“Tweet-O-Ween.” Friday Flash Fics For Halloween from Jeff Baker. (October 31, 2025)

Posted on October 31, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Tweet-O-Ween

by Jeff Baker

You’d think Halloween in a genuinely haunted house would be fun, but not when you’re the ghosts and the home’s blissfully unaware owners were out for the weekend.

Gus and Bertram (“Bertie”) had been happily “shacked-up” (as Bertie liked to put it) for decades and had been haunting the house ever since. The house was in Gus Rowley’s family and while it wasn’t a mansion it did have a name: Peregrine House, thanks to the stone bird carved on the front porch and rubbed away by nearly a century of children. Peregrine House was in an old neighborhood by the river and the two ghosts largely kept quiet and unnoticed by the families that lived there happily.

But Gus and Bertie were bored and so they decided to go out for the evening, even though as ghosts they knew they couldn’t stay very long.

Justin and Mick had met at the laundromat two summers earlier, when Mick had been widowed for several months and wasn’t sure about another relationship. But somehow he had gotten started talking about his late husband and he and Justin had gone out for lunch a few times (after Justin had slipped his name and number in with Mick’s clean socks) and after the first of the year Justin had moved into Mick’s apartment.

On this Halloween they were manning a table at the “Tweet-O-Ween” event the school Justin taught at held for the kids. And as this year Halloween was on a Friday, Mick and Justin weren’t sure who was more excited about no school tomorrow: the kids or Justin.

Dressed as pirates, Mick and Justin handed out candy to costumed kids and grinned at each other and held hands under the table there in the big front hallway.

“I guess they don’t really do trick-or-treating outside anymore.” Gus said as they drifted invisibly through the door of the school near Peregrine House where Tweet-O-Ween was in full swing.

“Yeah, they stopped going door-to-door a few years ago,” Bertie said. “Hey, I’m going to grab some candy! Replenish the ol’ ectoplasim!”

“Replenish your…? Okay, Topper!” Gus laughed. “But let’s duck back here and get visible.”

“Wanna do costumes?” Bertie said grinning.

“Naaaah. Vintage Nineteen-Forties outfits will be enough.” Gus said.

“And how!” Bertie snickered.

“Hey! C’mon! Leave some candy for the kids!” Mick said as Justin grabbed another wrapped butterscotch.

“I’m not swiping as much as that Baxter boy,” Justin said. “I’ll have a talk with…oh, Happy Halloween!” Their faces brightened as a shy Fairy Princess walked up with her treat bag.

Wearing casual suits and ties that would have fit in at a War Bond rally, Bertie and Gus strolled around the room, looking like they were about fifty, Bertie nibbling on a chocolate. Finally they stopped at Justin and Mick’s table just as Mick kissed Justin.

“Wow!” Bertie said. “I remember when we wouldn’t dare show affection like that in public.”

“I think it’s sweet!” Gus said. “You two look very happy. Been together long?”

“Little over two years,” Mick said. “You?”

“Yeah, it’s been a number of years that we’ve been…uh…friends.” Bertie said.

“As they would’ve said during the Eisenhower years.” Gus said with a broad smile.

“I love your costumes.” Mick said. “My Granddad had a suit and hat like that.”

“Yeah, they were really, uh, with it once.” Bertie said.

“We just stepped in here on our way back home to see if my nephew was here. Rowley.” Gus said.

“I don’t think I know…” Justin began, but there was a commotion from down the hallway; The fairy princess was crying that someone had stolen her candy.

“That Baxter boy again, I’ll bet.” Mick said.

“Yeah, he keeps bragging that he’ll call the cops if anybody spanks him.” Justin said.

Bertie stared down the hallway for a moment. Then he grabbed Gus’ arm.

“Hey, we’ve got to go! Nice meeting you folks!” Bertie said as he pulled Gus towards the front door.

“Yeah, Happy Halloween,” Gus said as they went out the door. “sorry we have to rush…”

“Bye!” Mick said.

“Nice couple of kids,” Gus said as Bertie pulled him into the parking lot and headed for the shadows. “Hey, what’s with you?”

“I saw that little brat grab that girl’s candy.” Bertie said. Here’s what we’re gonna do…”

Denny Baxter was stuffing his face. Big tough sixth grade bully walking down the hallway behind the decorated partitions that formed the Tweet-O-Ween area. Then the bag of candy jumped out of his hands, landing on the floor. He reached for it and it pulled away.

“What the Hell?” Denny said. He tried to grab it again and it slid through an open classroom door.

Denny ran after it.

The room had several low tables for an art class. There was a green skeleton sitting at one of the tables, happily munching from the bag of candy. The skeleton rose into the air as another skeleton faded into view beside it.

“Booooooooo!!” came two spooky voices. “Don’t ruin Halloween!!”

Denny ran, not caring about candy anymore.

It was after ten and Justin and Mick had helped clean up and were standing by their car.

“Wow. First chilly evening.” Mick said. “I can see my breath.”

“I think it went great,” Justin said.

“Any evening with you is great.” Mick said.

As they stood there and kissed a voice from nearby said “Happy Halloween.”

Mick and Justin didn’t notice that nobody was there.

—end—

Author’s Note: For Halloween I wanted to bring two sets of my characters together: Justin and Mick appear in a couple of stories including “Candy Is Dandy.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2023/10/20/candy-is-dandy-early-halloween-for-friday-flash-fics-from-mike-mayak-aka-jeff-baker-october-20-2023/ Gus and Bertie appear in “The Year Is Gone Beyond Recall.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2023/12/26/the-year-is-gone-beyond-recall-a-story-for-new-years-by-jeff-baker-december-26-2023/

Hope you enjoyed this Halloween treat! —-jeff

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Ghost Story, Halloween, Justin and Mick, LGBT, Peregrine House, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

“Tweet-O-Ween.” Halloween Story Preview For Rainbow Snippets from Jeff Baker (October 26, 2025)

Posted on October 26, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Every week at Rainbow Snippets https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974 we post six lines from a work of ours, a work in progress or a work of someone else’s with LGBT characters.

For Halloween Week, another preview. My Halloween story will be posted here https://authorjeffbaker.com/ next Friday. Until then GRWTG for an evening out.

That’s “Get Ready With The Ghosts,” by the way…

You’d think Halloween in a genuinely haunted house would be fun, but not when you’re the ghosts and the home’s blissfully unaware owners were out for the weekend.

Gus and Bertram (“Bertie”) had been happily “shacked-up” (as Bertie liked to put it) for decades and had been haunting the house ever since. The house was in Gus Rowley’s family and while it wasn’t a mansion it did have a name: Peregrine House, thanks to the stone bird carved on the front porch and rubbed away by nearly a century of children. Peregrine House was in an old neighborhood by the river and the two ghosts largely kept quiet and unnoticed by the families that lived there happily.

But Gus and Bertie were bored and so they decided to go out for the evening, even though as ghosts they knew they couldn’t stay very long.

Happy Halloween, everybody! See you soon!—–jeff

Posted in Halloween, LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | Leave a comment

“If It’s Two Prince Charmings, Who Gets the Glass Slipper?” Friday Flash Fics From Jeff Baker (October 24, 2025)

Posted on October 24, 2025 by jeffbaker307

If It’s Two Prince Charmings, Who Gets the Glass Slipper?

By Jeff Baker

“Okay, we’re on the steps,” Kai said. “And it’s about midnight.”

“It’s about nine-thirty,” Richie said.

“Well, it’s midnight somewhere!” Kai laughed. “And we’re at the front door under the sign!”

“It wasn’t the Boyle Building fifteen years ago,” Richie said glancing up at the metal sign that stuck out of the old brick warehouse. He smiled as he remembered the night they had gotten off work way late and walked half a block, talking all the way, and had climbed these same steps and impulsively kissed at the top. The first time they’d done that in public.

“Our old warehouse is a Korean grill now,” Richie said.

“I noticed.” Kai said. “Kiss me.”

They held the kiss for a moment, lingering as the memories breezed around them. When they broke off, Kai took a deep breath.

“That first time we heard City Hall chiming midnight, remember?” Kai said.

Richie grinned back. “I always hear bells ring when I kiss you!”

—end—

Posted in Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Romance, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Reading Report September/October 2025. The Papers of the University Of Cosmopoli and a Ghost Table. From Jeff Baker

Posted on October 20, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Reading Report, September/October 2025

I’ve wanted to read the University Of Cosmopoli Papers by Christopher Blayre (pen-name of Edward Heron-Allen, 1861-1943) since I stumbled across a couple of the stories a year ago. Cast as the papers of faculty and staff of a university (collection cataloged by Blayre) the faculty seems to have had a number of odd, supernatural encounters. The stories were collected, but the collections are pricey. But there is a “Complete Shorter Fiction” by Heron-Allen which has all the Cosmopoli stories and more. Got it a few days ago and have been plunging in. So far read “Mano Pantea,” “The Thing That Smelt,” “The Blue Cockroach.” Fun and weird. Some of them were reprinted in anthologies with similarly weird themes.

Finally found and read Elliot O’ Donnell’s short story “The Ghost Table” online. Glad I didn’t pay money for it! If it’s well-known at all it’s because it was the cover story for the March issue of “Weird Tales” which included Lovecraft’s “The Call Of Cthulu,” a very good story. “Ghost Table” not so much. Spooky at the beginning but the explanation was kind of dorky.

O’Donnell himself seems more interesting than his fiction; lots of writers wrote about ghost detectives, but O’Donnell actually was a “ghost hunter.” He published several books of presumably non-fiction accounts of his inquiries into supernatural happenings, perhaps a bit like Hans Holzer.

It’s worth noting that he never collected “Ghost Table” in any of his books.

Also worth noting that when I finished reading the story I thought “Aw, hell, I’m gonna have to write about reading this…”

Oh, and my memory was jogged about this by an ornate antique table I saw which has inspired a flash fiction story.

Read “The Mysterious Food Truck Affair” by Christina Hoag in the online version of Saturday Evening Post. Lots of fun and very Golden Age. Plenty of references to Agatha Christie as her sleuth is a professional expert on Christie. She even ate apples like Adrianne Oliver.

Read Ramsey Campbell’s story “A Life In Nightmares,” a seriously disturbing horror story with perfect campbell touches as well as being very original.

Also read “Trinity River’s Blues” by Chesya Burk.

Both of the above stories are in the anthology “Dark Stars: New Tales Of Darkest Horror,” edited by John F. D. Taff. In his introduction he said he wanted to do with this anthology what “Dark Forces” had done: “Bring horror to a wider audience.”

From what I’ve read of “Dark Stars,” it succeeds.

Been reading through Donald A. Wollheim’s NESFA collection “Up There And Other Strange Directions.” Wollheim said he wrote the stories for fun, and they are still fun!

Started reading M. D. Neu’s novel “Hawaiian Sun.” A fun alternate history time-travel romance.

Got Jane Yolen’s collection “Sister Emily’s Lightship” and read or re-read several of her stories.

Read J. Scott Coatsworth’s “Black Cat” from the Own Voices anthology “Romance In Autumn.”

Started reading O. Henry’s collection of interrelated stories “Cabbages And Kings.” I didn’t know he’d written one like that. “Fox In The Morning” ought to be included in any anthology of stories about secret messages—very clever! I have a collected two-volume O. Henry but I’ve ordered a Selected-Stories so I can carry it around easier.

Read the regular online offerings by E. H. Timms and Kaje Harper. I miss new installments of Scott Coatsworth’s “Down the River.”

And somehow I didn’t read any of John Maddox Roberts’ “Temple Of the Muses.” I gotta get back to that!

Posted in E. H. Timms, J. Scott Coatsworth, Jane Yolen, Kaje Harper, Ramsey Campbell, | Leave a comment

Progress Report September/October 2025 from Jeff Baker. (Actual Progress!)

Posted on October 20, 2025 by jeffbaker307

September/October 2025

Some surprising progress to report!

I started working on a longer story (I’ve been slacking off on longer stories!) and then I stumbled across a file with a story I started a few years ago and wrote out a page or so on this second story. Then I went down to the library the next day and wrote out (in my spiral bound notebook) a synopsis/outline for the second story. I also have a market for it. And I’m hoping to get this and the first story done by the end of the year.

Appropriate as one of them is called “The Yuletide Horror.” (A title I think I should change!)

I did some work on the longer story I want to finish by the end of the year. If I work at it I can have both of these done by January First.

Of course, I did the usual columns and Flash fictions, including finishing three short-shorts in one day (something I am deliriously proud of!) so I feel a little more productive this time around.

That’s about it for now…

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A Very Brief Rainbow Snippet From Jeff Baker for October 19, 2025.

Posted on October 19, 2025 by jeffbaker307

(October 19, 2025)

Every Week at Rainbow Snippets https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets participants post six lines of a work of theirs, a work-in-progress or a work by someone else that has LGBT characters.

I wasn’t going to do any snippeting for this week, but here’s a really brief bit from a mushy, romantic flash fiction I’m posting next Friday. I’m overly proud of the fact that I wrote this (which is as yet untitled) and another flash story and finished yet another one yesterday! It actually only exists in handwritten form right now!!

We meet two thirty-somethings on a flight of steps at a downtown warehouse:

“Okay, we’re on the steps,” Kai said. “And it’s about midnight.”

“It’s about nine-thirty” Richie said.

“Well, it’s midnight somewhere!” Kai laughed. “And we’re under the sign.”

They remembered the night they’d climbed the steps after getting off work late and impulsively kissed; the first time they’d done that in public.

Okay, that’s it for this week. And it’s just about half the story!

Next week, something just in time for Halloween. Until then, take care everybody. —-jeff

Posted in Fiction, LGBT, Rainbow Snippets, Romance, Short-Stories | 2 Comments

Fillet Of A Finny Snake. Yummy Friday Flash Fics As By Mike Mayak October (October 17, 2025)

Posted on October 17, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Fillet Of A Finny Snake In the Cauldron Boil And Bake

by Mike Mayak

The kitchen was bright and pleasant with the afternoon sun streaming through the skylight. The red, yellow and turquoise of the cups and plates, neatly stacked, gave the room the feel of the Southwest.

Tiresias muttered to himself as he looked in one of the cabinets, staring at the handwritten labels taped to the jars.

“What today…What today? Which one do I need this time…aha!”

He grabbed a small jar with a red lid marked “Mixed Syrian Spices” and set it on the counter next to the stove.

“It would be easier if it was the same formula each time,” Tiresias said to nobody in particular. “I mean, fillet of finny snake, dead man’s hair, drop of tincture of tenderness. And then pop it in the microwave.” He sighed. “But that would be too easy.”

He looked in the cabinet again; at the yellow checkerboard pattern of the shelves, at the hanging cups, at the bottles and jars. Only some of which contained ingredients found at a store, he smiled wryly to himself. There was a capsule of flea repellent he needed to use on his cat, and a little jar of sprinkles.

He checked the ingredients on the counter. All good.

He turned the heat up on the pot of water on the stove, and began measuring and pouring the ingredients into the pot. A cup of this, a pinch of that, a teaspoon of this, most of that. All the while stirring gently, gently…

The smells were overpowering; spices, freshly-turned earth, flowers, wind from the sea and ancient tombs.

Tiresias turned the heat down to simmer and waited…waited…

The liquid in the pot changed color. Green, brown, orange, blood-red and then a luminous blue.

The skylight went dark for a moment, plunging the kitchen into shadow.

In another moment, the kitchen was sunlit-bright again and Tiresias was now a woman.

Much the same face, hair longer, same weight and height but definitely a woman.

Tiresias looked into the pot which was now empty.

“How long this time?” she asked.

“Three weeks,” said the hollow voice.

Tiresias smiled to herself. This year she could wear her witch’s costume to greet the trick-or-treaters.

—end—

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Pink Tires And Fun at the Gym! Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Results For October 2025! (October 13, 2025)

Posted on October 12, 2025 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Athena Sandrini on Pexels.com

Hi! I’m Mike, A.K.A. Jeff Baker.

The draws for the October 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were:

A Comedy

Set on a Space Station

Involving a Spare Tire

E. H. Timms wrote: “Pink Tires” https://thinkingthinking123.blogspot.com/2025/10/flash-fic-challenge-pink-tires.html

And I wrote: “Mister Domenikos’ Wheel” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/10/11/mister-domenikos-wheel-flash-fiction-draw-challenge-story-for-october-2025-from-mike-mayak-october-11-2025/

Thanks for participating, and for reading and remember it’s never too late to write your own story, post it in the comments and I’ll link it here.

We’ll be back with another draw on November 3rd, 2025.

Until then, thanks for playing and reading.

—–mike

Posted in Comedy, E. H. Timms, Fiction, LGBT, Mike Mayak, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, Science Fiction, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

“Mister Domenikos’ Wheel.” Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Story For October 2025, from Mike Mayak (October 11, 2025)

Posted on October 11, 2025 by jeffbaker307
Photo by SpaceX on Pexels.com

Mister Domenikos’ Wheel

by Mike Mayak

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The draws for the October 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were: A Comedy, involving a Spare Tire, set at a Space Station. Here’s what I came up with. —mike

Dante Granello was ten. What his parents jokingly called “a dangerous age.”

Dante’s Dad taught at the University down on Jovanni III, the planet the Jovanni Space Station orbited. They actually lived on the Station because Dante’s Mom was the Station’s Gravitic Engineer. His parents were usually busy when he got out of class so Dante hung out in Mr. Domenikos’ workroom on the lower level of the station. He knew the whole crew of the station would look after him but he liked being with Mr. Domenikos, even though rambling around the big occupied wheels that made up the levels of the Station was fun too.

Mr. Domenikos was the station’s main Engineer and de facto handyman. He was old, almost fifty, and he was regaling Dante with stories about the old stuff (“Don’t call it junk”) he had laying around the workroom.

“Like that tire you’re sitting on,” Mr. Domenikos said. “Dates back almost two-hundred years to the late 20th Century. Perfectly preserved, too.”

Dante leaned over and examined the tire he was sitting on. All he knew was it was rubbery and comfortable.

“Ever have to use it?” Dante asked. Mr. Domenikos had been explaining what a spare tire was earlier.

“Not without an Auto-Car,” he said.

“Got an Auto-Car up here?” Dante asked.

“Naaaaah!” Mr. Domenikos said. “None of them down on the planet either. Just those modern hover thingies.”

“Well, maybe we could take this for a ride anyway.” Dante said hopefully, as he patted the tire.

“A ride?” Mr. Domenikos asked. Then they both started to grin.

It started out okay. Dante and Mr. Domenikos bounced the tire around the workroom and then Mr. Domenikos started making engine noises and the two of them rolled the wheel out into the corridor and started rolling it along the slight curve of the wall. The wheel was half as tall as Dante and he started making it bounce as it rolled along, seeing if he could make it bounce as high as his head. That was when the wheel made it up to nearer the ceiling and Dante remembered something he’d heard about the gravity being less up there.

He was remembering the corridors were about four meters high as Mr. Domenikos let out a yell and the tire bounced up and rolled on the ceiling for a moment before angling down and rolling down the wall, across the floor and up to the ceiling again.

When it rolled back down, Dante made a lunge for it and instead he and the tire bounced off each other and the tire bounced on down the curve of the corridor out of sight.

“At least it’s on the floor again,” Mr. Domenikos said as Dante jumped up and started chasing the tire around the bend.

There was a crash.

Dante and Mister Domenikos collided with a technician wheeling a cart full of platters down the hall. They managed to extricate themselves from the jumble of platters, cart and technician even as he was jabbering about barely being missed by “some old bouncing wheel thingie…”

They chased after it again as the tire barely missed going up the stairway but instead shot right into the gravity chute.

“Out into space,” Dante said.

“Nope,” Mr. Domenikos said. “That chute goes up to the top level. Elevator. C’mon!”

A few moments and one high-powered ride later Dante and Mister Domenikos exited the elevator just in time to see the tire bounce through the open door of the gym. They ran after it, almost colliding with one of the station crew who had jumped out of the tires way.

The crew members were scrimmaging on the basketball court when the tire rolled and bounced into the middle of them. One of the players gave it a kick and the tire bounced off the wall, rocketed over the players, bounced off the empty bleachers and headed to the domed ceiling.

Mr. Domenikos shrugged.

“I was experimenting with a new air pressure formula with the atmosphere of Jovanni III’s Moon and some other stuff. Used it on the tire.”

“You can work on it.” Dante said.

The two of them looked up at the tire as it seemingly lay there on the ceiling, like they were looking at it upside-down.

And for years a framed printout of the picture Dante took of the tire there above the gym would hang in Mr. Domenikos’ office.

—end—

Posted in Comedy, Fiction, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, Science Fiction, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Spend “All Hollowed Eve” At the Food Garden Court. Rainbow Snippets From Jeff Baker. (October 11, 2025)

Posted on October 11, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Photo by Kenny Blasco.

Every Week at Rainbow Snippets https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974 participants post six lines of a work of theirs, a work-in-progress or a work by someone else that has LGBT characters.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about Skid and T’amec, the two twenty-something boyfriends who work in a magical mall in a magical world. In “All Hollowed Eve” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2023/10/26/halloween-at-the-food-garden-court-all-hollowed-eve-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-october-26th-2023/ they are dealing with “Octobrus.” The only two weeks of the year when ghosts can appear.

Skid glanced up as he wiped down a counter top there in the Food Garden Court. Ghosts were more active right now, some of them in small groups flying around the upper floor and the skylights. He glanced at the wall clock. He didn’t know why the Mall insisted on being open until Midnight on the last of Octobrus. Probably good for business. Not so good on the nerves.

Okay, here’s another snippet…

A pair of ghosts dive bombed Skid and he ducked. He could imagine them laughing.

“Maybe next year we’ll have the sense to be closed.” Skid said.

“Yeah, or I’ll be home hiding under my bed,” T’amec said. “Or under your bed,” he said with a grin.

See you next time ——jeff

Posted in Food Garden Court, Rainbow Snippets | 1 Comment