dubious opinions expressed with unwarranted confidence
[I’m participating in Monstrous May, a daily art-prompt challenge started by Johannes T. Evans. I’m mostly use the prompts to develop a story about a small Indiana town in 1987 where evangelical overreach leads to myriad personal tragedies...
Listened while waiting in Nampo for a friend who’s leaving the country. They have no fear about being admitted to the US, but the flights out of Korea and Japan keep getting canceled. “This is a death dream...
A reaction to and reflection of the present overpowering mood Tracklist: Dan Deacon – “Build Voice” from BromstDear Rouge – “Gimme Spirit” from SpiritBig Black Delta – “Monedy Rain Down” from Big Black DeltaHop Along – “How Simple”...
A man embarks on a late-in-life career change and makes it everybody’s problem. 안녕하세요 and welcome to Awful Advent: a countdown of 13 Holiday Horror movies for the 13 days before Christmas. This year’s theme is Scary Santas...
Welcome to Fearful Franchise: a series of essays about franchise horror films running daily throughout October. This year we’re focusing on the Universal Monster Movies. We kick off this year’s Fearful Franchise with Tod Browning’s Dracula, a film...
I decided to participate in this year’s #Kaijune–an art challenge where you draw a picture of a kaiju based on a daily prompt throughout June. I am not an artist, though, so I instead used the prompt list...
“I don’t need a window/To see what’s outside/I don’t need to be out there.” I had plans to go on a long bike ride today but then I overslept and decided to stay in instead. I tried to...
Mark was reviewing the adventure he’d be running for everyone on Friday when a long fingernail hove into view and tapped on the page. “What’s this you’re reading?” Mrs. Stilson asked. “Oh, it’s just some stuff for my...
“I’ll shoot you in the head/You’ll be mangled and dead/I’ll blow the smoke, walk away/Can’t you be my friend/Tell me you like me.” Some of the paid protesters at the reopen America rallies organized by the administration have...
The reading of the Book echoed throughout the community, manifesting as signs that people didn’t recognize and failed to connect. Dogs in the neighborhood around Mrs. Stilson’s house became aggressive and violent, snapping and lunging at passersby during...
“Make me a slow moving creature without complexities/I don’t want my mind to go/To a thousand places.” I slept through my alarm this morning and had to teach my first class from home. It was just like Monday...
Gomer Pyle cut to commercial and a voice boomed out, louder than the show had ever been, “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Come out to the agricultural arena for the most bone-shattering display of monster trucks to ever grace the...
“The form of a corporation is delimited/Why is it so vernacular/When you talk to a man/How do you get through.” I saw that the Streets had a new track out when I went to listen to Jandek and...
Darius got the Beetle from his cousin for a few hundred bucks. Darius needed a car and his cousin’s interest had moved on to other projects—and the Beetle was absolutely one of his cousin’s projects. The interior of...
“Arrest yourself, don’t wait any longer/Cause yourself to cease/Stop and think about it.” Itaewon is shaping up to be the new cluster site in Korea and it’s sparking backlash against the expected populations: foreigners and the LGBTQ community....
“The lightning flashes,” Jonathan breathed into the mic, “and you are bound here with us for another tale of terror in The Closet of the Castle of Dr. Calamity.” David shook the metal sheet for thunder while Rachel...
“Not even water/Crossed my lips/I’m a gone, goner, goner/Hanging out to dry.” And as soon as my quarantine moment starts, it’s over. My colleague’s test came back negative this morning so it’s back to the office tomorrow. I...
The Book, like all books, wanted to be read. That was its purpose, its mission, but it was a task so difficult to achieve because a book cannot do anything on its own. The reader is responsible for...
“Wondering what your enthusiasm is gonna be like/When I see you again/I got a good feeling about it.” First day of teaching from quarantine and it was like starting over again. I floundered as all my teaching material...
In this story we start with a group of scrappy kids who are convinced that an older man in their town is a vampire. Initially Monster Squad or Fright Night vibes. They enlist a neighbor to help in...
“I’m off for the day/I shut out the lights/I watched the day pass/And in these moments/I intermittently escape/To that space around my epicenter.” After all the time watching things happen in the US, I am finally under quarantine....
The man arrived in town a little after the spring thaw. He’d come in anticipation of the summer piecework—shucking corn, landscaping, and general carpentry—and wanted to put out feelers in the community. He was a large, shaggy man...
“Go away and fall down dead/And when you’re all gone/I’ll live in peace in a house that’s not burned down.” Everyone’s trying to move backwards to live in the time before. If we reopen the economy, we can...
When I was little, my mom told me that I wasn’t her son. When her real son was a baby, the Faeries had come and swapped her precious little baby with me and that’s why I was always...
“Now that you’re here, tell me/Is it the best place you ever know/Because I’m at the best place I ever knew/And it’s just after I met you.” It was warm on my walk home today, but growing overcast...
Leslie went running through the woods, following the path to the bonfire pit without thinking about it. Her fight-or-flight response had kicked in and all she knew was the way behind her was blocked so she had to...
