click here to find "baby's breath" on Amazon.
the second edition chapbook is now available for purchase in full color paperback.
Kindle edition coming soon.
the 50 limited signed and numbered editions are sold out.
thanks to everyone who bought one!
you can find out more on the villipede publications page for "baby's breath" here, or go to my recent blog post about the chapbook going live and being spotted in the wild.
reviews are always appreciated...
you can also add "baby's breath" to your goodreads shelf here.
thanks for reading!
Cover art by Mikio Murakami of Silent Q Design
blurbs
“Sydney Leigh's narrative squirms into the deepest, darkest, most primitive folds of your lizard brain, curls up and oozes dread.”
—Daniel Knauf, Creator, Carnivále, Writer-Producer, The Blacklist
“‘Baby's Breath’ takes an incisive and unblinking look at how the most beautiful moment in life can turn into the most horrific. Sydney Leigh renders a character that at once frightens us and gains our allegiance.
A brief and shocking banquet—you won't be disappointed.”
—Carl R. Moore, Slash of Crimson and Other Stories
“Terrifying start to finish. A fantastic piece of horror that burrows deep into the psyche as well as the skin.”
—Julya Oui, Here Be Nightmares
“Utterly chilling...Diane's macabre narrative is a powerful shot of multifaceted strangeness.”
—Robin Spriggs, The Untold Tales of Ozman Droom
“In ‘Baby’s Breath,’ Sydney Leigh achieves something rare by balancing perfectly phrased prose, dangerously brilliant psychological insight, authentic dialogue, and water-tight plotting to transcend the known dimensions of horror.
Leigh’s short story is a monstrous child created with the uncanny power of a new master.
Using her keen understanding of human nature, she has given birth to a beautiful, terrifying, and viscerally horrifying ‘sixteen-tonne’ tale with a shocking concept that will not only cut you while you read, but leave a life-long memory scar.”
—P. Gardner Goldsmith, Bite, Live Free or Die
“‘Baby's Breath’ is a fresh foray into insectile hell. Scarred for life? Yes...and I like it.”
—Aaron Gudmunson, Snow Globe
“Smart and subtle yet savagely unsettling, ‘Baby's Breath’ really got under the skin of this jaded horror fan...
and it's still down there, gnawing away!”
—John Dixon, Phoenix Island
“The narrator's slow unhinging is perfectly paced...
Sydney Leigh pushes against the border of the grotesque just enough
to make the story as viscerally disturbing as it is psychologically unsettling.
A supremely skilled tale of the decomposition of a relationship and the horrifying consequences of failed parenthood.”
—Kurt Fawver, Forever, in Pieces
“Undoubtedly reflects my taste for the crazed, the realistic and the extreme, and manages to invent a new type of madness...
What makes Sydney Leigh's ‘Baby Breath’ all the more horrible is that it comes from a lost love
and an inability by the main character, a pregnant woman named Diane, to face the truth.
Warning: read at your own peril. Not for the faint of heart. Or pregnant women!”
—Simon Rumley, director of Red White & Blue, The Living and The Dead, & The ABCs of Death segment "P is for Pressure"
“A heartbreaking story, all the more powerful for how deeply personal it evidently is.
One of those important works of horror that captures something archetypal in the human condition,
and manages to (fittingly) burrow into the brain and linger long after the page.”
—Aaron Sterns, Wolf Creek 2, Wolf Creek: Origin
“Sydney Leigh's narrative squirms into the deepest, darkest, most primitive folds of your lizard brain, curls up and oozes dread.”
—Daniel Knauf, Creator, Carnivále, Writer-Producer, The Blacklist
“‘Baby's Breath’ takes an incisive and unblinking look at how the most beautiful moment in life can turn into the most horrific. Sydney Leigh renders a character that at once frightens us and gains our allegiance.
A brief and shocking banquet—you won't be disappointed.”
—Carl R. Moore, Slash of Crimson and Other Stories
“Terrifying start to finish. A fantastic piece of horror that burrows deep into the psyche as well as the skin.”
—Julya Oui, Here Be Nightmares
“Utterly chilling...Diane's macabre narrative is a powerful shot of multifaceted strangeness.”
—Robin Spriggs, The Untold Tales of Ozman Droom
“In ‘Baby’s Breath,’ Sydney Leigh achieves something rare by balancing perfectly phrased prose, dangerously brilliant psychological insight, authentic dialogue, and water-tight plotting to transcend the known dimensions of horror.
Leigh’s short story is a monstrous child created with the uncanny power of a new master.
Using her keen understanding of human nature, she has given birth to a beautiful, terrifying, and viscerally horrifying ‘sixteen-tonne’ tale with a shocking concept that will not only cut you while you read, but leave a life-long memory scar.”
—P. Gardner Goldsmith, Bite, Live Free or Die
“‘Baby's Breath’ is a fresh foray into insectile hell. Scarred for life? Yes...and I like it.”
—Aaron Gudmunson, Snow Globe
“Smart and subtle yet savagely unsettling, ‘Baby's Breath’ really got under the skin of this jaded horror fan...
and it's still down there, gnawing away!”
—John Dixon, Phoenix Island
“The narrator's slow unhinging is perfectly paced...
Sydney Leigh pushes against the border of the grotesque just enough
to make the story as viscerally disturbing as it is psychologically unsettling.
A supremely skilled tale of the decomposition of a relationship and the horrifying consequences of failed parenthood.”
—Kurt Fawver, Forever, in Pieces
“Undoubtedly reflects my taste for the crazed, the realistic and the extreme, and manages to invent a new type of madness...
What makes Sydney Leigh's ‘Baby Breath’ all the more horrible is that it comes from a lost love
and an inability by the main character, a pregnant woman named Diane, to face the truth.
Warning: read at your own peril. Not for the faint of heart. Or pregnant women!”
—Simon Rumley, director of Red White & Blue, The Living and The Dead, & The ABCs of Death segment "P is for Pressure"
“A heartbreaking story, all the more powerful for how deeply personal it evidently is.
One of those important works of horror that captures something archetypal in the human condition,
and manages to (fittingly) burrow into the brain and linger long after the page.”
—Aaron Sterns, Wolf Creek 2, Wolf Creek: Origin
synopsis
Diane is an obstetric nurse who fears losing her new husband after becoming pregnant. Her paranoid descent into madness creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, exacerbated by Ben’s increasing neglect of his vulnerable wife. As new life grows both inside and around her, Diane’s marriage deteriorates—but so does her health, along with that of her unborn child’s--
and her resulting grief pushes her to carry out a shocking act of revenge.
Diane is an obstetric nurse who fears losing her new husband after becoming pregnant. Her paranoid descent into madness creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, exacerbated by Ben’s increasing neglect of his vulnerable wife. As new life grows both inside and around her, Diane’s marriage deteriorates—but so does her health, along with that of her unborn child’s--
and her resulting grief pushes her to carry out a shocking act of revenge.
"Baby's Breath"
currently appears in
Bugs: Tales That Slither, Creep and Crawl
from Great Old Ones Publishing
currently appears in
Bugs: Tales That Slither, Creep and Crawl
from Great Old Ones Publishing
Winner of the Best Horror Short Story Award
in the Preditors & Editor's Readers Poll 2014
in the Preditors & Editor's Readers Poll 2014
