Michael Wehunt
LightNews LightNews
banner
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Michael Wehunt
@michaelwehunt.bsky.social
2.9K followers 870 following 840 posts
Literary horror in the woods. Life assembled from found footage. Crawford & Shirley Jackson Award Nominee. Greener Pastures, The Inconsolables. Debut novel The October Film Haunt 9/30/25 from St. Martin's Press.
Posts Replies Media Videos
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Two frames - in the top, a teenaged boy is turned away from his mother, who is saying, "Josh, please come home. Stop reading The October Film Haunt." In the bottom frame, VHS style glitching is significant, particularly on the boy's face, which is now twisted and stretched out. He is saying, "You don't get it, Mom. I belong with the trees now."
November 12, 2025 at 4:11 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
I'm so glad to hear that! Wow. And good catch with the Mills reference. The book was always going to be set in the Burlington area, but Daniel is the reason for Hinesburg specifically. When I was up there last year, he drove me to the cemetery and the road Jorie lives on. :)
November 11, 2025 at 9:19 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Thanks to @robbiedorman.bsky.social for an excellent conversation about The October Film Haunt, the writing process, rhythm in prose, the struggles, the victories, and more. Available on the usual podcast platforms or on YouTube in the links below.
Promo image for episode 14 of Blood on the Typewriter, "Michael Wehunt Uncovers The October Film Haunt"
November 10, 2025 at 5:51 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Tiny Grim Reaper says this one deserves to skip ahead in the TBR line
Photo of the book Scream With Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980) by Eleanor Johnson. Standing beside the book is the Tiny Grim Reaper figurine, a proud fixture in many of Michael Wehunt's social media posts.
November 3, 2025 at 3:43 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
🎵 364 more days till Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, 364 more days till Halloween, Silver Shamrock🎵
November 1, 2025 at 5:04 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
My second trade review, and it's another great one! Thanks to Shelf Awareness for featuring The October Film Haunt on Halloween!

“A twisted nightmare fit for the 21st century, The October Film Haunt will delight hardcore horror fans with its heavy dread, innovative prose, and delightful dialogue.”
October 31, 2025 at 4:54 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
An important public service announcement this Halloween season
Graphic with image of young teens on their smartphones. Headline of faux article reads "IS YOUR TEEN TEXTING ABOUT THE OCTOBER FILM HAUNT?" Subheadline reads "How to decode those possibly occult messages before the new horror novel gets to them first"; below is a list: fwiw = funeral watching is wicked wtf = where's the footage gmtc = give me the crown lol = laughing occultly, Lecomte-ly guth = going under the house smh = six minutes haunted pacst = Pine Arch Creature summoning tonight imho = I must honor occultism gtfo = going to funerals obviously ybwtt = you belong with the trees brb = belong, rejoice, belong omg = oh mirror ghost Below the list is "Film haunt prevention starts at home" followed by "THE OCTOBER FILM HAUNT" and "MICHAEL WEHUNT."
October 30, 2025 at 3:20 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Excited about this new arrival in the Tiny Grim Reaper's collection. If the new @johnhornor.bsky.social novel is even close to as good as A Lush and Seething Hell, I'll be one happy reader.
October 27, 2025 at 8:35 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Great feature from GeekDad on The October Film Haunt, plus wonderful recs of the new @datlow.bsky.social and @raforall.bsky.social's Why I Love Horror!
Screenshot of article titled "Why Horror? Why Not! — Three New Releases For Your Halloween Reading List"
October 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
It’s my birthday, and The October Film Haunt was just born. It’s inevitable that I drop an obvious shameless hint.

- Macabre Daily: “The best horror book of 2025”
- Vulture: One of the “16 Best Horror Books of 2025 (So Far)”
- Geek Rage: "A strong contender for *the* epic horror novel of the 2020s"
The novel The October Film Haunt stands against a wall. A small Grim Reaper figuring stands beside it.
October 25, 2025 at 5:54 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
By far one of the best sentences I've ever experienced!
Screenshot of Threads post reading "By far one of the best horror books I've ever experienced!"
October 24, 2025 at 1:12 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
t h e r e i s s o m e t h i n g i n t h e r e
Very dark photo, like a film still, perhaps taken inside a closet, with the faint appearance of a creepy, almost featureless face. A subtitle reads "-- You belong" at the bottom.
October 23, 2025 at 2:41 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
This Thursday, 10/23, I'll be at Wild Aster Books in Chamblee, GA, just north of Atlanta, from 5-7 p.m.! If you're in the area, come by to chat, buy books, have your book signed*, demand to know secrets in the Q&A, etc.

*I am only allowed to sign The October Film Haunt and other books written by me
Signage reading Wild Aster Books
October 21, 2025 at 2:08 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
*Side effects of The October Film Haunt may include...
Michael Wehunt's hapless face, severely distorted by VHS-styled glitching
October 20, 2025 at 1:40 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
I remember deciding the first story I wrote at the start of Following My Dream™ would be horror. It didn’t feel like a commitment then, but looking back, it reminds me of my mom telling me not to make that face or it might freeze and l’d look that way for the rest of my life.

#noregrets #horrorface
VCR distorted image of Michael Wehunt - oh no, half his face seems to have melted and is trailing off to the left like smoke or taffy
October 17, 2025 at 2:23 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Feeling jittery seeing The October Film Haunt on Vulture's list of the best horror books of the year (so far)!

www.vulture.com/article/best...
October 16, 2025 at 8:27 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Oh, just Heather Donahue, the soul of my all-time favorite horror movie, The Blair Witch Project, holding my novel. This book about the joy and darkness of fandom, a book about my heart, a book born partly in that Burkittsville wilderness. There's a reason it names Heather, Mike, and Josh on p. 41.
Actor Heather Donahue, best-known for starring in 1999's The Blair Witch Project, holding the novel The October Film Haunt by Michael Wehunt
October 16, 2025 at 3:31 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
f u n e r a l w a t c h i n g
POV looking up out of a grave during a funeral service. Text reads "I told you not to read The October Film Haunt at night."
October 13, 2025 at 2:29 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Stopped by The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, NY, to sign copies of The October Film Haunt. Even more special was the surprise of an employee telling me they'd recently started the audiobook. 🥰
October 10, 2025 at 7:20 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Probably the greatest review anything I write will ever receive. 😳🤩 Just wow. "…..the best horror novel of 2025" + a lot more. Huge thanks to Sean O'Connor at @macabredaily.bsky.social!

www.macabredaily.com/articles/pap...
October 8, 2025 at 5:10 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Watching for the 1,368th time
October 7, 2025 at 1:45 AM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
One of my favorite review mentions I've seen caught in the online cobwebs so far
Creepy VHS stylized image with text: “The October Film Haunt is the most creepy, freaky, scary book l've read in a long, long while, and that is a thing of both beauty and immense pleasure, for books are magic, and the magic in this one is electric.”
October 6, 2025 at 3:52 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Earnestness sometimes feels embarrassing as a professional author, but I have decided to lean into it. It's me. Thank you, everyone, for a great launch week for THE OCTOBER FILM HAUNT.
Image with text: "'Almost as old as the novel is the dream to publish one,' somebody once said. It was me, just now, starting this sappy post. It was my inscrutable dream for so long, something kept in a box, something not real. When I was very young, there was this image in my head, equally inscrutable, guarded and vulnerable, of going into a Barnes & Noble on shaky legs and seeing my novel on a table or shelf. As obsessed as I am with the world of short fiction, there's something inescapably grand about a novel. "This past week the dream became real, and the fact that I had known it would be real since March of 2023 (!) didn’t prepare me for the real realness of it. I went into a Barnes & Noble and saw my book on a table. Even now, the words “my novel” have a sort of talismanic power. Indie bookstores are the real treasures in our communities, but this was for that very young Michael, the one with the inscrutably powerful dream. "Thank you to every single person who read this book already, is reading it now, is thinking of reading it in the coming weeks or months. Thank you for your kind words and reviews and all those to come, because word of mouth is crucial — especially for a debut novelist. The love has been invigorating, and I will dine on it for years like the Pine Arch Creature dines on [redacted]." Barnes & Noble display table containing various horror books, including Michael Wehunt's The October Film Haunt Photo from Michael Wehunt's launch event for his novel, The October Film Haunt; Kristi DeMeester sits beside him as a conversation partner, and boht hold microphones. Michael is speaking. A stack of copies of The October Film Haunt and one copy standing upright and facing out
October 4, 2025 at 8:48 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
Down here in the South, the holy rite begins again
Scene from The Exorcist with text added over the two priests (Fall and Halloween) as they perform exorcism rites on possessed Regan, who has the word Summer over her
October 1, 2025 at 9:25 PM
michaelwehunt.bsky.social
I’ll be doing my first Reddit AMA today at 3 p.m. Eastern! Stop by and make me say thoughtful, malevolent, or fun things. www.reddit.com/r/horrorlit/...
October 1, 2025 at 5:17 PM