365 Days of Short Stories: Day 78 (again, a day late - I read the story but didn’t post) The Mask by Robert Chambers Tragedy strikes a love triangle in the form of a chemical that turns living things into marble -- temporarily. Rating: 3/5 About 3/4 of the way through I was all set to give this

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 77 (posted a day late) A Taste of Rain and Darkness by Eddy C. Bertin As punishment for the murder of a young woman, a man is forced to relive every second of her murder. Rating: 3/5 Very short, but quite effective. I liked that the story was less about the fear

“Hoppers” has lethal amounts of bean mouth.

Kids say the darndest things (in the pages of Treasure chest comics)!

Masters of the Universe was quite fun. Fun and enjoyable and exceedingly camp, which served it well. Significantly better than The Star Wars You Usually Watch On TV which was playing next door and we saw two weeks ago. Meghan and I ended up talking about MOTU all the way home, it was so engaging.

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 76 The Dust-Cloud by EF Benson Engaged by a story of a phantom car, a group takes a much-interrupted drive to encounter it. Rating: 2/5 Quite chatty about all sorts of things, the impression one gets from this is that Benson wanted to write a story about the pros

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 75 A Corner for Lucia by August Derleth After stepping into an alternate dimension, a young woman tries integrating the man she fell in love with there with her old life. Rating: 4/5 I was in the mood for another Derleth story, so soon after the last. Harrigan's

The joke’s on Satanic Panic moms of the ‘80s. RPGs evil? Nah. Turn on Dimension 20 and you can watch seven people discuss virtual zoning regulations.

New Boards of Canada album = 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 74 Valley of the Spiders by HG Wells Three unnamed men track fugitives through a dry valley but are attacked by flying spiders. Rating: 3/5 Not bad, but no great shakes either. I liked that none of the characters were named, it was all narrative and the events

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 73 Parrington’s Pool by Stephen Grendon/August Derleth A cruel judge is lured to a fishing spot by a petty criminal whose life he ruined, only to be pulled into the pond by his corpse. Rating: 3/5 An enjoyable story by Derleth, kind of floating on the surface of

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 72 Haggopian by Brian Lumley A retiring ichythologist tells the story of how he was possessed by a supernatural hagfish that turned him into a fish-man. Rating: 4/5 OK, not as good as yesterday's Lumley story, but a fun story nonetheless. I think the framing device

I enjoyed that Brian Lumley story so much I’m going back for a second helping for today’s short story. I’m also reading other books concurrently with my short story project. Working on Alexie Sayles’s “Stalin Ate My Homework” now, and spent Saturday starting and finishing Vincent Endwell’s Olyoke,

A little boy at the supermarket today was REALLY excited over a pack of high-fiber tortillas (?) and his mom DIDN’T BUY THEM FOR HIM. WTF people

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 71 The Caller of the Black by Brian Lumley A supernatural detective solves the murders of two novice cultists by turning the black cloud back on its summoner. Rating: 5/5 I'd heard good things about Brian Lumley and good things about his character Titus Crow and by

Happy Pride!

It’s the equivalent of writing an article about how Microsoft Word is the hidden secret behind creating bestselling novels.

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 70 Pop Art by Joe Hill A memoir of a boy growing up with a sentient inflatable best friend. Rating: 3/5 Odd, absurd scenario, but well written. It kept me entertained and it was like Hill had a spark for a character and then was tasked with answering all the "what

If you want me to engage with your spam bot, have it ask me about Disney hotels. I have been chatting the last ten minutes with an unknown number about the Boardwalk Hotel.

The duality of man (my Spotify search results).

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 69 Olyoke by Vincent Endwell Sinister cosmic forces converge over many years at a Tennessee town home to a cult, an infectious disease, a haunted play, and a country star's theme park. Rating: 4/5 Right, so this is a novella rather than a short story but I had

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 68 Homecoming by Ray Bradbury A young non-vampire struggles to navigate a family party that all his vampire relatives attend. Rating: 4/5 Refreshing to have a story with focus after two days of "buckets full of feet". This felt cultured, thoughtful, given a

Me: You’re gorgeous. You look like Snow White. Meghan: That ho?

Freedom 250 really becoming a Vanilla Ice/Flo Rida 5-day residency, huh?

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 67 The Woods In Fall/When I Was A Boy - A Broadcast, but Matthew M Bartlett Some old guy vomits up worms and a child is abducted into some wierd prostitution house. Rating: 1/5 No, I was right, these stories are all awful. I read so many great reviews that I have

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 66 Prologue/Spring Thaw/Rampage/Anne Gare’s Rare Book & Ephemera Catalogue #304935-A by Matthew M Bartlett A deep woods cult has a radio station in a small town. There is a murder urged on by a goat man. Rating: 1/5 I either hated these short SHORT stories or

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 65 The Room in the Towet by EF Benson Plagued by dreams of a haunted room, a man stumbles into a real-life version of the dream, complete with a vampire. Rating: 4/5 Surprisingly powerful for such a short story. I'm learning more and more what kinds of fiction I

AI could never do what I do (tracking down Lupin III).

I’m discovering that the difference between Taskmaster and Gamechanger is that in one the contestants can get things wrong and achieve higher heights while in the other the contestants can get things wrong and just stay wrong.

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 64 The Designated Contact Individual by Attila Veres A sales representative for a soft drink company is transported to an alien world where he tries to sell soda to gods of cosmic horror. Rating: 5/5 Gah, this was fucked up, but very good. Elements of the first two

All hail the pancake pimp.

Sorry you hate Lent, kids. And sorry you have to DIE!!!!

Bluesky is not "dying", in fact it's about to become the next Martha's Vineyard

99% sure the big city in Mandalorian and Grogu is supposed to be space Chicago, which means there’s a very good chance Jon Favreau snuck a blink-and-you-miss-it space Second City in the background.

Portal of Evil was one of the best things on the internet. It found strange sites and just listed them with one sentence of commentary. I still quote from Chubby Checker’s unhinged rant letter to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame demanding they display the logo of his beef jerky company.

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 63 The Monkey’s Paw by WW Jacobs A grieving family unwisely uses a cursed artifact to try and bring their mutilated son back to life. Rating: 5/5 A classic is a classic. I haven't read this since middle school and I enjoyed it so much more. Having read so

Oh Shit This High School Jazz Band Just Put On Sunglasses

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 62 King of the Island by Steve Duffy A strange visitor needs to get to an island off the coast of north England so he can be crowned its king. Rating: 4/5 I felt like I could see the author's wheels spinning - I'd like to set a story during covid, using a

Our showing of ‘Mandalorian & Grogu” was so intense, they evacuated the theater!

Listened to too much Circle Jerks. Can’t get to sleep.

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 61 Dread Summons by Paul Ernst A bitter vandal accidentally summons a murderous spirit as he's demolishing a fancy house. Rating: 5/5 Very short but so much is packed in here! The whole tale is told through the gloating of a man destroying a home out of spite.

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 60 The Alchemist by HP Lovecraft The last survivor of a cursed line of nobles explores the legend of the alchemist who cursed them. Rating: 4/5 It's such a light story, but feels like it was breaking new ground for the time. It could have ended one of two ways

The hand from the end of Stephen King’s “The Stand” found other work.

Introduce yourself with 10 bands you’ve seen live. Taken from @manningkrull.bsky.social ) Bratmobile Patti Smith Harvey Danger Spinal Tap King Missile Atom and His Package Misfits Gatemouth Brown Wesley Willis Shudder To Think

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 59 The Night by Ray Bradbury A child and his mother search a darkened town for an older brother who stayed out too late. Rating: 3/5 A suspenseful tale well told, ending how you hope it would end. But such good prose writing around it. It doesn’t stagnate and moves

My only options for watching the second Thin Man movie are paying a streaming service $4 or going to a free app on Roku where the first ad I’m hit with is “THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP FOR REDUCING RESTRICTIONS ON VAPING.”

Favorite Cure song: Let’s Go To Bed Best Cure Song: Shake Dog Shake

365 Days of Short Stories: Day 58 Transistor by Attila Veres In poverty-stricken Hungary a girl and her family settle into an awful life of experimental servitude, but the girl develops psychic powers and rises slightly higher in the torturous bureaucracy. Rating: 5/5 Fuck. This was a very