Writing, research, and projects
Here you can find details about publications, conferences + events, podcasts, and projects. If you’d like more information about any of these, or if you’d like to explore working together or to discuss an opportunity please get in touch: @thebetterwithbooksclub on Threads/Insta, or thebetterwithbooksclub@gmail.com
PUBLICATIONS >>>
Studies in the Fantastic
My paper ‘Survival and Recovery: Addiction and the Therapeutic Potential of Horror Writing’ has been published in a special edition of this University of Tampa journal: Tales of the Fantastic.
BEST small fictions 2025 & Trash Cat Lit
Delighted that my short story ‘Trespasser, Singular’ has been chosen for the Best Small Fictions 2025 anthology published by Alternating Current Press. It originally featured in the ‘animals where they shouldn’t be’ Winter pop-up from Trash Cat Lit.
Wild Ink
I’ve got a grubby little story in the brilliantly titled Wild Ink Anthology, Tenpenny Dreadfuls: Tales as Hard as Nails. 50% of revenue is being donated to charity. My story ‘Night Out, Lights Out’ involves booze, hairballs, a rat and some fire…
Dark Speculations
My flash fiction story ‘She Hated People Who Kissed at the Movies’ was published in Dark Speculations Volume 1: Tales of Various Shapes and Shadows.
Outsider Zine
My essay ‘On Writing, reading and sobriety’ appeared in Volume 1 of Outsider Zine, a collection of essays about Stephen King’s work by women, non-binary and trans writers. Read the piece on the blog.
Underbelly Press
My nostalgic and grubby flash fiction piece ‘1999:Mixtapes’ is included in the launch issue of Underbelly Press, available to read online.
Comma Press
Flash piece ‘Look at You’ appears in the Comma Press e-book Offerings: New Stories by Emerging Writers, made up of work from two short story courses run by Gaynor Jones. Read the piece on the blog.
PODCASTS, CONFERENCES & EVENTS >>>
June ’26: Workshop delivered as part of Greater Manchester’s Festival of Libraries: Haunted Homes, a horror writing workshop.
May ’26: Presented a paper at Horror Studies Now with an update on my practice-as-research and how it has developed since I gave my paper in ’24. My paper: Abjection and Addiction – Writing Body Horror and the Development of a Hybrid Literary Form to Support Recovery.
October ’25: Chatted Doctor Sleep, addiction, trauma and recovery with Jenny Hamilton & Roger Bretherton on The Movie Method Podcast.
October ’25: Presented at the brilliantly titled Things That Go Bump in the Night conference (Troy University, online). My paper: Finding light in the dark – the therapeutic potential of writing horror fiction.
September ’25: I recorded an episode of the University of Salford Thrive podcast about writing for wellbeing.
June ’25: SPARC – I presented my work at the University of Salford postgraduate research conference and was awarded the ‘Improving Lives’ panel prize.
March ’25: Lovely time chatting to Kendall and Corey on the Horror Heals podcast.
March ’25: Weird Women workshop delivered at Levenshulme Old Library – using horror writing to better understand ourselves.
December ’24: Memory and Trauma conference, London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research. My paper: ‘Addiction, creativity, and processing trauma – the therapeutic potential of reading and writing autobiography for a writer in recovery.’
October ’24: Science and Sensibility: Method Meets Art transdisciplinary conference – London Arts Based Research Centre. My paper, ‘Fiction as ‘Quit Lit’: the truth of recovery narratives and therapeutic potential of fiction.’ This conference had a great keynote presentation from Patricia Leavy.
September ’24: Memory, Trauma and Recovery International Interdisciplinary Conference – InMind Support, Gdansk (online). My paper, ‘I recover, I recover, I recover: Repeat narratives and self-compassion in the dark spaces of life writing.’
August ’24: Multitudes ‘zine fest: loved developing four new zines for this!
May ’24: I presented my research paper ‘Survival and recovery: addiction and the therapeutic potential of horror writing’ at the Horror Studies Now conference at Northumbria University. (Side note: it was THE friendliest conference ever.) ((Additional side note: Something really exciting happened.))
alex herod 