Horror and Wholesome
The rumbling settles into silence. If shock hadn’t numbed me, I might’ve screamed. Might’ve called for help. But I lay flat on my back, knocked down by the falling stones, and all I can focus on is trying to figure out if I’m still alive. Breathing? Check. Heartbeat? Check. Pain? Double check. I start to... Continue Reading →
Christmas seemed to shrink the older I got. First Santa stopped coming and all the gifts under the tree were signed by family members. Then my brother moved out for college a few states away. I followed suit, but closer to home. Then my sister. The first few years, we still all made the trek... Continue Reading →
Growing up in a small town meant a lot of regulars. Places, routines, people. The gas station convenience store was a small microcosm of that greater regular. 6 am, Bill Donner stopped in on his way to the slaughterhouse for cigarettes and a package of powdered donuts. 7:15, the bus stop kids huddled around the... Continue Reading →
I have an addictive personality. It can be a problem. Thankfully I manage to channel it in things that aren’t, on their own, terrible for you. In particular, video games. Not the kind you play on your own, but the co-ops and the multiplayers and the MMOs. The social stuff. It’s how I make friends.... Continue Reading →
I saw my mother for an hour and a half each day. Half hour in the morning, when she’d wake me at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for school, and then an hour at night, just long enough to make sure I ate dinner and did my homework. The rest of the time, she was... Continue Reading →
Midnight jogs helped clear my head. Or maybe they just numbed me to my own thoughts. Run until it hurts. Run until all you can think about is where your next breath is going to come from. Run until you can’t think at all. The emptiness was welcome. Silence was a stranger to me except... Continue Reading →
My next short horror story collection, All That’s Fair, is themed around women who are made up of anything but sugar, spice, and everything nice. Coming out August 14th! Huge thanks to @Emiru_theyurei for being so fantastic to work with and creating this beauty:
My son loved books. If the only thing the kid ever got as a gift was books, he’d have been the happiest person on earth. No idea where he got it from; his dad and I could barely bother skimming short news articles, much less intentionally sit down to slog through a book. Cole, though.... Continue Reading →
Out off the old county road, there’s a path that runs through the woods. It cuts across to what passes for a downtown around here. The trail itself isn’t much to write home about, just some wooden planks laid down to mark its edges and the occasional sign nailed to trees warning people not to... Continue Reading →
I wouldn’t say I was a lonely guy. I had people in my life, I got out of my house, I stayed relatively fit and healthy. I just didn’t have much luck in love. I know a lot of people want someone to blame in that kind of situation. The women who reject them. The... Continue Reading →
