Tag Archives: horror

My Microfiction Story “Stewie’s Mom” Accepted Into the Anthology “Hex”

hex

Promotional image for the Black Hare Press anthology “Hex.”

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

A few weeks back, I saw a prompt over on the Black Hare Press Facebook page inviting people to contribute a 200-word story based on the word “Hex.”

I figured “what the heck” and carved out “Stewie’s Mom.”

I guess I missed the part about there being a competition with five prizes. No, I didn’t win (always a bridesmaid), but my story was accepted into the upcoming anthology “Hex”.

Continue reading →

Read “Olivia Comes Home” Now at SciFanSat

11

Cover art for SciFanSat issue 11

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Issue 11 of SciFanSat featuring my short story is now available. Read the current issue in viewer, as a PDF, or an ePub.

Although my name isn’t mentioned o the cover or the main page, I did get a nice email this morning listing the seventeen published authors as:

Continue reading →

My Flash Fiction Horror Piece “Olivia Comes Home” to be Published by SciFanSat

11

Cover art for issue 11 of the SciFanSat e-zine

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

My flash fiction horror tale “Olivia Comes Home” has been accepted for publication at the SciFanSat monthly e-zine due to be published online on Saturday, June 29th, 2024, in their eleventh issue (the cover for the tenth issue is above).

This is a wee story with a word count of 545 and follows a goth girl named Olivia who is trying to find someplace where she will be accepted.

Continue reading →

Film Review of “Godzilla Minus One” (2023)

minus one

Promotional art or the 2023 film “Godzilla Minus One.”

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Yesterday, I heard that Godzilla Minus One (2023) was on Netflix starting June 1st. I don’t have Netflix, but I checked and it was available to rent and stream elsewhere so I watched it last night. Lucky me.

This was one of the very few movies I wanted to see in the theater. From the start, it received terrific reviews and was an authentic blockbuster made with the fraction of the budget Hollywood spends on most of their crap.

On top of all that, it won eight awards including an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, an Asian Film Award for Best Sound, and Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Film and Best Actor (Ryunosuke Kamiki). This one hit it out of the park. But would it live up to the hype?

Yes, it did.

The movie wasn’t what I expected. I knew it was a period piece, set in Japan at the end of World War Two, but not much more.

Oh, Spoiler Alert: If you didn’t see it in the theater and haven’t streamed it yet and you want to be surprised, stop reading here.

Continue reading →

Kickstarter for “Zehlreg A. Grindstone’s Spectacular Western Oddity Emporium” Launches Tomorrow!

zagIf you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Remember when I said that my western/horror short story “Blood Trail” was accepted for publication by End of the World Pubishing?

Well, the kickstarter starts tomorrow morning, Friday, May 31st!

According to the publisher, the final word count will be around 125K, which is huge. Also, reaching for the stars, they also want to raise enough for an audiobook as well.

Go to the Zehlreg A. Grindstone’s Spectacular Western Oddity Emporium kickstarter page. If necessary, create an account (I had to go through about a dozen captchas just to make mine).

Continue reading →

Revenge of the Geek Show

binks

PHOTO PROMPT © Mr. Binks

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Willard looked up from beneath the discarded canvas at the base of the ride. He heard the squeals of the happy rubes spinning and twisting, hoping they’d vomit.

The sound of tinny calliope music, the sickening smell of cotton candy, or someone gorging another cheap hotdog with mustard filled him with nothing but hate. Big Luther said he still got nostalgic, but his brain rotted long ago.

Will nodded to the others, each one in their hidden positions. Just at ten, when the crowds were wildest and the carny lights blotted out the stars of heaven, they’d begin the slaughter.

Continue reading →

My short story “Blood Trail” Accepted for Publication in “Zehlreg Augustus Grindstone’s Spectacular Western Oddity Emporium”

western

Screen capture from hyperion-tales.com

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

I don’t have a lot of details yet, but my “E.E. Durban, Occult Consulting Detective” short story “Blood Trail” has been accepted for publication by End of the World Publishing.

The theme is called Zehlreg Augustus Grindstone’s Spectacular Western Oddity Emporium and is “where the Wild West meets the vast worlds of Fantasy!”

More specifically:

Our theme is intentionally broad to allow would-be contributors to rustle the dogies of their imaginations as freely as possible. A few ideas we have had, purely as examples, are: What would it be like if there had been dwarves around for the California gold rush? What animals elves or orcs might drive and what antics might ensue? How would a saloon fight go if some folks in the saloon were magic users? For that matter, what would magic look like/be used for and how would the general populace use it? Show us Sitting Bull with magic that controls water! Show us ghost riders chasing the Devil’s herd! Show us Billy the Kid with a wand! Or on a dragon! Or both! Show us Annie Oakley, Magic Missile Sharp-shooter! The possibilities are endless.

Continue reading →

Book Review: “Pines” (2012) by Blake Crouch

pines

© James Pyles

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

I found out about the SciFi/Mystery novel Pines by Blake Crouch when I was looking up something totally unrelated. I had watched (again) the pilot episode to the 1966 Irwin Allen TV show The Time Tunnel and was wondering why the government would want to invent time travel.

Time travel, contrary to popular fiction, isn’t easily weaponized. If you want to change the past and say prevent anyone else besides the U.S. acquiring nuclear weapons, it would be incredibly complicated. Unforeseen variables could cause all kinds of unanticipated results, assuming you could change your own timeline at all.

It gets complex and it’s not the focus of this review. In one article I read, Blake Crouch said that changing time would most likely not be possible. If you tried to, as in the Back to the Future movies, prevent Marty’s Mom and Dad from meeting in 1955 so they couldn’t get married and ‘make” Marty, time would find another way for them to get together and sustain history.

I became curious about Crouch and looked up his books, finding the Wayward Pines novel series. My local library had a copy of “Pines,” so I checked it out.

Continue reading →

Guardian

camping

PHOTO PROMPT © AJ Wilson

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Some idiot family from the suburbs thinks owning an SUV gives them license to off-road to a wilderness area and then trash it. I bet they think taking the little kiddies down to the lake is some sort of adventure. Those trails haven’t been used in years and with good reason.

I walk over to the blue foldout chair, have a seat, and wait. Fortunately, he doesn’t come out until dark. With any luck I can get these people out of here before he wakes up. As the guardian, I’m the only thing between this family and an immortal killer.

Continue reading →

Movie Review of “M3GAN” (2022)

megan

© James Pyles

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

Last night (as I write this), I watched the 2022 horror film M3GAN.I normally don’t watch horror films. I’m not overly fond of being terrified and calling it “entertainment.” However, I do have an interest in AI and humanoid robots. So a few days ago, when I saw the Blu-Ray at my local public library, I decided to give it a whirl.

The disc gave me the choice of watching the theatrical version (PG-13) or the unrated version (anything goes). Naturally, I selected the latter.

The story begins with a little girl (Violet McGraw as Cady) in a car with her parents going on a ski trip. The girl is playing with an advanced robotic furry doll run from her tablet and invented by her aunt. Snow in the ground, icy roads, fog, and a snowplow out of nowhere, and the parents die in a car crash.

Meanwhile her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) who is supposed to be developing a better, cheaper furry AI doll with her team Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) are actually working on a prototype “child” android named M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android).

Continue reading →