Help out Apex Books!

The following is a missive from one of our member small presses, Apex Books. In the time of coronavirus, all book publishers are suffering and so are booksellers. If you have the means, do give them a hand.

Support Apex Books Company

As every small business can attest to sales have slowed to a trickle what with *gestures at the world* everything going on. But hope is not lost.

The wonderful folks at GoFundMe, Yelp, and Intuit Quickbooks created the Small Business Relief Initiative to aid small businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. They’ve committed to matching $500 of any small business campaign that can raise at least $500. 

This initiative is a ray of hope for many small businesses, including us. A potential $1,000 would help us fill the gaps caused from recent sluggish sales, allow us to keep our production plans for future publications on track, and provide a bit of cushion for the coming months.

We know we are not alone in needing help during this global time of crisis. Your support in spreading the word of this campaign and your generosity, even $1, help us keep pushing and fighting to make a difference.

Go here to make a donation.

Thank you lovely readers for being a part of the Apex family! Together we can do anything.


Literary Underworld continues to operate via mail order, so please feel free to buy some plague reading material at any time! Shipments will continue to go out as long as the mail keeps operating and everyone remains healthy here at LitUnd Towers. We hope you stay healthy and safe, and we will all live to make bad jokes about this another day.

New: Coppice and Brake!

A new anthology from Crone Girls Press, including a new story from Literary Underworld director Elizabeth Donald:

I’m really happy to be working with Crone Girls Press for the second time, as they published my story “In Memoriam” in Stories We Tell After Midnight back in October as a reprint. This release, Coppice and Brake, is a little less horror and more dark fantasy, and includes a brand-new short story from me titled “Shiny People.”

“Shiny People” was actually inspired by a panel at Archon 2019, in which we all shared “real-life” ghost stories. I told the stories of Isabel, the woman who was murdered in my house more than 100 years ago, and how we can always blame her when something breaks. Like the living room lamp, the boy’s mattress, the spatula and measuring cup, just in time for the apocalypse. Thanks, Isabel.

But there was a man in the audience who told a story I found so creepy, so fascinating, that I asked him afterward if he would mind if I wrote it as a short story. He said that was fine, as long as I named the little girl after his daughter. I was happy to do so.

I hope you enjoy “Shiny People” and the other stories in Coppice and Brake. It’s $10 from Literary Underworld for a limited time only, and if you prefer the pixel-version, you can get it for $1.99 right now on Amazon.

In the meantime, stay safe, stay home if you can, and wash those hands. Let’s live to make bad jokes about this another day.

— Elizabeth Donald