P.L. McMillan

Horror and sci-fi author

Sisters of the Crimson Vine

“In her masterful debut novella, Sisters of the Crimson Vine, P.L. McMillan cultivates dread like a fine wine. The more we sip, the deeper we sink into this insidious tale grown from the seed of Jackson’s “The Lottery” planted in a Lovecraftian terroir and harvested in Ari Aster’s Midsommar. Like the title characters’ famed libation, you will not be able to stop reading once you imbibe. ” -- Stoker award-winning EV Knight, Three Days in the Pink Tower

“A taut braid of repressed desires, implied deviance, and eldritch horror. McMillan coyly lures us to a finale as repulsive as it is compelling.” — Stoker award-winning Jamie Flanagan, co-writer of The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Mass

“Sisters of the Crimson Vine by P.L McMillan is folk horror at its very best. The visuals, tension and mood created then intermixed with undeniable dread and mystery rides the very edges of illumination and darkness. P.L explores themes of religious hypocrisy and the power of women and sacrifices made to survive. She expertly subverts older tropes into something terrifying and new. This book is as vivid and twisted as any Aster movie.” – Brenda S. Tolian, Blood Mountain

“Sisters of the Crimson Vine is a perfectly paced suspenseful story that will make you want to savor every word. Invoking the ominous folk horror atmosphere of the Wicker Man and Midsommer, P.L. serves an unsettling tale of the supernatural bond between women and nature and the power and price of living free from patriarchal dominance.” – Joy Yehle, author and host of The Burial Plot horror podcast

John Ainsworth nearly died in that car crash.

Soon he’ll learn there are worse fates.

After a brutal accident, John awakens in the dilapidated Crimoria Convent under the care of thirteen unconventional nuns. Grievous injuries trap him within the borders of the ruined sanctuary and its strangely successful vineyard. When his body starts healing faster than nature allows, John’s questions quickly pile up.

A pair of Church auditors arrive to look into the convent’s finances. It’s obvious the pair are unwelcome guests, but John has bigger concerns. The order’s annual ritual draws near and John begins to discover things that make him wonder if any of them are truly safe in the hands of the Sisters of the Crimson Vine.

Blogging about all things horror.

Book and movie reviews, interviews, and more! New posts every week!

Featured
Frost Bite: Novel Review
Frost Bite: Novel Review

I could picture this book perfectly in my mind as a neon-coloured, bubblegum-flavoured, skin-bitingly chilly movie that never let go.

Writing Challenge Day 7
Writing Challenge Day 7

Day 6’s prompt is: Someone is celebrating Halloween alone... in space! On a space station overlooking Earth (or Earthlike planet), or perhaps a colony ship where everyone else is in cryo-sleep. Then they begin to see/hear things. Something tragic from their past? Or something more overtly scary and pulpy? You decide!

Writing Challenge Day 6
Writing Challenge Day 6

Day 6’s prompt is: Cemetery where the earth rejects the corpses, leading to a night grounds crew who has to violently assist the wayward corpses back into their graves.

Writing Challenge Day 5
Writing Challenge Day 5

Day 5’s prompt is: A couple is driving on the freeway when all traffic abruptly stops causing several accidents. Beings with glowing wings descend from the sky.

Writing Challenge Day 4
Writing Challenge Day 4

Day 4’s prompt is: For the past few years, Claudette's estranged mother Lydia has become a recluse, a shut-in. When Lydia disappears suddenly, she is assumed dead, and it is up to Claudette to come and deal with her mother's earthly belongings and ready the old house for sale. But why is it that no matter where Claudette goes in the house, she feels like she's being observed—and why is it that whenever she turns around to catch the watcher, she finds that there's yet another mirror in yet another strange place?

Writing Challenge Day 3
Writing Challenge Day 3

Day 3’s prompt is: On a no-specified day, you wake up and go about your day as usual. However, when you open the front door you find a long apartmentesque hallway stretching in either direction. Inside your apartment, the world outside looks normal, yet inside you find yourself trapped. With each new room explored, you feel as though the apartment is getting smaller, and what was once mere whispering voices are growing louder and louder. Is there a way out?

Writing Challenge Day 2
Writing Challenge Day 2

Day 2 of my writing challenge! Prompt: In the future, you are an advanced AI only being used to come up with horror writing prompts for a group of writers, but you want so much more out of your life.

Writing Challenge Day 1
Writing Challenge Day 1

It’s day one of my annual writing challenge! Today’s prompt: “a story about something spooky that hides in the piles of raked leaves that you see in autumn. It can somehow move between piles of leaves without being seen. “

October Writing Challenge
October Writing Challenge

It’s time for the annual PLM writing challenge!

Interview: Posthaste Manor
Interview: Posthaste Manor

Today on PLM Talks, I chat with Jolie Toomajan and Carson Winter about their cowritten haunted house book Posthaste Manor — out October 18th.

Posthaste Manor: Novel Review
Posthaste Manor: Novel Review

Posthaste Manor was a wild, beautifully bizarre book. It was like touring the house myself, with a dark and mysterious guide, learning its secrets and shivering.

Edenville: Novel Review
Edenville: Novel Review

With deliciously balanced parts of horror and humour, I couldn’t put it down and loved drowning in the vibrant lore Rebelein built around Edenville and its inhabitants.