Announcing the Season 10, Round 2 Lunar Award Winner for Horror

Celebrating the best Horror stories from Round 2

I'm a fan of horror movies, but I haven't read a ton of horror fiction, especially not horror short stories. My exposure to horror has been King novels (The Shining, Cujo, Misery, The Stand, The Outsider); Robert McCammon's Swan Song, A Boy's Life, Speaks the Nightbird; Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart; and Joe Hill’s collection Full Throttle. Lately, I've enjoyed Timber Ghost Press' novellas and Sentinel Creatives' medieval and cosmic horror books. Other than that, my horror consumption has been from you all, the horror writers of Substack. And you did not disappoint.

I included the horror genre in the Lunar Awards because it's such an inventive, adaptive, and hard-to-pin-down genre. It may feature scary things that go bump in the night, but it excels at exploring the human condition through shared suffering. We build empathy with the character(s) if done well. Suffering for suffering's sake isn’t really the appeal (for me), but knowing that others can overcome their plight gives us some semblance of hope in our own lives. Although some of us just love cool, dark stuff.

Shaina Read

, writer of Kindling and Macabre Monday, will take it from here to announce the winner and runner-up of Round 2. It was not easy to narrow down a winner from 43 submissions, but she did it. Congratulations to the winner and to everyone who participated. You should be proud of what you accomplished and the work you put in. ~ WM

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Before I announce the winner, I wanted to give you something that I crave when I’m being “judged” on my writing: the why. If you have never set out with the arduous task of choosing “the best” from forty-three short stories, you might imagine this would be simple. We like to think that good writers are few and far between, but if you have spent any time on this platform, you will know the opposite is true. There are many good writers here, and the stories presented are exceptional.

So, how did I choose?

There are the ordinary grammatical and syntactical conventions to evaluate, but come on. We all know there is more to a story than that.

Characters. Some of you wrote stunning prose, but I admit I wanted someone to follow around for a while. I’m one of those readers desperately interested in the inner worlds and dialogue of people. I wanted to feel like I was seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. I wanted to–forgive the description–try on their skin.

Dialogue. Inner or outer, this makes or breaks a story for me. It gives color, texture, personality to the people you write about. We all know you can have great cinematography in a movie, but if the script is bad? Forget about it. The stories I chose had believable conversations and thoughts. They gave me interesting insight into a character. They made these imaginary people flesh.

Cohesion. Some of the art of storytelling lies in this skill. Everything written should be there for a reason. A reader should be able to see it. Each event leading to the climax should make us grip the page a little harder. We should be able to sense where the story is going, even if it doesn’t actually land there. We’re being taken for a ride, and not one paragraph is unnecessary.

And finally, horror. Was I nervous? Did I have a sense that something very bad was going to happen? Did it scare me?

I write this to let you know the truth, which is that my judgment is subjective. Ultimately, I looked for a horror story, one with characters I cared about, people who felt real to me. I wanted to be swept up in your created worlds, and the stories I mention here took me there. Some of it is science (there were no errors so grievous as to take me back to my dimly lit living room), and some of it is art. I chose the stories that I could not stop reading. I picked the ones that I came back to again and again.

You all deserve applause for your submissions. You made this unbelievably hard on me. Keep writing.

Lunar Award Winner -

Ashley T.K.

The winner of Round 2 of The Lunar Awards is Dark Out There. The story follows Ogden, a thief and murderer running from the law, and something much darker. His journey takes him and his accomplices through winding mountains, trying desperately to escape an inevitable reckoning. A western horror meets supernatural slasher that kept me on the edge of my seat. It started right in the middle of the action and never let up.

There isn’t a word out of place, not one memory or description that takes us out of the tension. It is as if we are dropped out of the sky, directly in the center of desperate flight. There is no tiring information dump to take us to where Ogden is. We simply zoom in and learn the details as he struggles to escape “a dark rider on a black horse.” The reader is spellbound, strapped on the fleeing horse as Ogden and his ill-fated party drive deeper into the snowy mountain crags. The strength here lies in the author’s ability to make us care about the fate of three criminals. Their circumstances are so dire, the assailant following behind so horrific, I found myself hoping the three men would escape, imagining they committed their crimes for good reason. Surely nothing they did could warrant this fate.

The tense and perspective (present and third-person limited) bring us skin close to Ogden. We understand the world through his senses: the wind chill against his chapped skin, the cold, desperate misery of exhaustion, the smell of hard tack and sausage in the morning. The progression was perfect, the climax, horrific. The prose and imagery were effortless, taking us into the scene, the feel, the heat of the story, without wasting words or waxing poetic.

This story could have been told in a linear fashion. The events are somewhat straightforward. The nod to the slasher genre (an invincible pursuer out for revenge) could have made this story tropey, too obvious for most seasoned horror readers. But this is where it soars. We feel comfortably seated in the genre (I know what this is), but the variation in storytelling mechanics (switching from dialogue to description, from present tense to memory) makes us so connected to the characters. We have a sense of where things are going, but we hope they won’t. We’re begging for the black rider to stop. Hoping, as so many of us horror fans do, for the best, but expecting the inevitable.

Runner-Up -

Sean Thomas McDonnell

The runner-up for Round 2 of The Lunar Awards is Sticks. An original, twisting tale of survival told from the perspective of a young girl who escapes her kidnapper. The prose is like a poem, telling events between repeated mantras and watery memories that keep the girl alive while she lives trapped in a cage. Nothing is as it seems here, as we learn who her kidnapper is and how she came to suffer such a grueling fate.

Part true crime, part prayer, this unusually woven story surprised me again and again. The story unfolds like a fever dream in a succession that feels like drowning, and the ending like coming up for air. It isn’t something typical in horror–the pretty writing, the metaphorical descriptions–and yet the contrast of her beautiful descriptions against the dark shroud of her reality is what draws the reader in. What is this? Who is this? Those questions drive us to read.

The girl's isolation can be felt, with the present tense, first-person perspective casting a muffled quality over the experience. There is almost no dialogue. The reader is trapped with her, experiencing everything from within her own mind. Time is an illusion as we swim in and out of present and past, dream and reality, prayer and action. A beautifully told horror story with an ending I never guessed.

Honorable Mentions

Cold-Blŭdded by

Stephen Duffy

I adored this story. A masterful blend of gothic horror and courtroom drama, this atmospheric tale grips from the first cough of Justice Eldridge to the final chilling line. Its greatest strengths lie in its characters, especially the poised yet unraveling Lady Felicity, the cunning prosecutor Hawthorne, and the unnervingly charming Leclair. Dialogue creates tension, and the sensory detail is immersive. Cleverly structured and full of dread, the story builds a creeping horror beneath the guise of civility, culminating in a satisfyingly sinister twist that lingers like a shadow.

Prisoners of War by

A.P. Murphy

A story of collective reckoning, Prisoners of War takes us to the darkest places of humanity, and like many timeless horror stories, forces us to look at ourselves in the mirror. When a soldier returns from the battlefield, he reckons with the horrors he committed by putting the town on trial, one person at a time. I found this story to be such a devastating look at humanity in its most monstrous and vulnerable form. A serious story–no fun here–that still managed to surprise me, but not in a good way. This is the power of horror on display. Despair, devastation, reflection.

Swath of Scarlet, Tie These Bitter Hands by

Dylan T. Bosworth

This piece is a darkly lyrical meditation on generational trauma, monstrosity, and the visceral weight of memory, all filtered through the grotesque intimacy of the body—especially the hands, which serve as both tools of violence and longing. The narrator’s voice is hypnotic and raw, blending horror with mournful reflection in a way that makes the monstrous feel deeply human, and the human, terrifyingly alien.

Additional Standout Stories

I have to include the stories that touched me. It is a ridiculous task to have to choose one or two, so here are some others that I have been carrying with me, and which I thought should be mentioned:

Ashbrae Hollows

Holes

Joy Ride

Queen of the Hill

Roadside Crosses

The Snack Machine

When She Kissed the Earth

Killstarter

Eyes on the Side

Ice & Candlelight

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Closing Remarks

Lunar Awards Round 2 has officially come to a close. Congrats to the winner and runner-up. I’ll reach out shortly to provide you with your optional offers and prizes. If not accepted, the publication offer will go to the next highest-rated story. At the end of the year, these stories will be compiled into a book published by Storyletter XPress Publishing and shipped to annual subscribers.

Thank you, Shaina, for taking the time to judge this round. It’s more difficult than it seems, but I knew I could trust your assessment. I highly recommend others check out her horror stories on her Substack, Kindling. You won’t be disappointed!

The Lunar Awards will return for Round 3 (Science Fiction) on May 15th, hosted by

Simon K Jones

. Get those sci-fi stories ready!

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List of participating stories and authors

A Stranger on a Strange Shore by Jessica Maison

A Taste of Love in Hearts and Minds by E. H. Lau

Abyssal Intelligence by Theo Priestley

Animal Magic by FranB

Ashbrae Hollows by Dystopian Think Tank

Cold-Blŭdded by Stephen Duffy

Conjugation by Douglas McClenaghan

Dark Out There by Ashley T.K.

Eyes on the Side by EJ Trask

Ghoulfriend by David Perlmutter

Gigi Talcon’s Award Winning Gardenias by Reina Cruz

Graphomaniac by Kathrine Elaine

Halo Hagios by Garen Marie

Hole by Copper Frog

Holes by Shawn Brooks

Hopi Springs by A. R. Eldridge

I'm Just Like You by James Finch

Ice & Candlelight by Ian Dunmore

Joy Ride by Maegan Heil

Killstarter by Andy Futuro

Lady Margo's Feast by Wendy Cockcroft

Let Them Eat Cake by WS Ribelin

MuseConnect by S.L. Stallings

Occupied: A Bathroom Horror Story by Drew Valdez

Over and Out by Jack Croxall

Pictures of You by Emma Steel

Prisoners of War by A.P. Murphy

Queen of Corvids by J. M. Allen

Queen of the Hill by Sam Rake

Resurrection Diaries by Tony Campbell

Roadside Crosses by Elliot Black

Sticks by Sean Thomas McDonnell

Swath of Scarlet, Tie These Bitter Hands by Dylan T. Bosworth

The Club by Daniel O’Donnell

The Game by Jason Duck

The Irish King by Hanna Delaney

The Shame by Nick Winney

The Snack Machine by Jean Marie Bauhaus

This Little Life by E.M.R

Tooth Fairy by Shane Bzdok

Tu me manques by Rachael Varca

Unfit for Human Perception by Gordon

When She Kissed the Earth by Keith Long

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Round 2 Banner Design by Winston Malone.

Horror Badge Award and Lunar Award Logo by Brian Reindel.

Author names added post review by Winston Malone. All stories were read and judged without attribution.