Steeped
October 30, 2026 by Dianna Sinovic in category Quill and Moss by Dianna Sinovic, Writing tagged as Dianna Sinovic, ghosts, short fiction, writing
The wind gusting outside woke Tabitha. She sat up on the couch, blinking in the dim light of late afternoon. She’d only meant to close her eyes for a few minutes, resting after sweeping the porch of dried leaves the breeze kept depositing there. And now it was … maybe five-thirty?
Angie would be home soon, if she didn’t have an evening meeting or dinner out with friends. Tabitha tried to remember her daughter’s schedule. At eighty-two, it was enough to recall her own to-do list each day, let alone someone else’s.
Tabitha felt around on the couch for her phone, but it was probably on the kitchen counter, next to the teapot. And her eyeglasses? Reaching for them, her arm brushed her teacup on the end table, sending the cup and the glasses flying into the darkness.
A shutter banged against the house, and a stair on the flight to the second floor creaked.
“Hello?” Tabitha said. “Angie?”
She strained to hear anything in the silence that responded. From the far corner of the living room, a shape moved.
“Who’s there?” Her voice wavered with uncertainty. She didn’t believe in ghosts. An intruder then? Tabitha gripped a couch pillow. If nothing else, she could use it knock the thief off balance when they attacked.
Unprompted, her mind flooded with memories of Caroline. As a young friend, when they were both mothers of small children, sharing a pot of lapsang tea while they gossiped. As a middle-aged companion taking that Caribbean cruise when Tabitha misplaced her favorite scarf. As an older woman hiking with her along the river towpath, trekking poles in hand.
Caroline, who passed on last month, before Tabitha could say farewell.
Yes, it’s me. The shape from the corner advanced.
Tabitha sucked in a breath. Was she dreaming? “But you’re dead.”
The form morphed into a faint, flickering image of her friend. You never kept in touch. Though not spoken aloud, Caroline’s words held a sharp bite of accusation.
“I did,” Tabitha protested. She let the pillow slide out of her hands, back onto the couch. “I called. I visited. Just not … later.”
Not when I was at my sickest. Caroline drifted across the room and back. A slight weight pressed on Tabitha’s hand—her eyeglasses. And from the end table came a soft clink of cup to saucer. Her friend couldn’t stop tidying even beyond the grave.
She slipped the glasses on, but Caroline’s image remained blurry. “I was scared,” Tabitha said. “I couldn’t offer you anything that would heal you, so I stayed away.” A coward, she acknowledged to herself. “I’m sorry.”
A light flipped on in the foyer.
“Mom?” Angie stood just inside the front door. “Why are you sitting in the dark?” She turned on a floor lamp, banishing the shadows from the room. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Tabitha said. She searched for Caroline and caught a slight shimmer near the windows. “Just dozing.”
A warmth enveloped her, a sense of serenity. You’re forgiven. The flicker died away. Have a cup of lapsang for me. Only the scent of the smoky brew lingered.
Books with more of Dianna’s stories
Dianna Sinovic, Featured Author
September 27, 2026 by Dianna Sinovic in category Featured Author of the Month tagged as Dianna Sinovic, Featured author, Scream of the Silent Sun
Author of the Month: Dianna Sinovic
Born and raised in the Midwest, Dianna has also lived in three other quadrants of the U.S. She writes short stories, poetry and novels. Her full-length novel, Scream of the Silent Sun, was a finalist in the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for first novel.
She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Horror Writers Association, The American Medical Writers Association, and The Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC.
Dianna helped edit Celebrating: 20 Years of Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales which includes her story, “Tommy.” She is a contributing author in the last four anthologies from The Bethlehem Writers Group, Season’s Readings: More Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales, An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny and Strange Tales of Intrigue, Fur, Feathers, and Scales, Sweet, Funny Animal Tales and Untethered, Sweet, Funny & Strange Tales of the Paranormal. In addition to being Chief Editor of the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable ezine, she also contributes stories and articles.
Since writing and editing is clearly not enough work, Dianna is also a Book Coach. You can learn more about that on her website: https://dianna-sinovic.com/.
Dianna has a regular column here on A Slice of Orange, titled Quill and Moss, in which she frequently includes short fiction.
Dianna Sinovic’s novel and some of thebooks that contain her short stories.
Dianna Sinovic, Featured Author
September 15, 2026 by Dianna Sinovic in category Featured Author of the Month tagged as Dianna Sinovic, Featured author, Scream of the Silent Sun
Author of the Month: Dianna Sinovic
Born and raised in the Midwest, Dianna has also lived in three other quadrants of the U.S. She writes short stories, poetry and novels. Her full-length novel, Scream of the Silent Sun, was a finalist in the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for first novel.
She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Horror Writers Association, The American Medical Writers Association, and The Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC.
Dianna helped edit Celebrating: 20 Years of Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales which includes her story, “Tommy.” She is a contributing author in the last four anthologies from The Bethlehem Writers Group, Season’s Readings: More Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales, An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny and Strange Tales of Intrigue, Fur, Feathers, and Scales, Sweet, Funny Animal Tales and Untethered, Sweet, Funny & Strange Tales of the Paranormal. In addition to being Chief Editor of the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable ezine, she also contributes stories and articles.
Since writing and editing is clearly not enough work, Dianna is also a Book Coach. You can learn more about that on her website: https://dianna-sinovic.com/.
Dianna has a regular column here on A Slice of Orange, titled Quill and Moss, in which she frequently includes short fiction.
Dianna Sinovic’s novel and some of thebooks that contain her short stories.
Dianna Sinovic, Featured Author
September 1, 2026 by Dianna Sinovic in category Featured Author of the Month tagged as Dianna Sinovic, Featured author, Scream of the Silent Sun
Author of the Month: Dianna Sinovic
Born and raised in the Midwest, Dianna has also lived in three other quadrants of the U.S. She writes short stories, poetry and novels. Her full-length novel, Scream of the Silent Sun, was a finalist in the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for first novel.
She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Horror Writers Association, The American Medical Writers Association, and The Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC.
Dianna helped edit Celebrating: 20 Years of Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales which includes her story, “Tommy.” She is a contributing author in the last four anthologies from The Bethlehem Writers Group, Season’s Readings: More Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales, An Element of Mystery: Sweet, Funny and Strange Tales of Intrigue, Fur, Feathers, and Scales, Sweet, Funny Animal Tales and Untethered, Sweet, Funny & Strange Tales of the Paranormal. In addition to being Chief Editor of the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable ezine, she also contributes stories and articles.
Since writing and editing is clearly not enough work, Dianna is also a Book Coach. You can learn more about that on her website: https://dianna-sinovic.com/.
Dianna has a regular column here on A Slice of Orange, titled Quill and Moss, in which she frequently includes short fiction.
Dianna Sinovic’s novel and some of thebooks that contain her short stories.
Mother Nature Knows . . . Best
July 13, 2026 by Bethlehem Writers Group in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group tagged as Bethlehem Writers Group LLC, Dianna Sinovic, eco-horror, nature
We’re in the midst of summer here in Southeast Pennsylvania, a time for hiking in the woods, camping in the forest, picnicking near a lake—even walking on the beach at the Jersey Shore. Nature is ours to enjoy, right?
We often view nature as “safe,” but seen through the lens of a horror writer, nature can also be unpredictable and dangerous. That’s the horror sub-genre of biological or ecological horror, in which nature has the final word. These days, with a rapidly changing climate, the natural world can pose an even greater threat.
Even though the term eco-horror may seem new, the idea of (hu)man vs. nature has been around for hundreds of years as a plot device. The natural world can be a pretty scary place, even when it’s not depicted as evil, and especially if you think you have it all figured out. Consider the films 27 Hours or All Is Lost.
“In eco-horror, nature isn’t good,” says JP Ruz on Slow Burn Horror. “But it’s not evil either; it just is.”
In mid-20th century films, natural horror frequently focused on creatures: Godzilla, that Creature from the Black Lagoon, giant ants (Them!). It was a way to address humanity’s fear at that time of nuclear annihilation and radiation exposure.
Creatures continue to be a common eco-horror trope because we can anthropomorphize them, from aliens (Alien) to yetis (Yeti) to sharks (Jaws)—all critters we can “fight.” Other living entities are harder to deal with (or stop) because they are so not human: plants (Little Shop of Horrors), fungi (The Last of Us), viruses (The Stand). Or they are meteorological: tornadoes (Twister), gales (Perfect Storm), snow (Avalanche), floods (The Wave).
Like life in general, humans are usually happiest when they feel in control. When they aren’t, the horror seeps in.
But author and poet Ashia Ajani, writing in Atmos Magazine, asks: “Even when there is a moral at the end of the tale, too much ecological horror begs the question: Should nature be conquered? Subdued?”
Ajani notes that “many of the movies recycle the same tropes: possessed creatures, gory vengeance, and supernatural phenomena that speak more to our own fear of annihilation instead of addressing the uneven wounds we’ve created all over the globe.”
Several recent novels that explore eco-horror include Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, also a movie; The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan, and The Brood by Rebecca Baum.
Naomi Booth, writing in the New York Times, adds, “In eco-horror, we witness acts of environmental violence currently hidden from sight; we might see who suffers most and who gains by that suffering.”
That’s because climate change doesn’t treat everyone equally, Ajani says. Instead it worsens existing inequities.
This is good fodder for story creation. As Booth says, “at its most effective, eco-horror compels us not to look away. It attempts to close the distance between the reader and sufferers of environmental disaster, and when it really gets under the skin.”
Speaking of skin, author Erica Ferencik, whose novel The Blooming releases early next year, noted at a recent conference panel on eco-horror noted that our internal body temperature is cooling (it’s no longer 98.6F, but roughly 97.5F), making it easier for fungi to invade through that very skin . . .
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