ZD Dochterman
@zddochterman.bsky.social
Dark & Weird Speculative Fiction | SFWA | Brave New Weird Award | Seize the Press, Trollbreath, No Sleep Podcast & others | Assistant Professor of Writing at USC | Apophatic Utopianist
Author site: zddochterman.com
Author site: zddochterman.com
Pinned
Welcome to our latest Free Fiction Friday!
Z.D. Dochterman offers us a fabulous slipstream tale of Maria, the gas mask gangs, killer purple fog, patricide, blood metal music, and a cat named Korpse with a K. This story is punk and it rocks.
magazine.trollbreath.com/gaels-severe...
Z.D. Dochterman offers us a fabulous slipstream tale of Maria, the gas mask gangs, killer purple fog, patricide, blood metal music, and a cat named Korpse with a K. This story is punk and it rocks.
magazine.trollbreath.com/gaels-severe...
My story is now free-to-read on @trollbreathmag.bsky.social!
Purple fog, paramilitary violence, and a woman who thinks performing 'blood metal' can transform the world.
Hope you check it out along with the other stories in here!
Purple fog, paramilitary violence, and a woman who thinks performing 'blood metal' can transform the world.
Hope you check it out along with the other stories in here!
This is gonna be a great class for newish writers of horror who want to start publishing! Can’t recommend Eric enough
Lots of writing courses price out folks on a budget, but this one won't! Join my affordable Cursed Classroom this November where you'll learn how to write effective short horror fiction and submit your work to markets.
Details here: ericraglin.com/classes-and-...
Details here: ericraglin.com/classes-and-...
![Now Accepting Applications for
CURSED CLASSROOM
What is it?
A month-long class taught by Eric Raglin this November. It’s geared toward newish writers who want to improve their short horror fiction writing skills and learn how to submit work for publication.
How much does it cost?
Five of the slots cost $100, and the other five are completely FREE, thanks to anonymous donors.
I’m Interested! How do I join the course?
Check out the specific course details here: https://ericraglin.com/classes-and-editorial-services/
Then, email me at ericraglin1992 [at] gmail [dot] com.
I’ll get back to you quickly!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:66von2iag66asdkjbmalpuex/bafkreihzzjhaxkhjzoksttn2lzg4e26i3skjs4zvyowrbxckwagcvrcuxq)
September 25, 2026 at 5:02 PM
This is gonna be a great class for newish writers of horror who want to start publishing! Can’t recommend Eric enough
I am always grateful to have been raised on a steady diet of Nintendo games and street fighter.
Last night I picked up Hades 2 and was able to beat the first boss on my first try after only having died three times total. 
#classicallytrained
Last night I picked up Hades 2 and was able to beat the first boss on my first try after only having died three times total. 
#classicallytrained
September 21, 2026 at 9:22 PM
I am always grateful to have been raised on a steady diet of Nintendo games and street fighter.
Last night I picked up Hades 2 and was able to beat the first boss on my first try after only having died three times total. 
#classicallytrained
Last night I picked up Hades 2 and was able to beat the first boss on my first try after only having died three times total. 
#classicallytrained
Why, what made you guess I was an official card-carrying Tenebrous Press cult member?
@tenebrouspress.bsky.social
@tenebrouspress.bsky.social
September 19, 2026 at 7:36 PM
Why, what made you guess I was an official card-carrying Tenebrous Press cult member?
@tenebrouspress.bsky.social
@tenebrouspress.bsky.social
If you haven’t read this collection, it’s one of my favorites in recent years.
Our Storygraph giveaways have begun! Enter for a chance to win one of 250 free ebook copies of Gore Poetics, featuring horror and Weird fiction for people who like their stories queer, literary, horrific, intense, and unbearably sensory.
app.thestorygraph.com/giveaways/56...
app.thestorygraph.com/giveaways/56...
cursedmorsels's giveaway for Gore Poetics on The StoryGraph
Gore Poetics is a horror and Weird fiction collection for readers who seek out both the grote...
app.thestorygraph.com
September 19, 2026 at 6:58 PM
If you haven’t read this collection, it’s one of my favorites in recent years.
👁️ Down with the panopticon. 👁️
Under a Malevolent Eye is perhaps our darkest release yet. If you like stories about how our lives fall apart under inescapable surveillance, this one is for you.
www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/unde...
www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/unde...
September 18, 2026 at 4:45 PM
👁️ Down with the panopticon. 👁️
Get this blast-beat playing puffy pink cat in a death metal band already!
when you're overqualified for the job
YouTube video by George Collier
youtu.be
September 18, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Get this blast-beat playing puffy pink cat in a death metal band already!
My story is now free-to-read on @trollbreathmag.bsky.social!
Purple fog, paramilitary violence, and a woman who thinks performing 'blood metal' can transform the world.
Hope you check it out along with the other stories in here!
Purple fog, paramilitary violence, and a woman who thinks performing 'blood metal' can transform the world.
Hope you check it out along with the other stories in here!
Welcome to our latest Free Fiction Friday!
Z.D. Dochterman offers us a fabulous slipstream tale of Maria, the gas mask gangs, killer purple fog, patricide, blood metal music, and a cat named Korpse with a K. This story is punk and it rocks.
magazine.trollbreath.com/gaels-severe...
Z.D. Dochterman offers us a fabulous slipstream tale of Maria, the gas mask gangs, killer purple fog, patricide, blood metal music, and a cat named Korpse with a K. This story is punk and it rocks.
magazine.trollbreath.com/gaels-severe...
September 12, 2026 at 5:37 PM
My story is now free-to-read on @trollbreathmag.bsky.social!
Purple fog, paramilitary violence, and a woman who thinks performing 'blood metal' can transform the world.
Hope you check it out along with the other stories in here!
Purple fog, paramilitary violence, and a woman who thinks performing 'blood metal' can transform the world.
Hope you check it out along with the other stories in here!
Hey everyone, my story for this ballooned to 7500 words and then I realized I had chosen the wrong POV / character to narrate the action through. Oops.
Needless to say I won’t be hitting the deadline in one week but I encourage you all to submit to this anthology. It’s gonna be awesome!
Needless to say I won’t be hitting the deadline in one week but I encourage you all to submit to this anthology. It’s gonna be awesome!
If you've ever worked on a farm, at a ranch, in a food bank, at a grocery store, in a food shipment warehouse, at a food marketing firm, or at any other food systems-related job, I'm very interested in the story you might submit to our food systems call.
cursedmorsels.com/submission-c...
cursedmorsels.com/submission-c...
Submission Calls
Horror and Weird Fiction COllections Submission Call (OPEN Until September 14th) Submission CallSingle-author horror and Weird fiction short story collections. 40K to 60K words—no exceptions. Ideal…
cursedmorsels.com
September 8, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Hey everyone, my story for this ballooned to 7500 words and then I realized I had chosen the wrong POV / character to narrate the action through. Oops.
Needless to say I won’t be hitting the deadline in one week but I encourage you all to submit to this anthology. It’s gonna be awesome!
Needless to say I won’t be hitting the deadline in one week but I encourage you all to submit to this anthology. It’s gonna be awesome!
That's me with fellow @trollbreathmag.bsky.social #9 author Katherine Quevedo at WorldCon, attending (unsurprisingly) a panel on slipstream writing.
Check out her sword & sorcery story "Shades of Bruises and Blood" and my own weird horror "Gael's Severed Eye," w/purple fog, parricide, & cute cat.
Check out her sword & sorcery story "Shades of Bruises and Blood" and my own weird horror "Gael's Severed Eye," w/purple fog, parricide, & cute cat.
September 8, 2026 at 5:18 PM
That's me with fellow @trollbreathmag.bsky.social #9 author Katherine Quevedo at WorldCon, attending (unsurprisingly) a panel on slipstream writing.
Check out her sword & sorcery story "Shades of Bruises and Blood" and my own weird horror "Gael's Severed Eye," w/purple fog, parricide, & cute cat.
Check out her sword & sorcery story "Shades of Bruises and Blood" and my own weird horror "Gael's Severed Eye," w/purple fog, parricide, & cute cat.
A visionary Labor Day message brought to you by your friends, the Wobblies
September 7, 2026 at 9:20 PM
A visionary Labor Day message brought to you by your friends, the Wobblies
I often do find myself overexplaining things. Trying more and more to pull myself back from this tendency.
Better to reign in weirdness than serve in exposition.
Better to reign in weirdness than serve in exposition.
It’s about time we had a reckoning with the need so many writers feel to over-explain everything aspect of their stories, even in non Weird genres. Readers don’t need to be babied. Let us figure things out. Leave room for interpretation. Over-explanation makes writing worse.
Weird fiction seems to be having a moment but without lots of the people trying to write it actually grasping what it is.
I keep reading stories where there’s clearly an attempt at vaguely gesturing towards ‘the Weird’ but they just cant help over-explaining everything. Truly frustrating stuff.
I keep reading stories where there’s clearly an attempt at vaguely gesturing towards ‘the Weird’ but they just cant help over-explaining everything. Truly frustrating stuff.
September 2, 2026 at 11:09 PM
I often do find myself overexplaining things. Trying more and more to pull myself back from this tendency.
Better to reign in weirdness than serve in exposition.
Better to reign in weirdness than serve in exposition.
Reposted by ZD Dochterman
It’s about time we had a reckoning with the need so many writers feel to over-explain everything aspect of their stories, even in non Weird genres. Readers don’t need to be babied. Let us figure things out. Leave room for interpretation. Over-explanation makes writing worse.
Weird fiction seems to be having a moment but without lots of the people trying to write it actually grasping what it is.
I keep reading stories where there’s clearly an attempt at vaguely gesturing towards ‘the Weird’ but they just cant help over-explaining everything. Truly frustrating stuff.
I keep reading stories where there’s clearly an attempt at vaguely gesturing towards ‘the Weird’ but they just cant help over-explaining everything. Truly frustrating stuff.
September 2, 2026 at 10:34 PM
It’s about time we had a reckoning with the need so many writers feel to over-explain everything aspect of their stories, even in non Weird genres. Readers don’t need to be babied. Let us figure things out. Leave room for interpretation. Over-explanation makes writing worse.
Reposted by ZD Dochterman
Since other people are already talking 2027 releases, guess it's time for my niche: here is a post for listing out weird fiction publishing next year. Readers, writers, presses, publicists, whoever, let me know what's what.
August 24, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Since other people are already talking 2027 releases, guess it's time for my niche: here is a post for listing out weird fiction publishing next year. Readers, writers, presses, publicists, whoever, let me know what's what.
Honored to return to "Trollbreath. My story is about parricide, stray cats, state-sponsored kidnappings, a mysterious purple fog, and a woman who believes making 'blood metal' music can change the world.
3 cups dark & weird with a quarter teaspoon of humor and hope. Stir and enjoy!
3 cups dark & weird with a quarter teaspoon of humor and hope. Stir and enjoy!
Welcome to Issue 9, fall of 2026! We've got a fantastic slate of authors and poets for you this time around, so as the days get shorter and cooler, you should relax, get cozy, and enjoy some delightful short fiction. Subscriptions are only $5 per issue, or $20 per year.
magazine.trollbreath.com
magazine.trollbreath.com
Issue 9, Fall 2026 - Trollbreath Magazine
Issue 9, Fall 2026 Fiction Every Anxious Person Dreams of Teeth by EC Hallewell Gael’s Severed Eye by Z.D. Dochterman The Bell Jar Frequency by Gretchen Tessmer Shades of Bruises and Blood by Katherine Quevedo Rat Song by DC Corvino Measure for Measure by Kris Jarden My Holiday from the…
magazine.trollbreath.com
September 1, 2026 at 10:17 PM
Honored to return to "Trollbreath. My story is about parricide, stray cats, state-sponsored kidnappings, a mysterious purple fog, and a woman who believes making 'blood metal' music can change the world.
3 cups dark & weird with a quarter teaspoon of humor and hope. Stir and enjoy!
3 cups dark & weird with a quarter teaspoon of humor and hope. Stir and enjoy!
Reposted by ZD Dochterman
Heng, Rachel. THE GREAT RECLAMATION. Riverhead Books, 2023
An island mysteriously appeared — then disappeared — on British Columbia’s largest reservoir
By Aug. 5, the island was no longer showing up in satellite data
By Aug. 5, the island was no longer showing up in satellite data
An island mysteriously appeared — then disappeared — on B.C.'s largest reservoir | CBC News
B.C. Hydro says it's monitoring for the reappearance of a mysterious island first spotted by boaters 100 kilometres from the W.A.C. Bennett Dam in northeastern B.C.
www.cbc.ca
August 30, 2026 at 8:47 PM
Heng, Rachel. THE GREAT RECLAMATION. Riverhead Books, 2023
I think today is always my favorite day of the semester. Teaching the 18 and 19-year-olds about wage labor, surplus value, and capitalism.
August 26, 2026 at 8:16 PM
I think today is always my favorite day of the semester. Teaching the 18 and 19-year-olds about wage labor, surplus value, and capitalism.
WorldCon is in LA area this year, so I'll be going Fri, Sat, Sun. Most of the talks I'm going to are about workers rights, cannibalism, non-Western horror, or the earth blowing up.
Happy to meet up with fellow speculative weirdos; send me a DM. Extensive LA food recommendations upon request.
Happy to meet up with fellow speculative weirdos; send me a DM. Extensive LA food recommendations upon request.
August 24, 2026 at 9:29 PM
WorldCon is in LA area this year, so I'll be going Fri, Sat, Sun. Most of the talks I'm going to are about workers rights, cannibalism, non-Western horror, or the earth blowing up.
Happy to meet up with fellow speculative weirdos; send me a DM. Extensive LA food recommendations upon request.
Happy to meet up with fellow speculative weirdos; send me a DM. Extensive LA food recommendations upon request.
This is gonna be a super interesting anthology. Getting my submission ready next week!
The answer is yes, and submissions for the food systems anthology are open NOW through September 14th (the same end date as before--don't worry!) Read submission guidelines here and submit something awesome:
cursedmorsels.com/submission-c...
cursedmorsels.com/submission-c...
August 24, 2026 at 8:32 PM
This is gonna be a super interesting anthology. Getting my submission ready next week!
IMAX on the Radio
Make a band bigger
Blink 282
Blink 282
Make a band bigger
Calle 14
Calle 14
August 23, 2026 at 11:42 PM
IMAX on the Radio
Just sold a story (can't say where yet). Now, time to burn through my earnings.
Reminder we have 6 of our eBooks on sale from $2 to $4. Check it out. Grab a bargain.
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
EBOOKS — Undertow Publications
undertowpublications.com
August 20, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Just sold a story (can't say where yet). Now, time to burn through my earnings.
Reposted by ZD Dochterman
Reminder we have 6 of our eBooks on sale from $2 to $4. Check it out. Grab a bargain.
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
EBOOKS — Undertow Publications
undertowpublications.com
August 20, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Reminder we have 6 of our eBooks on sale from $2 to $4. Check it out. Grab a bargain.
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
Reposted by ZD Dochterman
"“Even if I had $26 million,” said Huddleston, “I’d want to sit here in my chair, and have my coffee and eat my food where I always do.”"
This single sentence says so, so much. ✊💜
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-d...
This single sentence says so, so much. ✊💜
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-d...
The ‘Country Hicks’ Who Refused $26 Million from an AI Data Center
A Kentucky mother and daughter turned down a life-changing offer for their farmland. The ensuing drama has left the town divided.
www.wsj.com
August 18, 2026 at 4:32 PM
"“Even if I had $26 million,” said Huddleston, “I’d want to sit here in my chair, and have my coffee and eat my food where I always do.”"
This single sentence says so, so much. ✊💜
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-d...
This single sentence says so, so much. ✊💜
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-d...
Reposted by ZD Dochterman
The HWA removed the author of the juvenile AI-boosting screed from her position on the board of trustees for posting the juvenile AI-boosting screed that they allowed her to post on their official newsletter. Righto. Baby steps, I guess.
August 5, 2026 at 7:36 PM
The HWA removed the author of the juvenile AI-boosting screed from her position on the board of trustees for posting the juvenile AI-boosting screed that they allowed her to post on their official newsletter. Righto. Baby steps, I guess.
Reposted by ZD Dochterman
Just crossed the terminal: Microsoft disclosures suggest that OpenAI is about 70% of AI sales! If only someone had said something
August 5, 2026 at 6:13 PM
Just crossed the terminal: Microsoft disclosures suggest that OpenAI is about 70% of AI sales! If only someone had said something
When @thomasha.bsky.social drops a new story:
www.youtube.com/shorts/5-NCP...
Check out the Borgesian-Kafkian-Poeian mashup that is: "Our Revels Are Now Ended" clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_07_26/
www.youtube.com/shorts/5-NCP...
Check out the Borgesian-Kafkian-Poeian mashup that is: "Our Revels Are Now Ended" clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_07_26/
If there were car reactions in the 1800s 👀 #shorts | when Beethoven dropped...😂
YouTube video by Cover Nation
www.youtube.com
August 4, 2026 at 6:37 PM
When @thomasha.bsky.social drops a new story:
www.youtube.com/shorts/5-NCP...
Check out the Borgesian-Kafkian-Poeian mashup that is: "Our Revels Are Now Ended" clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_07_26/
www.youtube.com/shorts/5-NCP...
Check out the Borgesian-Kafkian-Poeian mashup that is: "Our Revels Are Now Ended" clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_07_26/