Hi everyone!
Figured it's time to introduce myself properly again. My name is Phoenix, I'm a weird gross fanfiction writer turned weird gross horror/erotica/horrorotica author, and a homesteading lesbian in my thirties. It's my mission to bring unapologetic, uncensored, unrepentantly bizarre speculative and literary fiction back to the uwu hellscape of indie publishing.
It would mean a lot to me if you bought my books. Particularly if you have read or enjoyed the over 300 free fanfics I've lovingly bestowed upon you over the last decade.
I currently have three books out: two "short" (most are 7-10k) story collections, and a gothic novel. I call them horror but I use the word loosely--don't go in expecting gore or ghosts or vampires or Lovecraft rip offs or immortal deities or anything like that. My horror is for people who think Eric Lar*cca is overhyped and boring and Saltburn was weirdly milquetoast.
SALIVATION: Barnes and Noble/ Amazon
A group of teenagers meet God at an abandoned amusement park. An immortal, child-eating monster grows too close to his prey. A clandestine tryst in a Chuck-E-Cheese ball pit takes a turn for the revolting. A grieving man sets out in dogged pursuit of the artist he blames for his fiancé's suicide. These ghosts and more reside in this electric debut short story collection by Phoenix Mendoza. This anthology's aim is to explore the profound union between hunger and loneliness, told in a series of voyeuristic meditations on human longing. All at once sincere and absurd, tender and disgusting, hilarious and heart-twisting, Salivation is an unapologetic foray into the lengths we go to in order to seek even the pantomime of connection.
Yellow Wallpapering: Barnes and Noble/ Amazon
In this scathing feminist horror collection, readers will encounter ten short stories featuring ten different women with ten distinct manifestations of patriarchy-induced madness. Blending sci-fi, speculative fiction, horror, and the achingly mundane, Phoenix Mendoza explores what it means to be a woman teetering on the edge of sanity.
Watch two childhood best friends develop a dangerous sex game inspired by their fathers’ suicides. Accompany Kyrie as she visits her grandparents' home, where she skinned her very first deer. Spend several delirious, hallucinatory nights with Carolyn at the train station she haunts whenever she cannot sleep. Dress a mannequin who might not be a mannequin at all. Let these madwomen invite you, one by one, into their complex interior worlds. Let them function as a mirror, a reflection of the self and of society.
Thorngale: Barnes and Noble
In their neglected, decaying family estate on the cliffs of the northern Cornish coast, two Anglo-Catholic brothers grow up in parasitic isolation during a time marked by the decay of English nobility. The elder, Alexander, is equal parts devout and sadistic, lording over Francis, the younger, as his tormentor and God. Oscillating between dreamlike fragments from their insular childhood to their final, sharp descent to madness in 1928, Thorngale is a chilling gothic horror tale of obsessive love and fatal devotion, written with the cutting, claustrophobic spiral of an ever tightening concertina wire.
Thorngale was kicked off of Amazon for violating its content regulations (ie, a hater reported it) but you can purchase epups on my website, here!
I also made a beautiful 44 card oracle deck inspired by Thorngale.
There is a limited print run of these decks but you can guy them on my website!
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I also teach a writing class called BLOOD/INK/BONE, which you can learn more about here. It is designed for hobby writers looking to find joy in their craft and shake off the shackles of performing for a fickle, bad faith audience.
Other important links:
My website: you can find playlists, interviews, and podcast appearances here. I also have a shop with goodies where you can buy recordings of my past classes.
My substack: you can subscribe for writing exclusives, nonfiction essays I don't post anywhere else, and (free!) general updates here.
My writing IG: this is the best place to stay updated about all my writing ventures
my goodreads: if you have read my books, please review them here, it really does help indie authors!! I also have a goodreads account where I post reviews if you're interested in what I read.
@spern-awel: the tumblr for my DEBUT NOVEL (!!!), Thorngale.
Thank you everyone <3
