Linda B. Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community You can see any of The Seers’ Table posts since inception (March 2016) by going to the HWA main page and selecting the menu item “HWA Publications / Blogs / Seers’ Table.” Tish Jackson recommends: Sami Ellis is a queer horror writer from the Carolinas with a message. Her debut novel, Dead Girls Walking, can be considered a slasher novel but encompasses themes of coming of age, bullying, and problematic family dynamics. The main character is on a mission to find out if her serial killer father also killed her mother. In order to find out, she sneaks into a horror camp set on the farm where her family used to live. She vows to either find her mother’s body or prove that her dad didn’t kill her—but she finds out that her family history is more complicated and murderous than she ever knew. She also has a short story in the young adult horror anthology All These Sunken Souls edited by Circe Moskowitz (Amberjack Publishing – October 2023). “The Teeth Come Out At Night” takes a common horror theme and gives it a twist that has you rooting for the wrong person. Sami is also the co-founder of the Write Team Mentorship Program, which provides a four-month mentorship to writers needing support and community. On her Web site, she provides an Agent Cheat Sheet, giving writers a template on how to work with an agent. Recommended Reading: Dead Girls Walking (Harry N. Abrams, March 2024). Excerpt: Temple can’t even scream. She can’t warn Brenda or yell “stop.” Anyssa slices down, and the blades burrow into Brenda’s neck before Alyssa wrenches it right back out with a grin. Brenda only gets a gasp out before a slit of red slides across her throat, like it’s unzipping. She lets out a deep gurgle, her feet staggering beneath her. Everyone stops. Brenda’s hand reaches forward, clawing, clawing…at nothing. Her fingers don’t even make it to her neck. She falls to the floor. Thump. Her body collapses in a heap. All the girls scream. “Oh my god!” Mickaeyla yells. The push and pull grows fervent as Brenda’s corpse lays still before them. Anyssa swings her weapon wildly, screaming at no one as they scurry away. There’s the thump of a girl falling to the ground. Anyssa’s eyes are dull and glazed, her voice a scratching echo. Not her voice. It’s like someone else’s voice. Some other poor girl gets caught in the crossfire. Temple can’t tell who. The girls trip over themselves to get away. It’s an immediate split, some spilling out of JG like the fires of hell are on their tail. Others disappear, dashing into other rooms and hiding places. They cry. They pray. Temple is frozen. Find Sami online: Web site: authorsamiellis.com; Twitter: @themoosef; E-mail: sellis@authorsamiellis.com. Linda D. Addison recommends: Morgan Sylvia is a metalhead, an Aquarius, a coffee addict, and a work in progress. A former obituarist, she is now a full-time freelance writer. Her poems and short stories have been published in dozens of places, including Pseudopod, Wicked Witches, Northern Frights, Haunted House Short Stories, Endless Apocalypse, Under Her Skin, In The Cold, Cold Ground, and The Final Summons. Her debut novel, Abode, was recommended by The Library Journal. Her work also includes three poetry collections, Whispers From The Apocalypse; As The Seas Turn Red, which was nominated for an Elgin Award twice; and Hemlock And Hellfire: Poems About Witches And Woodlands. She was one of the writers for the award- winning audio drama Undertow: Blood Forest and its follow-up Undertow: The Pulse. Sylvia belongs to several writers’ groups: the HWA, the SFWA, the New England Horror Writers, Horror Writers of Maine, and Tuesday Mayhem Society. She also occasionally dabbles in metal journalism. She lives in Maine with her boyfriend, two cats, two evil goldfish, the cutest rescue dog ever, an overgrown rose garden, and a pet banshee. Forthcoming works include The Bloodgold Queen: Book 2 of The Aris Trilogy; a short story collection; and a graphic novel collaboration. Recommended Reading: The Serpents Of Twilight, released October 2024. A poem from the collection: The Scaled Ones They wait here, the angry ones Haunting this misty wood Ferocious, the shadows Fanged and clawed Scales glitter in the moonlight Their whisper is sacred Their whisper is truth They kiss you with their poisoned truths They bind you with their poisoned dreams Split tongues caress you Turn your face to the moon —They are coming Turn your face to the sky —They are here Dream again that obliteration As darkness pushes in closer Pallid scaled things crawl out of the earth As if they too, had been called The cobras knew this was coming They dance and weave beneath a fading sky As the cities fall into chaos You slip into the abyss Starlight and madness Rage wrapped in ebony scales Shadows dance before your madness (She bound them once, but they escaped) We gather leaves and moss and we watch the lights on the horizon We whisper poison shadow against the red moon Tiamat twists through the night sky And the scaled ones twist in ecstasy They are death They are deliverance They are the change that will burn this world The cobras knew this when we were stardust They knew that we came from the skies We were all once parts of dying suns We have always been dust Molded into flesh and bone Perhaps we are remembering now Perhaps we are all Only waiting To go home Follow Sylvia at: https://morgansylvia.net/; Twitter: @MorganSylvia11; FaceBook: https:/morgansylvia13 Linda D. Addison recommends: Michele Tracy Berger is the Eric and Jane Nord Family Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and director of the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University. She has a secondary appointment in the Department of English. Her short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction has appeared in 100 Word Story, Apex Magazine, Glint Literary Journal, The Wild Word, Blood and Bourbon, FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, Midnight and Indigo, Oracle: Fine Arts Review, Carolina Woman, Ms., and various anthologies. She is the 2019 winner of the Carl Brandon Kindred Award from the Carl Brandon Society for her story “Doll Seed” published in FIYAH: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. Much of her work explores psychological horror, especially through issues of race and gender. Doll Seed: Stories from Aunt Lute Books is a delicately wrought collection of speculative stories that spans horror, fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism, but are always grounded in very real characters and beautifully rendered distinctive communities from the past fuel realities of the future. Recommended Reading: Doll Seed: Stories, released October 2024. An excerpt from the story “And They Will Rise From the Oceans:” Isabella could not bear to see Pascal in pain. Her fiancé writhed at the table as the water spirit occupied his body and disrupted what had been a peaceful and uneventful séance. He had never summoned a non- human spirit before, and Isabella didn’t know why he had now. Sweat ran down her back, the cold rivulets dampening her elegant flapper dress dotted with intricate blue beading. Moisture pooled at her hairline. Miles’ and Elliot’s tight brown faces looked as bewildered as she felt. For once Miles was speechless while they sat at the table. Her lips trembled watching her beloved’s face contort. Pascal’s eyebrows knotted together, the veins in his prominent forehead bulged. His mouth tightened and his skin took on an oily sheen. Why would he open himself to this spirit? Why would he possibly invite something like this? Ever since his trip to the wild places of Egypt, Tunis, Arabia, he had come back unsettled. He spoke of the mysteries of rivers, great water spirits, and the power of oceans. As water in the crystal glasses on the table gently bubbled—another manifestation of the spirit’s presence —she felt a chilling fear toward Pascal’s obsession with water. It will lead to no good. … Pascal’s shuddering jerk brought her attention back. She noticed his eyes watered. “What have you come to tell us?” she said, finding her voice at last. “What’s your name?” Miles interrupted. It’s here for a reason, with or without a name. She clamped down on the irritation that this man brought out in her. “He who has roamed many lands,” the spirit began, its voice sharp and clear like a pin prick on her skin, “and now seeks the waters, knows my name. He wants the secrets of my brothers and sisters.” Follow Berger at: https://www.micheletracyberger.com/; Facebook: michele.berger.56.