Abandoned: Asylum TOC Announcement

Abandoned:Asylum is a unique anthology put together by James Chambers who, over many years, took photos on the site of a defunct asylum in Long Island, NY. Using these photos authors were asked to create snapshots to illuminate the history of the place. Interspersed throughout these stories is documentation from several investigators tasked with exploring the mysterious grounds.

Now that the table of contents has been finalized and we’re ready to announce everyone who is part of the anthology! As previously mentioned we’ll be Kickstarting this book to cover the cost of paying the authors. To get updates about the project please signed up on our pre-launch page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/902466043/abandoned-asylum-a-horror-anthology

Complete Table of Contents

• The Legend of Harvey Delaney by Brian Matthews
• Century by Kathleen Scheiner
• Reflections of a Retired Psychiatric Nurse by Terrie Leigh Relf
• The Groundskeeper by Clay McCleod Chapman
• Asylum Arletta by Mercedes M. Yardley
• The Naxon Plan by Lisa Morton
• Building 96 by Oliver Baer
• Gottle o’ Geer by Elizabeth Massie
• Parasite by Craig DiLouie
• All the Mad, Beautiful Gods Within the Walls by Maxwell I. Gold
• Eyes Everywhere by Danielle Ackley-McPhail
• The Ones Forgotten by Jamal Hodge
• Born in Fire by Steven Van Patten
• Exploring the Storm Cellar on a Dare by Terrie Leigh Relf
• Gate Night by Garrett Boatman
• Shattered Woman In Stasis by Chris Marrs
• The Rhythm Shield by John Palisano
• Gabrielle by Robert P. Ottone
• The Window Hole by Liam Burke
• Watchful Waiting by Terrie Leigh Relf
• Forsaken by Greg ChapmanAbout the Editor

About the Authors

Brian W. Matthews has been writing for more than a decade. He is the author of several novels and many short stories. His most recent works appeared in Space & Time and the iconic Weird Tales magazine. He currently serves as a trustee of the Horror Writers Association (HWA), is a recipient of the HWA’s Silver Hammer Award for outstanding volunteerism within the organization, and the HWA’s Richard Laymon President’s Award. Besides writing, he works as a financial planner, and before that, as a child and adolescent psychologist. He lives in southeast Michigan with his wife.

Kathleen Scheiner is an editor and writer living in Brooklyn, New York. She has written for Publishers Weekly, Scholastic, Chime for Change, L’Ecran Fantastique, Toxic, and Penny Blood. Her novel The Collectors was published in 2013, and her short fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance, A New York State of Fright, Under Twin Suns, A Woman Unbecoming, and many Girls Write Now anthologies. Her reviews, essays, and criticism appear at horrorfeminsta.com.

Terrie Leigh Relf is a lifetime member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and an active member of the Horror Writers Association. She is on staff at Hiraeth Publishing where she is the lead editor and contest judge for Drabble Harvest and the lead editor for Hungur Chronicles and Flash Digest. Relf is also the poetry editor for Tales from the Moonlit Path. In addition to writing and editing, Relf is an English professor, a writing and life coach, and a Reiki Master. 

Clay McLeod Chapman writes books, comic books, and YA/middle grade books, as well as for film and television. His most recent novel is Wake Up and Open Your Eyes.

Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears red lipstick and poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of numerous works including Love is a Crematorium and Other Tales, Darling, the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, Pretty Little Dead Girls, Detritus in Love, and Nameless. She won the Bram Stoker Award for her stories Little Dead Red and “Fracture.” Mercedes lives and works in Las Vegas. You can find her at mercedesmyardley.com.

Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, and prose writer whose work was described by the American Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening.” She is the author of four novels and 200 short stories and is a world-class Halloween and paranormal expert; her awards include the Bram Stoker Award, the Rondo Hatton Award, and the Black Quill Award. Her latest releases include Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances and The Art of the Zombie Movie. Recent short stories appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2020, Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles, and Classic Monsters Unleashed. She has appeared on such popular shows and podcasts as Shock Docs, Coast to Coast, NPR’s Throughline, CNN’S Margins of Error, and Chinwag with Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma, and is also the host of the weekly Ghost Report podcast. Lisa lives in Los Angeles and online at www.lisamorton.com.

Oliver Baer was the editor of Cthulhu Sex Magazine and Two Backed Books and edits role-playing game manuals. His epistolary novel, Letters to the Editor of Cthulhu Sex Magazine, was published in October 2019. His short stories have appeared in Soul Scream Antholozine, Trembling with Fear, Even in the Grave, and other anthologies. His poetry has appeared in Soul Scream Antholozine, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Punk Noir Magazine, Cthulhu Sex Magazine, Horror Between the Sheets, Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Vol. II, and other publications. His book of poetry and photographs, Baer Soul, came out in 2011. His CD of poetry set to music, Gathering Souls, which came out in 2013, spawned the show A Conclave of Baer. The band, Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost, released an EP, Dreams in the Witch House, inspired both by HP Lovecraft and Baer’s poems. He has appeared as an indescribable horror from the depths, sometimes with a light saber. His likeness has appeared on TV and film, and his voice has been heard on radio and podcasts.

Elizabeth Massie is a two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of horror novels, novellas, short fiction, and media-tie ins. She is also a recipient of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been professionally published by Simon & Schuster, Berkley, Pocket Books, Harper, Leisure, Pan, Crossroad Press, and many others. Her novels and collections include Sineater, Hell Gate, The Wages of Belief, Desper Hollow, Madame Cruller’s Couch, Southern Discomfort, The Fear Report, Homeplace, Welcome Back to the Night, Wire Mesh Mothers, It Watching, Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark (co-authored with Mark Rainey), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Power of Persuasion, and more. She is also the creator of the Ameri-Scares series of spooky fiction for middle grade readers. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley with her husband, historical illustrator Cortney Skinner.

Craig DiLouie is an American-Canadian author of horror fiction, with notable titles including Suffer the Children (Simon & Schuster) and The Children of Red Peak, Episode Thirteen, How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive, My Ex The Antichrist, One of Us, and Our War (Hachette Book Group). Learn more at CraigDiLouie.com.

Maxwell I. Gold is a Jewish-American author and poet with an extensive body of work comprising over 350 poems published since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genre. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Maxwell’s work has been recognized with multiple nominations including the Eric Hoffer Award, Pushcart Prize, and Bram Stoker Awards. Find him and his work at www.thewellsoftheweird.com.

Award-winning author, editor, and publisher, Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with Mike McPhail and Greg Schauer to form eSpec Books (www.especbooks.com). Her published works include eight novels, Yesterday’s Dreams, Tomorrow’s Memories, Today’s Promise, The Halfling’s Court, The Redcaps’ Queen, Daire’s Devils, The Play of Light, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the collections Eternal Wanderings, A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, Transcendence, Between Darkness and Light, and the non-fiction writers’ guides The Literary Handyman, More Tips from the Handyman, and LH: Build-A-Book Workshop. She is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Gaslight & Grimm, Side of Good/Side of Evil, After Punk, Footprints in the Stars, The Chaos Clock, and many other anthologies. Her short stories are included in numerous anthologies. She is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and the Horror Writers Association. She lives in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail, and four extremely spoiled cats.

Jamal Hodge is a Bram Stoker Award nominated poet, a multi-award-winning filmmaker, and a member of the SFPA and HWA. He earned Rhysling Award nominations in 2021, 2022, and 2024, with his poem “Colony” winning 2nd place at the 2022 Dwarf Stars. His debut poetry collection, The Dark Between the Twilight, debuted as the #1 hot new American Poetry Release on Amazon in 2024, while his debut anthology, Bestiary of Blood: Modern Fables & Dark Tales, launched as the #1 New Horror Anthology Release on Amazon the same year and was long listed for the BSFA Awards. His work can be found in magazines such as Space & Time, Penumbric, and The Star*line as well as the anthologies: Long Division: Stories of Social Decay & Societal Collapse, Chiral Mad 5, Qualia Nous V.2, Hotel Macabre Vol. 1, You Are Not Alone In The Dark, Unioverse: Stories of The Reconvergence, The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022, The HWA Poetry Showcase Volumes 8 & 11, and Bestiary of Blood: Modern Fables & Dark Tales. For more visit www.Writerhodge.com

Brooklyn native Steven Van Patten is the author of the critically acclaimed Brookwater’s Curse trilogy, about an 1860s Georgia plantation slave who becomes leader of the vampire world. In contrast, the titular character in his Killer Genius series is a modern-day, hyper-intelligent black woman who uses high-end technology as a socially conscious serial killer. SVP has contributed short fiction to over a dozen horror anthologies. He’s won three African-American Literary Awards—two for Hell At The Way Station (Best Anthology and Best In Science Fiction) and one for Best Independent Publisher. He’s written about everything from sleep demons to the Harlem Hellfighters of WWI for episodes of the YouTube series’ Extra History and Extra Mythology. He uses his full name on Facebook but goes by @svpthinks on Twitter and Instagram. When he’s not creating macabre literature, he stage-manages television shows primarily in New York City. Along with being a member of the New York chapter of the Horror Writer’s Association, he’s also a member of the Director’s Guild of America and professional arts fraternity, Gamma Xi Phi. His website is www.laughingblackvampire.com.

Garrett Boatman is the author of the ‘80s “Paperback from Hell, Stage Fright; the hooligan nights novella, Floaters; the dark-fantasy trilogy—Night’s Plutonian Shore, The Clocks of Midnight, and The Mirror of Eternity—and the dreampunk collection, A Prisoner of Dreamland and Other Oneiric Terrors. His stories have appeared in The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories, Savage Realms, Penumbra, and Weird House Magazine among others. Cemetery Dance published his southern gothic novella, Bloody Bones, in 2025. Garrett’s obsession with horror began with this grandmother’s bedtime tales of Bloody Bones and the decapitated man looking for his head on the railroad tracks. She had a few variations, all ending with “I gotcha!” and tickling. Later, a steady diet of Chiller Theatre, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, and horror novels left him with a burning desire to contribute to the madness. A member of HWA, SFWA, and the British Fantasy Society, Garrett lives with his wife and rescue mutt in coastal North Carolina.

Chris Marrs lives with her partner, Craig DiLouie, in Calgary, Alberta where it’s a lot colder and drier than the West Coast she’s used to. She has published novellas, and her short stories have appeared in various anthologies, most notably Bram Stoker award recipient, The Library of the Dead edited by Michael Bailey and the Bram Stoker award-nominated A Darke Fantastique edited by Jason Brock. Her story, “To you I Offer Myself,” appeared in Solstice in Purgatory, and another, “Pieces of Prue,” was published in Terrace V: Penitent’s Gold both from Seventh Terrace Press. She’s an active member of the Horror Writers Association. You can find her lurking on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/chris.marrs.14 or Instagram as hauntedmarrs.

John Palisano’s writing has won the Bram Stoker Award®, the Yog Soggoth Award, been nominated for the Rondo Hatton Award and the Imajinn Award, and has been published and appeared in such notable venues as Vanity Fair, The Los Angeles Times, Blumhouse Online, Cemetery Dance, Fangoria, and more. His screenplays have won acclaim as finalists in Shriekfest, Project Greenlight, Latent Image, and more. His professional career started with an internship and work with Ridley Scott & Associates, then with director Marcus Nispel, Tony Bon Jovi, and more. He is a past President of the Horror Writers Association. John can be found online at www.johnpalisano.com. 

Robert P. Ottone is a two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of There’s Something Sinister in Center Field and The Triangle and is also the best-selling author of Curse of the Cob Man, The Sleepy Hollow Gang, The Vile Thing We Created, and Nocturnal Creatures. His short fiction has been collected in Wrapped in Plastic and Other Sweet Nothings as well as Her Infernal Name & Other Nightmares. He holds two master’s degrees in education, as well as an MFA in Children’s Literature. A bagel-loving fabulist of spooky absurdity, Ottone enjoys cigars, cocktails, and time with his wife.

Liam Burke is an independent author with a passion for juxtaposing biting humor along with the sharp teeth of horror, razor code of cyberpunk, and back alley deals of urban fantasy. His most recent publications include “Formless Jack Out on the Town” in Loki’s Torch, Volume VI; “No Version Like Home” on the Kaleidocast Podcast; and “Posers” in the Escalators To Hell anthology published by Forgotten Press. He is a member of the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers group, SFWA, and the HWA. His website is ssjliam.square.site.

Australian Shadows Award-winner, two-time Bram Stoker Award nominee, and Ditmar Awards nominee, Greg Chapman is a horror author and artist based in Queensland Australia. He is the author of the novels Hollow House, The Noctuary: Pandemonium, and Netherkind and the collections, Black Days and Bloody Nights, Bleak Precision, Hell in Her Wake, Midnight Masquerade, This Sublime Darkness and Other Dark Stories, and Vaudeville and Other Nightmares. His short fiction has also appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. His artistic endeavors include designing book covers for various publishers. The first graphic novel he illustrated, Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, written by Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton, received the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel in 2013. Greg was the President of the Australasian Horror Writers Association from 2017-2020.

About the Editor

James Chambers is a Bram Stoker Award^® and Scribe Award-winning author and a four-time Bram Stoker Award nominee. He is the author of the short story collections A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World, On the Night Border and On the Hierophant Road; the novella collection, The Engines of Sacrifice, and many other novellas, including, Kolchak and the Night Stalkers: The Faceless God and Three Chords of Chaos, as well as The Devil in the Green, The Billabong Trail, and Mount Misery for the Systema Paradoxa series, and The Dead Bear Witness, Tears of Blood, The Dead in Their Masses, and Eyes of the Dead in the Corpse Fauna series. He also wrote the original graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe. His short stories have appeared in anthologies and publications in multiple genres, including crime, fantasy, horror, pulp, science fiction, steampunk, and more. He edited the Bram Stoker Award-nominated anthologies, Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign andA New York State of Fright as well as Even in the Grave and Where the Silent Ones Watch. His website is: www.jameschambersonline.com.