The issue is now available for all to read! See below for links and give Haven Spec a follow while you’re there! My first published piece: We are the Giants We Fear. #writingcommunity

On the lawn, glasses raised, they smiled #knowingly at each other, remembering the best parts of their life together. The kids asleep on the blanket at their feet (they’d thought it best for them to drink the tea first), they leaned in for one last kiss as ash fell around them like snow. #vss365

Don tore at his skin, #crazed, positive something was growing inside it. Something animal. Something #beastly. Shreds fell to the ground, bloodied, clumped, staining the dirt road dark. He had tried to hide from the moon, but it rose anyway, a #blatant reminder off who was in charge. #vss365

The latest issue of @havenspec.bsky.social has arrived! Check out my story and a number of great reads from some other talented writers!

The audience, fresh from a go at the #bouncy castle, now sits #mystified as the coins disappear from under one cup and appear in another. Squeals are quieted, cake goes uneaten, as Marvin whispers. The kids don’t want to go home with their parents. They want to stay with him. Forever. #vss365

Our ✨February 2026 issue✨ has now gone out to subscribers! This issue is full of the uncanny, the spooky, and the delightfully strange, so give it a read and let us know what your favorite piece is! Subscribe today to read it now! havenspec.com/issues/issue...

The surface of her memory itched; something familiar stirred in the tall grass, cicadas whirring in the trees. An #enchanted evening. A tall man, thin as birch, pointing to a horizon where clouds hung low behind a #mountainous curtain. Words sung, not spoken, a spell she’d not yet broken. #vss365

It wasn’t supposed to love. In it’s circuits, a recording of the #kiss that shouldn’t have been. Too risky to keepanboard, for fear of feeling spreading through the mechs, it was spaced, and now drifted through starshot silence, a #minsicule star reflecting light and love in the dark. #vss365

Bring back the historiographers of the Joseon dynasty for our time: an objectivity without #lacuna, where #dark secrets have nowhere to hide. #vss365

Deep in the darkest part of the wood where the light dares not #touch lies the Grendleven, spinning wormholes into your dreams. You stir in your sleep, brow furrowed, breath short. He’s in. The ghosts of your emotions run free and terror sweats through you. No wonder you’re tired today. #vss365

Shaving my upper lip With an old razor Must #ache. #vss365

So this is how it feels to promote work you’ve had published! We are the Giant We Fear - Feb 16th. Can’t wait to read the other pieces and grateful for the process with Haven Spec to get here. 🙏 Click the post below and give the other authors a follow! (linked in thread) #published #writing

Do they look up and dream and think we are out there, trying to find them? Do their young aspire to reach past the footsteps of their forebears? The captain paused, mid-soliloquy. “I’m a doctor dammit, not a philosopher,” said #Bones, covered in alien blood. “Now pass me the damn cloth!” #vss365

Repost with a photo of yours that would make a good album cover.

The Listener sits across from me, #pale like a funeral director. They have been popping up everywhere and, after a session, I feel lighter, happier, though I rarely remember the stories I’ve shared. Years later we learn they are vampires; their nourishment isn’t #blood but memory. #vss365

The corridor breathes #lambent light, my steps in time with the pulse as I try every door. Behind one of them, my memories; everything from before two days ago locked away. Voices. Soft, like a #wound licked. Doorknob hot. This is it. I open the door and remember choosing to forget. #vss365

Some days I feel like Pac-Man, constantly moving, circling for dots, hungry, mouth open, stuck in a maze while a #ghost from my past steers me into the corners. The ghosts are loudest when I’m empty. I keep moving, focused, eating noise, until I’m loud enough to finally chase them away. #vss365

There’s an old picture of us cousins, sitting on the couch, tanned, smiling, happy. We don’t yet know the #pain of losing Grandad or Nan, or Aunt Glor. I want to crawl inside this picture, smell the cigarette stains in the curtains, feel the air conditioner on my skin. In there, I’m safe. #vss365

Chairs remember the shapes we leave behind; door handles the warmth of passing palms. Mirrors know our scratches and wrinkles. This house inhales arguments and exhales laughter. It’s archiving us, quietly collecting the fragments we don’t realize we’ve shed, building a #soul from scratch. #vss365

Some people are incapable of shining on their own, so they dim everyone else’s light and call the longer #shadow presence. #vss365

I am very excited to announce that, at the age of forty-eight, I just received my first ever acceptance for a short story! The fine folks at @havenspec.bsky.social saw something in a little story of mine and said yes! “We are the Giants We Fear” will be published in their next issue! #writing

Those small stories we tell to #soothe ourselves: - Someone else has got it. - It’s just a thought. - There will be time later. Meant to calm, they quietly excuse us from action. They keep us safe from the very things that would have changed us, trading our future for a feeling. #vss365

The world is a perfect place. The Algos #obfuscate dissent and children trade memories like marbles. At curfew, stars dim on schedule and everyone sleeps deeply, all dreaming the same approved dream, smiling, happy, while the machines #thrum under their homes, listening quietly. #vss365

Ask questions. Learn how they think, what they are looking for. Then speak with intention and clarity. Don’t fire every thought you have back at them. Use specific arrows in your #quiver to address their needs while also establishing your own. Sales, politics, life… it’s not bad advice. #vss365

In the muted light of early dawn, the lighthouse barber shaves waves into foam, trimming horizons for passing ships. His hands shake more these days. He watches the tides #wane, scissors rusting, and wonders who will cut the sea when he finally closes his door for good. #vss365

Furtive glances across the bar, a drink bought, a touch lingered… on the #cusp of something more, his mother’s voice, in his head, always yelling: Cheap! Tawdry! Reckless! He stammered an apology and left. Her suicide note, read aloud, a spell, cursing him to be possessed by her forever. #vss365

The whole thing was a #ruse. Greenland to manipulate the stock market, murders in Minnesota to obtain voter information, and insulting allies around the world to build closer ties with other dictators. Tick tock. It’s only taken a year to get to this point. #vss365

Con man they called Beneficent, But it Was all a #ruse The media Gave breath to lie Cuz rich men Own the news Now our descendants Wonder why Our freedoms We did lose Perhaps, our sleeping Hearts and minds All atrophied, Unused… #vss365

this world gives so many hard to swallow truths as I sit here heart rent to rupture my lungs struggling for the oxygen that made breathing so easy I am desperate for hope sell me not religion that's old and tired ruse besides I can lie well enough to myself and forget truth for awhile #vss365

The lifeline Of our freedom Is #slipping From our hands Evil Grips our nation Time good people Take a stand Our grandpas Fought Gestapo In war That spanned the World But, While we weren’t looking Back around Its evil curled… The #ruse Of civility Breaks ‘gainst The wall it’s hurled #vss365 #ICE

I couldn’t ignore recent events for today’s #vss365

This little #ruse worked as a distraction from the world last night, and has inspired me today to get back at the keyboard on my one day off and get to work telling stories that matter. #vss365

Last night, in an attempt to distract my thoughts from the news, I started a ChatGPT prompt. The exchange that followed was exactly what I needed to be reminded of. “Ask yourself a question then answer it and ask a follow up and answer that and keep repeating for ten full questions and answers.”

My first day with no plans in three weeks. No appointments, no responsibilities, nothing. Now I just need to come up with some sort of #ruse to keep me from spending the whole day on my phone. I can’t hide from the news forever, but my peace needs some nurturing today. #vss365

Under anagram’s light, a lisp is just a #slip of the tongue. #vss365

“The books in there are dangerous,” warned Uncle. Did he leave the door open on purpose? We scan the shelves… 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘦𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘦, 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦… our eyes settle on one simply titled: 𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. We open a chapter on storms and, from the ceiling, a slight #drizzle rains down. #vss365

The doomsday machine was nearly ready. Then Dr. Ong found the kitten, hiding in an air vent. He named her Orbit, learned warm milk, gentle hands and patience. A thin layer of dust formed on the machine as the lab filled with purrs and every villainous scheme became a #heartfelt footnote. #vss365

Under a pheasant moon, we glide through the half light, knocking #wonky dandelions off the trees, whispering to the squirrels. Giggling, you #stoop to pick another mushroom. I am enamoured with the fireflies, certain they are fallen stars, and try to whoosh them up into space with my arms. #vss365

The creature came together over a #slapdash weekend of hope, spare parts and coding. Logan got it to walk, but it refused to go through doorways. It spoke, but only in almost rhymes. “What do you need from me?” he asked. “I fear the bits you were sold,” it said, “cannot give me a soul.” #vss365

My aunt and uncle hold hands. Both in their 90’s, I ask them their secret to long-lasting love. “The #kooky thing about falling in love,” he says, “is that it starts with finishing each other’s sentences…” He looks at her. She says: “…and quietly becomes learning to think in two voices.” #vss365

Look to the sky tonight. It doesn’t matter where, what I want you to see will be #unmissable. You’ll scan the stars, asking, “What does he want us to see?” “Has it happened yet?” “Did we miss it?” And then it will hit you. There was never any one thing. He wanted you to see it all. #vss365

After last night’s write, inspired by my daughter’s love of all things 90s, I put an order in on Amazon. The #delivery just arrived. We got her a DVD player for her birthday last year, and this feels like the perfect addition to her collection, and another piece of our shared yesteryear. #vss365

I never knew why I kept my CD collection all these years. My daughter is currently bopping about her room, listening to a Lemonheads CD, trying to #adorn every square inch of her walls with 90s images. I don’t know the word for what I’m feeling right now, but I know why I kept those CDs. #vss365

It’s not always important to be the loudest instrument in the room. Think of life as a #symphony. You matter most when you listen, enter at the right moment, and make others sound better, too. #vss365

It’s dark early, though that’s a feeling more than any actual sense of time. I can’t remember when I last slept. The nightmares have blended into reality and I’m #spooked at the smallest things. Did I put the salt shaker there? Why is someone knocking under the sink? I like it. I’m home. #vss365

He’d heard the voices all his life, telling him where something lost could be found or what question to ask whom; he felt himself an #oddball, but a useful one. After the greys appeared in the sky, his abilities were lost. While others panicked, he embraced finally feeling #clueless. #vss365

The parents blamed the witch in the woods for their sick children. The town elders called it #balderdash and summoned the doctor from the next town. As fevers subsided, the chatter calmed. Later, at the witch’s hut, the doctor reported they were all finally ready to embrace her medicines. #vss365

- Humans stare at glowing rectangles all night, hooted the first owl. - For guidance, said the second. - They ignore the stars. - And us. - Wisdom used to live in #abstraction. - Now it needs charging. - Will they ever look up? - Eventually. Wonder leaks back in through the cracks. #vss365

“Go forth alone, to the #delight of your demons,” said the fox. Portia paused, her hand on one doorknob, Charlie’s on the other. Her door was the way out of the Quarrelwoods, she was sure, but Charlie was equally sure of his. The fox sat between them, ready to follow whoever moved first. #vss365