Carly Racklin

Carly Racklin is a fantasy and horror writer, editor, and vulture enthusiast with a passion for the fantastical and visceral.

A black and white photo of a young white person with short dark hair and glasses.

© Carly Racklin. All rights reserved.

A photograph of a mossy tree branch.

Work

NOVELLA
Funeral Song - January 27, 2026, Dead Sky PublishingFICTION
The Uninvited - The NoSleep Podcast
The Guardian of Werifest Park - Metaphorosis Magazine
Our Lady of the Wasteland - Luna Station Quarterly
Moon - Etherea Magazine
Boatman - Frozen Wavelets
Tenebrism - Cosmic Horror Monthly
The Saddest Trains Go North - NECKSNAP MagazineNON-FICTION
The Haunting of A Lot Like Birds' No Place - NightTide MagazinePOETRY
Unearthen - Haven Spec Magazine
Hades and Persephone Correspond - Mirror DanceTTRPG
Bard Subclass: The College of Curiosity - DnD 5th edition
Sinking Sickness, a horror adventure - DayLITE System
Gargoyle - A Lineage Expansion for DayLITE: Fantasy - DayLITE System
Forge: Spirit - DayLITE System

About

Carly Racklin is a writer, editor, and unapologetic vulture enthusiast whose work blends the fantastical with the visceral. They hold a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing from Arcadia University, and has written for an international horror film festival, a table top role playing publisher, and more. They currently work in social media marketing and serve as an editor for Luna Station Quarterly. Carly's fiction has appeared in Cosmic Horror Monthly, The NoSleep Podcast, NECKSNAP Magazine, and other publications. Funeral Song is their debut novel, out January 27th, 2026 from Dead Sky Publishing.When she's not writing, Carly can be found drawing, watching horror movies, and playing video games or D&D, usually while drinking something caffeinated. Her favorite birds are vultures. She hopes to one day publish novels and write for a video game (or several).Carly currently serves as an editor for Luna Station Quarterly.

Contact

For business inquiries, contact me at carlyracklin@gmail.com. For any comments, questions, or concerns, use this form!

Thanks!

Thanks for the message! I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

Available now from:
Dead Sky Publishing
Amazon
Bookshop.org
Barnes & NobleReview on GoodreadsPerfect for fans of Mike Flanagan and Caitlin Starling as well as readers of atmospheric horror, religious horror, and small-town gothic fiction.No one mourns the living dead.In the isolated town of Cairney, the Angel of Death, under specific circumstances, allows the dead to return to life — but not always as desired. For Friede Inkerman, pianist to Cairney’s sacred funerals, Death’s gift is a curse, not a blessing. All she wants after being murdered by her wife and resurrected against her will is to finally rest in peace, free from the grief and suspicion that ostracize her from the rest of her death-worshipping town.On Allhallowsmas, Friede’s hope of passing on to eternal rest is dashed when Death’s sacred relic is stolen and the acolyte who guards it is brutally slain, putting all the dead souls in Cairney at risk of fading into oblivion at sunset. Friede also can't ignore how much the murder resembles her own — an echo too haunting to dismiss.Clinging to her last happiness, her oldest friend Bastian, Friede descends into Cairney’s secrets to set things right and see her last wish granted. But Cairney is a town where nothing stays buried forever, and Friede’s search for answers unearths a plot born of ritual magic and twisted devotion that threatens everything she holds dear in her dead heart.An elegantly haunting, visceral work of supernatural horror blending gothic mystery and slow-burn psychological terror about a devout small town’s reckoning with death and the love that transcends it.

Funeral Song, Perfect for fans of Mike Flanagan and Caitlin Starling as well as readers of atmospheric horror, religious horror, and small-town gothic fiction.

What people are saying:"With sharp prose that cuts like a knife, this grief horror kept me up all night terrified and shook me to the core. Funeral Song will be one I'll think about for days afterwards, haunted by the prose." —Paul Jessup, author of Cancer Eats the Heart and Daughter of the Wormwood Star"Funeral Song is a love story of unusual power. A grotesque beauty in the vein of Guillermo del Toro, matched only by Carly Racklin's elegant prose." —Rachel Bolton, author of Please Serve Cold and Moonglow"Visceral from the very first sentence, Funeral Song dances elegantly with death and grief. With delicious prose that weaves a Soulsborne-esque death lore and a unique mystery, Racklin's story is one you won't soon forget." —TT Madden, author of The Cosmic Color and The Familialists