A BOOK WRITING EXPERIENCE - - Kind of A Blog, but not a good blog

The Rising River . . .

gone so long the year is over and many things have happened

6/5/2025

I'm not going to pretend that am great at keeping up this blog, that's not really a blog, but the last eight months, from October 2024 til now, have been an absolute whirlwind. Between two, soon to be three, book releases with my publishing company, Speculation Publications, co-owned with LCW Allingham, and some personal stuff on the side, I feel like the these months have just ran their tire treads right over my skull.

So, I'm going to get right into it. Last December, 2024, we released our second winter lore book, "Evergreen: Tales of Winter Shadows." It's a beautiful book of stories and poetry and magick. I'm not even going to get into how amazing it is, just click the title and follow the link to the book page on our website, and find out for yourself. You'll be so happy you did.

And Go Here to see LCW and me on the Aurura Airways podcast hosted by Jordan Bianchi, an author with a beautiful story in Evergreen: Tales of Winter Shadows: The Hunting Of Tulikettu.

Then! On April Fool's Day, 2024, we released the first Novella of Utter Speculation, Pay the Piper by Sarah Connell. And I'm just going to leave you with this blurb and the link to get the book!

“Sarah Connell’s Pay the Piper is a seamless blend of fairytale strangeness and nods to history. Mixing witches, rats, flutes, broken promises, blood-tithes and the value of family wherever you find them. Pay the Piper is both delightfully grim and Grimm.”
— Angela “A.G.” Slatter, award-winning author of THE CRIMSON ROAD

AND ... STAND BY because TOMORROW, June 6th, 2025 I've got something really amazing for you!

grimm retold release

9/24/2024

Tuesday September 24, 2024 . . .

Speculation Publications is pleased to announce the release of their fifth anthology GRIMM RETOLD: A Collection of Dark Grimm Fairy Tales edited by LCW Allingham and River Eno.

The glossy veneer of happily ever after has fooled readers into believing fairy tales are bright and happy stories; but if you scratch the surface of any story collected by the Brothers Grimm, it bleeds. Manipulation and Murder, Tension and Torture. Grimm Retold cracks open the horror splattered between the pages of the old stories to reveal the thriving darkness within these classic tales.

Grimm Retold is a horror anthology retelling classic Grimm Fairy Tales. With a foreword by Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Grimm Retold has twenty stories and poems, from twenty different authors including the late great Tanith Lee, Carol Gyzander, Ef Deal, Tiffany Morris and many more.

“Perfectly dark and perfectly lovely. This collection reclaims the grimmest bits of Grimm, and makes them the star of each of these tales - told afresh for new audiences, but with a distinctly classical feel.” - A.C. Wise, Author of Hooked and Wendy, Darling

“Thank you to all the authors who have created this book. Phenomenal retelling of the well-known Brother Grimm fairytales. This collection is so much darker than even the original tales were. It's an adult only collection. Full of spice and gore to the extreme. Lovers of Splatterpunk are in for a real treat.” – Goodreads Review

Available worldwide, September 24, 2024 in paperback, ebook and hardback through Speculation Publication’s website: Speculationpub.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and anywhere books and Ebooks are sold.

Cover Art by LCW Allingham
Original Illustrations by Brian Lally

Spec Pub Social Media:
https://twitter.com/UtterSpeculati1
https://instagram.com/specpub?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
https://www.tiktok.com/@utterspec
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093464637177

news from speculation publications

9/1/2024

Heyla humans ... From the Spec Pub newsletter!

It’s been quite a summer here at Speculation Publications; from Quakertown Arts Alive to Downtown Philly fairs, and everything we’ve been doing to make GRIMM RETOLD come to life. We’ve barely had time to breathe!

We made our first festival stop in Quakertown for Arts Alive, then in late May was Horror on Main. We had a blast at this horror con packed with vendors, celebrities, panels, readings and photo ops. In our opinion, the vendors stole the show, the talent and creativity were off the chain.

In June, Spec Pub was invited by the PA HWA to tag along to the Vampire and Paranormal Museum (Vampa). The vampire afficionado in me was in heaven…or, er…bliss. We highly recommend checking it out. Then it was the Indie Author’s Book Fair held at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Spec Pub was on site for the first annual fair, spearheaded by the talented and dedicated people at Literacy Nation Inc.

As the summer comes to an end, Spec Pub won’t be settling down just because the hot season is over. In September, the 13 – 15th, we’ll be in Maryland for C3-the Creatures, Crime and Creativity Convention where we will have a sneak preview of GRIMM RETOLD. And a few weeks after the release of GRIMM RETOLD on September 24, we'll be at the World Fantasy Convention in Niagara Falls.

Finally, in November, we’ll be releasing EVERGREEN, our second anthology of Winter Holiday stories, and announcing the details for our first crowd funding campaign, for Sarah Connell’s awesome novella of utter speculation.

With all this great stuff going on, it's hard to remember to mark each milestone, but as the summer comes to a close, I think I'll remember it as a great one, on the edge of great things. See you all soon!
-River

Cover relveal for grimm retold

8/7/2024

Heyla everyone! Today The Fantasy Hive revealed the cover for GRIMM RETOLD, Speculation Publication's fairy tale short story anthology coming out in September 2024. Look at the beauty y'all!!

announcement week!

6/21/2024

Wow! It's the end of ANNOUNCEMENT WEEK! And awaaay we gooo ...
Ok here it is . . . Speculation Publications BIG NEWS... The legendary Tanith Lee will head up our collection of fairy tales retold in horror in our GRIMM RETOLD anthology, coming out in September 2024
Yep, you heard that right, Tanith Lee!! We could not be more honored and excited. Ginger Nuts of Horror blog has the whole scoop
This is BIG and a-freakin-mazing ... and we still have a bit more to come, so stay tuned!
#tanithlee #horror #anthology #grimmretold #Grimm

A snippet from the Ginger Nuts of Horror blog post!
"The upcoming Grimm Retold anthology, a horror collection of short stories and poetry, retelling fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, is currently scheduled to be released September 2024. The collection has been described as gorgeous, dark and uncomfortable, the way a good fairy tale should be.
In the early stages of the project, editors LC Allingham and River Eno were overjoyed and somewhat stunned to be granted the rights to include a story from the OG reteller of fairy tales, Sister Grimmer herself, the late legendary author, Tanith Lee."

ANNOUNCEMENT WEEK

6/20/2024

ANNOUNCEMENT WEEK!!!
Stoker Award nominee Carol Gyzander writes and edits horror, weird fiction, and science fiction with strong women in twisted tales that touch your heart.
Her contribution to GRIMM RETOLD is a retelling of the Fisherman's Wife, titled "Fishing for the Future"

Watch Spec Pub's socials to see more exciting news tomorrow and the weeks to come!

#horror #horroranthology #grimm #grimmretoldanthology #fairytales

announcment week!!!

6/19/2024

Heyla y'all,
ANNOUNCEMENT WEEK! Shirley Jackson nominated author, Tiffany Morris, presents her stunning signature style in her original poem "Born Against Teeth," a Red Riding Hood Retelling for GRIMM RETOLD.
#anthology #grimm #grimmretold #horror #fairytales

announcement week!!

6/19/2024

Heyla humans,
It's ANNOUNCEMENT WEEK at Speculation Publications, and we're starting it off by introducing you to GRIMM RETOLD contributing author, Ef Deal!
Ef's retelling of Fitcher's Bird will make your blood run cold. Find out more about her at speculationpub.com

#anthology #grimm #grimmretold #horror #fairytale