Our Authors
Lindz McLeod
Hedone Release: Sunbathers
Bio: Lindz McLeod (she/they) is a queer, working-class, Scottish writer and poet who dabbles in the surreal. Her short prose has been published by Apex, Catapult, Pseudopod, and many more. Her longer work includes the short story collection TURDUCKEN (Spaceboy, 2023), as well as her books BEAST (Hear Us Scream, 2023), SUNBATHERS (Hedone Books, 2024), THE UNLIKELY PURSUIT OF MARY BENNET (Harlequin, 2025), WE, THE DROWNING (Android Press, 2026), and the collaborative anthology AN HONOUR AND A PRIVILEGE (Stanchion, 2025). Her work has been taught in schools, universities, and turned into avant-garde opera. She is a full member of the SFWA, the club president of the Edinburgh Writers' Club, and is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing.
@lindzmcleod on Twitter and bluesky
S. M. Hallow
Hedone Release: How to Survive this Fairytale (January 2025)
Bio: S. M. Hallow is a speculative fiction author whose short stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction. Hallow’s short story “How to Stay Married to Baba Yaga” was included on the Locus 2023 Recommended Reading List and selected for inclusion in the Best of Fantasy, Vol. 3, edited by Paula Guran. Other short stories have appeared in Baffling Magazine, CatsCast, Seize the Press, and Taco Bell Quarterly, among others. Hallow is represented by Laura Zats of Headwater Literary Management. Connect on Twitter @smhallow, Instagram @smhallowink, and TikTok @s.m.hallow
Ashley Michele / Ash
Hedone Release: Forgive Me, Father. 2026
Bio: Ashley Michele (she/they) is your neighborhood queer little witch. She likes snark, stuffies, and dark, fantastical things. She also enjoys writing about mixed latine plus-sized babies (such as herself) getting to live out their best lives with queer and kinky loving. She has a BA from Florida State University that she still hasn’t opened. When she’s not doing library things or sending hour-long voice notes to someone she loves, she can usually be found in her hammock between the trees of her swamp or listening to an audiobook while she paints and catches some sun. You can find them on all socials, Instagram, TikTok, Threads as AshleyMicheleLx or over on their website at Ashleymichelelx.com
William Sterling
Hedone Release: Dead Men's Chests (Dark Sails)
Bio: William Sterling (he/him) is a perpetually overwhelmed, constantly confused author, screenwriter, podcaster, and editor from the void that is Dacula, GA. He tends to write "popcorn flick horror" with big set pieces, absurd kills, and characters that make embarrassingly bad decisions. He doesn't typically write kinky horror, but he can appreciate a good hedonistic yarn along with the moistiest of them.
Twitter: @spooky_sterling
Insta: @spooky_sterling
Website: https://
Z. K. Abraham
Hedone Release: Silk and Foxglove
Bio: Z. K. Abraham (she/her) is a psychiatrist, writer, film critic, and storyteller. She has published short fiction in Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine, Podcastle, Necessary Fiction, JMWW, and more. She has also published non-fiction, film criticism, and poetry, performed many times as a storyteller, and run successful mental health and writing workshops. She attended Weill Cornell Medical College and graduated with a medical doctorate, and works as a psychiatrist. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Masters in Creative Writing with distinction.
She completed the 2024 Tin House Online Winter Workshop.
Also, she is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow for the RLF Reading Round series, leading the group in Edinburgh for 2024-2025.
She is represented by Carleen L. Geisler at ArtHouse Literary Agency.
She can be found on Twitter @ pegasusunder1 , Bluesky @pegasusunder, and Instagram @pegasusunder.
LB Waltz
Hedone Release: The Redamancy
Bio: LB Waltz (they/she/he) has been publishing creative works for over 20 years under various pseudonyms. They enjoy taking walks, biblically accurate depictions of angels, and reading about botanical folklore. If you cannot find them on Twitter, try looking UNDERNEATH THE PERSIMMON TREE.
Shelley Lavigne
Hedone Release: Enamoured and The Flesh of the Sea (with Lor Gislason)
Bio: Shelley Lavigne (they/them) is a fine purveyor of moist literature, usually queer horror. Their stories have appeared in The Dread Machine, Tales to Terrify, If There’s Anyone Left. They've been nominated for a Pushcart. When not writing, they wander their city on the lookout for cool bugs and haunted houses.
You can find them online at shelleylavigne.com
Twitter: shelleysghoul
Instagram: shelley_lavigne
TikTok: shelley_lavigne
Substack: shelleylavigne.substack.com
Sylvester Barzey
Hedone Release: Dead Soil (Dark Sails), Undead Lovers Anthology (2025)
Bio: My name is Sylvester Barzey (he/him) and I am a best-selling horror and fantasy author. I grew up in the Bronx, NY, lived in the smallest state in the country for a while, and then transplanted to Lawrence, GA.
I’m a military veteran with an addiction to all things horror. My overall goal is to shine a spotlight on BIPOC characters within the horror/fantasy genre. From a young age, I was obsessed with horror movies, mostly Slashers. The mythos of the “Final Girl” trope was always something that appealed to me. The act of taking someone and watching them overcome the greatest odds to be the ultimate survivor has been a strong attraction to the horror for me.
But, what I didn’t realize growing up was all these survivors were White. Seeing only one type of person rise, builds blocks within people’s minds, it causes them to think that surviving is a trait only in one race, which is far from the truth. The Black community (Black Women for sure) has survival built into their DNA. History has shown us that overcoming great odds is something Black people have always done.
Being that I couldn’t find the final girls I was looking for (There are some don’t get me wrong and they are amazing), I set out to create them. I want to produce Black heroes who overcome world-shattering events and rise above them. My goal is for people to say Catherine Briggs’ name in the same breath as they say, Sidney Prescott and Laurie Strode. It’s my mission to change horror so that my children can look at it and see themselves as survivors."
Lor Gislason
Hedone Release: Flesh of the Sea | Dark Sails Series Editor
Bio: Lor (they/he) is a non-binary writer focusing on body horror who hails from Vancouver Island, Canada. https://lormaggot.ca/