Author of the psychological horror novel Pentlockin - currently seeking representation.

Cain Quillman

Cain Quillman

is a psychological horror author and narrative architect. His stories combine folklore, trauma, and emotional realism to create horror that lingers long after the final page.

Influenced by Stephen King’s truth under pressure and Chuck Palahniuk’s craft of narrative misdirection, Cain writes with precision and cinematic intent. His background in marketing gives him a structural awareness of pacing, payoff, and how stories live beyond the page.

He writes so the reader often knows more than the protagonist.

He designs legends for repeatable rituals and shared mythology.

He lives with M.E./CFS, so accessibility and focus remain central to his work.

His forthcoming novel Pentlockin blends psychological suspense with the mechanics of urban legend. Early readers have compared his tone and structure to Jennifer McMahon, Neil Gaiman, and Gillian Flynn. Known for intricate plotting and hidden architecture, Quillman builds narratives like blueprints—every reveal, every illusion, every emotional hit designed with intent.

Beyond fiction, he has published memoirs exploring fear, survival, and transformation. Those experiences give his horror its heart, grounding the supernatural in human truth. His aim is simple: to write stories that haunt, resonate, and demand to be read twice.

Pentlockin completed. Representation inquiries welcome. 

Books

PENTLOCKIN

Jailbirds Can't Fly

Complete at 75,000 words - representation and film-rights inquiries welcome.


A psychological horror that traps its reader inside an urban legend.

To bury an urban legend, you have to dig up the past.


Brynn Evesham questions the dead.

Her mother, gone for years. Her favourite aunt, buried only days ago.

And now, Walter Crimp, the former executioner at...

Dragged Up and Torn Apart

Memoir

Dragged Up and Torn Apart (memoir)

A gut-wrenching memoir of survival, brotherhood, and the long road back to truth.

Cain and his twin were inseparable, partners in crime, in mischief, and in survival. When childhood became a battlefield of neglect, starvation, and fear, they built their own rules to stay alive. But as adulthood neared, the bond...

Being Quilly

Memoir

Being Quilly: A Continued Struggle (memoir)

When your past frames your only map, how do you learn the terrain?

Losing his twin left Quilly fractured, plunged into silence and survival. In Being Quilly: A Continued Struggle, he’s forced to grow up without a guide, navigating adulthood with the limited life tools trauma handed him. Each decision—...

Other Writing

Building Fear from Truth - Writing the Psychological Unknown


This workshop grew out of the research and writing behind Pentlockin.

It explores how lived experience, folklore, and moral distortion can shape authentic horror on the page.

Participants will examine how empathy, guilt, and realism create dread more effectively than monsters ever could - the same principles that drive the Pentlockin mythos.

The sessions are designed for writers who want to turn personal unease into narrative power....

Latest Updates

ARC SIGN-UP FORM Can you kill an urban legend? Some say The Gallows Man

Can you kill an urban legend? Some say The Gallows Man still lurks in the shadows, waiting for his next name to be called. Dare to uncover the truth—sign up now to read ...