Wrong Turn
And it's too late to go back
Happy Monday Macabrians!
This week, we’re driving the back roads after dark, and trust me, you’ll want to stay in the car.
Our first story follows two strangers who have spent months passing each other on the same lonely highway, until one night they’re forced off the road together, and into the home of a woman who’s been surviving out there far longer than either of them. Next, a first-time farmer learns that some losses in the country don’t stay lost, and that the quietest ending to a search is often the one you should’ve feared most. Then, we press play on a set of body-cam recordings that were never meant to be watched alone, as a father and his crew follow the sound of children’s laughter into a place that shouldn’t exist beneath the city streets.
Buckle up, and don’t forget to lock the doors.
Announcements
A Nebula Award Winner In Our Midst!!!
Jessica Maison of Monster of the Week just won the 2025 Nebula Award for Comics. For those of you who don’t know, the Nebula is one of the most prestigious awards you can win in science fiction and fantasy. Each year, the award (presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association) recognizes the best speculative fiction published in the United States. HUGE congrats to Jessica. If you’re unfamiliar, read her post linked above, and check out her work.
Macabre Monday’s Summer Drive-In Contest:
Macabre Monday is in the midst of a summer-long community event: the Summer Drive-In. Every week through the end of August, we’ll post a new horror prompt. Write something inspired by it (2,500 words or less), post it to the Macabre Monday chat, and it’s in the running. The team will curate favorites along the way, and at the end of summer, the community votes on the best of the best, and the winners get a shot at being featured in a limited-run Macabre Monday anthology.
Submissions are open all summer, so jump in anytime. You don’t have to start this week to participate later.
Excited about our summer event? Spread the word! Share this post.
(To submit, simply link your story in the weekly chat. This allows us to easily facilitate community voting and keep track of things on our side.)
Prompt(s) - Two to make up for last week ;)
The Postcard: A family keeps receiving postcards from a relative who supposedly died on vacation years ago. This time, they’re sending a warning.
Sunset Curfew: A little tourist destination starts enforcing a strict summer curfew at sundown. The reason isn’t the one printed in the local paper.
Track the prompts via the post below!
Have an announcement to share (releases, calls for submissions, or milestones)?
Let us know in the comments or the chat, and we’ll help spread the word.
Featured Stories
Standout posts from last week.
Jennifer Morrow gave us a story about two people living on the edge. One, a woman quietly cycling through overnight shifts and gas guzzling drives to avoid overstaying her welcome, and the other, a drifter who circles the same lonely highway each week. When they cross paths on a desert road after dark, what they encounter forces them to take shelter with a hardened desert recluse who knows exactly what's hunting them, and exactly what it takes to survive out there. A gritty, atmospheric tale about invisibility, isolation, and the price of scraping by in a place that doesn't forgive weakness.
FranB wrote a short, epistolary tale, inspired by the Observer/Redstone Press postcard story prize, where entrants are invited to match a story of 250 words or less to one of ten postcards. A cheerful letter home from a vicar's new wife, settling into a picturesque parsonage with her husband and getting acquainted with parish life. Jam-making committees, overzealous holy water, and a swarm of persistent flies…
J. Lashley spun a tale of a first-time farmer, who is still rebuilding his sense of control after a devastating professional loss. When he wakes to find two of his most beloved animals missing from their hutch, his search across the snow covered property begins. But a discovery at dusk threatens to upend everything he thought he understood about his home.
Cody Gaul posted Part Two of The Space Beneath Us. Alone in an apartment late at night, a narrator works through a set of unsettling body-cam recordings left behind by their father. As the recordings progress, they discover a place that shouldn't exist beneath the city, guided by children's voices no one can quite explain. A slow burn, found footage horror about what's uncovered when curiosity overrides better judgment.
Community Recommendations
Have a story you think deserves more readers?
Reply to this post or respond in the chat we’re always looking for pieces the community loves.
Recent Publications
Have a book or a story in a magazine or anthology published recently?
Post a link in the comments, and we’ll include it in an upcoming issue.
New Voices
New to the Macabre Monday community?
Post a link to your Substack in the comments! We’ll feature your work in an upcoming issue!
The chat is open. Bring your stories, your poems, your freshly published pieces and your works-in-progress. Bring the thing you wrote that you’re not sure anyone will understand. Someone here will. Come say hello.
Thanks for including that bit about me and the Nebula. Means the world that you're celebrating with me!
Thank you for the feature!