Indie Highlights, From This Year to Next – Lyndsey Croal Guest Post

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, where today I’m very happy indeed to be joined by Lyndsey Croal, author of Have You Decided on Your Question (along with a remarkable number of short stories), who’s here to talk about a whole host of fantastic indie books. I read and loved HYDOYQ earlier this year, so I was delighted when Lyndsey agreed to write something for the site, and share her enthusiasm for indie publishing! Read on for loads of recommendations for great 2023 indie reads, as well as some fascinating-sounding books due in 2024.

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Lyndsey Croal: Looking back over the past year, I’ve really made an effort to read more indie books – novels, novellas, novelettes, collections, and anthologies. Independent presses are publishing amazing books every month, often pushing boundaries and experimenting with form and genre. I’ve also found a really lovely writing community in the indie book world, particularly in the horror scene this year, which has really enriched my writing and reading experiences, and made me feel part of something pretty great. 2023 is also the year I published my first short book – Have You Decided on Your Question, from Shortwave Publishing. It’s been a brilliant experience working with Shortwave, and it’s been great to see them grow over the year, with so many exciting projects on the horizon!

So with all that said, for this Advent Blog, I thought I’d reflect on some of my favourite* 2023 independently-published books (here in alphabetical order as it’d be impossible to rank them!) as well as some I’m most looking forward to next year!

*Disclaimer: this isn’t a “best of” by any means, as I wish I’d had more time for reading this year, and I’ve no doubt missed many excellent books deserving of a highlight.

Dark Woods, Deep Water by Jelena Dunato (Ghost Orchid Press)

This was an excellent and unputdownable read. Atmospheric, unsettling, and pacy, Dark Woods, Deep Water is full of so many of the things I love in fantasy – multi-POV, different timelines, plenty of intrigue, interlinking stories, folklore, weird woods, gothic settings, darkness, and morally grey characters (a personal favourite). It’s written beautifully, with haunting settings that feel like characters themselves. (Also, it has the perfect, darkly gothic cover to match!)

Narcissus by Adam Godfrey (Shortwave Publishing)

This novella was delightfully creepy and gripping, with a cool concept inspired by myth. It begins with a classic setting – friends on holiday discovering something cursed – and masterfully draws you in with its immediate unease. As the story unravelled, I was gripped by the characters’ dynamics and interactions, even though they’re not exactly ones to root for. I also loved that it felt so visual and cinematic throughout, making it feel like I was watching everything happen, scene by terrifying scene.

Linghun by Ai Jiang (Dark Matter INK)

I’ve enjoyed Ai’s short fiction for a while, so it was great to be able to spend a longer time with her words in this novella. Linghun was a hauntingly beautiful read, with such an intriguing world and concept – a place where ghosts, and sometimes those that love them, gather. The story, told through multiple perspectives, explores loss and grief with such beauty and care, and I felt so drawn into the book’s melancholic atmosphere, making me think about it long after reading. The setting was painted so effectively too that as I was reading, I felt like I was spending time in Home myself.

This Is My Body, Given For You by Heather Parry (Haunt Publishing)

I’ve enjoyed both Heather’s writing and Haunt’s books for a while, so this really was the perfect match to read! And it didn’t disappoint – this collection of weird and wonderful horror tales blew me away, with tales that explore bodily autonomy, identity, revenge, and transformations, among other themes. Every story felt expertly woven, some of them written with dark humour, while others delved more into the visceral and disturbing. This is a collection you don’t want to miss, especially if you’re a horror fan!

Hungers as Old as This Land by Zachary Rosenberg (Brigids Gate Press)

So much was packed into this Western horror novella: an intriguing history and setting, a creeping sense of unease, and scary and strange monsters. I was immediately drawn in by the community tensions and character dynamics, with strong female characters, and characters you love to hate. The tension and horror were gradually built, as we delved into the history of the characters, the Grey’s Bluffs, and The Hungers, with that constant neck-tingling feeling that something bad was coming. And, no spoilers, but it all comes together masterfully!

The Grief Nurse by Angie Spoto

This definitely was an “unforgettable” read, and one of my favourite books of recent years. It’s an atmospheric, twisty, and beautifully written tale with such a brilliant fantastical concept – exploring a world where Grief is personified and can be removed if you’re wealthy enough to afford it. The cast of characters creates an intriguing world of mystery and deceit, with a main character you’ll root for as she navigates an increasingly claustrophobic setting. If you love gothic stories, mysteries, fantasy, and folklore, you’ll love this one!

Fleshpots by R.L. Summerling

A beautifully put together short collection of “feel-bad” stories, with shorts, flash, poetry, and micro fiction, complete with graphics, illustrations, and even a playlist, that makes it feel like an immersive reading experience. The stories range from unsettling, weird, sad, ecological, apocalyptic, and emotional, with prose that shines and makes you think. I’ve been a fan of R.L. Summerling’s work since coming across her short fiction – one of my favourite shorts I’ve read this year was her story A Feast of Houses in Cloister Fox Zine. This short collection is as equally great a read, and it’s also free to download. Check it out here.

Split Scream Volume Four by D. Matthew Urban and Holly Lyn Walrath (Tenebrous Press)

Split Scream is a series edited by Alex Ebenstein featuring two horror novelettes. Volume four included two stories from D. Matthew Urban and Holly Lyn Walrath, and was a lot of fun. Both stories were weird, and unsettling, but told in entirely different ways and settings. D. Matthew Urban’s Nonsense Words is a dark academia tale which would be easy to spoil, so I’ll only say that it unravels in unexpected ways, to draw you deep into both the character’s mind and a dark world of rituals and the weird. Bone Light, by Holly Lyn Walrath, was equally pacy and beautifully written, about the keepers of an eerily haunted lighthouse, with a love story at its heart. I definitely recommend checking this out and look forward to future Split Screams!

The Way the Light Bends by Lorraine Wilson (Luna Press)

I’m slightly cheating including this one, as it was a 2022 release, but the audiobook came out this year which is how I read it, and it was one of my favourite reads of the year so I had to include it. The Way the Light Bends is a beautiful, compelling, and moving novel set in Scotland, with lovely and subtle nods to folklore and the fantastical. It drew me into another enchanting world with rich storytelling that had me hooked as the mystery unfolded. I easily found myself drawn into the characters’ complex journeys, with so much emotion and heart in each page. Can’t wait to read Lorraine Wilson’s future books!

And now for a look at books I’m looking forward to next year (a list that I’m sure will grow as more are announced!):

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Lyndsey is an Edinburgh-based author of strange and speculative fiction. She is a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, British Fantasy Award Finalist, Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant Recipient, and former Hawthornden Fellow. Her short fiction and essays have been published in over eighty magazines and anthologies, and have placed or been shortlisted in several competitions including with Mslexia, British Fantasy Society, the Cymera Fest Prize for Speculative Fiction, Escape Pod, and Fractured Lit. Her debut two-part audio drama Daughter of Fire and Water was released in 2021 with the Alternative Stories and Fake Realities podcast and was a BFA-finalist for Best Audio in 2022. Her debut novelette Have You Decided on Your Question was published by Shortwave Publishing in April 2023. She has also edited a number of projects including Ghostlore: An Audio Fiction Anthology and Shoreline of Infinity Magazine’s Climate Change Special.

For more information see Lyndsey’s website, or follow her on social media.

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Thanks so much to Lyndsey for agreeing to write something for Track of Words, and for putting together such a fantastic set of recommendations. These are all brand new for me, so I’ve got a lot to add to my TBR – definitely going to be checking some of these out! I hope it’s inspired you to get hold of at least a few of them yourself…

See also: my review of Have You Decided On Your Question by Lyndsey Croal

Have You Decided On Your Question is available now from Shortwave Publishing – check out the links below to order* your copy:

If you enjoyed this interview and would like to support Track of Words, you can leave a tip on my Ko-Fi page.

*If you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.

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