One who raises demons,” the writer Shirley Jackson once said, “must deal with them.”

This post isn’t an exploration of the sublime works of Shirley Jackson, or of her troubled inner life. Still, the above quote neatly sums up one of the main themes of her writing, and also (not incidentally) of a short story I wrote, The Ferry, that my publisher has submitted to the 2026 Shirley Jackson Awards.

The Shirley Jackson Awards were established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic, for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the categories of Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Fiction, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology.

Submissions for this award are accepted only from publishers, not authors, although nothing is stopping an author from querying with their publisher (if their story is a good fit for the criteria) if they can submit the story.

A submission to the Awards isn’t a Nomination, but still, I’m tremendously proud that The Ferry has been submitted. Not only because I’m a huge fan of her short and long-form fiction, but also because part of the inspiration for the story was Shirley Jackson’s own short story, The Bus.

“Old Miss Harper was going home” begins Jackson’s tale of an unpleasant, elderly woman who takes a bus ride to places she doesn’t want to go. Whether she is trapped in a time loop, travelling on a hostile, unpleasant bus to a horrifying, distorted destination, or is losing her mind, we can’t say. But, as one character mutters several times – “Hell you say!”

My story begins “Stevie Kane neared journey’s end“, and what follows describes that journey, an odyssey made by ferry, bus (briefly) and on foot to a terrifying destination.

Stevie, no less than Miss Harper, is the epitome of an unreliable narrator; where my story differs, I suggest, is that we learn more of Stevie’s very pressing need to atone, whether he wants to or no.

If you’re interested in reading The Ferry, you can find it in the recently published anthology from Horrorofic Productions, along with ten more tales of cosmic, eldritch terror: HORRORific Tales Volume Four: Eldritch Terror.

Wish me luck!