Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and summer/winter break. I went up in the mountains, to Takayama in Gifu. One of my favorite places in Japan! It has a lovely historical town, plus nice onsen (hot springs) and snowy mountain peaks. And the food is amazing. I highly recommend a... Continue Reading →
SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN!
Hi everyone! Submissions are now open for the new drabbles anthology:' MYTHICAL CREATURES OF ASIA Please read the FULL submission guidelines on the Submissions (Drabbles Series) Page. I'm looking forward to reading everyone's stories! Good luck! ~Kelly Matsuura~
Horror Matsuri #8: ‘Night with the Batibat’ by Maggie D. Brace
Welcome to Week 5 of Horror Matsuri! We'll have another flash story and a poem coming up on Thursday and Friday, plus a blog tour stop on Saturday. Check the calendar here for more details. Today's wonderful contributor, Maggie D. Brace, also had a Persian horror poem published on October 15th. You can check it... Continue Reading →
HORROR MATSURI #7: ‘DECEPTION’ BY THERESE CHOON
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 yōkai 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 →
Happy Release Day! ‘Insignia: Castles & Kimono’ (Insignia Series #8)
HAPPY RELEASE DAY! I'm really excited about this anthology, it's one of my most favorite themes! Thank you to the wonderful contributors who worked with me on this book. CASTLES & KIMONO INSIGNIA VOL.8. includes 8 stories and 1 poem with historical Japanese settings. Release Date: August 27th, 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS 'Waiting... Continue Reading →
New Release: ‘Dragon’s Physician’ by Joyce Chng!
Today, let's celebrate the newly released 'Dragon's Physician' by Joyce Chng! Joyce creates the most exciting worlds, I love her work and think you will too! ~Kelly~ Can Jixin succeed in a world of dragon racing run by powerful women? Can he fight the system and fulfil his dream of becoming a dragon... Continue Reading →