Playing Possum
by D. L. Winchester
Not all possums are roadkill...
I HELD SARAH’S HAND as I drove through the mountains, playing with the ring I’d put on her finger the night before. It’d taken months to save up for it on my EMT salary, but I’d finally managed. We were on our way to surprise my parents with the news. Passing through an open valley, we rounded a curve, and Sarah squeezed my hand.
The Corpse on the Cross
by Kurt Swaim
Some things are best left alone.
MY DREAMS ARE getting worse. Nightmares I should say. No. Not nightmares. I don’t know what to call them. They don’t terrify me. They’re just unnerving, more like an annoyance. I should have said, a mixture of both. Doesn’t matter though. I need to do something about it. It’s affecting my life. I can barely sleep. Exhaustion is taking its READ MORE...
Symphony of Screams
by Chris McAuley
Read on —if you dare...
EMILIA HARKWRIGHT HAD ONCE been the pride of Blackbridge Conservatory, a prodigy whose talent with the piano and violin drew audiences from across the country. But as the years passed and her contemporaries outshone her, the accolades waned, and the seats at her performances emptied. Desperate to recapture her lost glory, Emilia retreated into obse READ MORE...
Aphrodisiac
by Paul Lonardo
When you’re truly in love, until death do us part is just the beginning.
I INCREASED THE VOLUME in my earbuds, not wanting to listen to his phone conversation or hear the desperation in his voice as he begged Becca to go out with him. Nor did I want to hear his whimpering when she refused him yet again. This had been going on since the beginning of the fall semester when Jairo first saw Becca Cantone in his chemistry cl READ MORE...
Spare Change
by L.D. Jordan
On a scale of one to ten, how bad is the pain?
MADISON SPACED OUT as she brushed her teeth with the old baking soda she took from the fridge. Her reflection in the mirror did not tell the story of the little girl inside her who delighted in the warmth of her mother’s hug as she told her stories of princesses in magic kingdoms.
The woman before her was hollow, unaware of the sunken dark READ MORE...
This is Why I Gave 4 Stars to the Seller on Chinese eBay, Who Killed my Wife with Glitter Poop Pills
by Zoltán Komor
Glitter, poop and the meaning of life!
I WANT MY WIFE’S excrement to sparkle real girlishly, so I order some glitter poop pills from the net. As they say, the glitter poop pill is the new craze in Japan: Swallow one transparent gelatin capsule filled with glitter, and your stool will look like something that came from a fairy tale.
To tell you the truth, until my late teen year READ MORE...
Bong Fetus
by Jerry Blaze
A pair of guys decide to get creative with their bong water.
IT STARTED WHEN I went to a rave with my friend, Chaz. He and I decided to get high in the unisex restroom with the bong I had brought along. We had some primo bud and I wanted to be high while out in the crowd of idiots.
The sink wasn’t working and we didn’t have anything to fill the bong with, but an idea crossed my mind. Pushing op READ MORE...
Q&A with Clive Barker
by Chris McAuley
Carnage House regular contributor Chris McAuley interviews legendary New York Times best-selling author, Clive Barker.
We are OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS!!!
Josh Darling
We are open for submissions until May 1st, 2025. Go here for more information: Our Submission Guidelines! or click "Navigation" in the menu and then "Submissions."
Happy Holidays —The War on Xmas Rages On! Qapla!
Josh Darling
I don't like themed submission calls. The theme with Carnage House is "Entertaining Splatter/gore/extreme horror," so why throw another layer of complicated on top of that? Why say, "Write that and make it holiday-themed?" So, for funsies, the editorial staff wrote some Holiday Horror that you'll find in the mix. You'll know these pieces because they have a mistletoe illustration. We also did this so all the people who get rejection letters from us can say, "Yeah, the editors there suck as writers." And that is our real gift to you, and maybe kidney stones.
Happy whatever you celebrate. —or don't.
Musings on Carnage House Year 1.
Josh Darling
Here's a concept for a magazine: Operate at a loss while publishing in a freak subgenre. Make the site fiction only. Come for the weird stuff, stay for the sex and carnography.
There will be no reviews of the new Disney Batman movie.
No interviews with Ryan Jackman.
No ugly ads.
Nothing to save the reader from the stories that weep guts.
Add to that a mathematical sense of equality. This is done with a randomized homepage. The stories we publish are great, and there is no way to order greatness.
Magically, it paid off. By "magically," I mean a ton of hard work and luck.
The experience of working with writers, making new friends, and learning so much about writing and the craft has been one of my best experiences.
I know I post soupy messages about how "I'm shocked at how well things are going." For a guy with so many failed projects, having a site with 49,000+ hits since January 1st leaves me dumbfounded. It's easy to say, "Hits are just a number," but it makes me happy knowing our stories are getting read.
A year ago, I struggled with putting Carnage House together. Then Jacque Day Pallone and a mysterious illustrator came on board and helped this along. Carnage House would not have been possible without them.
At the end of issue #3, Jacque and I asked a few writers to help us with Issue #4. Tim Tolbert, Holly Luanne Nicholls, and Michael Errol Swaim, I'm super appreciative of what you bring to the table.
For me, the most important part of our editorial meetings is the chance to thank all of you.
Issue #4 is special because we've made it a year. It's also special because we're publishing an issue with a handful of stories by award-winning name authors. It's shocking to me. I have never felt so lucky, and I am grateful.
Thank you, the editors, the writers, and the readers.
I can't say it enough: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
As one year ends, the next one begins. Issue #5 is open for submissions.
Get at it.
Thank you
Issue #3 Launch
The Editors
Twenty-one new stories of gore and terror from some names you recognize, including Ken Hueler, J. Rocky Colavito, Joe Cameron, C. C. Rossi, Alejandro Gonzales, Amanda Worthington, and Holly Nicholls. Also, in Issue 3, appearing in Carnage House for the first time are Lindsey B. Goddard, Corinne Pollard, Basile Lebret, Valerie B. Williams, Kasey Hill, Nora B. Peevy, Jon Carroll Thomas, Aisling Campbell, Benjamin Kardos, Daniel R. Robichaud, Katharine Hanifen, Lee Culloty, and Michael Errol Swaim.
In this issue we have something special from Dr. Chris McAuley and Claudia Christian—a preview of their upcoming Dark Legacies series.
Issue #2 Launch
Josh Darling
Issue 2 will go live tonight, March 15h, around 11 PM EST!!!
Issue #2 launches March 15...
Josh Darling
Look out for stories from Dani Brown, Douglas Ford, Lisa Vasquez, Matthew Hollis Damon, Chris W. McGuinness, and Moaner Lawrence.
We Are Closed for Submissions
Josh Darling
We are currently closed for submissions. Due to the quality and quantity of what we have, it'll take us some time to sort through.
The War on Christmas Begins!
The Editors
Seeking winter holiday-themed stories set around Kwanzaa, Chanukah, and more, really any holiday including that one—extra points for killing Santa. The "War on Christmas" issue will include only a handful of stories, so get super gross with it.
DEADLINE: December 13, 2023.
Rocky Gets Reviewed
Josh Darling
Rocky Colavito whose story "Jailhouse Slop" appears in VOL 1. of Carnage House scored an awesome review of his book "Shards of Shattered Dolls" on Splatploitation check out the review here:
Coming Soon Illustrations!!!
Josh Darling
More stories are slowly getting posted as I'm getting the time to post them. Soon a few illustrations will be up for a handful of the stories. The drawings are done by the New York artist M.
We're Up and Running... ish.
Josh Darling
We didn't want to say that we were going to do something and then not do it...
There were a bunch of stepping stones that got tripped over along the way to getting the site up. Because the quality of the fiction that we're posting here is so important to us, a few more stories will be released over the next week or so.
On a fun and terrible side note, we're still bug crushing so give us a heads up if you see any here:
Oh yeah, we have a Facebook page, please like us while there's still space...