"…his stories are always sharp and compact and interesting." ——Angel Martinez "(One of) the hottest authors in the independent horror scene…" —-Hellbound Books
Of course I read the monthly offerings by E. H. Timms and J. Scott Coatsworth, as well as the weekly stories Kaje Harper posts. She has wrapped up a serial which I wrote about in an earlier post.
Finished John Maddox Roberts’ Ancient Roman mystery novel “Saturnalia.” Great fun! Re-started his novel “The Temple Of the Muses,” which I started reading about twenty years ago. Started it again.
Read “The House Party At Smoky Island,” by L. M. Montgomery. A short story from the author of “Annie Of Green Gables.” Set in the Canadian islands she knew so well, this one first appeared in Weird Tales magazine, and it’s about a gathering you might want to skip…
Beta read a fine short-story by a friend of mine which I will not say any more about until it’s published.
Finally got my copy of ‘Nathan Burgoine’s fine collection “Upon the Midnight Queer,” which I’d read online and bummed through some of the stories. Hadn’t thought that when I’d ordered it months ago, I ordered it for my Kindle which I still haven’t fixed!
Got another of Burgoine’s books, his latest YA “HiLo,” called “Dogs Don’t Break Hearts.” Started in reading it. Marvelous as always!
Read Ramsey Campbell’s short story “Someone to Blame.” It’s inspired by M.R. James’ “Count Magnus” and is a fun, spooky read with the hallmarks of both authors. In the anthology “Classic Monsters Unleashed,” full of tales based on classic horrors.
Started reading “Mars The Avenger,” an Ancient Roman mystery by Alan Scribner. A Judge is called to investigate a disappearance in Rome in 158 A.D.
Got a big book of Manga (not MAGA) comic stories about Urusei Yatsura written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. The series was a smash hit in Japan and the book is very funny. All about a luckless schmuck who accidentally proposes to a space princess. Takahashi said she was influenced by American TV shows like “Bewitched” and “I Dream Of Jeannie.”
And I ordered an anthology (“Scaring and Daring,”) for another story and found “The Boy Of LaMancha Rides A Glass Horse,” by Carlos Hernandez. I first heard of the story when the author read from it at the 2023 World Fantasy Convention in Kansas City. Don’t remember clearly, but it may be intended to be the start of a series. If so, it will be a fun read!
Next month, I will probably report on reading the story I bought the book for in the first place.
“Shh!” Arn said, grinning and pointing at the screen.
The Old University Theater was showing “Bridge Across the Rhine,” a WWII movie from sixty years earlier. One of the movies they showed since the University had built the new theater, mainly for plays and live shows.
Arn’s Great Uncle had been a movie stuntman and was all over this movie in the action scenes although Arn and Bryan had only picked him out once, being blown out from behind a bunch of sandbags in a blast of movie pyrotechnics. But the scene they had come to was special: Arn’s Uncle was actually onscreen standing in a uniform behind a general who was outlining plans on a map spread on a table.
“There he is!” Arn said, squeezing Bryan’s arm. “This is so cool!”
They had seen the movie on DVD a dozen times in their little off-campus apartment but seeing it in a theater was special.
Impulsively Arn kissed Bryan and Bryan kissed him back and laughed, pointing at the screen.
“You wanna watch or neck?” Bryan asked.
There was a vibration from Bryan’s pocket. He sighed. He had it set especially for emergency bulletins on a Police App. He pulled it out and stared at the screen.
“Crap.” Bryan breathed and showed the screen to Arn.
On the screen a giant spider was climbing on the side of one of the buildings in Old Town.
“Oh well, at least we got a student discount on the tickets.” Arn said.
“And we know who won the war.” Bryan said.
Arn glanced around. There was nobody else in the theater in the middle of the week and he knew the kid who ran the old projector was probably taking a nap. He ducked into the shadows between the seats and pulled off his hoodie and sweatpants revealing a garish green costume and a masked hood he quickly pulled over his head.
Bryan ducked down and quickly began to shimmer and glow, his clothes melting into a full-body yellow outfit with a matching yellow mask.
He doused the glow and the two of them ducked out the side exit.
The Old University Theater was on the Western edge of the sprawling campus which was just a fifteen minute drive from the Old Town area (with traffic) in the center of the city. But Arn Agrai and Bryan Barusa were not using the highway. As Grasshopper, Arn leaped from the top of one building to another, briefly startling a young couple making out in a rooftop garden. As Lifewave, Bryan glided over the city, his glowing aura joining with the lights from the street in the early evening. He wasn’t as powerful as he was in the daylight but on the other hand, in direct sunlight his powers became harder to control.
“Look down there!” Grasshopper yelled as they approached the old brick warehouses that had become fashionable shops and bars with expensive parking.
“Yeah, I see it!” Lifewave said. On the side of a five story building, a shadowy figure was crawling up the side of the red bricks. A figure with a thin body close to the building on long spindly legs. Lifewave fired a beam of light revealing two large spiders crawling up the building.
“Spiders and a Grasshopper,” Grasshopper said. “Here goes nothing.”
Grasshopper aimed the trajectory of his next jump so he would slam his feet onto one of the spiders. There was a metallic “CLUNK” as one of the spiders fell off the wall slamming into the other one and dropping to the ground.
“Bulls-eye!” Grasshopper said. “Score one for the campus pool champ!”
“In your dreams,” Lifewave said, landing a yard in front of the spiders which were wriggling their legs on their backs on the ground. “Robots, definitely. Let’s see what this does.”
As Grasshopper kept an eye out for other spiders, Lifewave raised his arms and the yellowish glow around him expanded and there was a crackling of electricity from the spiders as blue sparks of power flew from the metal arachnids and joined the glow around Lifewave. In a few moments, the spiders weren’t moving anymore.
“Gimmie a minute,” Lifewave said. “I gotta spend some of this excess energy, and check for other spiders or the culprit who brought them here.
Lifewave was a blur as he zipped around the buildings casting a glow around the area. Meanwhile, Grasshopper gave the neutralized spiders a careful going over, ready to jump away at the slightest sign of movement.
“Nothing.” Lifewave said landing a few feet away. “And I sense no more power in those things.”
“And according to my grasshopper senses, there’s no poison or anything on these things,” Grasshopper said. “Just oil.”
“No news people around,” Lifewave said. “I’m wondering where that bulletin came from?”
As if in answer, their cellphones pinged. Pulling them out of their costumes, they checked the display. There was a picture of the spiders and a message:
HOW MANY OF YOU ARE AFRAID OF SPIDERS?
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF A REIGN OF TERROR UNLESS OUR DEMANDS ARE MET.
The message was unsigned.
“Terror,” Grasshopper said. “Sounds like Phobos at work.”
“Yeah, and Mechanical Man.” Lifewave said. “Working together.”
“But we’ll be ready.” Grasshopper said.
“Yeah.” Lifewave said.
The two of them jumped back into the dark sky, heading home to await the next move.
Willie was helping load the bags from the feed store onto the back of his uncle’s pickup and sweating in the July heat when Joey ran up, out-of-breath.
“Willie! It’s here! It’s here! My God, it’s here! Oh, excuse me , Mr. Seargent!”
Willie’s Uncle had glared at him. John Seargent regarded any use of the Lord’s name outside of church or prayer as profane.
“What’s here?” Willie asked, looking sweaty, exhausted and annoyed. He was seventeen now, they both were, and he was wanting to be called “Will” now.
Joey held up a magazine with an illustration of a creepy green monster menacing a girl on the cover. Gruesome Stories, October Nineteen-Forty-Seven.
“My story! They printed my story!” Joey was almost yelling, waving the magazine in Willie’s face.
Willie managed to grab the magazine and scanned the table of contents.
“Yup. It’s in here all right.” Willie said. “’The Thing From the Cistern’ by Joseph Van Horn.”
“Look what they say! Look what they say!” Joey said pointing excitedly at the lines below the title.
“It had waited in the dark for eons,” Willie Read. “Now it hungered for grain and…” Willie looked up with a grin. “…and more substantive fare!” He realized his uncle was reading over his shoulder.
“This really is something, Joey.” Uncle John said. “Bet you’re really glad you’ve been paying attention in English class!”
“And how!” Willie said.
“Yeah,” Joey said with a laugh. “I mean, I knew they were going to mail me a copy but I saw these on sale at Gruber’s Grocery and I almost fell over!”
Willie clapped him on the back. “Let’s celebrate! I’ll buy you a soda.”
“Yeah, thanks Willie…uh, Will.”
“Or you can buy it. You’re the one making money!”
The two of them laughed.
“Hey, how about I get some help loading up this grain I bought?” Uncle John said. “You too Mr. Famous Author.”
“Oh, sure! Right!” the boys said. They were talking and laughing as they loaded the rest of the bags.
Uncle John smiled to himself. He knew that Mr. Gruber had started carrying Gruesome Tales Magazine at the store when he’d heard about Joey’s story.
Ethan stood behind the camera on the tripod and waved at the pair of cowboy boots sitting on the living room floor.
“Where’s the music?” Henry’s voice came from about five and a half feet over the boots.
“We’ll dub it in. We’ll dub it in. Just go ahead and dance.” Ethan said.
“Okaaaaay. But it’s more fun dancing with you!” Henry said as the boots began to dance a sloppy sort of line dance with only one person there.
“Good…good…” Ethan said, checking the video screen.
“Better than last time?” Henry’s voice asked.
“Yeah. But pay attention to your dancing.” Ethan said.
Henry and Ethan had met in High School a decade ago. This was right before the incident which stuck Henry with being invisible several hours every day. Ethan had found out about it and their lives had become ‘a bad sitcom,” as Ethan had cracked once.
They had also fallen for each other. Two big secrets they were keeping.
By the time Henry had become able to control his invisibility they had graduated and decided to move in together. But this was the first time they’d tried to make any money off of what Henry called “The Invisible Man Boogie.”
After a few minutes, Ethan called out “Cut!” and the boots walked over, with a brownish-reddish haired twenty-something in basketball shorts fading in over them.”
“I still think we ought to have those shorts visible too,” Ethan said.
“Naaaa. Have to pay the team royalties for use of the logo,” Henry said. “How’s the video look?”
“Gimmie a second,” Ethan said stealing another glimpse of Henry wearing nothing but shorts and boots.
Together they watched the video.
“Looks good, if I do say so myself.” Ethan said.
“Yeah.” And everybody will say it’s A.I.” Henry said.
“But very good A.I.” Ethan added. “And this is better than the first try.”
“Yeah,” Henry said lifting up a foot. “One boot out of frame a lot of the time.”
They laughed and kissed.
“Just gotta edit a little, put in the music and post it.” Ethan said.
“And we’ll be rich!” Henry said. “Or maybe just get a bunch of Likes.”
Their video got the Likes, but the music track got deleted.
Copyright.
Watching it on their laptop, snuggled on the couch with a bowl of chips Henry and Ethan didn’t care. They laughed and sang as the cowboy boots danced across the screen.
—end—
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Third story I wrote about Henry and Ethan (actually from a very old idea of mine.) But Ethan didn’t have a name until this story!
I’m posting this extra because two extraordinary reading events are going on right now. Two fine writers are posting serials that show them at the top of their craft in making entertaining works for readers. I reference them in every monthly Reading Report but I wish to give them special attention.
J. Scott Coatsworth’s monthly serialized novel “Down The River” is drawing to a close. He has announced that he finished writing the last chapter which should be posted on his blog in September of this year.
It’s a follow up to his earlier serialized novel “The River City Chronicles,” set in Scott’s adopted home town of Sacramento, California. It is a work which the local paper compared to “Tales Of the City” for both it’s serialized format and LGBT characters.
The story is fun, sweet and compelling as well as entertaining. I’ll be sad to see it go.
Kaje Harper is an author of a lot of novels, mostly LGBT romance mixed with fantasy, mystery and science-fiction. She posts a weekly story on her Facebook page “Kaje’s Conversation Corner,” and for the last few weeks the offerings have been something different than a standalone story: a continuing serial featuring alien prince Bex and his human consort Troy. Two men in an arranged relationship for diplomatic purposes. Plenty of romance, wonder and palace intrigue which I won’t spoil here.
Anything Kaje writes is wonderful, and well worth the reader’s time, and her regular readers are hoping this is the beginning of a new book.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The Draws for the August 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were a Fairy Tale set at the Empire State Building involving a bowl full of jelly. Enjoy —-mike
Once upon a time, there were two members of the Fairy Folk who had been assigned by the Queen of the Fae to locate the mystic Corejo Amethyst. It had once belonged to the Queen and she wanted it back for no other reason than that was the sort of thing a Queen of the Fae did.
“But your Majesty,” the Fairy known as The Namer of It said. “How do we find this, this thing?”
“That is your problem,” the Queen said imperiously. Saying things imperiously was something that, being a queen, she made a habit of and she had gotten very good at.
“Isn’t there an Office that finds lost things or maybe the Celestial Bloodhound?” said the Fairy known as Swiftness Of An Eel.
“Those things cost gold, and I do not wish to part with any of my gold,” the Queen said. “My gem is on Earth and I want you to find it and be back in a fortnight.”
The two Fairies bowed and walked out of the Royal Chamber, each trying to remember how long a fortnight was.
“If we have to be on Earth we had best get a move on,” said The Namer Of It, whose friends called him “It,” which made conversations a lot easier.
“But how will we find it, It?” asked Swiftness Of An Eel, whose friends likewise called him “Eel.”
“We are of the Fairy Folk,” said It. “We will allow ourselves to be taken to Fairy Treasure. That’s what we do after all.”
“Yes,” said Eel. “I shall leave this place like the wind and take you with me.” For part of Eel’s swiftness was his ability to assume the aspects of other forms and so It was soon carried over the gulf between worlds by a wind to the strange and solid place called Earth.
And it was in of all the places on the good old Earth, New York City, several hours after midnight that It swirled and spun down to a sidewalk as the wind swirled around and re-formed into Eel. They were both greyish men with long beards, pointed caps and clothing of forest green. Each one exactly four and one half inches in height. In other words, they were quite inconspicuous in the big city. Especially after dark.
The two Fairies stared upward.
They had landed before a huge structure, brightly-lit on the outside but only dimly-lit through the windows.
“Hmmm…This building belongs to the Emperor…” It read. “Emperor Stat’s Building…”
“Empire State Building,” Eel said squinting his eyes to read.
“Aha!” It said. “The Amethyst is inside.”
“But how do we get in?” Eel said. “The doors are locked at this hour. I could become like a rock slide and batter down the door, but…”
“Wait,” said It. “I have a better idea.”
From his hat, It pulled out a jewel encrusted hairpin and quickly picked the lock. They quickly entered and glanced around. They had never seen Art Deco or marble like they saw in the lobby.
“This is it!” It said. “The Amethyst! We’re inside it!”
“I’m not so sure,” Eel said tapping on a wall. “Feels like stone. And anyway, it’s big. Too big to bring back.”
“What do we do?” It asked.
They heard a running of feet from upstairs. Guards.
“We leave, that’s what.” Eel said.
“You become like the wind again?” It asked.
“Can’t do the same trick in the same hour. But a bowl full of strong, bouncy jelly could get us out of here.”
Before it could protest, the doors behind them burst open and Eel became jelly which wrapped around It and shuddering and bouncing hopped them out of the doors and away into the night.
And It shook when Eel left like a bowl full of jelly…
—end—
NOTE: Had to close a fractured fairy tale with an awful pun! —mike
Here’s the draws for the August 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. Followed by my usual long-winded explanation:
A Fairy Tale
Involving A Bowl Full Of Jelly
Set at The Empire State Building
Now, on to the details.
Hi! I’m Mike Mayak, I also write as Jeff Baker and I’m the current moderator for the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, which was started by ‘Nathan Burgoine a few years ago and carried on by Cait Gordon and Jeffrey Ricker. It’s a monthly writing challenge mainly for stress-free fun that anyone can play.
Here’s how it works: the first Monday of every month I draw three cards; a heart, a diamond and a club. These correspond to a list naming a genre, a setting and an object that must appear in the story. Participants write up a flash fiction story, 1,000 words or less, post it to their website and link it here in the comments. I’ll post the results (including, hopefully, one of my own!) on the blog.
As I’m no good making videos I did the drawing offstage. So, the results were the Two of Hearts (a Fairy Tale), the Jack of Diamonds (The Empire State Building) and the Six of Clubs (A Bowl Full Of Jelly.)
So we will write a fairy tale involving a bowl full of jelly set at the Empire State Building.
We’ll have the results here in this same space around Monday August 11th, 2025.
So, get to writing and I’ll post the results next week! And I’m putting the 2025 Flash Draw sheet at the end of this message, again! (* indicates those have been used.)
Thanks for playing, and I’ll see you in about week!
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.
I’m doing some shameless self-promotion for a just-published story of mine about a fast Bisexual hustler.
One thing he had to learn was to wait another five seconds after a speed burst before he tried using his speed again.
He tried that outside the compound: zipping into a grocery store. Pausing. Riffling through the candy bars so fast the cameras couldn’t catch him stuffing them into his jacket. Pausing again and then running out so fast, he looked like he’d suddenly just appeared, stood there about ten seconds and then disappeared.
Here’s Danny on a video he posted online:
“Hi.” the onscreen Danny said. “I’m Danny Zero. And I’m a hero. Watch.”
There was a sound of air rushing over a microphone and Danny was a greenish blur for a second. Then he stood there in his Danny Zero superhero outfit, blue and yellow with a big, red “Z” in a black circle on his chest.
Okay, here’s more…
“I can change clothes in an instant, but if you want me to take this outfit off a lot slower, just log in and pay for special access to my other videos.” He grinned right into the screen. “I even do requests! Yeah, anything you want to see. At super speed or a lot slower!”
Morrison shut the video off in disgust. “Luckily we had your account taken off the site before you could download anything else that would be more damaging.”
They’d walked along the sidewalk downtown in front of the shops and old buildings, across the grass lot and onto the old wooden boardwalk towards Mr. Gruber’s Grocery Store. Willie had always loved the CLUMP-CLUMP his shoes made on the wood; he called it his favorite part of town.
Joey would always crack that it was practically the only part of town.
It was August after dinner and they were both fifteen. School wouldn’t start up for another few weeks. Joey and Willie couldn’t remember a time when they hadn’t known each other and they had always been best friends.
“So, you still gonna join up after we graduate?” Joey asked.
“Yeah,” Willie said. “Soon as I’m old enough. I mean, Mom says I’ve still got time to think about it.”
“Yeah,” Joey said. “My Dad’s all for it. He was over in France back around ‘18.”
Willie whistled. “From Kansas to France. Wow.”
They stopped walking, just standing there at the edge of the boardwalk staring over at the railroad tracks in the heat of the August dusk.
“Hey! Guys!”
Mr. Patterson was standing in the doorway of the grocery store waving them over. “Get in here, you’ll want to hear this!”
Joey and Willie ran over to the store and found Mr. Gruber and several other people gathered around the radio Mr. Gruber kept behind the register.
“What’s…” Willie started to say, but somebody hushed him and the boys realized something important was happening.
The voice on the radio was finishing reading a speech. Then the announcer came on the air.
“That was President Truman from the White House where he has just announced the end of hostilities with Japan. The war is over. Repeat, the war is over.”
Then the radio went back to playing the regular program.
Joey expected cheering but there was none. The group was silent for a moment.
“We knew this day was coming,” one of them said.
Willie and Joey hadn’t thought it was coming.
“Finally! Thank God!” said another.
“Remember the Armistice?” someone said.
“Remember when the Civil War ended?” someone else said.
“I’m not that old!” someone said with a laugh.
But Old Man Lander, who had been a baby during the Civil War, looked over at the boys and nodded his head.
“Always remember this day,” Lander said. “It’s a great day.”
“We will!” Willie said with a nod.
“And how!” Joey said.
Mr. Gruber turned off the radio and bought the boys each a bottle of pop. Joey and Willie walked back, feet clumping on the boardwalk, through the grass and onto the paved sidewalk.
authorjeffbaker 