4 posts tagged “online stories”
Guest Blogging and Free Stories
The Canadian Indie magazine called Broken Pencil has enlisted Stoker Award winner Brett Alexander Savory, Editor-in-Chief of ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words to be the Indie Artist in Residence for this month's Horror issue.
During November, Mr. Savory is the guest blogger for the Broken Pencil website. The major theme of most of his posts is "Horror fiction that doesn't suck!" and he has given me a number of books I need to pick up and read. I heartily recommend you check out these posts and see if something doesn't appeal to you taste for horror, dark fantasy and excellence in writing.
The Broken Pencil Posts:
Coming soon: Horror fiction that doesn't suck!
Danielewski, O'Nan, Tremblay, Gaiman
Carroll, Davidson, Link, Barker
Savory, Kasturi, Lalumiere signing in Montreal Sadly, I am a little late with the information from this post.
Raw Dog Screaming Press, Night Shade Books, Delirium Books, and PS Publishing
And Now Free Stories:
Mr. Savory with kind permission from Shane at Delirium Books has also made his short story collection No Further Messages available as an Adobe Acrobat download on his website.
This is a rare opportunity to try out an author for free. You owe it to yourself to download No Further Messages, try a few stories and see if he doesn't click for you. Then, if he does, you can purchase the collection, his novel In and Down or one of his other books listed on his author's list.
(Originally posted on . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)
Okay, I admit it. I am not perfect. Thus it was that my non-perfect undead self accidentally missed two stories from Storytellers Unplugged. In an effort to correct the situation, I will add them into the original post. However, by way of apology I am offering this public separate post.
The Lost Stories:
Storytellers Unplugged by Mort Castle. This is Mr. Castle's clever holiday offering.
On The Importance of Revising - A Horror Story by Gerard Houarner. The horror writer's version of literary journalism -- Truman Capote beware.
Okay, okay, I made my apology. Will you guys stop lobbing those holy water balloons at me? Please?
You know about them don't you?
Storytellers Unplugged is a shared blog with 29 participants each taking a day of the month on which to make a post. As I understand it, 11 months out of the year they're pretty free to post whatever they want, usually something revolving around the writing and publishing business, but when October rolls around, they post stories.
As David Niall Wilson observed, when they started the group was primarily horror writers so the stories in October were horror stories. Since then people have come and gone and now there is some mix. That mix is reflected somewhat in the stories they posted last month.
Still they are free stories and a chance to try out authors you may not have heard of. If you find a story you enjoyed, why not visit your public library and read more stories by them? You might just find a new favorite author or two . . .
The Stories:
Storytellers Unplugged by Mort Castle. This is Mr. Castle's clever holiday offering.
On The Importance of Revising - A Horror Story by Gerard Houarner. The horror writer's version of literary journalism -- Truman Capote beware.
Miracles in the Night by David Niall Wilson. Philosophical horror with vampires.
Glimpses of Horror by Elizabeth Massie. Three short-short tales that really creep up on you.
Extract by Brian Hodge. A story with teeth. Also includes a link to a podcast reading.
Swimming with Sharks by Robert Jones. It's more terrifying than Cthulhu and the insanity . . . oh the insanity of it all . . .
The Gonquin Table: October Surprise . . . by Frank T. Wydra. A story about writing stories? Complete with dead people.
Trick or Treat by John B. Rosenman. This is definitely trick or treating after my own undead heart. John's novel (featuring killer angels, no less) Alien Dreams will be out in e-book format next week from Drollerie Press.
Harming Obsession by Bev Vincent. When you obsess over the possibility that you may have just harmed someone, sending you out for candy during trick or treat is exquisite torture. Includes a link to a podcast reading of the story.
That’s Hardly Possible by Justine Musk. A decidedly creepy ghost story.
Six Six Six by Matt Forbeck. Each of the three stories is exactly six words long. And read the comments as some of the other writers join in.
The Ghost Who Loved Books by Brian Knight. Instead of a short story, Mr. Knight "decided to share an original, unpublished young adult fantasy novelette, The Ghost Who Loved Books." But don't let the YA label discourage you from trying it out. It's in a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format.
Aftermath by Janet Berliner. An excellent vampire tale set in Jerusalem in 1197. Those of you who played the role-playing game Vampire: The Dark Ages will get an extra kick out of this story.
For The Autumn Queen, Where She Rests Among The Fallen by Richard Dansky. I love how Mr. Dansky opens this story: "Because autumn stories don’t necessarily have to be about Halloween."
The Long, The Short, and The Ugly by Wayne Allen Sallee. A triptych of terror with poetry . . . and a clown.
Requiem for Prey by Sarah Monette. Is she a predator with a conscious or something else?
Phase by David Niall Wilson. The final piece is a subtle story of horror, memory and a road trip.
(Originally posted in . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)
Discover a New Writer is a new feature where I introduce you to an author you may never have read before -- usually by way of free online short stories, essays and other writings. My hope is that by giving you a sample of an author's work, you may find that you want more.
I missed all but the last fifteen minutes of last week's chat with horror author John Everson. I didn't mean to, but I had a sick child to take care of. However, Mr. Everson impressed me with the answers to the few questions I did manage to catch.
Particularly interesting was when he mentioned that having children curtailed his writing time. All I could think was "How well I know . . ."
Anyway, he piqued my interest so I visited his website and discovered, after bouncing around a bit, that he has posted several short stories. What a great way to decide if you like an author's writing or not!
In that spirit, I am posting direct links to his stories so that you can easily sample his writing yourself. Read a little bit of background information about the story in the purple sidebar on the left hand side. Note: these links will send you to John Everson's website. You can use the back button to return here to sample the next story or go exploring on his website:
Please understand: The stories have been posted for you to read for free but Mr. Everson still holds the copyright to them. Please do not steal them. Don't repost them elsewhere without first obtaining Mr. Everson's permission. This is a kind gift and we shouldn't abuse it.
For further reading check out the John Everson Author Page.
(originally posted on . . . With Intent to Commit Horror)
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