If you’ve ever stared at your screen wondering how many versions of the same email, article, campaign, or report you’ve written, you know there’s a special kind of horror hiding in the workplace.
The best stories tap into something familiar. Endless meetings. Corporate jargon. The feeling that parts of your identity are gradually being exchanged for productivity, process, and performance metrics.
That’s what drew me to Collective Madness: Schisms of the Soul, a new dark fantasy and horror anthology from Collective Tales Publishing.
My Contribution to the Anthology
My story, “The Twilight Tribune,” grew out of my own experiences as a professional writer.
Over the years, I’ve written in many different contexts, from creative projects to communications and marketing work. I genuinely love working with words, but I’ve also become fascinated by the tension that can arise when creativity meets systems, processes, and expectations.
At what point does adhering to the brand voice become losing your own?
When does collaboration become conformity?
How do you know the difference?
Those questions lingered in my mind for years before eventually finding their way into my published fiction.
“The Twilight Tribune” follows a writer working within an organization that demands far more than professionalism and productivity. What begins as a familiar workplace gradually reveals something much stranger beneath the surface.
Exploring Madness Through Different Lenses
While my contribution to this anthology leans heavily into workplace horror, one of the things I love most about Collective Madness: Schisms of the Soul is the variety of approaches represented throughout the anthology.
Madness can mean many things in fantasy and horror.
Sometimes it’s obsession. Sometimes it’s isolation. Sometimes it’s a fractured reality where nothing can quite be trusted. Or the unsettling feeling that everyone else understands the rules except you.
Every author in this collection brings their own interpretation to the theme, creating a book that explores madness from different angles.
As a reader, that’s one of my favorite things about anthologies. You never know what’s waiting in the next story.
Celebrating Collective Madness
This weekend, I’ll be joining my fellow authors at The Legendarium bookstore on September 5 at 6 p.m. in Salt Lake City to celebrate the anthology’s release. We will be attending in costume, embracing a little literary madness of our own while sharing stories, meeting readers, and signing copies of the book.
Whether you’re interested in discovering local authors, learning more about independent publishing, or simply spending an evening among people who enjoy unsettling stories, it should be a memorable event.
Hope to see you there!
xoxo,
Michaela Rae
