Well, in case you missed any of them, here are links to all of my Halloween stories this year. This year was a weird one – the first two short stories were prepared last October/November, when I was in a dark and pessimistic mood (hence why they are more on the cynical side of things).
There were three discarded stories this time, all taking the place where “Silent Ville” ended up. The first one, “Subsystems”, was a rambling blog-style one which was more “ordinary sci-fi” than horror. The second one, “Slay!”, was an ironic riff on the slasher genre… but I’d already written a slasher story and I also worried that the humour was a bit too risqué as well.
The third one – “Robophobia” – was a bit of a sci-fi horror riff on that weird “robot racism” trend which was all over social media earlier this year. But the twin worries of “Will this age badly in ten years’ time, when A.I. ‘advances’ like an army?” and “The human character is as unlikeable as the robot, will people mistake this for a pro-A.I. story?” sank the story.
In the end, I spent about an hour quickly writing a badly-written “Silent Hill” parody story, set on Waterlooville high street, inspired by both a memory of visiting it on a foggy day in early 2024 and by the segment about 7:48 minutes into this hilarious “Turdtowns” video. And, yes, Wellington Way really was that bad in 2024. Somehow, this rushed piece of drivel was still better than the other three options….
Alas, I also reluctantly ended up toning down one of the more disturbing elements of the “M1911” story (notice how, in the published version, Luke isn’t actually pointing the gun at anyone. That certainly wasn’t true in the first draft….)
The two-part dark fantasy novelette “A Witch Does Not Cower In Fear” has an interesting story behind it too 🙂 In late January this year, I got back into writing and found myself writing several stand-alone sci-fi horror and/or ordinary horror novellas – with the idea of possibly self-publishing them at some point in the future.
This novelette was supposed to be the fifth novella I wrote. For the fourth one ( a splatterpunk psychological horror story with the working title of “Apartment 116”), I really went “all in” on the horror elements. But spending two weeks trying to think of the darkest, edgiest and most messed-up things that I could took a bit of an emotional toll on me. I needed a relaxation project, a much milder and slower-paced horror story. And, realising that I handle the horror genre best when I mix it with other genres, I decided to write a dark fantasy novella.
To my surprise, it ended up being a shorter novelette (about 11,000-12,000 words) rather than a novella, but I didn’t really feel like padding it out. After all, writing a short fantasy genre story is, itself, quite an unusual thing.
And. even though nebulous and vague “online content rules” meant that I reluctantly toned down this – already fairly “PG-13” story – when I posted it on this blog (mostly just removing/altering a couple of expletives, removing a brief moment where it’s implied that Classanda poops in the desert, and switching out the word “womb” for “stomach” in Hilda’s oath), I’m still glad that this story didn’t completely go to waste.
And, yes, making a 1970s/1980s-style paperback novel cover for it (inspired by the cover of this old Joan D. Vinge novel) was a lot of fun 🙂 And, if anyone is wondering why all of the witches are German – well, the best and scariest witch-themed horror movie is set in Germany. But, I’ve rambled enough…
Anyway, here are the stories 🙂 Enjoy 🙂
- “Blood Night At Camp Prune Lake“: There really is nothing worse than getting back together with a friendship group you haven’t seen in quite a while. Especially if its in some remote woodland cabins in Scotland…
- “M1911“: Sometimes, some things are meant to stay at the bottom of the river….
- “Silent Ville“: A “Silent Hill” parody which I rushed out in about an hour – set on the dilapidated streets of Waterlooville in early 2024. Seriously, they really should set one of these games here, it’s literally the perfect location!
- “A Witch Does Not Cower In Fear – Part One“: The East Point coven house sits at the edge of the ruby desert. But when the witches’ magic suddenly stops working, a nineteen-year old novitiate is sent out alone into the desert to deliver an urgent letter to a mysterious outpost…
- “A Witch Does Not Cower In Fear – Part Two“: The dramatic, shocking – and even occasionally thrilling – conclusion to this dark fantasy novelette…
