Dark Peninsula Press

10/03/2025

CELLAR DOOR UPDATE: The pre-order for PHANTOM WORLDS: THE CELLAR DOOR ISSUE #6 is now up on Amazon. The release date is Oct 21!

Also, Maggie Slater has joined the final lineup with her wonderfully strange horror tale "My Love Will Consume You." Welcome back, Maggie!

Finally, I'd like to officially announce that S.R.Miller will be the featured author of issue #6 with his creepy novelette "The Contents of a Box." More info coming soon...

is the sixth issue of The Cellar Door anthology series from Dark Peninsula Press. Featuring nine stories of dark fiction exploring nightmarish dreamscapes, alternate worlds, and mischievous doppelgangers. With stories by: Richard Beauchamp, Travis Corter, Teagan Olivia King, Kristin Kirby, Scot...

07/18/2025

Still reading through submission for Phantom Worlds: The Cellar Door Issue #6. I should have everything read by early next week. Thanks to everyone for submitting!

Thought I'd share this little scene from the show Community...

Ending of Episode 2 Season 2. Abed and Troy skit. Abed is a character!

07/11/2025

PHANTOM WORLDS UPDATE: The second round of submissions is now closed. I received 150 stories this time around (which brings the total number to 650 submissions). As of today, I've sent out 50 rejections and 1 acceptance. I plan on having the rest of the responses sent in the next week or so...

I'd like to take this time to welcome Travis Corter to Dark Peninsula Press, with his outstanding tale "The Quiet Room." Welcome, Travis!

More accepted authors will be announced over the coming weeks. Publication date is Oct 7, 2025.

05/13/2025

Richard Beauchamp has now joined the lineup for PHANTOM WORLDS with his reality shifting horror tale "There Will Always Be Another." Welcome back to Dark Peninsula Press, Richard!

Hailing from the verdant rolling hills of the Missouri Ozarks, Richard Beauchamp has been writing horror and dark fiction since 2017. His fiction can be found in various anthologies including...

04/08/2025

PHANTOM WORLDS UPDATE: A huge thank you to everyone who submitted a story! I received 478 stories total, and accepted 5. Those stories/authors are:

“Blood Faucet” by William R.D. Wood
“Saguaro Motel” by Kristin Kirby
“Feed the Beast” by Teagan Olivia King
“The Angel of Shavano Peak” by Scotty Milder
“The Contents of a Box” by S.R. Miller

Congrats to the accepted authors! I usually try to get around 8-10 stories for each issue, so I've decided to open the submissions again until the last slots are filled. If you are interested in submitting something, please check out the updated guidelines on the DPP website.

https://www.darkpeninsulapress.com/phantom-worlds-the-cellar-door-issue-6.html

03/12/2025

A huge thank you to Erica Robyn Reads for her wonderful review of Marshland Horrors: The Cellar Door Issue #5! A link to the full review is posted below in the comments.

Oh, I love a good tale set in a marsh! There’s just something about marshlands that screams horror, and boy did this collection bring the horror! In Marshland Horrors: The Cellar Door Issue #5 edited by Aric Sundquist, we get some wildly dark fiction that delves deep into the horrors that haunt the depths of the swamp.

These tales were all so interesting! Dark story fans will love that they all have a stark boundary between life and decay, between known and unknown.

02/02/2025

Submissions are now closed for PHANTOM WORLDS: THE CELLAR DOOR ISSUE #6. This one broke a record with 500 submissions sent. I'll be busy over the next month reading your stories, so expect a TOC around March with a release date in early June.

01/03/2025

Closing in on 200 submissions so far for PHANTOM WORLDS. That's the most I've ever received in a single month since opening 5 years ago. And there's still one month left to submit....

Compiled & Edited by Aric Sundquist Short Story Submission Call: Dec 1, 2024 to Jan 31, 2025 EST (Open)

12/02/2024

OPEN CALL: Submissions are now open for Phantom Worlds: The Cellar Door Issue #6. Seeking horror and suspense stories where alternate realities invade our own. (Silent Hill, Stranger Things, In the Mouth of Madness). Deadline is Jan 31, 2025. 2k- 8k length. Sim subs allowed. Payment is $50 + paperback/digital copies.

Visit the submissions page to read the full guidelines: https://www.darkpeninsulapress.com/phantom-worlds-the-cellar-door-issue-6.html

11/19/2024

You can now follow Dark Peninsula Press on Bluesky:

Independent publisher of dark fiction anthologies. Located in Marquette, Michigan. Created & managed by author/editor Aric Sundquist. https://linktr.ee/aric1976

11/15/2024

The featured author of MARSHLAND HORRORS: THE CELLAR DOOR ISSUE #5 is Scotty Milder! You can read his novelette "Yes, the River Knows" for free on the Dark Peninsula Press website! It’s a wonderful story about dark family secrets and odd things birthed from the mud on the Rio Grande. The link below is for Scotty's bio page, along with a link for the story. As you can see, he’s also won the award for “most published” at Dark Peninsula Press.

REMINDER: This story is eligible for a nomination in the “long fiction" category for the HWA Stoker Recommended Reading List. All the other stories are eligible, too, under the “short fiction” category. If you are an HWA member and would like a copy for review, please get in touch with me and I'll send over a free PDF or epub. This is a great way to help authors get more recognition.

Scotty Milder was born and raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb. He began publishing short stories in indie horror magazines while in college, and went on to earn an...

11/14/2024

The featured author of AFTER TOMORROW: THE CELLAR DOOR ISSUE #4 is Richard Beauchamp! You can read his novelette "Death and the Black Window" for free on the Dark Peninsula website! It’s a killer story about one man’s showdown against an alien invasion. Click on the link below for the story link and you can also check out Richard's bio. He’s been a busy writer lately...

REMINDER: This story is eligible for a nomination in the "long fiction" category for the Stoker Recommended Reading list. (The other stories in the book are eligible under the “short fiction” category, since they are under 7,500 words.) If you are an HWA member and want a free copy of the anthology, get in touch with me and I'll send over a PDF or epub. Reviewers are also welcome to inquire.

Hailing from the verdant rolling hills of the Missouri Ozarks, Richard Beauchamp has been writing horror and dark fiction since 2017. His fiction can be found in various anthologies including...