Willy Martinez
Author/Publisher
Martinez’s approach is highly conceptual. Rather than relying on simple monsters or masked killers, their horror derives from deep-seated, cultural anxieties, focusing on how isolated environments and ancestral secrets force grotesque physical change. The core thematic elements—Grotesque Metamorphosis, Contagion and Ritual, and The Land Consumes—are consistently woven through the narratives. The author seeks to demonstrate that the price of breaking an ancient taboo is not merely death, but a painful process of unmaking, such as bones hollowing out or unwanted new organs sprouting in forbidden places.
The selection of the short story format for Folklore and Flesh is deliberate and strategic, aligning Martinez’s style with masters like H.P. Lovecraft and M.R. James. Many critics and readers argue that the short story is the ideal length for horror, allowing the author to deliver a “knockout” blow of shock and repulsion without the necessary baggage of extensive novel-length backstory. Martinez utilizes this constraint to maximum effect, focusing solely on the unnerving atmospheric build-up and the visceral payoff.
Folklore and Flesh takes a wide geographic and thematic scope, proving the universality of F.B.H. anxieties. The collection shifts seamlessly from a rural grove where a mother’s grief transforms her into a living relic of memory in The Whispering Bone Orchard, to the technological dread of Digital Fangs, where a viral serum mutates a beauty influencer and her followers—demonstrating that the physical corruption of tradition is now transmissible through modern means. Their inclusion of Central American folklore in The Siguanaba is also a key element of their work, exploring physical destiny and legend outside of traditional Western horror tropes.
Willy Martinez holds the philosophy that the best horror reflects contemporary fears. His work is a dissection of cultural distrust of inheritance and the modern anxiety of losing autonomy over one’s own physical form. By fusing the timeless dread of the wilderness with the body’s ultimate betrayal, Martinez positions Folklore and Flesh as a necessary voice in the modern horror landscape, defining a new path for visceral terror.
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We welcome work from artists and illustrators for inclusion in, or collaboration on, future titles.
All inquiries should be directed to our publisher at martinez@mindonfirebooks.com
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