Writer and multimedia artist Patrick Tumblety, best known for his audio series “The October Children,” has a busy Halloween season ahead with three new releases planned for 2025. Tumblety has shared that this year he’ll be releasing a new novel, a short story collection, and an anthology entry.
The October Children
The first release is “The October Children.” Based on his popular audio series, the book comprises over a dozen short stories and poems from the show as well as all-new stories written just for the book. Tumblety selected the stories based on each piece’s appeal to both children and adults, as well as those that shared a mix of Halloween and fall vibes. To bring the stories to life, Tumblety teamed up with artist Drew Rausch to create a fully illustrated book that captures the magic of the Halloween season. The book will be available in hardback and paperback on Monday, September 15. Both will be available from the October Night Press website. The paperback version will be available through Amazon.
One Fright Only
On September 21, Tumblety’s latest novel, “One Fright Only,” will be released on Godless as an e-book, before being made available on Amazon as an e-book or paperback on October 4. The all-new horror mystery novel tells the story of David, a man who gets a job to help support his family at a local farm that hosts a haunted attraction – one night only – on All Hallows’ Eve. Although he’s relieved to have a fun job, one staff member is missing, another disappears under strange circumstances, and a mounting pile of evidence leads David to suspect a disaster will occur on Halloween night.
“‘One Fright Only’ is a rumination on how we view violence through different lenses, figuratively and literally,” says Tumblety. “Violence viewed on a movie screen evokes different feelings than on a security monitor. We also view violence and death through our celebration of it with Halloween. This story is about the surreal realization of celebrating death while real death is happening around you. I wanted to offer realistic relationships, situations, and motivations just as ‘Scream’ and other meta-slashers did in the nineties, while drawing on my love of haunted attractions as a creepy but fun setting.”
Hotel of Haunts
Finally, on October 13, Tumblety will have a story featured in a new anthology from Watertower Hill Publishing titled “Hotel of Haunts.” Edited by Heather Daughrity with a foreword by Lindy Ryan, “Hotel of Haunts” revolves around Hotel Ethel, a hotel with a dark history of the supernatural. Each writer in the anthology takes on a different room to reveal its terrifying history, with 23 tales in total. Tumblety selected the lobby as the setting for his story, sharing, “I chose the lobby and made my main character the hotel’s doorman. I wanted to explore what kind of person would willingly open a door to innocent people, knowing they might not make it out alive.”
“Hotel of Haunts” will be available in both hardcover and paperback formats and will be available from Amazon, Target, Barnes & Noble, and the Watertower Hill Publishing website.
