Snake Eyes won 2 awards!!!

I have a couple of pen names, and Zahra Jons/Z. A. Jons is my pen name for contemporary-style fiction. I have won several awards for this type of fiction, and maybe I should stick to only this pen name, but I just love writing in other genres, too.

Anyway, besides earning that “get it” checkmark at Kirkus, it just won 1st place (!!!) for Romance – Military at The BookFest Fall 2024! It also won 2nd place in Chick Lit.

If you are interested in getting your own copy of Snake Eyes, it is available from DreamPunk Press, Bookshop, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

The Haunted Zone won an award!!!

Oh wow. So this is great news and I want to share it with everyone (as does Sirrah Medeiros, the lovely editor at Tundra Swan Press who put this amazing book together).

It won 2nd Place in Anthologies at The Bookfest Fall 2024!

You can order your own copy of this woman-veteran led, written, and illustrated book from the publisher’s website, from Amazon, from Bookshop, or from Barnes and Noble.

In the Old Victorian

[A poem for spooky season.]

Looking into the broken window of the darkened Victorian, at the far end of a desolate street, the fireplace is dark, the ashes cold, a little damp, a bit of old blackened log still resting in the grate.

Ashes smear the brick and stone, staining the grout, black tear-stains no one bothered to wipe away.

Abandoned cobwebs hang in its corners, no spiders to be seen.

The quiet looms, its presence a tangible nothing.

The grandmother clock on the mantel no longer chimes, the face obscured by soot and dust and time.

The brass of the pendulum is tinged with green; silent, forgotten; unmoving and still.

A candle holder sits to one side, the candle a lumpy dark nub huddled near the base; an old picture frame stands on the other, erect and proud, the photo inside faded to gray-brown ghosts on dirty white paper.

Haunted Zone (perfect for spooky month)

The Haunted Zone anthology was published this past April by Tundra Swan Press, and [squee] I have a short story in it (it’s titled “Guilty Conscience”). I know I should have mentioned this earlier, but I’ve been struggling a bit lately and so we’re playing catch up.

And besides, isn’t this the perfect month for me to tell you about it?

This anthology of horror shorts is full of stories written by women military veterans and the art that adorns those stories are also done by women veterans. The stories aren’t necessarily about veterans, though. I know mine isn’t. I’ve read many of the stories (and left a light on to keep the shadows away) and there are some I am waiting to get the nerve up to read. Writing horror is much easier than reading it (imho).

Oh, and the biggest deal about it? A portion of the proceeds from sales go to the National Veterans Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization, for their Women Veterans Resources and Support Programs. You can find out more about this organization by visiting their website: https://nvf.org/.

And now, let me tell you a little bit about that short story…it took me a long time to finish it. When a friend and fellow writer told me about this anthology, I went to my folder of unfinished stories. It was a horror anthology, so it needed to be scary. But, I also had a sharp deadline, and it’s been a bot since I’ve written anything short. I thought I’d check out some stuff I already had completed.

And I found a good candidate, but it wasn’t really “scary” nor was it actually finished. It was more just the beginnings of something. I had started it back in university, for an assignment, but it just never clicked back then. Something was missing. So I gave the main character an insidious internal voice egging her on and let her tell me where we were going. So, I followed her down a dark, destructive rabbit hole. The story was accepted and I LOVE the illustration that was done to go with my story.

And if you decide to check it out, the Tundra Swan Press still has some of the limited edition hard covers (will FULL COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS) and bundles available.

Happy horror reading!

And if you want, drop a note to let me know if you prefer short horror, like the stories in anthologies, or full length horror novels.