Get in touch:
closachar@gmail.com
  1. About Me
  2. Books (including how to order signed copies!)
  3. Short Horror/Dark Fiction
  4. Additional Writing
  5. Interviews
  6. Appearances/Signings

About Me

Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar is a horror/mystery/suspense writer and English professor in Pennsylvania who teaches creative writing, composition, and composition theory classes. She previously worked for fifteen years as a secondary English teacher in Delaware public schools. She holds a Doctorate of Education with a Literacy Specialization from the University of Delaware and an MFA in Creative Writing with a focus on horror fiction from Wilkes University.

Cassandra is the author of the Regal Summit Book Award-winning dark suspense novel Darkness There but Something More (Wicked House Publishing, 2024), the short horror story collections Keeper of Corpses and Other Dark Tales (Velox Books, 2024) and Prepare the Coffin: Tales of the Macabre (Screaming Scorpion Press, 2025), the middle-grade mystery The Hidden Diary (Baynam Books Press, 2024), the horror novella Close the Door (Baynam Books Press, 2025), and the YA mystery Lake of Secrets (Horrorsmith Publishing, 2025). Her creative work has appeared in more than sixty literary journals, magazines, and anthologies including The Horror Zine, Tales from the Moonlit Path, Corvus Review, and Quagmire Literary Magazine.

A member of the Horror Writers Association, Cassandra is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated editor of the multi-author volume of horror scholarship No More Haunted Dolls: Horror Fiction that Transcends the Tropes (Vernon Press, 2024). She is also the editor (and a contributing author) of Wicked Universe: A Wicked House Publishing Anthology (Wicked House Publishing, 2024), the editor of Dark and Dreary: A Basement Horror Anthology (Screaming Scorpion Press, 2025), the former fiction editor of River and South Review, and the co-editor-in-chief and creative prose editor of Pennsylvania English. When she’s not traveling the world with her husband, she enjoys reading, watching horror movies, and hanging out at home with her rescue dog and cats.

Cassandra with Poe in Boston
Cassandra at Poe’s Memorial Grave in Baltimore
Cassandra at Dracula’s Castle (Bran Castle) in Transylvania

Books

For a signed and personalized paperback copy of one of my books delivered to an address within the contiguous United States, please send the appropriate amount listed below to @Cassandra-Sachar (Venmo), @cassandrasachar (PayPal), or $CLOSachar (Cash App). Then, send an email with the subject SIGNED COPY to closachar@gmail.com. Please include your mailing address, which book you would like to order, and the first name of whom you would like me to inscribe the book! Each figure represents the list price plus $5 for shipping/envelope.

Darkness There but Something More: $20

Keeper of Corpses and Other Dark Tales: $20

Wicked Universe: A Wicked House Publishing Anthology: $19

The Hidden Diary: $15

Close the Door: $15

Lake of Secrets: $20

Dark and Dreary: A Basement Horror Anthology: $20

Prepare the Coffin: Tales of the Macabre: $18

Darkness There but Something More (dark suspense novel)

After the loss of her baby and subsequent divorce, Edgar Allan Poe scholar Marissa Owens leaves her tenured job as an English professor for a fresh start at her alma mater, Blackthorn University. As she begins to feel like herself again, one of her favorite students goes missing.

Then, the police find the body.

The investigation descends upon the campus, and familiar clues begin to surface. This triggers a disturbing memory from Marissa’s own dark past at Blackthorn—one she has attempted to keep buried.

Regal Summit Book Award Winner, Mystery, 2024

Kindle Book Review Semi-Finalist, Horror/Suspense, 2024

The Sinister Scoop‘s Golden Scoop Nominee for Favorite Horror-Adjacent Work, 2024

Order Darkness There but Something More from Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/bdzvcnt8

Keeper of Corpses and Other Dark Tales (short horror story collection)

A girl is tutored by an elderly neighbor to strengthen her ability to leave her body.

A man wanders a bizarre and seemingly unending airport.

An antique mirror lures a girl into a sinister alternate realm.

An elderly Polish woman confesses a dark crime to a doll.

A young man encounters strange and unnatural teachers at his new school.

A fun, zombie-themed 5K turns into a terrifying fight for survival when the undead turn out to be all too real.

From the depths of grief and the thirst for revenge to the terror of supernatural forces and the fight for survival, these stories and others delve into the darkest corners of our world where the lines between reality and nightmare blur, and the only certainty is that nothing is quite as it seems.

Literary Global Book Award Finalist, Horror, 2024

Order Keeper of Corpses and Other Dark Tales from Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/u8sdppaa

Wicked Universe: A Wicked House Publishing Anthology (horror anthology with stories from 13 different authors)

Thirteen Wicked House Publishing authors revisit the universes where their novels take place in brand new horror stories. Whether returning to places and/or characters from novels already read or discovering something new, readers are sure to be delighted and terrified by Wicked Universe.

A police officer investigates the mysterious disappearance of a man in a Louisiana bayou. (“Still Remains” by Blaine Daigle, author of A Dark Roux)

A man picks up a hitchhiker who tells him about his experience as a pastor in West Virginia. (“The Unexpected Passenger” by William F. Gray, author of The Devil Within Us All)

A museum worker endures a harrowing experience while opening an exhibit on the ghosts of Brackenby House. (“Local Legends” by MJ Mars, author of The Suffering)

A teenager stumbles into a sinkhole in the woods … and discovers she’s not alone. (“The Wrong Way Home” by Andrew Najberg, author of The Mobius Door)

Three friends battle to the death after receiving an ultimatum for a sacrifice-demanding god. (“Superior” by Alex Reid, author of One Must Go)

Featuring an introduction by Rhonda Bobbitt and additional stories from Bryan Alaspa, Elizabeth S. Devecchi, Josh Hill, S.E. Howard, Caleb Jones, Rod Labbe, Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar, and Joe Scipione

Order Wicked Universe: A Wicked House Publishing Anthology from Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/5dh3k4w6

The Hidden Diary (middle-grade mystery novel)

Following her parents’ divorce, twelve-year-old Alyssa Morgan moves into an old house with her mother and little brother. She soon stumbles across the abandoned diary of a girl whose family disappeared decades earlier from the same residence.

Determined to find out what happened to the girl whose troubles and fears become her own through the power of the written word, Alyssa strives to unravel the mystery with her new friend Jeremy.

But will they put themselves in danger by digging up old secrets?

Order The Hidden Diary from Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/2whyweh5

Close the Door (horror novella)

Natalie, a single mom, can’t afford medical treatment for the unexplained pain in her foot, so she tries to improve it on her own by quitting running and turning to yoga. During the meditation component of class one day, she follows the instructor’s prompt and envisions opening a door to a better future.

Instead, she unlocks something far more nefarious: a portal to another realm.

After she begins experiencing frequent blackouts, Natalie fears she will lose herself completely to the force controlling her body. Someone—something—has been waiting for this opportunity, and it won’t give up without a fight.

Order Close the Door from Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/2k5au4n3

Lake of Secrets (YA mystery)

Seventeen-year-old Callie Quinn’s vacation is off to a terrible start. Her parents have forced her to spend the summer before her senior year of high school with an elderly aunt in Deerville, Pennsylvania, where there’s nothing to do but watch old Westerns on TV and read the classics.

But soon, a mystery catches Callie’s attention: the drowning suicide of a pregnant teen during the 1940s. Haunted by dreams of the girl, it doesn’t take much digging before Callie realizes that the story isn’t what it appears to be. Why would a teen bent on suicide make a blanket for a baby who wouldn’t survive?

For help, she turns to her only friend in Deerville, another outsider named Brian. Little by little, he and Callie get closer to the mystery of the girl’s death, following a path that leads them deep into the prejudices of the 1940s. They also become closer with each other.

As Callie begins to open up about her past to Brian, she is forced to face hard truths—not only about a murderer who has been hiding in plain sight, but also the turbulent personal events that led to Callie’s exile to Deerville in the first place.

Order Lake of Secrets from Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/3mnt3vp5

Slasher Safari (horror chapbook)

When six college friends reunite for a safari adventure in Kenya, they expect to have the time of their lives. But there’s more to fear than the teeth and claws of lions and leopards, and not all of the tourists will make it home. The man in the mask won’t allow it.

Order from Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/4vemey4e

Dark and Dreary: A Basement Horror Anthology (horror anthology with stories from 20 different authors)

To some, the basement is simply a place to store holiday decorations and old paint cans. To many, though, it’s a source of terror—a residence for creepy crawlies and the unknown. Dive into the depths of these twenty tales of basement horror, and you’ll run up the stairs a little faster the next time you go down to reset your circuit breaker!

Featuring stories from A.J. McWain, Andrew Najberg, Besu Tadesse, Bryan Alaspa, Caleb Jones, Cass Heid, Dale Bruton, Dorian Valentine, Elizabeth S. Devecchi, J.A. Barrios, Kat Guterman, Kathleen Palm, Kristin Cianfichi, Kristoph Kosicki, Logan Thibeault, Maverick Hughes, Olivia Guthmann, S.E. Howard, Serena Sachar, and T.D. Masterson.

Order from Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/2r428w3p

Prepare the Coffin: Tales of the Macabre (short horror story collection)

Life runs amuck in Blackthorn, Pennsylvania, and residents are rarely safe from the hands—or claws—of nefarious forces. From tragic accidents to revenge slayings to supernatural encounters, trouble is always afoot.

A dream excursion to the Great Pyramids of Giza turns into a nightmare.
A tenant becomes consumed by her desire to stay home.
A husband’s plan to collect his wife’s inheritance hits a snag.
A young writer goes to dangerous extremes bringing realism to her work.
A camp counselor receives more than she bargained for at a bonfire.

In these stories and more, the people of Blackthorn are dying to meet you.

Order from Amazon here: https://tinyurl.com/2zwfsxte

Short Horror/Dark Fiction

Additional Writing

Critical and Craft Horror Essays:

Short Fiction:

Creative Nonfiction:

Poetry:

Interviews

Appearances/Signings

2026

2025