I’ve been meaning to bring Bite-Sized Horror back for a while, and I thought now was as good a time as any! I know that I’ve still got lots of short stories to upload (catching up, slowly) but here we are… As opposed to a daily horror series, as Bite-Sized Horror was in its first iteration, this second iteration will be a weekly thing. I think the reason I kept putting off bringing the BSH series back is that doing them daily is a daunting task — I think it’ll be a lot more manageable with just one posted every Friday afternoon!
This second iteration of BSH will also be slightly different — they’ll still be two-sentence shockers, as per, but I’ll be using a random word generator to give me a prompt word each week and use that to spark something. If you’d like to submit a word as a prompt, I’m happy to take any and all suggestions! If you’d also like to submit your own two-sentence shocker based on the word, I’d love to read ’em — I’ll even post my favourites at the start of the next week’s Friday Afternoon Frights! But there’s zero pressure, I just wanna be a bit more active on WordPress again, after falling off the radar for a bit, y’know?
Well, I guess that’s it for now, so, here’s the first (of many, I hope) of the return of Bite-Sized Horror, the word for this week is snow.
Well, hey guys! Happy Valentine’s Day! Have you got much planned for today? Got a special someone you’re spending it with? Don’t worry if not, there’s no pressure — some say it’s just a Hallmark holiday anyway, manufactured to make money from sales of saccharine cards, boxes of chocolates, and red roses that die within a week…
But, hey, that’s enough cynicism for one day! I’ll be spending the day with my partner, but we won’t be doing anything particularly out of the ordinary to mark this date; a couple of pizzas, a bottle of wine (or two), cuddles on the couch, and a few movies to fall asleep in front of. Maybe even some video games… Perhaps Resident Evil? (At least, that’s how we spent V-Day last year!)
Anyway, on to the reason for this post! For Halloween and Christmas last year, I made holiday-themed posts for my Bite-Sized Horror series. I had a lot of fun with them, and I want to continue the trend for many holidays to come. I thought about doing something for Valentine’s Day, but I honestly haven’t had enough time to properly do it justice. I have, however, had just enough time to write a short story! So, here you have it, a dark little tale about love, life, and death, in order to celebrate Valentines Day 2020. The title of my story is Which Heart? You can read it by clicking here!
Friday the 13th of February: Part One
The witch staggered into the clearing clutching the man’s body. She stumbled to her knees, for his weight was greater than her own, but she did not drop him. She would not drop him, not ever. With a grunt that might have been a howl of rage, she lurched to her feet, arms cradling the lifeless frame.
I hope you like the story, I really enjoyed writing this one. I’m quite proud of it! Also, I made the artwork for the associated image, which I’m also rather fond of. Art is sort of a “side-side-hobby” for me (with making music being my “side-hobby” and writing being my “main” hobby!), and I’ve kinda got it in my head that it’d be nice to make my own art for my stories, to really draw the reader into the twisted little world I’ve got within my mind…
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 #BlogBattle. 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!