A paid bloody key offering

Come talk horror with people who make it.

Twice a month, horror writers, podcasters, filmmakers and Substackers get on a call and take the genre apart — one night on craft, one night with a guest who makes horror for a living. You leave with a move to make in your own work.

$299 for the quarter · October–December 2026 · six nights · 10 seats available

You know the feeling

You paused the movie to write down a line of dialogue. You've watched that scene in Hereditary a thousand times and still get chills. 

Someone at a party said "I don't know how you watch that stuff" and you gave them a nine-minute answer about why the house matters and watched their eyes go blank.

You have a note on your phone titled something like "slashers-as-metaphors" and it's longer than your grocery list. You've rewritten the same scary scene four times because the fear kept landing a beat late, and there was nobody to ask. Not nobody, exactly. Just nobody who'd get it.

You're not looking for a beginner room. You're already making the thing. You're looking for the room where "what makes a monster?" is a two-hour conversation and everyone brought a notebook.

That's this room. 

I used to be in one. It ended when the person running it had to leave, and I couldn't find another, so I'm running one, now.

What the Horror Club is

Two Wednesdays a Month. Two Kinds of Horror.

The Club meets twice every month — one night for craft, one night with a working horror creator. Both nights end the same way: you leave with something you can put into your project this week.

Night One

Craft Teardown

We pick one horror craft question and take it apart until it gives up its bones. What makes a monster earn its scare? Why is the house never just a house? Where does the dread actually live — the scene, the sentence, or the cut? You leave with one thing you're taking back to your own project this week.

Night Two

Guest in the Room

Someone who makes horror joins us — a novelist, a Substacker, a scholar, a filmmaker — to talk about the thing they're known for. I interview them for the first half; you ask them anything for the second. No slides, no lecture. You hear how they solve the problems you're stuck on, and decide what to steal.

Every night is recorded. If you can't make one live, send your question ahead and watch it later.

The founding quarter

October–December 2026: Six Nights in the Room

This is the first quarter of the Horror Club, and the people who join it get the founding price for as long as they stay. All nights run 6pm CST for 60–90 minutes. Dates for the next quarter are published when its doors re-open.

October

  • Wed, October 7 — Craft Night: What makes a final girl?
  • Wed, October 21 — Guest Night: Kimberly from Horror Concierge on writing horror on Substack

November

  • Wed, November 4th — Craft Night: Where does the dread actually live?
  • Wed, November 18th — Guest Night: Andrew Scahill of Andy Might on the revolting child in horror

December

  • Wed, December 2nd — Craft Night: What we're afraid of now — the monsters of 2026
  • Wed, December 16th — Jen Smith from Horror Literati — Winter Horror: darkness, death, paranoia
Jade Eby

Who's running the room

Jade Eby

Writer · Mythologist · Trauma Recovery Specialist

I read horror and fairy tales as survival manuals — what the story was telling you to do — and I write about it every Tuesday at The Bloody Key. Twenty-plus books, a Rebel MFA earned in public, and a lifelong habit of watching the movie everyone else walked out of.

I'm not the expert at the front of this room. I'm the one who books the room, brings the first question, and makes sure the good people show up.

is this your room?

This Club is for you if…

You already make horror — a novel, a podcast, a Substack, a script, a short film — and you want to talk about how it works with people who make it too.

You watch and read with a notebook open, and you'd like that to be normal for once.

You want to hear how working horror creators actually solve the problems you're stuck on — and then ask them about it.

You miss having a club. This is one, with a door, a schedule, and people who show up.


Questions before you knock

Frequently Asked

Do I have to be a novelist to join?
No. If horror is the thing you make — in prose, audio, film, essays, newsletters, scripts — this is your room.
Is this a critique group?
No. Nobody workshops your pages here. We talk about how horror works; what you do with that in your own draft is your business.
What if I can't make a night live?
Every night is recorded and posted to the members' room within a day. Send your question ahead and I'll ask it for you.
What does the $299 cover?
The whole quarter: six live nights (three Craft, three Guest), every recording, and the members' room where the between-nights conversation happens. It works out to about fifty dollars a night.
What happens after December?
The club keeps going — the next quarter is January–March, and current members roll straight in at the price they joined at. Doors for new members open once a quarter.

The door is open

Come to a club you'll be welcomed in.

Two nights a month. A room full of horror creators. A working guest. One move to make in your own project. $299 gets you in.

Your seat is waiting