A Visceral Debut Collection The Curse Is Not Written in Stone. It Is Written in the Flesh. Folklore and Flesh is a masterwork of dread operating at the convergence of two primal anxieties: the terror of the isolated environment and the fear of the body betraying itself. This is Folk Body Horror: a fusion of ancient cultural dread and grotesque physical transformation. In this collection of dark stories and poetry, the boundary between myth and matter collapses. The tales explore the uncanny territory where ancestral lore ceases to be a cautionary story and becomes a biological instruction manual for corruption.
The Curse Is Not Written in Stone. It Is Written in the Flesh.
Folklore and Flesh is a masterwork of dread operating at the convergence of two primal anxieties: the terror of the isolated environment and the fear of the body betraying itself. This is Folk Body Horror: a fusion of ancient cultural dread and grotesque physical transformation.
In this collection of dark stories and poetry, the boundary between myth and matter collapses. The tales explore the uncanny territory where ancestral lore ceases to be a cautionary story and becomes a biological instruction manual for corruption.
The terror is absolute: the curse for defying a taboo is not death, but a slow, agonizing process of becoming a creature you no longer recognize.
The Landscape: Characters are isolated in shadowed, rural, and digital spaces—from a haunted grove demanding living memories (The Whispering Bone Orchard) to a lonely beekeeper merging with his swarm (Echoes of the Apiary). These environments actively refuse to obey human rules.
The Body: The transformation is visceral and internal. A beauty influencer’s viral serum unlocks something monstrous in her dental structure (Digital Fangs); a grieving survivor accepts a second, monstrous mouth as a vessel of vengeance (Hannah and the Demon’s Canvas).
Inside the Collection
The Whispering Bone Orchard A grieving mother seeks solace from a shaman in a haunted grove, only to become a living archive for the village’s buried memories.
The Drone’s Metamorphosis A frontline drone operator awakens to find his mind trapped inside the machine he once controlled—caught between humanity and cold, mechanical detachment.
Echoes of the Apiary A beekeeper’s loneliness draws him deeper into the hive’s collective mind, blurring the line between man and swarm as his world unravels.
Dark Vintage A lonely botanist’s night at a rural winery turns into a grotesque feast, where the line between predator and prey is as thin as a wineglass stem.
The Siguanaba Ancient Central American folklore comes alive as a conquistador’s quest for gold leads him into the underworld—and face-to-face with a shape-shifting legend.
Cused Collection
In the marble tomb of forgotten empires, two archaeologists risk everything to steal relics that promise to rewrite human history—only to awaken a nightmare older than civilization itself.
Digital Fangs A beauty influencer’s viral tooth-whitening serum unlocks something monstrous in her followers—and in herself.
Clay and Memory A grieving widower turns to an AI therapist and a mysterious “quantum clay” ritual, only to find his memories—and his identity—slipping away.
Hannah and the Demon’s Canvas
In the ruins of Nagasaki, Hana Takahashi trades her grief for monstrous power, becoming a vessel of vengeance whose second mouth hungers for justice and redemption amid the ashes of war.
The Day the Rain Tore Us Apart In a drought-stricken village, children are chosen for a ritual that promises rain—but the price is a transformation that no one could have foreseen.
Plus over a dozen dark poems and micro-fictions exploring transformation, ritual, and the monstrous beauty of the human condition. Each story in “Folklore and Flesh,” a dark folklore anthology, is a masterful blend of horror, fantasy, and folklore, crafted to captivate and terrify readers. Immerse yourself in these tales and discover the dark and haunting worlds that lie within.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: WILLY MARTINEZ
I am the author and the publisher of Mind on Fire Books. I am dedicated to defining the niche of Folk Body Horror, believing that the short story is the perfect vessel for delivering intense, uncompromising horror that wins by knockout. My work is a dissection of inherited trauma, cultural anxiety, and the body’s ultimate betrayal.
