explore | Grilled Cheese

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Oct 15, 2026, 3:23 PM

There are quite a few instances of 'pass' in #LastExitToMidnight, so I'll give y'all the one where they first spot the Triangle. 🛸

to travel at much more than forty-five miles per hour in the unwieldy van. Amanda wished that it was light out so she could see the mountains better, but entertained herself by watching the way their jagged peaks blotted out the night sky as they passed under them.
It was while watching the jagged peaks near the top of Wild Rose Pass that she noticed an object seemingly hovering just above one of said peaks, also blotting out the stars behind it. It was shaped like a triangle, except it had a gap in one side through which a bright white star shone brilliantly, and though it was hard to gauge size or distance especially in the dark, it looked to be hovering about five thousand feet above a spire of rock overlooking the highway. The van was about to drive right underneath it, in fact.
“What’s that?” She asked, pointing upwards through the windshield.
“What’s what?” TJ responded.
“That,” she said, pointing again. TJ strained his neck to try and see, and the van hit the rumble strip on the side of the road, drawing his attention back to driving.
“I don’t see anything,” he said.
“It looks like a dorito,” she said.
Fox slumped out of the bench seat in the back, half-crawling under the stowaway table in a sort of fluid motion and resting their chin on the cooler between the front seats so that they could see out the window.
“Oh, you’re right,” they said. “I see it too.” They rummaged in the pocket on the back of the seat for their polaroid camera and snapped a photo through the windshield, tucking it into their shirt-pocket to wait for it to develop.

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 1:10 PM

Here's today's #WIPsnips from #LastExitToMidnight.

There was a noise like a distant sonar ping, awakening Fox from a deep slumber. They felt fuzzy, like their entire body was made of static electricity, and floated as if underwater.
Am I dead? They asked themself.
They hadn’t yet managed to open their eyes. It was as if they were coming out of hibernation or hypnosis of some kind, and their body had to go through all of its primary functions doing a systems check as the pins and needles stretched to each extremity to activate it.
Heartbeat? Check.
Breathing? Check.
Hearing? Check.

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 4:54 PM

All four WIPs and I don't have 'lizard' in any of these, so I'm going wild with a substitution. Here's an excerpt that includes 'tyrannosaurus' from my upcoming third horror novel, #LastExitToMidnight

That’s when he noticed a crumpled piece of paper lying on the floor. It had a bullet-point list of words on it which didn’t really make sense with each other, but at the top in sloppy handwriting with a permanent marker was scrawled six words and a date:
TYRANNOSAURUS SEX
RRRIOT HAUS, SANTA FE
JULY 17, 1998
He picked it up and looked at it curiously. ‘Tyrannosaurus sex’ was obviously a play on the better known ‘Tyrannosaurus rex’, but why did it sound so familiar? He wracked the back of his mind trying to place the words. Something to do with a long forgotten part of his life, back when he was a high schooler, well before he went straight, got his shit together, and became a cop. He thought maybe he had seen them once.
Yes, that’s it! He realized suddenly. I did see them! In Santa Fe, in fact! I was at this show thirty years ago! He had gone for the headliner, not really interested in the opener, but his girlfriend had been into them. Man, that felt like a lifetime ago. This was a setlist, and what a coincidence that was!
Underneath it was another piece of paper, which had more or less the same list of songs with a few switched out and all in a slightly different order. At the top of it were the words:
TYRANNOSAURUS SEX
PARK MUSIC HALL, SAN ANTONIO
JULY 18, 1998

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 5:35 AM

From #LastExitToMidnight. #WIPsnips

Something itched behind Fox’s ear, and they instinctively reached up to scratch it. There, they found a small bump, about the size of a grain of rice, protruding from the skin at the right side of the base of their skull.
“What the hell is that?” they asked herself, scratching the bump. “Has that always been there?”
Suddenly, a memory which they had been suppressing subconsciously for a very long time came flooding back. They were a

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 4:05 AM

From #LastExitToMidnight. #WIPsnips

...large. He took the flashlight in his left hand and flipped it on, scanning the ground in its narrow yellow beam for any signs of life. In his right hand, he brandished the J-frame revolver. “You motherfuckers!” He repeated, louder than before, and pounded the side of the van with his elbow in a threatening display, making the sheet metal warp and boom as it dented and popped back out. “Come and get me!”

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 5:05 PM

Been a while since I did a #WIPsnips. Here's one from #LastExitToMidnight

“How are you holding up?” TJ asked.
Fox probed the injury on their abdomen. It was still very bruised, and the cauterization would leave a nasty scar, but they weren’t bleeding anymore, and it hurt a lot less than it had. “I think I’ll live,” they said. “That… thing did just as good a job patching me up as any small-town doctor could.”
Then, the memory of what had happened on the ship flooded

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Sep 30, 2026, 7:02 PM

#LastExitToMidnight, my WIP which I'm hoping to release in July or so, actually already is heavily inspired by certain bands. I've half-jokingly called it gender-bent Blink182 fan fiction. #HorrorWritersChat

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Sep 30, 2026, 7:00 PM

Yes, actually. Music is about storytelling, so the two are somewhat intertwined. I tend to make story/character playlists, and often have an idea of what the soundtrack to any given story I'm writing would be. I actually made a whole YouTube Playlist for #LastExitToMidnight. #HorrorWritersChat

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Sep 24, 2026, 11:14 PM

Once again, Hazel Finish One Of Her Own Books Without Crying challenge level impossible.
#LastExitToMidnight is almost ready to go out to beta readers. Sign up here if you're interested.
forms.gle/AeJtWSN635Px...

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Sep 15, 2026, 8:54 PM

Here's a slightly more abstract cover design for #LastExitToMidnight. What do we think?

A book cover design for 'Last Exit To Midnight' by Hazel E. Baumgartner. The title is in bright yellow text with the author's name and subtitle, 'A Horror Novel', in white, across a starry background. At the top are the words 'I don't want to believe...' in white text. In the middle of the cover is a large black triangle, like a cutout in the stars above, with a brilliant white light emanating from its center.

@hazelebaumgartner.bsky.social Sep 15, 2026, 7:31 PM

I'm putting together a vibes playlist for #LastExitToMidnight. This is what I've got so far.