Month: Jan 2020

Read my dark comedy, ‘A Long, Narrow Box’: The entry for this week’s Reedsy!

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So, how are you doing? Had a good week? Fantastic. I’ve had a semi-stressful week, trying to balance my creative hobbies (this blog and my WIP) along with regular life. I’m hoping to rectify that in the near future! I really want to get a first draft of my novel done soon(ish), so I’m going to have to buckle down and get on with it… This might mean that Bite-Sized Horror may not make its return for a short while, but I’ll still keep churning out my short stories!

This week’s Reedsy theme was ‘resolutions’. I chose the prompt, “Write a story about someone in the self-help aisle of a bookstore. What book do they pick up?” I wrote a dark little comedy called A Long, Narrow Box. As is always the case, you can read it here on WordPress or over on my Reedsy profile.

Marvin needed help, and this seemed to be the place to get it. He looked at the laminated label on the bookshelf. SELF-HELP SECTION. He nodded to himself. Yup, this was the right place all right. He held his hands behind his back – neatly, as Mother had taught him – and surveyed the books on offer.

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I had a lot of fun writing this, chuckling to myself maniacally as the words bled from my fingertips. I hope it’s an enjoyable read!

‘Something Swims Behind (Still My Sunshine)’: My aquatic entry for this week’s Reedsy!

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Ah, here we are! All caught up, at last! Made it! How are you guys doing? Still with me? Still reading these inane ramblings and occasionally perusing my mad scribbles that I’m trying to pass off as “writing”?

This week’s Reedsy theme was ‘genre-blending’! How exciting! I chose the prompt, “Write a sweeping romantic tale of two lovers who must overcome the horror of being hunted by an unseen foe…” Naturally, the allure of horror drew me in to this prompt. Did you expect anything less? 😉 The title of my story is Something Swims Behind (Still My Sunshine), and — as always! — you can read it here on WordPress, or over on my Reedsy profile!

We were just entering the hadal zone when we realised, we weren’t alone.

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As mentioned in the last post, this story was written with plenty of time to spare, and I think it really shows. I hope you guys like it — I had lots of fun writing it. I just love the ocean, even if it is an utterly terrifying place!

Well, until next time… stick to the shallows, and if something starts knock-knock-knocking, you best get the hell out of there!

‘Onwards, Towards the Witch’: My magical entry for last week’s Reedsy contest

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Whew! We’re getting there, aren’t we? Almost done! This story was written for last week’s Reedsy contest (just one more short story, then I’m all caught up!). This story was written for the Reedsy theme ‘winter wonderland’. I chose the prompt, “You go for a walk in fresh snow. Suddenly you realise you’re not leaving any footprints.”

This story was written shortly before the deadline of the contest, but it wasn’t quite as last minute as the previous one (although I did cut it close!). I feel that this is a better story somehow… it feels more ‘complete’ — even though I’d have liked more time on it. The title of the story is Onwards, Towards the Witch, and you can read it here on WordPress, or over on my Reedsy profile.

I see you, child.

The words slithered into her brain, as if they were her own thoughts. The world flashed a momentary red. And then they came again.

I see you, child.

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Well, I hope you guys like the story! From this point on, I’m hoping to have more time to dedicate to my short stories (as well as my main WIP — progress for which has recently stalled…). Indeed, the one I wrote for this week’s contest was complete by Thursday. Until next time, guys! Have a good’un, and always pay attention to the warnings of your fairy!

‘Returning the Favour’: My first Reedsy story of the decade

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So, here’s another Reedsy short story, as promised! This one was written for the theme, ‘Auld Lang Syne’, for the new year. I chose the prompt, “Two strangers meet at a New Year’s Eve party. They spend the party together, and then never see each other again…”

As mentioned with my last Reedsy story, this was written mere minutes before the deadline, as it was a very busy period. I pondered not doing a story, as I wasn’t sure it’d be up to my standards, but I decided to do something. After all, the worst thing you ever wrote is better than the best thing you never wrote. The title of my story is Returning the Favour, and you can read it here on WordPress, or over on my Reedsy profile.

“Don’t panic,” said the man with my face, “I’m not here to hurt you.”

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I hope you guys like the story, despite it’s length and rough, sketch-like nature. I think if given more time, I could have made this much better, but sometimes life gets in the way of our art. Even though I know it’s far from my best, I’m still quite happy with it.

Until next time, guys!

Read ‘When the War Falls Silent’: My last Reedsy story of 2019!

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Ah, not doing very well at uploading these at a steady rate, am I? I’ll chalk it up to still waking up after the excesses of Christmas, NYE and my birthday (which was yesterday)!

This particular story was written for the Reedsy theme of ‘that holiday feeling’. I chose the prompt, “Write a short story about an innkeeper wondering whether this will be their last holiday in business.” The title of my story is When the War Falls Silent, and it was the last story I wrote in 2019. You can read it here on WordPress, or over here on my Reedsy profile.

It’s worth noting that this story (along with the two Reedsy stories following it — they’ll be uploaded in the upcoming days, keep an eye out!) was written just an hour or so before the Reedsy deadline. I like the idea(s), but I fully admit that I should have dedicated more time to the actual writing process. Alas, this piece (and the other two that will follow) are a bit rough — so keep that in mind! You might be thinking, Josh, if you didn’t have the time, why did you try and squeeze a story in? Why not just wait until you can work on your stuff? And the answer to that is, I like writing one short story a week (at the very least) — I find it’s good practice! I don’t want to get lazy with my craft. Even if the work isn’t quite up to the standards I set for myself, I like the idea of putting something out there on a regular basis. Anyway, this has been enough of a rambling post. I’ll let the story speak for itself…

When the men from the Otherworld arrived, they brought death and destruction with them.

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I hope you like the piece! Even in spite of the previous ramble, I’m quite happy with it, considering I spent about 40 minutes on it. Who knows, maybe I’ll polish this (and the others) when I’ve got more time?

Read ‘The Dead at My Door’: My Reedsy story based on a nightmare of mine!

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Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, hasn’t it? Thought I’d better get on with uploading ’em, before the backlog gets any bigger! This short story was written back on the 18th December, for the Reedsy theme ‘quite the character’. I chose prompt — “Write a short story about a character experiencing anxiety.”

The title of my story is The Dead at My Door, and it is based entirely on a nightmare I had a few weeks back, beat-for-beat. The dream was quite vivid, and I did my best to transfer the feelings and emotions I had upon waking to the reader. I am currently living in Austria with my partner, but this dream was set back in England, where I grew up… You can read it here on WordPress, or over on my Reedsy profile.

They were still following us. We hadn’t managed to lose them, despite our best efforts. I could hear their frenzied footfalls and their growls filling the wintry night air, just behind us.

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I hope you guys like the story! Even though it was based on a nightmare, which, at the time wasn’t very pleasant, I had fun writing the story. Read into this whatever you will about the state of my mind. 😉

Until next time, be sure keep your windows and doors locked and your ladders handy…

Read ‘Spy-Hopper’: My entry for the first #BlogBattle of the new decade!

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A new month, a new year, a new decade. New, new, new. What a time to be alive, eh? In these times of unpredictability, if there’s one thing we can rely on, it’s a new prompt for the monthly ! January’s prompt is ‘bucket’!

As always, I wrote this quite quickly! I’m trying to write a book at the moment, and it’s going rather slowly… so, it’s a nice change of pace to smash out a story in less than an hour! I must admit, I had to stop and think for a moment when I saw the new prompt word, but once that initial seed of an idea had been sown, it was nose to the grindstone! The title of my entry is Spy-Hopper, and you can read it right here!

Our little rust bucket didn’t stand a chance. Serenity was thirty feet long exactly. Whatever we lured up from the depths was longer.

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I had a blast writing this — I’m really starting to enjoy ‘implied horror’. (Not to say I’ve grown out of a good ol’ fashioned gore-fest, ’cause I haven’t!).

If you have a spare moment, please check out the other bloggers’ stories as and when they get posted — there’s always an incredibly diverse selection!

Thoughts on Yule Be Sorry and plans for 2020!

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So, here we are: 2020! A new decade. It doesn’t seem quite right, does it? Where did the years go? Well, here we are, nonetheless! I hope you all had lovely holidays, and that you aren’t feeling the January blues too much!

I hope you all enjoyed my little poem series, Yule Be Sorry: A Very Bite-Sized Xmas. You can now read the poem in its entirety right here. I had a lot of fun with this piece, even though I don’t really consider myself to be a poet. I was really pleased with how it turned out, and, judging by the responses, you guys liked it too! I thought I struck quite a nice balance between horror and comedy with it. Back when I finished my Bite-Sized Halloween series, I said I’d plan any future holiday-themed series in advance… that didn’t really work out. If I do it again in the future, I’d like to have it sketched out ahead, as it’s quite stressful working on the fly, but it appears that it’s just not in my nature! 😛 I guess we’ll just see what happens…

Okay, so, on to 2020! What’s first for the new decade? Well, you might have noticed that I haven’t uploaded any new stories lately — for Reedsy or for the . This isn’t because I haven’t been writing (because I have!), it’s simply because I did a lot of travelling over the holidays, to see family, friends, and loved ones — so I didn’t have an awful lot of time to keep this blog updated. Many apologies for that! Therefore, my first thing to do is post my short stories that I’ve written over December and early January. Some are pretty good (or so I think!), and some are quite clearly thrown together at the last minute. I’m proud of all of them, however, even if I’d have liked more time to work on them. So, you can expect to see a lot of posts regarding new stories over the next week or so!

What next? Well, I guess the next iteration of Bite-Sized Horror! I’d quite like to return to my original posts — new, two-sentence chills every day! However, I am also in the process of trying to write a book (the one that I started back in November for NaNoWriMo). So, I think I’ll go back to the ‘old’ format, but I won’t try and post a new piece every day, as that would require time and creative juices that are (as of this moment) being channeled into my main WIP. I hope you don’t mind — there’s only so much I can do in one day!

Other than that, it’s same old, same old! Here’s to a year and a new decade, and the stories that we will tell!