HIRAETH PUBLISHING’S
APRIL 2026 NEWSLETTER
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Each of us has a voice, which we employ for many reasons—to perform our duties at work; to order food at a restaurant, to get laid, to buy a ticket to Rio, to yell at the driver who just cut you off, to cheer at a sports event, and so on. Sometimes we have reasons to say things to as many as will hear, read, or see. Sometimes we create podcasts to do this. I do not have a podcast. I have this newsletter.
Part 1:
We have just come through the Easter weekend, in which we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus. Little attention is paid to WHY He had to die. He was sent to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven, which he did at the Sermon on the Mount, and to die as a sacrifice in expiation of our sins. No, don’t stop reading, because there is something about this that has reached us to this day.
See, the Pharisees and elders did not like what Jesus was saying, for two principal reasons. One, they claimed He blasphemed by equating Himself with God. Two, because he had attracted a considerable following, He threatened the power and influence of said Pharisees and elders. They found this intolerable, and arranged to have Him put to death.
Yes, you know the story. But do you also realize that the dangerous and even deadly intolerance of the Pharisees and elders continues to this day?
Because we have something called cancel culture. This is applied to those who do not toe the party line; who express opinions contrary to what the majority or those who (think they) have power hold as irreversible truth. What happens when you say there are two genders? That men cannot give birth? That declaring an identity is not tantamount to possessing that identity? That criminals illegally in this country should be returned to their countries of origin? How many times have we seen that anyone who disagrees with what we know as “woke” are called Nazis, Hitlers, racists, misogynists, fascists, and so on and so forth ad nauseam?
Is that, at least in a sense, what was done to Jesus? Cancellation by crucifixion? How far will cancellation be carried out this time?
Part 2:
One can understand that governmental corruption must be expunged. Such an effort led in 2025 to the closure of USAID. I do not know whether any programs have been reinstated, though I seriously doubt they have been. Gotta save money, you know. And I am not repeat not advocating the reopening of USAID. But surely there are some humanitarian activities that we, as good Christians, or even as just humane people, can support.
One such program was the distribution of antiretrovirals to communities in Africa and Central and South America to hospitals and clinics that are trying to help those afflicted with HIV/AIDS. Surely, surely, supporting this aid is the human thing to do. Yes, there are other sources of funds for care and cure, but overall, with the dissolution of USAID, those funds have been cut in half, or worse, terminated altogether.
Why?
Again surely, there must be a way to ensure that aid goes to those being aided, rather than abandoning them altogether. That’s where Congress comes in. I’m reminded of a cartoon strip in Pogo, in which one of the mice says, “If I could write, I’d write my Congressman, if he could only read.”
So: those of you of a mind to, when/if you write, use large letters…
THIS IS A NEWSLETTER, SO NOW WE MUST RETURN TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING…
DRABBLE CONTEST WINNERS:
First Place: Jenny Wren - "Room to Let"
Second Place: Hinse Mutter - "A Comprehensive Overview on Human Reproduction"
Honorable Mention: Casey Lawrence - "Field Notes for an Intergalactic Visiting Scholar on Planetary Sabbatical"
Honorable Mention: Sara Kate Egan - "Step One"
We’re working on layout for the issue, which we hope to release toward the end of the month. Which leads us to:
One of our editors (no name, maintaining privacy, although many will know who it is) has been diagnosed with a malignancy, and is about to undergo treatment and therapy. For this reason, the next drabble contest has been put on hiatus; the November issue of Hungur Chronicles has been put on hiatus. We expect to have the May 2026 issue of Hungur released close to on time. Flash Digest will not be affected by this, because I am taking it over (possibly with some help) until the editor returns. However, the April 2026 Flash Digest will be released a bit later this month.
Prayers for our editor are invited and requested.
Also: our principal cover designer is recovering from pneumonia (for which she was initially misdiagnosed, argh), and is taking a brief leave of absence. Scott Virtes is taking over the design duties for the time being.
DIGITAL STORE REMINDER
We have two digital stores, one for PDFs, the other for ePubs. This is the link to our digital store: https://www.hiraethsffh.com/digital-store Come check out our titles! We add more each month! And we are not nearly as expensive as that place run by Bezos.
SCIFAIKUEST FEBRUARY 2026 ONLINE EDITION
Edited by t.santitoro
This edition is available on our site. It is not the same as the print edition. Come read and enjoy! Here’s the link: https://www.hiraethsffh.com/scifaikuest-online
STORE SALES:
Next up, and at the risk of being somewhat repetitive, because we want our storytellers and poets to be read, and our artists to be seen:
THE NEVER-ENDING SALE!!!
BUY ALL THE BOOKS YOU WANT AND USE THIS 20% DISCOUNT CODE:
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BOOKS2026
THIS DISCOUNT CAN BE USED AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WISH, SO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!
GO TO OUR SHOP AT WWW.HIRAETHSFFH.COM
LASTLY, BOOKS MAKE GOOD PRESENTS…
NEW RELEASES: WHAT’S NEW?
YOTS by Tyree Campbell
They live among us now, those who seek the power to tell us what to think, what to say, and what to do, and to enforce those rules. The arc of history seems to bend toward them. So what happens when they succeed beyond their wildest dreams?
This is that story. Yet even in the most vicious repression there are pockets of resistance. Storytellers pass around their stories privately. Mothers risk their lives by taking their children out of school. A few grow flowering plants on their balconies as a proclamation that some things still live. And an unknown organization passes out fliers with the only viable solution to the horror that has become the United States of America; it says “Die With Dignity.”
But is death the only alternative to the re-education camps, the language police, the indoctrination, and the epidemic shortages? Welcome to Orwell’s worst nightmare.
Ordering links:
PRINT: YOTS by Tyree Campbell | Hiraeth Publishing
PDF: YOTS by Tyree Campbell | Hiraeth Publishing
EPUB: YOTS by Tyree Campbell | Hiraeth Publishing
ILLUMEN SPRING 2026
Illumen is a quarterly digest of science fiction and fantasy poetry, including traditional as well as minimalist forms such as haiku, haibun, empat perkataan, cinquains, and others, as well as more traditional formats for poetry, such as rhyming and free verse and experimental.
Poems
Sycamore by Maureen Bowden
Lady-like by Christina Rau
Thrice Blessed by Darrell Lindsey
The K. S. Hardy Page
How the Solar System Really Lost Its Tenth Planet by Tyree Campbell
The Gwragedd Annwn by Lee Clark Zumpe
Two Ku by Guy Belleranti
When Tyrants Fall by Maureen Bowden
Appetites by Jacqueline West
The Planet Dreamed Us Wrong by Philip Madden
the irony by Lee Clark Zumpe
Wayside Shrine by Maureen Bowden
Horns by Amanda Niamh Dawson
Athena in the Age of Te4chnology by Maureen Bowden
Lucy by Maureen Bowden
Color Illustrations
In the Morning by Sandy DeLuca
Mermaid by Richard Schell
Aliens on Antarctic Expedition by Sonali Roy
Cover: Dragon Nebula by Lorraine Pinelli Brown
Ordering links:
PRINT: ILLUMEN Spring 2026 | Hiraeth Publishing
PDF: ILLUMEN Spring 2026 | Hiraeth Publishing
EPUB: ILLUMEN Spring 2026 | Hiraeth Publishing
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ICYMI:
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PARABNORMAL MAGAZINE MARCH 2026
parABnormal Magazine features stories that focus on the paranormal, including ghosts, spectres, witchcraft, the afterlife, and the occasional bit of dark magic. This issue also include three articles related to paranormal activities. Read this magazine with all the lights on…
Stories
Forest by Tyler Bailin
The Third Chair by Michael J. Baker
The Talisman by Dale Kesterson
Red Write Hand by Billy Mitch
Wrong Numbers from Everywhere by Alistair Rey
Please Leave a Message by Lucien R. Starchild
The Story of Saddler’s Croft by E. and H. Heron
Poems
Doppelgängers by Simon MacCulloch
Presence by John Grey
A Banshee Outcry by A. A. Alhaji
Asleep Forever by Alan Hardy
Behind the Black Door by Deanna Davidson
Whose Absence is Whose? By Gull Ditta
A Cyclical Spectacle by Alexander Berkey
The Changeling by Rebeka Goodman
Articles
The Thief’s Arm by Richard E. Schell
Tracking down the supernatural intervention in The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole by Sonali Roy
The Global Shadow of Black Magic by Farhan Rasool
Illustration
Midnight Ghost by Denny Marshall
Cover art by Brian Quinn
Order copies here:
PRINT: PARABNORMAL MAGAZINE March 2026 | Hiraeth Publishing
PDF: PARABNORMAL MAGAZINE March 2026 | Hiraeth Publishing
EPUB: PARABNORMAL MAGAZINE March 2026 | Hiraeth Publishing
COSMIC CRIME STORIES MARCH 2026
Crimes of some form will be with us as long as there are laws to break. Technology helps solve those crimes. But those solutions will always be found by the ones who get down and dirty—the detectives. Come see what the future holds for the dark side of law & order.
Novelette
Matrix by Damir Salkovic
Short Stories
Scrambling for Cover by Gustavo Bondoni
URDU-7 by Barbara Candiotti
Spirit of the Yucatan by David Lee Summers
Subic Bay Gynoid by Douglas Kolacki
Flash Fiction
A Familiar Stranger by Lee Clark Zumpe
Order copies here:
PRINT: COSMIC CRIME STORIES March 2026 | Hiraeth Publishing
PDF: COSMIC CRIME STORIES March 2026 | Hiraeth Publishing
EPUB: COSMIC CRIME STORIES March 2026 | Hiraeth Publishi
VERMILLION HIGHWAYS
Two of the finest minds in the genres have combined their resources and imaginations to come up with some of the gothiest (and, sometimes,) goofiest vampire short fiction this side of Transylvania. David Lee Summers, of Tales of the Talisman and Scarlet Order fame, and Lee Clark Zumpe, mild-mannered reporter for a daily metro-Floridian newspaper and author of the Lovecraftian anthology Whispers from the Intoxicating Abyss, take you on a journey through tales that fit everywhere between Type O positive and Type AB negative. Vermillion Highways is a must-read even if you don't care for the suckers.
Ordering links
PRINT: VERMILLION HIGHWAYS by Zumpe & Summers | Hiraeth Publishing
PDF: VERMILLION HIGHWAYS by Zumpe & Summers | Hiraeth Publishing
EPUB: VERMILLION HIGHWAYS by Zumpe & Summers | Hiraeth Publishing
FLIGHTS & SHADOWS BY SCOTT VIRTES AND TERRIE LEIGH RELF
Dark and fantastic short fiction, poetry, and art that will take you beyond the magic and the Gothic and into worlds where you have to negotiate your way through the darkness. A bit off-beat, a bit pithy, and always entertaining, Scott Virtes and Terrie Leigh Relf have collaborated in a collection of fiction that will take you everywhere in the Universe, and shine a little light on the questions we have and the answers we seek.
Ordering Links:
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/flights-shadows-by-scott-virtes-and-terrie-leigh-relf
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/flights-shadows-by-scott-virtes-and-terrie-leigh-relf-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/flights-shadows-by-scott-virtes-and-terrie-leigh-relf-2
ELDER THINGS EXPEDITIONS
The latest in a series of Lovecraftian anthologies, Elder Things Expeditions is Lovecraftian horror at its finest. Antarctica holds secrets too terrible to face, yet face them the members of these expeditions must. You’ll encounter Old Ones, monsters, and even Cthulhu itself. Will anyone come back alive? And if they do, will they still be human?
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/elder-things-expeditions
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/elder-things-expeditions-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/elder-things-expeditions-2
L'ARTÉFACT MALÉFIQUE by Herika R. Raymer
Etienne Laurent is a Locater, he finds cursed objects for a client known only as 'The Collector'. He locates them, secures them, and ensures they are delivered to her museum of cursed objects. Each target presents its own challenges and dangers. Join the Locator as he travels the States in pursuit of the next 'l'objet malefique'.
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/l-artefact-malefique-by-herika-r-raymer
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/l-artefact-malefique-2
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/l-artefact-malefique-1
THE END OF INNOCENCE
A Yoelin Thibbony Rescue
Swept up in the interstellar slave trade, Yoelin Thibbony decides to go after the hierarchs involved as well as rescue as many children as she can who have been captured and put to forced labor. Along the way, she moves step by step closer to the hierarch at the top of the trafficking chain. Her suspicions grow after she opens a camp to put slavers themselves to work, for what she learns through interrogations sickens her. But now she has to know for sure who is at the top, even though the knowledge could well ruin her life forever.
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/the-end-of-innocence-by-tyree-campbell
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/the-end-of-innocence-by-tyree-campbell-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/the-end-of-innocence-by-tyree-campbell-2
Without further ado, then: browse, read, buy, enjoy. If you have any questions or comments, send them to us at hiraethsubs at yahoo dot com. See you in May!
Tyree Campbell
Storyteller and Managing Editor
April 2026