Selected Papers from the Consortium for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena

Series · 5 books · 2023-2025

By S.H. Cooper, Kate Maruyama, Elizabeth Broadbent, and more

Books in series

Bleak Houses

Safer & Family Solstice

2023

The Selected Papers From the Consortium for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena presents two tales of family misadventures penned by Kate Maruyama. SAFER Los Angeles is in lockdown, "Safer at home," so Soledad, a college student, jumps at the opportunity to be live-in caretaker for Story, the son of an A-list celebrity. Solid pay and a change of scene are just what she needs in the pandemic. The parents are high maintenance, but she and Story form a quick bond. The dazzling lifestyle shows its dark underside when unsettling occurrences mount. Now it turns out the job that would set Soledad up for college might derail her life entirely if she decides to keep Story safer. FAMILY SOLSTICE The Massey family has a secret and Shea, the youngest, will be the last to find out exactly what's in the basement. She's been training hard for her 13th year when it will finally be her turn to perform the family duty of fighting. Her older siblings won't tell her anything, but she's excited and ready to take all comers. Even if they had, nothing could truly prepare her for what she has to face. These compelling explorations of dark family secrets fearlessly delve into some of today's most relevant and troubling issues. In Safer, Maruyama explores what parents will do for a child, and what happens to outsiders in unsafe houses, while Family Solstice addresses the dangers of tradition, inheritance and the sins of the father.

12 Hours

2024

The cabbie only remembers taking a break, pulling over in an alley to catch both his breath and the sunrise. His windshield shatters, and two people dash away. He tries to scream, to move, but his neck won’t turn. He can only stare at the cab’s dirty ceiling. Finally, a deliveryman calls the cops. Surely, they’ll arrive soon, but we’re pinned in place right along with him as he tries to puzzle it all out. In this second installment of the CSAP novella series, award-winning author L. Marie Wood uses her descriptive powers to bring us fully into one incident in a person’s life, and hold us there, transfixed, until we see it all, crystal clear.

Errant Roots

2024

Deirdre's family tree was never something she thought much about. For 24 years it's just been her and her mother. But when she accidentally gets pregnant her mother insists they go back to their family roots. Now Deirdre is about to discover just what kind of sinister soil her family has sprouted from.

Blood Cypress

2025

No one cares when Lila Carson’s ten-year-old brother Beau disappears. He can’t speak. He throws tantrums. He’s a useless Carson, one of those kids in a broken-shuttered house that lost its glory when his father died. When the sheriff and his good ol’ boy deputies show up to investigate, they eye up Lila and call her twin brother, Quentin, names. A closeted bisexual girl in the South, she’s terrified. Lower Congaree recites it like an eleventh commandment: Don’t go in that swamp. But as the long night drags on, it’s clear Beau disappeared behind those ancient trees. The sheriff’s deputies won’t risk going back there. Lila might not have a choice.

Bottling His Ghosts

2025

After a tragic accident leaves her widowed, Netta flees home to Daunderhead hoping for the space to process her grief. Instead, she finds her cousin, Thorn, once like a brother to her, swimming at the bottom of every bottle he can find. Her parents, unable to break him from his alcoholic stupor, have grown despondent and resigned to his fate; and her once beautiful childhood home has fallen into the grasp of nefarious ghosts whose goals remain unclear. Refusing to allow another tragedy to befall her family, Netta takes it upon herself to help her cousin and–hopefully–stop the hauntings.

Authors

S.H. Cooper

Author · 9 books

S.H. Cooper is a Florida based, multi-genre author with a focus on horror and fantasy. Her titles include the Victorian gothic novella, INHERITING HER GHOSTS, the cosmic horror novella, THE FESTERING ONES, and the YA fantasy novel, THE KNIGHT'S DAUGHTER, in addition to three short story collections and the horror comedy podcast, Calling Darkness. She is also a regular contributor to the award winning anthology series, The NoSleep Podcast. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband, pets, and a cup of Earl Grey.

Kate Maruyama

Author · 4 books

Kate Maruyama writes, teaches, cooks, and eats in Los Angeles, where she lives with her family. Her novel, Harrowgate was published by 47North in 2013 and her novella Family Solstice, out now from Omnium Gatherum was named Best Fiction Book of the 2021 by Rue Morgue Magazine. Her duo of novellas, Bleak Houses is coming from Raw Dog Screaming Press August 3, 2023. Her short work has been published in Asimov's Magazine, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, The Coachella Review, and on Entropy, Gemini Magazine, Salon, The Rumpus and Duende, among others. She has two upcoming novels, The Collective a horror novel serialized from Writ Large Press, and a family drama, Alterations coming from Running Wild Press in 2024. She is a member of the SFWA and HWA where she serves on the Diverse Works Inclusion Committee. She has served as a jury chair for The Bram Stoker Awards and twice as a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards. You can keep up with Kate's news with her newsletter, Read. Write. Cook. which you can sign up for on her website!

Elizabeth Broadbent

Author · 3 books

Elizabeth Broadbent (she/her) left the South Carolina swamps for the Commonwealth of Virginia. She’s the author of Ink Vine (Undertaker Books), Ninety-Eight Sabers (Undertaker Books), Blood Cypress (2025, Raw Dog Screaming Press), and Breaking Neverland (2026, Sley House Publications). Her speculative fiction has appeared with Hyphenpunk, Tales to Terrify, If There's Anyone Left, Penumbric, and The Cafe Irreal, among other places. During her long career as a journalist, her nonfiction appeared in places such as The Washington Post, Insider, and ADDitude Magazine.

L. Marie Wood

Author · 10 books

L. Marie Wood is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is the recipient of the Golden Stake Award for her novel The Promise Keeper, as well as the Harold L. Brown Award for her screenplay Home Party. Her short story, "The Ever After" is part of the Bram Stoker Award Finalist anthology Sycorax's Daughters. Wood was recognized in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Vol. 15 and as one of the 100+ Black Women in Horror Fiction. Wood holds an MFA in Speculative Fiction from Southern New Hampshire University and serves as the Director of Curricula for the Diverse Writers and Artists of Speculative Fiction (DWASF.org). She is also the Director of the horror track for MultiverseCon. Visit lmariewood.com to learn more.

Sonora Taylor

Author · 10 books