About Jayson R. Valencia

Jayson R. Valencia is a horror writer whose work is rooted in Asian folklore, personal history, and the long emotional aftershocks of friendship. He is the creator of what he defines as New Asian Gothic, a form of horror that privileges cultural memory, recurring human relationships, and slow-building dread over shock and excess.

Valencia began writing in elementary school alongside his closest friend, Rodulfo Q. Todio Jr. What started as shared notebooks and after-class storytelling never stopped. Through primary school, high school, and into adulthood, the two continued to write together, refining a voice shaped by familiarity, humor, and an intuitive understanding of fear as something learned early and carried quietly.

Years later, this collaboration found a modern outlet through a Fiverr writing project titled “Write you a uniquely terrifying Asian horror story.” The gig demanded constant originality and cultural specificity. Each commission required a story that felt grounded in Asia without leaning on surface imagery or borrowed tropes. Over time, the volume and consistency of this work led Valencia to compile and curate these stories into anthology collections.

From this period emerged Tales of Haunted Japan, Tales of Filipino Terror, Dark Tales of Asia, and Tales of Asian Horror. These books are not retrospective collections. They are deliberate records of an ongoing practice, shaped by reader response and disciplined repetition. The stories draw from folklore, rural superstition, urban isolation, and moral consequence, presenting horror as a condition rather than an event.

A defining feature of Valencia’s work is his use of recurring characters modeled after real people from his youth. Names such as Harold Fadriquela, Boyet, Erwin Nicasio, Empoy, Rey Firmeza, and Randy Galvez appear across multiple stories. These characters anchor the supernatural in lived social dynamics formed during Valencia’s years at Camarin High School. Horror, in these stories, emerges from recognition as much as fear.

After establishing his voice through anthologies, Valencia moved toward experimentation. He began writing novellas and structurally unconventional horror under different names. The Orchard That Eats Its Own was published under the pen name Li Mei Tan. The First Carving appeared under the mononym Rodrigo. These names were used to separate experimental risk from expectation and to allow the work to stand on its own terms.

Returning under his primary name, Valencia continued writing standalone and series novellas, including The Gate Has Teeth, Malipayon, The Siege at Fadriquela House, The Silence Between Bells, and Tadtad After the Clash. These works further refined his approach to horror as accumulation rather than interruption.

Valencia is currently developing the Valencia Horror Universe, an interconnected narrative space linking characters, locations, and histories across his body of work. The project is not designed as a franchise, but as a living archive of consequence. Each story leaves a trace. Each trace returns.