Horror Book Mini-Fest

Ashland Library loves horror writers and they love mini-fests! They're excited to welcome this amazing slate of authors to the library - Tom Deady, Kristin Dearborn, Errick Nunnally, Rob Smales, Mike Sullivan, and Steve Van Samson! It'll be a fascinating afternoon of fun with a panel discussion and book sales/signings!

Books will be available for purchase and signing. The authors are happy to sign books you bring from home but please limit it to 3 books per author. 

Admission:
FREE. Walk-ins are welcome but please pre-register so they know how many chairs to have out (and you'll receive reminders).

Schedule of events:
1:30pm - 2:30pm - Panel with all authors, Tom Deady will moderate.
2:30 - 3:30 - Book sale/signing

Tom Deady Tom Deady's first novel, HAVEN, won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. He has since published several novels, novellas, a short story collection, and the first book in his middle grade horror series. He has a master’s degree in English and Creative Writing and is a member of both the Horror Writers Association and the New England Horror Writers Association. You can find out more about Tom and his work at www.tomdeady.com

Kristin Dearborn This life-long New Englander and horror writer was destined to write about anything that screams, squelches, or bleeds. Her first literary love was Michael Crichton. Her second, Stephen King. Dearborn earned her M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University and has been on the horror scene since 2010. She’s the author of Faith of Dawn (2024) Downlines (2023) The Amazing Alligator Girl (2022)  Sacrifice Island (2018), Woman in White (2017), many short stories, and more. When she’s not unleashing a fresh new nightmare onto the page, Dearborn is probably searching for one. Or if she’s taking a break from all things blood-curdling, she’s likely playing boardgames, hiking the northeast, hanging out with her pets, or gallivanting the globe.

Errick Nunnally Errick Nunnally was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and served one tour in the Marine Corps before deciding art school was a safer pursuit. He enjoys art, comics, and genre novels. A graphic designer by day, he has trained in Krav Maga and Muay Thai kickboxing. His work has appeared in several anthologies of speculative fiction. His work can be found in APEX MAGAZINE, FIYAH MAGAZINE, GALAXY’S EDGE, LAMPLIGHT, NIGHTLIGHT PODCAST, and the novels, LIGHTNING WEARS A RED CAPE, BLOOD FOR THE SUN, and ALL THE DEAD MEN. He has a short novel THE QUEEN OF SATURN AND THE PRINCE IN EXILE (April 2025 from Clash Books). Visit erricknunnally.us to learn more about his work.

Rob Smales When asked what he does, Rob Smales tends to answer “I write words.” When feeling particularly full of himself, he may go so far as “I write the words that occur to me at the time.” Groupings of these words, referred to as stories, have appeared in nearly four dozen publications and anthologies, been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes, won a couple of readers’ choice awards, and appeared three times in Ellen Datlow’s honorable mentions list regarding her Best Horror Of the Year anthologies. 
His most recent works include the novellas LaundryLegs and Spearfinger, and he hails from Salem, Massachusetts, where you can bet he's currently writing something either funny or scary, but probably dark. ​​​​​​​

Mike Sullivan Mike Sullivan started writing short scripts for a film class and turned that love of film into a profession. After years of editing documentary films, reading works of others, and raising a family, Mike started writing stories. They were dark and twisted; luckily his wife and daughter found them entertaining. Mike is a member of the New England Horror Writers and lives outside Boston, Massachusetts. When he isn’t writing or editing films, he is chasing down the plot for his next new story.

Steve Van Samson A fierce proponent of character diversity & of avoiding cliché like the plague, Steve Van Samson is the author of the novels "Mark of the Witchwyrm", "The Bone Eater King" and "Marrow Dust", the collections “Black Honey and Other Unsavory Things” and "Year of the Rattlesnake and a comic book or two. Aside from writing, Steve co-hosts the long running nostalgia podcast Retro Ridoctopus and watches way too many black and white movies.