He tore through his list growing madder and madder,
The first time was bad, the second time sadder.
“What’s wrong with these kids?” he screamed at the wall,
His booming voice thundering through workshop and hall.
This is part two of a larger story for Christmas. All parts are in the form of a stanza of a poem. Check back tomorrow for part three!
Santa Claus sat in his grotto of old,
The ice dripping water and the biting wind cold.
“Bad, naughty, wicked and mean!”
These kids were the worst that there ever had been.
This is part one of a larger story for Christmas. All parts are in the form of a stanza of a poem. Check back tomorrow for part two!
Ah, you knew I couldn’t stay away from horror for too long! Last week’s romance story was just a palette cleanser! Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. Hey, guys! Hope you’re all well and that NaNoWriMo isn’t stressing you out too much! Some might say that I’m crazy for maintaining these Reedsy stories whilst doing NaNoWriMo, and to those people I say… well, you’re not wrong!
This week’s Reedsy theme was ‘Once upon a time’. There was one prompt that immediately jumped out at me; #4 — “Write a story in which characters are warned not to go into the woods.” I love a good horror set-up! The title of my story is Forests of Bone, and, as always, you can read it here on WordPress or over on my Reedsy profile!
“You remember where to shoot ‘em?”
“In the head! Always in the head!”
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I had a blast writing this one! Sometimes you just know exactly where to go with a story. In fact, I didn’t want the story to stop, and struggled to stay within the 3,000 word limit. I hope you guys like it!
Until next time, guys! Have a good one!
Well, hi there! I know it’s been a while — I used to post every day, but with NaNoWriMo and other things going on, that just isn’t possible these days… I hope you’re all keeping well, though!
This week’s Reedsy theme was ‘Everyone’s an Expert’; I chose prompt #4 — “Write about something you consider yourself to be an expert in, but do it from the perspective of a total novice.” There aren’t many things I consider myself to be an expert in, but I think (as previously shared on here) I’m pretty good at songwriting — so that’s the direction I took the story in. I didn’t actually intend to write a romantic story… it just sorta happened. I don’t like to force my writing — if it’s horror, it’s horror, if it’s romance, it’s romance — I like to just let it flow… but I was a bit surprised at the tone. However, considering that I wrote this story after coming back from my brother’s wedding, perhaps the romantic tone wasn’t that surprising after all? The title is Honesty in G# Minor, and you can read it here, or on my Reedsy profile.
“Think of it like painting a picture.”
“I can’t paint, either.”
“No, it doesn’t matter. Just think of it like painting a picture.”
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I hope you like the story — I know it’s a bit unusual, compared to my usual fare. I think exploring new genres and territories is always a good idea, if only to give you new ideas. I wrote the piece in a very short space of time, even by my standards — I got back home from the wedding yesterday. Perhaps I could have refined the idea a little bit, but I still quite like it — I think the story has got a lot of heart.
Until next time, take care! I hope you have a great weekend!
Hey, everyone! Sorry for being so quiet on here lately, but life has been so busy! Anyway, I’ve been shortlisted for the Reedsy contest again! This marks the second time I’ve been shortlisted for the contest. Of course, I’d love to win the contest again, I’m still really pleased at being shortlisted!
If you haven’t already, you can read As It Ends here, or over on my Reedsy profile.
Sally didn’t see the nukes explode.
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If you’d like to read my previously shortlisted story, What Did We Do? click here or here. And if you’d like to read my stories that actually won, you can read The Things That Do Not Float here and here, and Astro Naught here and here.
Check back tomorrow to read my latest entry! I feel as if I’ve broken new ground with this most recent piece…
Well, here we are again! Another month, another #BlogBattle prompt. The word for November is ‘harp’. At first I was a bit baffled as to where to take the prompt, but after the first idea floated to the top of my mind the rest slotted into place rather smoothly!
“Take it away, man,” said the first.
“Play it, daddy-o,” said the second.
“Gotcha,” replied the third.
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I tried to avoid writing a chase scene again, as I’d done a few of those already for the #BlogBattle… I quite like the direction the story took. Perhaps we’ll visit this world again, at some point in the future? I feel that there’s potential here.
As always, check out the other bloggers’ stories when they get posted! They’re always great!
So, I didn’t win the Reedsy contest this week, but I’m not going to grumble, considering I’ve already won it twice! (Three times would definitely be nice, though…) However, I received an email telling me that my story What Did We Do? was very well received, and was actually shortlisted for the prize — so I’ll take that as a sort of win, in any case.
If you haven’t already, you can read What Did We Do? here on WordPress, or over on my Reedsy profile.
The dogs were the first to sense it. Without them, who knows how it would have all turned out? Maybe it would have all been over within a few hours.
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And if you’re interested in my previous stories which won the competition, they’re called The Things That Do Not Float and Astro Naught. You can read the former here or here, and you can read the latter here and here.
Have a nice day, everyone!
Well, Halloween has been and gone! And what a great one it was! This week’s Reedsy theme was naturally focused on Halloween. I chose prompt #1 — “Write a story about someone spending the night in an old Victorian home-turned-hotel on Halloween.”
The title of my short story is I Am the Groundskeeper, and — as always — you can read it here on WordPress, or over here on my Reedsy profile! The story is set in one of my favourite places in the world — rural Wales. I had in mind the countryside around Llanon, Aberystwyth and Aberaeron.
The knife doesn’t slip in easily, I have to really force it.
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Hope you like the story, and I hope you had a great Halloween! I know that I did!
Until next time, peace out!
Fair warning: this is going to be a bit of long, rambling post. Reflections on the past and plans for the future.
And that’s a wrap, folks! Halloween 2019 is officially over and November is here. That means that my Bite-Sized Halloween story has drawn to a close! If you’d like to re-read all of the parts, I’ve consolidated all of the posts into one short story — you can find it here!
I hope you guys enjoyed Charlie’s little Halloween tale. Considering that I mostly winged the story, I am actually quite happy with the end result! When I made the very first Bite-Sized Halloween post, I didn’t actually know where the story was going to go… I kinda made it up on the fly.
I think if I do this Bite-Sized Halloween again, I’ll definitely plan out the story ahead — so that I’m not just making up rubbish as I go along. I mean, I think Charlie’s story turned out pretty good, all things considered, but there are bits that I’m not too enamoured with. I’d have liked to have spent more time with Marion, to build on him as a character. I also felt that the ending was a tad rushed, as I realised I only had a few days to finish the story arc before Halloween… But it was an experiment, and I had a blast with it, so I’m not going to beat myself up about it too much. And based on the response, I think some of you guys enjoyed the daily snapshots of a larger story — so I definitely think I’ll do this sort of thing again in the future. Who knows, maybe I’ll do A Very Bite-Sized Christmas? We’ll have to wait and see what Santa/Satan brings.
And of course I’m a little sad that Halloween is over. It’s my absolute favourite time of year, and my partner and I dressed up and had a great time — we went out and partied a little bit, binged a fair few horror movies. It was lovely. Here’s an obligatory snap:
Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the album that I wrote, recorded and released in the space of 30 days, which I think is a pretty good achievement. So, if you’d like to revisit Charlie, Marion, and the world they inhabit — but in the form of music — please be sure to have a listen. You can find Children as Ghosts on YouTube and SoundCloud:
If you like the tunes, head on over to my music-focused Facebook page and give me a like!
And now, on to future plans! Following the conclusion of my Bite-Sized Halloween tale, I’d like to return to the previous rhythm of posting a new Bite-Sized Horror post every day… However, this November I am participating in National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo! If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it’s an annual creative writing project — participants attempt to write 50,000 words between the Nov 1st and Nov 30th. And if that sounds like a lot… that’s because it is. (It’s ~1,667 words a day.)
As I’ve got a large commitment, I think maintaining my previous standard of one Bite-Sized post a day is unrealistic. If I try to do both, I fear that I’ll crash and burn. Damn this frail human form, with limited energy! So, for November, I’ll be posting Bite-Sized Horror stories as and when I find the time to do so — my focus will be on my NaNoWriMo story.
Don’t worry, come Dec 1st I aim to return to the daily stories (and as mentioned, maybe it’ll be a Bite-Sized Christmas story arc). But until then, this blog may go a bit quiet.
And that’s pretty much all I wanted to say. So, if you made it to the end of this post, congrats and thank you for sticking with it! I hope you all had a lovely Halloween. To my fellow NaNoWriMo participants: good luck! I’m right there with you! If you want to buddy up on the NaNo site, here’s my profile: https://www.nanowrimo.org/participants/joshuainsole. And to everyone who comments/likes/gives me general support and encouragement — thank you so much!
Until next time… Have a good one!
Hey guys! Hope you’re all well and getting ready for Halloween! I know I am — pumpkin purchased and ready to carve! I also hope you’re enjoying the Bite-Sized Halloween stuff — the conclusion is rapidly approaching!
This week’s Reedsy theme was armchair detectives; I chose prompt #2 — ‘Write a story about a character with a sidekick.’ I have to admit, I didn’t really stick with the theme, as I had a really cool horror idea that I wanted to pursue! After all, these prompts are meant as guides to kickstart your writing. The title of my story is What Did We Do? As always, you can read it here on WordPress, and over here on my Reedsy profile.
The dogs were the first to sense it. Without them, who knows how it would have all turned out? Maybe it would have all been over within a few hours.
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Hope you like it! And remember: always trust your dog’s instincts!
Until next time…
joshuainsole.com 