Check out Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less on Amazon now and Megabook 5 on DriveThru Comics for more shorts & comics from Yours Truly. Until next time, folks!
Welcome back! We're finally on the 30-day mark and this time we are exploring two dark stories that are not horror stories at all. The first is "Rewind", a time travel story about a man who decides to reverse the worse mistake of his life. The second story, "The Garden", is a story about monstrous produce and big business superseding the protection of blue collar workers. I will keep it shorter tonight, but I will say I usually prefer to avoid time travel stories and the story of man-eating plants came via my love of a little musical movie from the 80's about a timid man named Seymour and his smooth talking, hungry floral friend from outerspace.
Check out Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less on Amazon now and Megabook 5 on DriveThru Comics for more shorts & comics from Yours Truly. Until next time, folks!
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Happy Easter Fool's Day! The month of March escaped us too soon, but I can say I am proud of my accomplishments for the past month. Not only did I release my first book, but I've completed another short screenplay submitted to multiple screenwriting contests, and I've begun work on other feature-length screenplays and books as well! I think this is going to be a big year for me, but I will continue to post new updates as they arrive on here as usual.
So, on to the main event! This time I will be featuring the story "First Human-Seam, Wife Saved by Husband's Bold Decision". If you couldn't guess by the title, this story is written as a newspaper article. Set in a universe where a symbiotic alien race known as the Seam has arrived on Earth with the promise of curing mankind of "illness and strife." Of course, the human race is skeptical at first, but one desperate man takes a chance on the space critters to save the love of his life. I plan to experiment with stories in a similar way in later anthologies, but this story is unique to this book. This story explains itself, but it does leave the lingering idea that there could still be something more sinister to the hive mind that is the Seam. But I leave that for the reader to decide. That will be all for now. Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less is out and I've got more to come! So... who here likes Creepypastas? Who likes high fantasy stories? Well today we've got something inspired by both! From my book, Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less, this time we will be looking at the stories "Shadow Eater" and "What Evil Consumes".
"Shadow Eater" is about a man who becomes haunted by a demon from his past... literally. Everyone who was alive in the 90's and prior knows the story of Bloody Mary and the game where you are shut in a bathroom with the lights out and must repeat her name several times in front of the mirror. This story is my own version of that. It is said that kids and animals are most sensitive to spirits, so what if the thing that has stalked you since your childhood fed on your essence for decades without your knowledge and what if your own children are affected by its presence? "What Evil Consumes" is a fantasy story about a famous mercenary with a code who uses magical items and parts procured from monsters to neutralize threats. Think the Equalizer but with a fantasy spin. That's probably the simplest way to summarize this story (laughing), so you're welcome! That knocks out two more days and two more stories. Pick up Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less today for just $1.99, please leave a review for me on Amazon, and tell your friends. Check back here soon. There is more to come! Today from my anthology, Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less, I am taking a look at two cautionary tales regarding the rise of technology. I actually have a couple of stories in this book about the possible ways machines could evolve to either be our masters, lovers, or benefactors.
In the story, "Human-ish Emotions", an android child programmed to develop emotions as her artificial intelligence evolves, is allowed to attend a human school, where some of the staff are also androids. As we all know, as children we don't have the greatest emotional intelligence or consideration of others, so imagine being a "person" with less than five years of human interaction and learning to cope with new emotions in a foreign environment for the first time. Also, imagine seeing others who look like you being mistreated in this foreign environment while you too must deal with similar adversity. How would you react? How do you think a child made of metal would respond? The second story is titled "Guns Don't Kill People..." which narrates a particular incident with "smart weapons" and poses a question about gun control. It is a short narrative meant to be left to the reader to answer, what should be done and what is the worst case scenario to each solution? It's pretty scary to think where machines and artificial intelligence could be in just a decade, and from personal experiences, I'm convinced most machines already hate me... But that's all for now. Short and sweet, as usual, just like every story you will find in my book, Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less, available now on Amazon. We are at least a quarter of the way through the 99-day journey now, so if you haven't got your copy and you're tired of just reading my ramblings, go ahead and get the book already! The stories are probably shorter and definitely much more entertaining that what you'll read here about them. If you need more teases and random thoughts from me, be sure to visit soon, because there is always more to come! We are now in the 23rd day of the freaky and fantastic journey and this time the spotlight is on the story "Charlie's Sons". This is another story told completely through dialogue from the point of view of the town gossip about a small town invaded by strange, otherworldly beings. I'm not a fan of alien probe stories (not that this is one), but for this story I wanted to channel the character of the people commonly seen in the media who share such bizarre tales of their close encounters of the third kind. These stories have the same kind of appeal as urban legends to me, especially among those fans of conspiracy theories. There is always the lingering question among us about if there is life beyond the stars, has it already approached us, and what would happen if it did. This story is a horror story version of that, which is what we would see in movies and often hear about (people who claim to have had encounters usually use the term "abducted" which is not a word associated with benevolent creatures), but the tone of the story is only lightened by the narrator. Often, even when horrifying news is delivered to us, it really comes down to the credibility of the person presenting it.
That is all for today. Check out "Charlie's Sons" in Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less now and be on the look out for the next installment here as we continue the 99 day journey! From my Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less anthology I've got two more stories, "Christmas Warrior" and "For No Man's Eyes" to highlight as I catch up on my 99 day review of the book. "Christmas Warrior" is a new perspective on the iconic legend of the Yuletide season, re-imagining him as not only a charitable supernatural gentleman, but also as a jolly collector of magical items in an attempt to explain some of his abilities. The horror story "For No Man's Eyes" is another favorite of mine. It is the story of an ambitious journalist who, in an effort to take his brand to the next level, journeys to a brothel to expose the truth behind a new myth circulating the internet, however what he finds is more than any man is meant to witness. This story would probably be excellent as a first-person, Blair-Witch style movie (coming soon possibly) and is reminiscent of an episode of Tales from the Crypt.
That is all I want to say about these two stories or could say without spoiling them. Summaries of super short stories have to be brief to leave something for the reader to discover, right? Read these stories and 99 others in Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less today and check back because there is more to come! Whoops! I missed a day but I will continue to only double up as needed, so let's jump into it. Today I will be focusing on two of my favorite stories from Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less, "The Tale of Noir" and "A Flower Beyond the Gravestone".
"The Tale of Noir" is a narrative horror poem that tells of an urban legend originating from me. Urban legends have a certain allure behind them because the mystery and the level of truth they bare can frighten us, especially when the stories are set so close to our own home. Narrative poems, and even songs that tell us stories, also charm us in unique ways because beyond a good hook, a nice beat, and a few other words that get stuck in your memory, there is rhyme and reason. This particular story deals with mad science, a motherless woman, and children being children, and it may have taken place in your very own hometown for all we know... "A Flower Beyond the Gravestone" is one of a few second-person POV stories in my anthology that is more of a love story with shades of horror and fantasy. Inspired by stories of Greek mythology about people journeying into the underworld via the river Styx, as well as Dante's Inferno and other myths of heroes journeying into the realm of the dead for lost love, revelation and other reasons, I wrote this "instructional guide" to help others find their way. One could choose to obey the instructions to return unscathed or remain in a state in between life and death, forgotten by the world... That is all for now but there is always more to come! Check out Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less on Amazon and pick up your copy to read these and 97 other horror, fantasy, and sci-fi stories. Welcome back to another short and sweet freaky and fantastical feature. Today from my anthology I will highlight the story "Light-years for Love". This story is a science fiction romance with a morbid twist. When a young bachelor takes a trip on an exploratory vessel to escape his humdrum life on Earth and discover himself, he finds something more on a planet inhabited by various alien races. This is a story about finding love in unexpected places and also how love, or rather infatuation, can blind us.
Check out this story in Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less today! Good evening folks. We are now in the 17th of the 99 freaky & fantastic days of promotions for my anthology Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less. Slow strides, but still progressing. This time I will highlight my story "The Room", a story that has nothing to do with Tommy Wiseau or Brie Larson's famous movies. This story is about recurring nightmares. We all have dreams--some prophetic, some random, some fantastic, some horrible--but we may not understand the meaning or purpose of these movies we watch in our heads while unconscious. Sometimes it is even those visions in the night that would ordinarily give you chills in your spine that may give you the greatest insight or clarity upon waking. Sometimes it is our most confounding dream that may have the most implication to our real-world issues. In this story, one man encounters a creepy monster that desires more than a hug from him in his recurring dream but the result of his encounter is very unexpected. Check out the story in Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less today and with 82 more days and 82 more stories to cover, just know there is more to come!
Today from Freaky and Fantastical 500 Words or Less I will be looking at the story "Stay in Touch", a ghost story within a love story. This story is another experimental one, written solely in the form of a text message conversation. Technology has a tendency to act up and identities can be stolen or property could be misplaced, but sometimes something supernatural could also be at work. This story shows that death does not have to be the end for true love.
To read these texts between young lovers, check out the anthology on Amazon if you don't already own it. That is all for now, and I will be sharing more soon! |
Marcus E. T.I am a writer, a creator, and just a little bit of everything good in the world wrapped into a chocolate-covered, human-sized package for your convenience! Archives
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