Books by R. A. Busby
"I used to clean hoarder houses," Paul explains. But that was before he took the job of cleaning out the old biology professor's home. Since then, nothing's been the same. Something in the house is...alive. It's not just the mushrooms growing over every surface, or even the disturbing smell. It's the woman's voice he hears inside his head. The creeping sense he's been invaded. The powerful connections to memories and people he's never seen. Yes. Something in that house is alive. And it wants to speak to him. To you.
Published by Stelliform Press
New Bedford, 1899; Harrison Quire has a problem. Haunted by memories of his lover, he's only lingered on the periphery of a life. When he visits the Whisperers' Club to hear a few horror stories, he never expects he'll become one. Then old George Burgess tells his tale of an unusual book, a volume made of living human flesh. 
It is alive. It is hungry.
And it is yours.
When impoverished college dropout Nick signs up to be a DrugCorp test subject, he’s glad for the easy money, but he isn’t prepared at all for the strange…aftereffects. The nausea. The itching. The unusual abdominal swelling.
​The internal squirming. 
Published by Cemetery Gates Media / My Dark Library Series 

Featured Stories
"Ten Thousand Crawling Children"
"Pregnancy is an infestation. A hidden invasion. An invisible operative sneaks inside you, planting a package of foreign genetic material and forcing you to replicate it trillions of times. Soon, your hostage cell floats down your fallopian tube to the womb to feed on the blood-bed of your uterine lining like a vicious little tick. If it plants itself in the tube, the cell will kill you as surely as it killed my mother..."
Nightmare Magazine Issue 136 (January 2024)
2024 BRAM STOKER AWARD NOMINEE FOR SHORT FICTION
All Her Little Bones
"Date: October 4
Time: 3;59 PM

"I hope you're not reading this, but if you are, I've got no clue how to get you out. I'll tell you what I did, but if you're here...well, my solution obviously wasn't worth shit. 
First, watch out for that baby."
Bleak Midwinter: The Darkest Night

Published by Quill and Crow Publishing House

Podcast Stories
"A Pearl as Red as Sin"
Pseudopod Episode #809
When Ginny leaves the desert to go to West Virginia with her kinda-boyfriend Jess, she never dreams she'll find exactly what she needs there. A mother. A family.
A very strange baby.
"A Short, Happy Life"
Creepy Podcast Episode December 30, 2020
Every teacher has that one student they can't forget.
Sometimes they won't let you.
"Shut Your Eyes While Mother Sings"
Tales to Terrify Podcast #609
For Sarah, it's hard to adjust to being a new mother. First there's the crying. Then there are the voices.
Selected Podcast Interviews and Reviews
My Dark Library Podcast 
Tipsy Nerds Book Club

Tipsy Nerds talk about "All Her Little Bones," part of the ​Bleak Midwinter anthology from Quill and Crow.

Available on Amazon
"Kiss" from The One That Got Away
Older Stories
"Not the Man I Married"
​Winner, Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction 2020
​When her husband unexpectedly comes home  from work one day, Darlene knows that though he looks and talks exactly like Charles, this imposter is not the man she married. 

NOTE: This story was originally published at the Black Petals online magazine, which is now sadly unavailable. 
Art by Londyyn Thomas © 2020
"Holes"
in Graveyard Smash: Women of Horror Anthology Vol. 2
Nominee, Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction 2020
"I've always hated holes..."
Trypophobe Katherine has a morbid dislike of holes​. Any holes.
But when the pandemic hits, she finds some holes
​are too small to plug.
Or are they?
"Street View"​
​Collective Realms, Issue 2
Did you know Google Street View is a time machine?
Did you also know it's haunted?
Tim finds that out when he's looking for his old family home and sees his brother.  Again and again.

NOTE: This story was originally published in Collective Realms Magazine, now unfortunately discontinued.
"Cactusland"
34 Orchard, Issue #2
​
Stuck in her Vegas home with the kids, the dog, and a lot of time on her hands when the pandemic locks down her life, Shair is beyond relieved when the upscale open-air mall Cactusland finally reopens for business. When she sneaks out of the house to get a much-needed makeover, Shair finds she leaves with more than she bargained for.
 "Fluid"
in Women of Horror Volume 4: Don't Break the Oath
Text editor Nick has a memory problem. He remembers things two ways: the way they happened, and the way everyone else thinks they did. When the timelines start collapsing around him, Nick wonders how much of himself he's losing down the memory hole.
From Orchid's Lantern Press
Available now for order on our shop and the ebook from Amazon. 
When Ana receives a free copy of the photo editing program Fluid, she finds that altering her own selfies results in terrifying consequences.

Available from Kandisha Press!
"Baby"
in Good Southern Witches Anthology
​


When Ginny leaves for West Virginia with her unreliable boyfriend Jess, she finds there's more than one way to start a family.

Available from Curious Blue Press

Listen to the story as "A Pearl As Red as Sin" on Pseudopod Podcast, Episode 804
"Ill Wind"
Anomalies and Curiosities 


​
Listening to the strange cries coming from the forest, Grady prayed it wasn't a blood wind. Again.

Available from Quill & Crow Publishing House
"Nails"
in The Omen's Call Anthology


It's just a purple nail, the press-on kind.
​Just like the kind his mom used to wear before she died.
​When it keeps turning up, it doesn't seem like a big deal to Mark.
At first. 

Available from Devils Rock Publishing!
"Cold"
Inked in Gray Anthology

Mr. Limos is happy to explain to his new son-in-law how  he got so wealthy. And so hungry.  

Available from Inked in Gray Publishing
"Kiss,"
from The One That Got Away: Women of Horror Anthology Vol. 3
Volume 3 of Kandisha Press' Women of Horror anthology The One That Got Away is available on Amazon
Listen to a Reading of "Kiss"

Awards
"Ten Thousand Crawling Children"
2024 Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Short Fiction 
"Pregnancy is an infestation. A hidden invasion. An invisible operative sneaks inside you, planting a package of foreign genetic material and forcing you to replicate it trillions of times. Soon, your hostage cell floats down your fallopian tube to the womb to feed on the blood-bed of your uterine lining like a vicious little tick. If it plants itself in the tube, the cell will kill you as surely as it killed my mother..."
Nightmare Magazine Issue 136 (January 2024)
"Not the Man I Married"
Art by Londyyn Thomas © 2020
2020 Winner, Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction 


​When her husband unexpectedly comes home  from work one day, Darlene knows that  though he looks and talks exactly like Charles, this imposter is not the man she married. 
  • Nominee, 2020 Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction for "Holes" Graveyard Smash: Women of Horror Anthology Vol. 2​

About R. A. Busby
A 2024 nominee for the Bram Stoker Award and the 2020 Shirley Jackson Award recipient for short fiction, R. A. Busby is also the author of You Will Speak for the Dead, Words Made of Flesh, and Corporate Body. About writing, R.A. Busby states, "In creative programs, I was always instructed to write about what I know. I know what scares me." In her spare time, R.A. Busby watches cheesy Gothic movies and goes running in the desert with her dog.
Photo from Thomas James Caldwell