My wife’s ghost visits me each night. She only has a few minutes to chat. There are rules, I guess. Before she leaves me, she always smiles and whispers, “Are you #dead yet?” I always answer, “No, honey. Soon.” Tonight, though, I didn’t say a word. I just took her hand.

#vss365 #microfiction

My mentor at the Van Helsing Society said #bravery was good for medals and poems and great for getting yourself killed. He opined that vampire hunters needed guts instead. He called it smart bravery, the kind that let you keep your intestines on the inside of your body.

#vss365 #microfiction

Have you thought about your eternal debt? And how you’re going to repay it? Check out “They’ve Got Your Number” by Aeryn Rudel for one possible answer… 🩸
#flashfiction #horror #historical #noir
#writingcommunity
@aerynrudel.bsky.social
flashfictiononline.com/issues/octob...

Boogeymen hunt by scent, so you can huddle beneath your blankets and not make a #sound, and it won't matter. It'll smell your fear. You wanna stay safe? Get a cat and put the litter box in your room. Yeah, it stinks, but not even the boogeyman can smell through cat piss.

#vss365 #microfiction

I have a new #flashfiction story out today from @flashfictiononline.bsky.social. It's part of their paranormal noir issue, and my story, "They've Got Your Number" is, IMHO, one of the best flash pieces I've written. Go see if I'm right. ;)

##writingcommunity

flashfictiononline.com/issues/octob...

It’s the #delta waves your brain produces in deep sleep that brings 'em. That's when your blood’s at its tastiest and most nourishing. You know what blocks delta waves, though? Tin. So go ahead and make fun of my tinfoil hat, but you better wear a steel turtleneck to bed.

#vss365 #microfiction

I used to bartend at a pretty rowdy spot. We had two bouncers, a smallish slick-talking guy we called #Calm and an absolute knuckle-dragging behemoth we called Storm. Our policy was simple. You got the Calm before the Storm, and then you got blown the fuck out of the bar.

#vss365 #microfiction

The church employs a dozen seismologists, all looking for a specific event—a #quake registering exactly 6.66 on the Richter Scale. That always means the same thing. An open portal to hell, a demonic incursion, and the deployment of containment team 77, aka, the God Squad.

#vss365 #microfiction

How long should it take you to draft that first novel? A month? Three months? A year? Well, there’s no right answer, but in this article, I’ve quantified some options that have worked for me and might work for you, too.

#writingcommunity #writingtips

aerynrudel.substack.com/p/first-draf...

The klaxen, a relative of the more well-known #siren, has no interest in luring sailors to their dooms. Quite the contrary. Unfairly labeled a monster, the unappreciated octopoid creature produces an ear-splitting shriek to warn ships away from dangerous shoals and reefs.

#vss365 #microfiction

Right after the fall, the most powerful demons took all the best sins. The big seven—greed, lust, wrath, etc. That left us minor fallen with the petty stuff. I do just fine, though. I’m the demon of pedanticism, and in the age of Instagram and TikTok, my stock is booming.

#vss365 #microfiction

We buried Dad, again, on a little #island in the Sacramento River. Used to be a church there, and the priest we consulted said the ruins were enough to consecrate the whole island. That and the fact there’s running water on all sides might just keep Dad in the ground.

#vss365 #microfiction

I don’t #sail anymore. My doctor calls it thalassophobia, fear of open water. It’s nonsense. I’m not afraid of the water. I’m afraid I’ll find that little island again. The one that’s not on any charts. The one with the ravine down the middle of it. The one that blinks.

#vss365 #microfiction

We called him #Hurricane Hartigan. The most feared and least seen hitman in the O’Malley Mob. When there was a big problem, and the bosses needed it handled fast, he’d blow into town, leave a dozen corpses in his wake, and a clear message that no one escapes the storm.

#vss365 #microfiction

When I was #harbor master, derelict whaling ships sometimes drifted in, their hulls pocked with sucker marks, their crews missing. There was never any blood or bodies, but often, strange words would be scratched into the deck. A haunting gibberish that read: R'LYEH FHTAGN.

#vss365 #microfiction