Announcing the authors breathing life into our upcoming anthology

Includes details on the XPress Book Box

Jan 26, 2025

I finished reading the submissions for Take a Breath: A Collection of Claustrophobic Horror and emailed my decisions to the 79 authors who shared their stories. Let me first say that I had a wonderful experience reading them and was blown away by the creative storytelling, originality, and variety of voices. I wish I could publish more anthologies this year. I suppose the Lunar Awards will fill that need.

I narrowed it down to 17 entries. The decision-making process was challenging, as the quality was high across the board. I’ve offered a feedback option in my rejection letters, and the authors requesting it will receive it soon.

Thank you for sharing your terrifying stories with me. I can’t wait to finalize this book and get it into readers’ hands this summer. Separately, I’m working with my local Barnes & Noble to set up a signing booth—more info to come on that front.

Please celebrate the following authors who will be featured in the Take a Breath (TaB) anthology. Congratulations on your upcoming publication!

A banner for marketing purposes only. The final cover art and design are to be revealed later.

Featured authors

Edward Ahern
Warren Benedetto
Rose Biggin
Clark Boyd
Matthew Christian
Sam Crain
Elana Gomel
Rachel Henderson
Juliette Jarabek
Ilan Jones
Hamish Kavanagh
C.R. Langille
Angus McIntyre
Thomas North
Leigh Parrish
Pip Pinkerton
Nidheesh Samant

Authors: If your name is misspelled, or you wish to have it altered, please let me know in the comments or by email.

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Like last year, I’ll send the featured authors a complimentary copy of their published hardcover book in a special box. Whether you have or haven’t been published, holding a physical copy of your work is always an exciting experience, and I want to share that with as many authors as possible.

This book box will also be available to yearly and founding members. Those who sign up before TaB releases in the summer will get last year’s box featuring our first anthology, Take Me There (TMT), shipped to them as well. TMT was recently shortlisted as 1 of 16 indie books highlighted in the first Reedsy Editors’ Choice Awards.

I aim to eventually ship quarterly or monthly book boxes featuring a wide range of indie books (not just from my press). The shipping and material costs are high, so I will lose money until at least 50 XPress members have come aboard (we’re at 32). However, the physical products bring the most value to my writers and readers, which makes it worth it to me.

For current free and monthly paid subscribers, please let me know what I can do to earn your upgrade to yearly. Substack’s strict payment options make it awkward for me, so I’m trying to maintain the month-to-month value, even though publishing fiction doesn’t always work that way.

I greatly appreciate all my subscribers' support. Without your comments, I wouldn’t be able to maintain this. Thank you to all who believe in me enough to keep this experimental project on track! ~ WM