Hi there 🙂

I’m Jessa Forest, poet and multi-genre dark fantasy author.

My stories blend contemporary fantasy with alternate realities and all things arcane and grimdark.

My current work in progress is book one of my monster hunter series, The Slaughter Chronicles.

Side projects include:

• Hollow Ruins: a post-apocalyptic novella with dragons
• The Heart of the Forest Cycle: an epic fantasy series about faeries
• Echo: a science fiction novella

If you’re a fan of authors like Poppy Z. Brite, Kathe Koja, Brian Lumley, Chuck Wendig, Maureen F. McHugh, Anne Bishop, and poets like Joy Harjo and Wislawa Szymborska, you might like my work too.

The things you’ll find here are:

• writing process notes
• worldbuilding artifacts
• character interviews
• deleted and alternate scenes
• sample chapters
• blog exclusive flash fiction and poetry
• publication updates

I post new content here every Friday (and sometimes Tuesdays) and my free newsletter goes out at the end of every month.

Long term goals for this website:

• blog exclusive Slaughter Chronicles flash fiction
• Slaughter Chronicles webcomics featuring the supporting characters

OUT NOW!

Jessa Forest‘s The Slaughter Chronicles kicks off with Pulling Teeth and Other Stories, an anthology that reads like a novel. Follow Regina Slaughter through her young life as a werewolf who wants nothing more than to shift into wolf form and run under the moon—except she’s imprisoned by monster hunters who want to experiment on her. But this isn’t her first brush with danger. And it won’t be her last. At times visceral and at times light-hearted, Pulling Teeth and Other Stories is an exciting journey into a new paranormal world you’ll love!

Proof Positive

Not sure if my brand of dark fiction is for you? Sign up for my End of the Month Newsletter and get a free copy of Harbinger of Havoc, on of the stories in Pulling Teeth. If you like it, consider treating yourself to Pulling Teeth and Other Stories 🙂

If you don’t like it, unsubscribe at any time.

ALSO OUT NOW: Blood and Bourbon issue #7

The amazing folks over at Blood and Bourbon have published not one but two of my poems in their issue Begin Again.

Cover Reveal! Havoc’s Moon: The Slaughter Chronicles Book one

Havoc’s Moon, Book One of The Slaughter Chronicles, is in the final drafting stages (after many, many overhauls) and will go to the editor at the end of January 2021. A tentative publication date is set for May 2021.

There will be a pre-order giveaway with lots of fun prizes 🙂

If you’re interested in my writing updates you can sign up for my End of the Month newsletter. As a big THANK YOU you will get a free download of Harbinger of Havoc, one of the short stories from my collection Pulling Teeth and Other Stories of the Slaughter Chronicles.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Bonus: free poetry

for the girls who can see

for the girls who cannot

for the girls turned into salt

for girls who wanted love

for the girls with no hope

for the girls with sharp edges

for the girls who stood up and fought

for the girls we will remember

for the girls who love stories

when it gets too dark to read

when your light has gone out

when the hunting constellations crack the winter sky

when you wanted that feeling (of not feeling) and

when all I could do was enjoy the freeze in my fingers

the blind cold against my cheeks like heavy hands