It's Week 4 of Horror Matsuri, and this is Therese Choon's second publication in the series! Check out her poem 'Qingming; Clarity' if you haven't already. Today, enjoy a very creepy yĹŤkai story 🙂 DECEPTION Therese Choon Yokohama comes alive at nine PM, thriving on flickering neon signs and the faint buzz from low-lying electric... Continue Reading →
HORROR MATSURI #6: ‘RUBIES & GOLD’ BY KELLY MATSUURA
HORROR MATSURI #6 / INSTINCTS POETRY #13 How is it Week 4 already? Time to crank things up! We have 3 posts this week, and 4 coming next week...Stay tuned! Today I'm sharing my own freestyle poem. I was inspired by the Indian and Persian myths of a creature similar to a sphinx or chimera,... Continue Reading →
HORROR MATSURI #5: EYE FOR AN EYE’ BY MAGGIE D. BRACE
HORROR MATSURI #5 / INSTINCTS (POETRY) #12 Welcome to Week 3 at Horror Matsuri! Only 2 posts this week, but we have a lot of content coming from Oct 23rd to 31st. Today's poem introduces a new Insignia Stories contributor, Maggie D. Brace. Maggie tells me that this poem was inspired by an article from... Continue Reading →
HORROR MATSURI #4: ‘House #197, Argyll Road’ by Deborah Wong
I hope you're all enjoying Horror Matsuri so far! Today we have a horror story by Malaysian writer, Deborah Wong. Deborah was featured in our Author Spotlight earlier this week, and is a contributor in the Southeast Asian Fantasy Drabbles anthology (links follow the story). HOUSE #197, ARGYLL ROAD by Deborah Wong Beware of the... Continue Reading →
Horror Matsuri #2: ‘One Last Splash’ by Umiyuri Katsuyama & Toshiya Kamei
Welcome to the first week of Horror Matsuri! I hope you enjoyed Therese Choon's poem yesterday. Today I'm sharing the first flash fiction piece. This is an 800-character (in Japanese) story by author Umiyuri Katsuyama, kindly introduced to Insignia by Toshiya Kamei. One Last Splash By Umiyuri Katsuyama Translated by Toshiya Kamei The Li clan... Continue Reading →
INSTINCTS #9: ‘Bedtime’ by Mary Soon Lee
It's poetry day, with another Chinese fantasy piece by Mary Soon Lee! As well as previously sharing a poem in the INSTINCTS series, Mary is also a contributor in Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry, and the newly released Insignia 2020: Best Asian Speculative Fiction. Please enjoy 🙂 BEDTIME Lie still and listen well.... Continue Reading →
INS2020 Excerpt #2: ‘The Craving’ by Tutu Dutta
I've wanted to work with Tutu Dutta for ages, so thrilled to have her story 'The Craving' in our reprint anthology, Insignia 2020: Best Asian Speculative Fiction! Hope you enjoy this teaser... THE CRAVING By Tutu Dutta Excerpt: The afternoon warmed. When the sun set and enveloped the peaceful valley in a warm... Continue Reading →
HAPPY RELEASE DAY!! ‘Japanese Fantasy Drabbles’ is OUT NOW!!
CONGRATULATIONS to all the authors who provided the incredible stories for this collection! It was so much fun to collaborate with past Insignia Series contributors as well as many new international writers. And SPECIAL THANKS to Toshiya Kamei, who translated about 15 of drabbles for this book. He's an INSIGNIA STAR! JAPANESE FANASY DRABBLES (... Continue Reading →
Author Spotlight: SHEENAH FREITAS
After a short break, our Author Spotlight Series is back! Meet one of our regular short story contributors, Sheenah Freitas. Sheenah also has micro pieces in our soon-to-be-released Japanese Fantasy Drabbles anthology! A geek at heart, Sheenah Freitas has a love for the whimsical and magical. She looks to animated Disney movies and Studio... Continue Reading →
Author Spotlight: HEATHER EWINGS
Next in our Author Spotlight series is one of Insignia's original contributors, Heather Ewings! Heather Ewings (whose story Kitsune was published in Insignia Vol. 1 under the name Heather Jensen) is an Australian author of speculative fiction. She has a MA in History, and a fascination with myth and folklore. Aside from Insignia, Heather’s work... Continue Reading →