Slynt, who’s determined to save her industrialist father, Grayson needs to master his powers and uncover the Sulfurians’ plans. Will the trio discover their plot, break the hypnotic spell, and save the city from the return of the Great Chicago Fire before it’s too late?

This book is dedicated to the author’s brother and all first responders who keep us safe. The action takes place all across the city, from the Chicago River, to the Water Tower, the Chicago History Museum, and more!

Learn more about Grayson North at the official Dark Owl page:
https://www.darkowlpublishing.com/grayson-north

Purchase Grayson from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Grayson-North-Frost-Keeper-Windy-City/dp/1951716213/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Grayson+North&qid=1638029952&sr=8-2

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kevin M. Folliard is a writer of books for young readers, including Violet Black & the Curse of Camp Coldwater, Jake Carter & the Nightmare Gallery, Jimmy Chimaera & the Temple of Champions, and Matt Palmer & the Komodo Uprising. His adult fiction has been collected by The Horror Tree, Flame Tree Publishing, The Dread Machine, and more. His recent publications include his novella “Tower of Raven” from Demain Publishing and his 2020 horror anthology The Misery King’s Closet. Kevin currently resides in the Chicagoland area, where he enjoys his day job as an academic writing advisor and membership in the La Grange and Brookfield Writers Groups. When not writing or working, he’s usually reading Stephen King, playing Tetris, or traveling the U.S.A. Kevin also has two short stories published with Dark Owl Publishing in both A Celebration of Storytelling and Something Wicked This Way Rides.

Hello Readers!

First a few recent publication reminders:

• The Dread Machinee had reprinted my zombie chicken short story “Chickenscratch!”
• My short story “X” is available in Econo Clash Review Issue 7! It’s a horror/thriller/spy story about a skeleton-clad assassin and I won’t say much more than that!

And now the BIG news: check out the super cool cover for Grayson North: Frost-Keeper of the Windy City by J.T. Molloy! Grayson is my YA adventure slated for publication in December 2021! It’s about a heroic ice-wielding kid battling fiery elemental demons to prevent the second Great Chicago Fire, and it’s a lot of fun!

I’ll keep you all updated about Grayson and other 2021 publications right here. 🙂

Kevin M. Folliard’s Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kevin-Folliard/e/B0097S7T0A/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Dark Owl Publishing: https://www.darkowlpublishing.com/
Econoclash Review: https://www.econoclash.com/
Breaking Rules Publishing: https://www.breakingrulespublishing.com/
The Dread Machine: https://www.thedreadmachine.com/

As usual, I am letting publication news pile up too much and not doing enough to promote, for which I can’t apologize enough! I promise BIG NEWS if you read until the end of this post, but first, here is the March 2021 round-up:

• My novella from Demain Publishing Tower of Raven has criminally slipped through the cracks! This dark fantasy is under-read and under-reviewed, and I’d love to know what more of you think about it. If you are a reviewer and you have any interest in reading this story, or any of my other books, please do reach out to me. I am happy to accommodate reviewers and bloggers who are willing to write an honest review. 🙂

*The Horror Tree has featured my flash fiction twice in 2021 so far:

• My 100-word drabble “That Night at the Carnival” was featured in their Valentine’s Day Edition.
• My flash fiction “The Man in Her Poem” was featured in Trembling With Fear on 2-28-2021!

*My mythologically-inspired (and darkly brutal) story “Satyr” has been published at The Dread Machine! This is another story that I am very excited to see out there, so please check out the Dread Machine’s library and let us know what you think. They are curators of some truly excellent stories!

*Read my supernatural horror story “Jack of Spades” in If I Die Before I Wake, The Better Off Dead Series Volume 4: Tales of Nightmare Creatures from Sinister Smile Press! “Jack” in this story is one of my absolute favorite creatures that I’ve concocted, and I’m really honored to be a part of this collection!

*Breaking Rules Publishing has released their January Anthology, which includes my story “Snail,” a dark flash fiction about a relationship in decay.

*City River. Tree. has put out a 2020 collection, which includes my 100-word drabble “Vault!”

*Finally, the big BIG news for 2021. My YA fantasy adventure Grayson North: Frost-Keeper of the Windy City will be published December 2021 by Dark Owl Publishing!

Grayson was my 2015 NaNoWriMo project, and I am very excited to have found a great publisher for this book. We’ve put together a heartwarming, super cool, action-packed, and heroic Chicago-set story that your kids are really going to have fun reading!

I will be updating everyone on Grayson throughout the year, both here and on social media. The cover is not yet finalized, but below, I have included a teaser. 🙂

Furthermore, Dark Owl is also publishing my weird western tale “Inner Skin” in the upcoming summer anthology Something Wicked This Way Rides, which you can learn more about here!

Please do help me spread the word about these great publications. I am truly grateful to the editors and publishers who have taken a chance on my writing. Furthermore, they are purveyors of excellent fiction beyond the stuff that I write, and all the authors involved deserve your reading attention. 🙂

Kevin M. Folliard’s Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kevin-Folliard/e/B0097S7T0A/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Dark Owl Publishing: https://www.darkowlpublishing.com/
Demain Publishing: https://demainpublishingblog.weebly.com/
The Horror Tree/Trembling With Fear: https://horrortree.com/category/trembling-with-fear/
Breaking Rules Publishing: https://www.breakingrulespublishing.com/
The Dread Machine: https://www.thedreadmachine.com/
Sinister Smile Press: https://www.sinistersmilepress.com/
City. River. Tree: https://cityrivertree.com/

Happy New Year, everyone!

It has been a rough year for us all, but it was a good year for getting stories out there. I am thankful to my writers groups, the publishers and editors who have taken a chance on my work, and the readers who have enjoyed my stories (especially those who post reviews on Amazon and Goodreads!)

Here is my final publication round-up for 2020!

*Demain Publishing releases my novella Tower of Raven as a Kindle exclusive on 12-31-2020, and you can preorder NOW! This story is a dark fantasy that reimagines the Maiden in the Tower/Rapunzel fable and takes it in a new direction. I’m very excited to hear what people think of it!

*My story “Headless Viper” has been included in a beautiful anthology of genre fiction A Celebration of Storytelling by Dark Owl Publishing!

*The Horror Tree/Trembling With Fear featured several stories and articles over the past few months, including:

• My sci-fi horror story “Scorch the Earth” on 11-8-2020!
• My flash fiction “Christmas in Resurrection Cemetery” in their holiday feature!
• My longer story “Snowflake” in their Serial Killers feature, released in 5 installments:
  • PART 1
  • PART 2
  • PART 3
  • PART 4
  • PART 5
• Lionel Ray Green of the Horror Tree was kind enough to conduct an author interview with me too!
• And last, but not least, Horror Tree reviewer Alyson Faye gave my book The Misery King’s Closet 5 / 5 stars!

MORE to come in 2021, including some very exciting projects coming to fruition! Stay safe and well! 🙂

Kevin M. Folliard’s Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kevin-Folliard/e/B0097S7T0A/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Demain Publishing: https://demainpublishingblog.weebly.com/
The Horror Tree/Trembling With Fear: https://horrortree.com/category/trembling-with-fear/
Dark Owl Publishing: https://www.darkowlpublishing.com/

Available NOW!

Hope everyone had a safe, happy Halloween! I know I did, with good company and plenty of excellent horror movies!

Publications are piling up and overlapping this year, so once again, I’m rounding up ALL the news below. 🙂

*Check out my 100-word drabble “Hook-Hand-Man” at The Horror Tree’s 2020 Halloween edition!

*My story “Misfitt,” has finally been published in The Scribe’s October 2020 issue! It’s also available on Amazon! “Misfitt” is, in my humble opinion, my best–most frequently rejected–tale, and it’s been a long time in the making, so many thanks to Breaking Rules Publishing for believing in it!

*Read my story “Bumper-to-Bumper” about an ancient demon stuck in Chicago traffic in Coffin Blossoms: A Horror Comedy Anthology from Jolly Horror Press!

*My story “Home By Dark” is NOW available in Transmundane Press’s On Time Anthology! You can get it on Amazon/Kindle, and you can visit my author page, read my bio, an interview about the story, an excerpt from the story, and an exclusive piece of flash fiction–“The Cycle Tree”–which I wrote to help promote this time-travel-themed collection!

*Dark Owl Publishing’s collection A Celebration of Storytelling is available for pre-orders, and it will include my Halloween tale “Headless Viper!”

*Last but not least, tis the season for DREAD! I have not one, but 2 NEW Christmas Terror Tales to plug:

Available NOW!

• Read my Alaskan Christmas Terror Tale/Love Story “Season’s Greetings” for free  at The Dread Machine!
• Read my story “Sugarplum,” about a workaholic business traveler who wanders into the wrong London tavern in Gothic Blue Book VI: A Krampus Carol from Burial Day Books!

MORE news to come before the year is up! Stay safe, and read on! 🙂

Breaking Rules Publishing: https://www.breakingrulespublishing.com/

Burial Day Books: https://burialday.com/

Dark Owl Publishing: https://www.darkowlpublishing.com/

The Dread Machine: https://www.thedreadmachine.com/

Jolly Horror Press: https://www.jollyhorror.com/

Transmundane Press: https://www.transmundanepress.com/

The Horror Tree/Trembling With Fear: https://horrortree.com/category/trembling-with-fear/

Look for my story “Home by Dark” in this upcoming collection!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy October 2020! Here’s what’s going on my writer world:

*I can’t plug it enough, but The Misery King’s Closet–a collection of many of my horror flash fiction, short stories, and long stories–is on sale in paperback and Kindle! Please, please, pretty please, read and review. 🙂

*My story “Home By Dark” is forthcoming in Transmundane Press’s On Time Anthology! The book is not out just yet, but you can visit my author page, read my bio, an interview about the story, an excerpt from the story, and an exclusive piece of flash fiction–“The Cycle Tree”–which I wrote to help promote the time-travel-themed collection!

It’s going to be a very cool collection with excellent authors, so keep it on your radar! 🙂

*The Horror Tree has released several anthologies collecting many of my 2019 Stories:

• Trembling With Fear: Year 3
• Trembling With Fear: More Tales From The Tree: Volume 2

And The Horror Tree continues to feature many of my drabbles and flash fiction throughout 2020. Here are a few you may have missed:

• “Not My Fault”
• “Mucus”

*My not-so-wacky Tube Man story “FwpFwpFwp” was published at the J.J. Outré Review!

*Finally, you can now preview several of my 100-word drabbles from The Misery King’s Closet over at my brand new Commaful page! Here’s one below to check out . . .

via Commaful

And there’s SO much more to come this year, it’s honestly a little overwhelming–Anthologies, Halloween Stories, literary stories, and plenty-O-Christmas-Horror! I’m going to make a point of updating this blog at least once a month! You can also tune into my social media for more regular plugs and updates. 🙂

J.J. Outré Review: https://thejjoutrereview.com/

Transmundane Press: https://www.transmundanepress.com/

The Horror Tree/Trembling With Fear: https://horrortree.com/category/trembling-with-fear/

“You’ve been lured to a nightmare as real as a shameful secret. It is a realm of white noise and shuddery sensations, ruled by the Misery King.”

September 3, 2020–Author Kevin M. Folliard’s 2020 horror anthology The Misery King’s Closet is now available. In this collection of 24 horror stories by Kevin M. Folliard, hidden scares lurk in shadowy spaces. Cursed relics, paranormal parasites, and devious desires haunt these tales previously published by Sanitarium Magazine, The Horror Tree, Hinnom Magazine, The No Sleep Podcast, and more.

In “Late Night Snack,” a devilish chef feeds his host’s malicious appetites. “Carnival Debt” portrays a cadre of clowns who rule a crooked Big Top. “The Bagman Cometh” depicts a too-perfect town with an annual sacrifice, where children fall prey to an unearthly boogeyman.

From inner demons to outer monsters, this collection shows what happens when sinister secrets fester.

The collection features horror tales for an adult audience which range from 100-word drabbles to the debut novella “The Bagman Cometh.” Themes of dark secrets, hidden shame, and lurking monsters span the anthology, which explores characters haunted by addictions, parasites, dark truths, and heinous choices.

The Misery King’s Closet is available as of September 2020 through Amazon and expanded distribution channels.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kevin M. Folliard is a Chicagoland writer whose fiction has been collected by The Horror Tree, Flame Tree Publishing, Hinnom Magazine, and more. His recent publications include “Halfway to Forgotten,” featured on The No Sleep Podcast; the Short Sharp Shocks! Halloween tale “Candy Corn”; “Bumper-to-Bumper,” published in the Jolly Horror Press anthology Coffin Blossoms; “Home by Dark,” collected in Transmundane Press’s On Time anthology; “Headless Viper,” in A Celebration of Storytelling by Dark Owl Publishing; and the Christmas horror story “Season’s Greetings,” featured at The Dread Machine.

Kevin currently resides in La Grange, Illinois, where he enjoys his day job as an academic writing advisor and active membership in the La Grange and Brookfield Writers Groups. When not writing or working, he’s usually reading Stephen King, playing Super Mario Maker, or traveling the U.S.A. You can learn more about his writing at www.KevinFolliard.com!

Purchase The Misery King’s Closet in paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HGTSXQZ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=%22The+Misery+King%27s+Closet%22&qid=1599239137&sr=8-1

Purchase The Misery King’s Closet for Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HGRV479/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=%22The+Misery+King%27s+Closet%22&qid=1599195322&sr=8-1

Read my story “Deep & Dark” in the June issue of Triangle Writers Magazine!

What a year! And it’s only half over. . .

I hope everyone is doing as well as they can be during challenging circumstances. I admit that I have let my fiction writing promotion fall by the wayside this year, and for that I apologize. However, I have managed to get some cool new stories out there, and I’ve got more stuff up my sleeves too.

Without further ado, here are the new stories that I’ve published in 2020 for your reading pleasure . . .

*Firstly, The Horror Tree’s Trembling With Fear is featuring several of my stories this year. Two have been published so far:

• “Daisy’s Swing”
• “Flesh Eating Hearts”

*Triangle Writers Magazine from Breaking Rules Publishing has featured two of my LGBTQ horror stories which are both very important to me:

• “Deep and Dark” is featured in their June Issue.
• “Scarlet Loop” is featured in their July Issue.

*My 100-word drabble “Vault” was published at City. River. Tree.

*My Flash Fiction “Impacts” was published at Potato Soup Journal.

*My Short Sharp Shocks! book “Candy Corn”–previously Kindle exclusive–is now available in paperback too!

*Finally, my own La Grange and Brookfield Writers Groups came together to publish 19-word reflections on our Covid-19 experiences in “Covid Chronicles.” You can check out these thoughtful pieces of micro-fiction through the La Grange Library’s website! (I miss the library!)

That’s it for now! I hope that some of you will find pleasant and intriguing distractions in my fiction this year. I will be sure to update you again, hopefully a little more regularly going forward.

Please stay safe and treat all of your neighbors like family! We are truly in these trying times together, and it’s important to remember that we are all of us human.

Breaking Rules/Triangle Writers Magazine: https://www.breakingrulespublishing.com/store/p162/Triangle_Writers_Magazine.html

City. River. Tree: https://cityrivertree.com/

Potato Soup Journal: http://potatosoupjournal.com/

Kevin M. Folliard’s Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kevin-Folliard/e/B0097S7T0A/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

La Grange Public Library: https://www.lagrangelibrary.org/

Hard to believe 2019 is almost over! Here is a quick recap of my end-of-the year publications:

• 11-3-2019: “Disclaimer” 
• 12-1-2019: “Jack in the Box”
• 12-25-2019/Christmas Edition: “The Herald Angel” 

Happy Halloween everyone! It’s time for the October publication recap!

I’ve had two stories and a drabble published in Trembling With Fear at The Horror Tree:

• 10-6-2019 “Rocking Horse”
• 10-20-2019 “Anchovy Whispers”
• 10-31-2019 “Footage Lost, Footage Found”

My Kafka-inspired scary story “Café Bueno” was published by Sirius Science Fiction on 10-4-2019.

My creepy clown tale “Carnival Debt” has been re-printed in Who Knocks Magazine #3!

My Aussie shark Christmas terror tale “Dreaming of Chester” was published in Broadswords and Blasters #11!

My H.G. Wells inspired tale “Behind the Orange Window” has been collected in Belanger Books’ anthology A Tribute to H.G. Wells, Stories Inspired by the Master of Science Fiction Volume 1: Mars: Bringer of War!

Small Fish Radio adapted my story “Honey Cake” for their annual Halloween Horror show!

Thanks to all my writer friends who helped me refine these tales, as well as the awesome publishers who helped me get them out there!

The Horror Tree / Trembling With Fear: https://horrortree.com/category/trembling-with-fear/

Who Knocks Magazine: http://whoknocks.net/

Sirius Science Fiction: https://siriussciencefiction.blogspot.com

Broadswords and Blasters: https://broadswordsandblasters.com/

Small Fish Radio: http://www.smallfishradio.com/ 

Belanger Books: https://www.belangerbooks.com/