Tag: Horror

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

Leave a comment

reedsy-prompts-widget

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.

Continue Reading

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!

Leave a comment

reedsy-prompts-widget

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.

Continue Reading

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

Leave a comment

reedsy-prompts-widget

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.

Continue Reading

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!

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

2 Comments

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/joshua-insole/

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.

Continue Reading

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!

Leave a comment

Blogbattle_BUCKET

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.

Continue Reading

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!

2 Comments
pexels-photo-3401900.jpeg
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

 

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!