Collections
The Cuckoo Girls, JournalStone/Trepidatio Publishing. Forthcoming, April 2020.
“Lillie makes the unreal feel all too possible…. This grim, witchy collection will grab anyone looking for a subtle fright.” —Publishers Weekly starred review
Sixteen stories, half previously published and half new.
Novels
The Ceiling Man
From the back cover: A NOVEL OF SLOW BURN HORROR. Carole knows there can be no tie between her autistic daughter and the strange events in Port Massasauga. It’s not logical. It’s not possible. The Ceiling Man has picked up other watchers in his travels, but they all dismissed him as a nightmare. The girl is different. She knows he’s real. Teenage Abby is an innocent. The stranger only she sees and hears introduces her to evil. When Carole falls under the stranger’s sway, Abby must solve the puzzle of The Ceiling Man and save them both.
”A supernatural creature arrives in the small, fictional town of Port Massasauga and sets his sights on Abby, a girl with psychic powers similar to his own, in Lillie’s gripping debut…Lillie sidesteps horror clichés and presents characters who don’t make eye-rolling decisions…horror fans should expect an entertaining novel that’s tough to put down.”—Publishers Weekly
Read the Amazon Reviews
Read free with Kindle Unlimited or purchase in Kindle or trade paperback editions.
Purchase the trade paperback at Barnes and Noble or Books A Million.
Writing as Kay Charles:
Old Bones and New Ghosts (The Marti Mickkleson Mysteries Book 2)
“Readers will love returning to Bicklesburg and spending time with Marti Mickkleson and the quirky ghosts in Old Bones, New Ghosts!” Valerie Burns, author of Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder
Marti Mickkleson and her ghostly Grandma Bertie are back!
With only one month to go until Marti meets the conditions of her late father’s will and gains control of her trust fund, she’s determined to be on her best behavior. No admitting that she can see ghosts and certainly no talking to the dead.
But her mother’s roped her into a new family project, her new office has a mysterious haunt, Grandma Bertie’s digging up mysteries from the past, her friend Dmitri’s barely speaking to her, and her sister’s life is falling apart. It’s enough to make a girl miss her days of flipping sort-of-beef patties on a Burger Buster grill.
Then things get really bad.
With both a cold case and a new murder on her hands, her “best behavior” won’t cut it. Protecting her family may cost her more than a trust fund. It may cost Marti her life—or the life of someone she loves.
Join Marti and Grandma Bertie in the follow-up to Ghosts in Glass Houses!
Available January 25, 2024, on Kindle and in paperback.
Ghosts in Glass Houses (The Marti Mickkleson Mysteries Book 1)
Marti Mickkleson sees ghosts. Only her great-grandmother believes her. Since she died the day before Marti was born, her support isn’t worth much in the world of the living.
When Marti wakes up in a compromising position with her estranged father standing over her, she thinks he owes her a big apology. After all, he’s dead and talking to her—and she talks back. Instead, he claims he was murdered and demands she go home and do something about it. She agrees—anything to get her father out of her life and into his own afterlife.
In Bicklesburg, she finds her once formidable mother in the throes of dementia, her perfect-prom-queen sister now a lawyer married to a not-so-perfect man, and her bad-boy high school boyfriend a private security guard watching over the family fortress. When her mother wanders away and is found cradling a bloodstained garden gnome, she and Grandma Bertie must uncover a murderer before Marti ends up a ghost herself.
Ghosts in Glass Houses is available for Kindle and in paperback on Amazon. Read a sample.
Short Stories
• “Vasilisa Who Ran,” Chthonic Matter Quarterly. Ed. C.M. Muller. 2023.
• “Wishing You the Best Year Ever,” That Which Cannot Be Undone: An Ohio Horror Anthology. Ed. Jess Landry. 2022.
• “How to Make a Marionette,” VASTARIEN: A Literary Journal. 2019.
• “Mother Sylvia,” Nightscript, Volume V, ed. C.M. Muller. 2019.
The annual anthology of strange and darksome tales edited by C.M. Muller.
With stories by Patricia Lillie, David McGroarty, Shannon Scott, Samuel M. Moss, J.A.W. McCarthy, Sean Logan, Sam Hicks, Simon Strantzas, M.K. Anderson, Dan Stintzi, Tracy Fahey, M.R. Cosby, Mary Portser, Charles Wilkinson, J.C. Raye, Brady Golden, Casilda Ferrante, Adam Meyer, and M. Lopes da Silva.
• “That’s What Friends Are For,” Supernatural Tales 42, ed. David Longhorn. Winter, 2019.
Supernatural Tales , edited by David Longhorn, is a thrice-yearly magazine dedicated to supernatural fiction, including ghost stories and “quiet horror.”
• “Zwillingslied,” Twice-Told: A Collection of Doubles, ed. C.M. Muller. 2019.
“Twice-Told: A Collection of Doubles is an anthology of 22 tales, all of which examine the theme of the doppelgänger in unique and unexpected ways.” C.M. Muller, editor.
With stories by Tim Jeffreys, Clint Smith, Patricia Lillie, Chris Shearer, Shannon Lawrence, Charles Wilkinson, Craig Wallwork, David Peak, Jason A. Wyckoff, Esther Rose, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jack Lothian, Gordon B. White, Nina Shepardson, Timothy B. Dodd, Farah Rose Smith, Tom Johnstone, Jess Landry, C.C. Adams, Tim Major, J.C. Raye, and Erica Ruppert.
• “The Cuckoo Girls,” Nightscript, Volume 1, ed. C.M. Muller. October 2015.
For my moment of SQUEE, “The Cuckoo Girls” made Ellen Datlow’s Long List of Honorable Mentions for The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 8.
“An annual anthology of strange and darksome tales by twenty of the finest contemporary scribes. Kristi DeMeester, Gregory L. Norris, Charles Wilkinson, Patricia Lillie, David Surface, Daniel Mills, Kirsty Logan, Kyle Yadlosky, Clint Smith, Damien Angelica Walters, Eric J. Guignard, Marc E. Fitch, Michael Kelly, Bethany W. Pope, John Claude Smith, Zdravka Evtimova, Jason A. Wyckoff, Ralph Robert Moore, Christopher Burke, Michael Wehunt.”
• “Abby,” Deep Cuts: Mayhem, Menace, & Misery, eds. Angel Leigh McCoy, E.S. Magill, and Chris Marrs. January, 2013.
Stories by Nancy Holder, Yvonne Navarro, Mehitobel Wilson, Lisa Morton, Sandra Odell, Samael Gyre, Sara Taylor, Michael Haynes, R.S. Belcher, Stephen Woodworth, C.W. Smith, Colleen Anderson, James Chambers, Ed Kurtz, Rachel Karyo, Kelly A. Harmon, Scathe meic Beorh, Patricia Lillie, Satyros Phil Brucato, and Rob M. Miller. Evil Jester Press 2013.
• “Laundry Lady,” MicroHorror: Short Stories. Endless Nightmares, ed. Nathan Rosen. July 2012.
Poetry
• “Notes for My Sisters When I Am Gone,” HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. 8. Ed. Stephanie M. Wytovich. 2021.
Childrens Books
One Very, Very Quiet Afternoon Illustrated by Patricia Lillie. My first book, long out-of-print. Annabelle Barbra Cavendish’s quiet afternoon tea party is disrupted by Daniel Ezra Fiddleson and other friends, whose names run through the alphabet. Greenwillow Books/William Morrow 1986.
Jake and Rosie Illustrated by Patricia Lillie. Jake and Rosie are best friends, neighbors, and inseparable. They even try to dress like twins. 0ne day, Jake can’t find Rosie, anywhere. He begins to cry. But she comes home and brings a nice surprise. Greenwillow Books/William Morrow 1989.
When the Rooster Crowed Illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker. The rooster’s awake, and so are the horse, the cow, the pigs, and the chickens. But the farmer wants to sleep in. A fun and noisy read-aloud for everyone. Greenwillow Books/William Morrow 1991.
Everything Has a Place Illustrated by Nancy Tafuri. In the best of all possible worlds, everything has a warm and cozy place: a cow in a barn, a cat in a chair, and where’s the baby? On a lap, of course! A warm and reassuring read-aloud for the youngest listener. Greenwillow Books/William Morrow 1993.
When This Box Is Full Illustrated by Donald Crews. This box is empty, but not for long. Month by month, it will fill with wonderful things, perfect for sharing. Greenwillow Books/William Morrow 1993.
Floppy Teddy Bear Illustrated by Karen Lee Baker. Little sisters, don’t you just love them? Big sister has a new teddy bear, and she loves it. But little sister wants it. A lot. So she takes it, again and again. Luckily, Mama has a solution. Greenwillow Books/William Morrow 1995.
Patricia Lillie 