Kristi Peterson Schoonover
I became acquainted with Kristi through the New England Horror Writers Association. We met at a conference, and quite frankly, there may not be a more interesting group to speak with. So many interesting individual writers with different takes gathered together under their umbrella–but that is another story for another day. Kristi wasn’t at that meeting, but got our website from someone who was and sent me a blind introduction. Her short fiction has appeared in Carpe Articulum, The Adirondack Review, Barbaric Yawp, New Witch Magazine, Toasted Cheese, and others, including several anthologies such as In Poe’s Shadow from Dark Opus Press. She holds an MFA from Goddard College, has received three Norman Mailer Writers Colony Residencies, and is editor for Read Short Fiction. Her horror novel, Bad Apple, is forthcoming from Vagabondage Books.
This submission from her is called “Screams of Autumn”. To quote from her, “A young Connecticut wife discovers that sometimes a scream is better left ignored”. Enjoy:
Emily had just slid a pan of pumpkin seeds in the oven when she heard a scream from outside.
She peered through the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked three acres of tangled woods. Now, on the second weekend of October, they were a brilliant tapestry of yellows, greens, and rusts.
“Ryan,” she called to her husband. “Did you hear that?”
He was a quiet man who liked his easy chair and his books. “Hear what?”
“A scream. I heard a scream. Out there, somewhere.”
“Probably the neighborhood kids.”
The nearest children were at the other end of the block, and they were forbidden to play in the woods.
Again, she heard the scream, the piercing shriek of someone impaled. She hugged her long sweater housecoat close. “You don’t hear it? God, it’s awful.”
The rest of this story can be found here.
Join our TalkCast on 12/17/11 when Kristi will be our guest to talk about her collection, Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole: Tales from Haunted Disney World.
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