Horror MAYhem, Shadracks and Chimps! May/June 2025 Reading Report From Jeff Baker. June 20, 2025.

Posted on June 20, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Reading Report. May/June 2025

Continuing Horror MAYhem a bit longer, I read “The Summer People” by Shirley Jackson (1950) The beginning reminded me of Nesbit’s “Man-Sized In Marble,” but Jackson’s story takes the very normal and turns it progressively darker.

Blending Horror MAYhem with Arthur Conan Doyle’s May 22nd Birthday (also my Dad’s Birthday!) I kept to my tradition of honoring both men with a read of Doyle’s work. I finally got around to reading Doyle’s “The Parasite,” which I have in several collections including “Dracula’s Brood.” The story is one of, if not quite parasitic vampirisn, obsession and mesmerism. The ending was a bit of deus ex machina and I expected that denouement in the middle of the story with the narrator’s predicament going on, but still a fun and spooky story. (It’s one of those tales told through entries in a diary/journal, by the way.)

Also read Doyle’s “The Fiend Of the Cooperage.” A horror story that eschews the supernatural for a real-world terror. Set in Gabon off the coast of Africa. I could see where Doyle was going with it, but it was nonetheless horrifying! Reminicent of Doyle’s hero E. A. Poe as well as another of Doyle’s stories.

When someone reads Arthur Conan Doyle, the characters are alive. Not every writer can say that.

And I’ll consider this a last blast of Horror MAYhem; in early June I read Algernon Blackwood’s story “Ancient Sorceries.” I’d never read one of his John Silence stories before. Maybe overly long and wordy but not a word wasted! Utterly gripping with plenty of cat imagery in a tale of a little French town where the dark ways of the past are not gone.

I’ve been dipping into “This Is A Thriller,” by Alan Warren, a non-fiction book about the 1960s horror anthology hosted by Boris Karloff. Absolutely marvelous!

Read Frank Belknap Long’s sweet and fun story “The Mississippi Saucer.” That was anthologized in the Asimov/Greenberg/Waugh anthology “Flying Saucers.” A book I should do a whole post on sometime! And Long is a neglected writer, mainly associated with Lovecraft but he was so much more.

Re-read Jack Finney’s “The Other Wife,” in the Fifth Annul “Year’s Best Sci-Fi” from Judith Merrill, which I picked up in Emporia.

Read a fun picture book that’s going to be a Christmas Present so I won’t mention it here!

Read Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Tom Toothacre’s Ghost Story” for Stowe’s June 13th Birthday. Spooky and fun with a different way to get rid of ghosts! From about 1871.

Finally finished J. Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding’s fun novel “Office Of the Lost.” Sweet, well-done and funny!

Read the regular online offerings by E. H. Timms and Kaje Harper, as well as J. Scott Coatsworth’s weekly serial “Down The River.”

Read “The Christmas Shadrack” by Frank R. Stockton. I LOLed at this sweet and funny comedy of romance, manners and magic in Victorian-era America. Published in 1891.

Read Ray Bradbury’s “Memento Mori.” One of those macabre Bradbury stories that nonetheless makes you smile.

Read Gahan Wilson’s “The Big Green Grin.” This and the Bradbury are in the anthology “Gathering The Bones,” edited by Campbell, Dann and Etchison.

Had lunch with my friend Bryan Dietrich, estimable sci-fi writer and poet and he signed a copy of “Drawn To Marvel,” a collection of Superhero poetry he edited with Marta Ferguson. It has some of his poems in it too!

AND I ordered (and I don’t believe I did!) a collection of comic book stories: “The Detective Chimp Casebook.” I’d never read a Detective Chimp story before and these little crime stories are charming as all get-out! Mostly written by John Broome and illustrated by Carmine Infantino the stories were first published in the 1950s.

No, I wasn’t driving.

Posted in Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Conan Doyle, Books, Bryan Dietrich, Down The River, E. H. Timms, J. Scott Coatsworth, Jack Finney, Kaje Harper, Kim Fielding, Office Of the Lost, Ray Bradbury, Reading, Reading Report, Short-Stories, Thriller | Leave a comment

Time For The Same Old Progress Report. May/June 2025 from Jeff Baker. June 20, 2025.

Posted on June 20, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Progress Report May/June 2025 from Jeff Baker

I ought to copy and paste this from the April/May Progress Report!

Much the same.

Wrote a QSF column, wrote down a few ideas, wrote the weekly Friday Flash Fics stories and the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge story.

Wrote down a bunch of notes.

Didn’t really work on anything full-length, but I think I decided to put aside one story that may not work.

I need to get off my butt, even if I did have a bunch of other stuff going on for about a week.

And yeah, did some research. Bla, bla, blah.

I should’ve copied and pasted this report.

That’s about it for now! (I copied and pasted that line!)

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Dance With Pride for the Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Results for June 2025! (June 16, 2025)

Posted on June 16, 2025 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Alexander Grey on Pexels.com

Hi! I’m Mike, A.K.A. Jeff Baker.

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

A Science Fiction Story

Set in A Convenience Store

Involving a Circus Poster

E. H. Timms wrote: “Dancing With Pride.” https://thinkingthinking123.blogspot.com/2025/06/flash-fic-challenge-dancing-with-pride.html

And I wrote: “While You’re Waiting For Equality.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2025/06/12/waiting-for-equality-june-2025-flash-fiction-draw-challenge-story-from-mike-mayak-june-12-2025/

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 July 7th, 2025.

Thanks again!

—–mike

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

Rainbow Snippets and Someone Very Messy! From J. Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding. (“Office Of the Lost”) June 13, 2025

Posted on June 13, 2025 by jeffbaker307

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

For Pride Month I’m posting snippets from “Office Of the Lost,” a fun new novel written by my friends J. Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding. https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/book/office-of-the-lost/ They alternated writing chapters, and last week we met Crispin, a Desk Fae at the aforementioned Office. This week, we meet Leo, uh I mean, Leopold Lane. A guy with enough bad luck to plot a soap opera for a decade.

His apartment was only a few blocks away, on the upper floor of a house that had been pretty nice a hundred or so years ago but had long since sagged into disrepair. His place—a cramped bedroom, a living room with a closet-sized kitchen, and a Lilliputian bathroom—was in a converted attic reachable by two flights of rickety outdoor stairs. The climb had been miserably hot in summer and was now cold and damp, making the ascent both dangerous and uncomfortable. Today he walked up the stairs more slowly than usual because his ankle was sore from the puddle incident, and he somehow managed not to fall to an untimely death on the cracked and weed-infested pavement of the parking lot below.

Okay, here’s just a little more of our introduction to Leopold Lane:

But still, Leopold liked it. He found it charming that none of the walls were plumb and none of the corners formed perfect right angles. His landlord had seemingly used the dregs of several paint cans, resulting in walls that had large patches of varied whites and beiges. Leopold liked that too. He loved it when the floors and rafters creaked and when the pipes made noises like dying ancient sea monsters.

Also, it was cheap.

I like Leopold!

Oh, and for the record, Scott and Kim alternated writing the chapters of “Office Of the Lost.” Kim wrote the ones from Leopold’s point-of-view and Scott wrote the ones from Crispin’s point-of-view. We’ll see them together in next week’s snippets.

Until then, take care! —-jeff

Posted in J. Scott Coatsworth, Kim Fielding, LGBT, Office Of the Lost, Rainbow Snippets | 2 Comments

“The Soaper Strikes!” Friday Flash Fics from Jeff Baker. (Friday, June 13, 2025)

Posted on June 13, 2025 by jeffbaker307

The Soaper’s Best Hope

by Jeff Baker

Night in the metropolis of Goat’s Town and the blazing headlights of the Ecolo-Car cut through the enshrouding darkness as Captain Ecology and Compost Boy are patrolling, looking for local miscreants.

“We’re fortunate that the Ecolo-Car is powered by an ecologically-viable mix of greens and vegetable juices that react with the car’s special engine,” Captain Ecology said from behind the wheel.

“And that it smells like a herd of cows threw up,” Compost Boy grumbled to himself, wrinkling his nose.

“There! Look!” Captain Ecology said, slowing down the car and pointing to a darkened storefront. “Look at the window!”

“Golly, Captain Ecology,” Compost Boy said. “Somebody did a job on another window!”

“Yes. Doubtless high-grade soap, like at the other stores around Main Street.” Captain Ecology said.

What had actually been a main street through town during Goat’s Town’s beginnings was now, over 200 years later, several blocks to the south of the main drag and the Business District.

“The last few nights. A different window every night.” Compost Boy said. “It doesn’t sound like the work of the Chicken Queen. Or the Lariat. Or the Squashmaster. Last time we talked none of them were even in town.”

“Have you dated every super villain?” Captain Ecology asked, almost suppressing a smile.

“Not the Silver Shrieker,” Compost Boy said. “She was hot but she was interested in you, remember?”

“Don’t remind me.” Captain Ecology said. “It would help if there was a letter sent to the papers or the police signed The Soaper or something.

The two of them sat and stared at the soaped window, tinted a light blue in the foam.

“Well, at least it’s clean.” Compost Boy said.

“Cleanliness is no excuse for vandalism,” Captain Ecology said. “But it fits a pattern.”

“What pattern?” Compost Boy said. “Some super villain who’s still mad his Mom made him take baths?”

“The soapings have all taken place the last couple of weeks on this street. And this is the street the Goat’s Town Pride Parade is taking place on this weekend!”

“Golly, that’s right! I forgot!” Compost Boy said.

“Commemorating the first Pride parades in New York about six years ago,” Captain Ecology said. “And that gives us our biggest clue! The soap!”

“It’s some kind of protest?” Compost Boy said.

“In a way, yes,” said Captain Ecology. “Each of the store windows lathered with a different color of soap. Matching the colors of that Rainbow Pride flag.”

“Golly, you’re right again!” Compost Boy said.

“You’re a twenty-five year old Bisexual, you should have figured this out before I did.” Captain Ecology said. “What do you know about all these soapings?”

“I’ll bet it isn’t just one guy. I bet it’s a whole gang,” Compost Boy said. “And probably we’ll never catch them!”

“Probably not.” Captain Ecology said. “Anyway, I heard that marriage-minded arachnid-themed arch-criminal is back in town and has her sights on marrying and robbing another sucker at Goat’s Town’s exclusive Club Sixty-Eight.” He started the car up again.

“Golly, Captain Ecology! You mean, Spider Ma’am!”

As the car drove off, Captain Ecology’s voice could be heard over the engine’s roar.

“It’s not just a matter of a bunch of people marching for one thing. What we are doing is standing up for the right, for the good, for the just. One person can affect lots of other people. Once we all understand that, maybe we won’t need a parade like this anymore.”

—end—

Posted in Captain Ecology and Compost Boy, Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

“Waiting For Equality.” June 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Story from Mike Mayak. (June 12, 2025.)

Posted on June 12, 2025 by jeffbaker307

While You’re Waiting For Equality

by Mike Mayak

The little convenience store hadn’t changed much in almost 200 years, except maybe the commemorative metal plaque on the outside wall citing the year in the 1970s the building had been built. But the street wasn’t a main street anymore and the local college a half-mile away was virtually a small town now.

The big windows had posters advertising various products, like “No-Smok Safe Ciggs” and “Instant Candy.” And the Circus Poster with the girl balancing on a racing horse on one leg, festooned with rainbows.

But the circus poster was hanging from a shard of broken glass, slowly turning in the slight breeze in the broken window at the end of the store, near where the old outdoor telephone system had probably been.

Anthony Manuel and Evidivis were walking up to the store to refill their Soda-Pacs when they saw the store manager Mr. Greenfield standing outside surveying the damage.

Anthony was the taller, almost six-one. Dark hair done in a fade. Evidivis was a few inches shorter, round body, skinny arms and legs and light green skin. They were both wearing University Of Millington Tee-shirts and sweatpants.

“Hello, friend,” Evidivis said. “What happened?”

“Some jerks came by with a ball bat and smashed the window when they saw the poster, yelling something about men marrying sheep next and Gays going to Hell.” He shook his head. “This poster is advertising the McGurkus circus uptown next month.”

“Oh, man!” Anthony said. “I thought we were over that!”

“Over what, friend Anthony?” Evidivis said with a puzzled look on his almost-human face.

“Long time ago, here on Earth, they said it wasn’t okay to bee Gay or Lesbian, or…”

“Oh!” Evidivis said. “You mean LGAB2TQSR7? Like Your Father, Mother and Father?”

“Right.” Anthony said. “That’s when we started having Pride Month in June. Marches and protests and all that, because some people didn’t understand back then.”

“Still don’t.” Mr. Greenfield said. “They saw rainbow, out went the brains, up came the bats.”

“This too bad.” Evidivis said. “On my world, dark greens don’t always like light greens like myself. That why I come to visit Earth for High School.”

“And to stay for College,” Anthony said. “But hey, I didn’t realize this ignorant hate crap was still going on? I thought we got rid of all that.”

“It always goes on,” Mr. Greenfield said. “That’s why we still do the Pride thing and the Juneteenth thing. We always have to be watchful. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Our decency enough won’t make it go away or keep it from resurging. Even in the happy times we have to keep our eyes open.”

“It is like what man say to me at Earth barber shop,” Evidivis said. “We are waiting on equality.”

“Always waiting.” Anthony said.

“And ready,” Mr. Greenfield said.

—end—

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The draws for the June 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were for A Science Fiction Story, set at a Convenience Store involving a Circus Poster. It’s a sequel to my story “The High Top” from August 5th, 2022. [LINK] https://authorjeffbaker.com/2022/08/06/the-high-top-by-mike-mayak-for-friday-flash-fics-august-5th-2022/ It got a little preachy but for this Pride month it needs to be.

Maybe every Pride Month. That’s the point. —-mike

Posted in Evidivis, Fiction, Kansas, LGBT, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, Science Fiction | Leave a comment

“Office Of the Lost” my Goodreads Review. Jeff Baker, June 10, 2025.

Posted on June 10, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Here’s my Goodreads review of my friends J. Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding’s collaborative novel “Office Of the Lost.”

“Office Of the Lost,” a fun new novel by J. Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding is a breezy, fun read that blends fantasy, comedy, romance and adventure, published by Other Worlds Ink in conjunction with Tin Box Press.

Crispin is a “desk fae” at the otherworldly Office Of the Lost whose job is to retrieve things from different worlds. Usually this means objects, magical or non-magical (like a breeding pair of Passenger Pigeons) but he’s been assigned to go to Earth (“No one liked to go there. It was loud and dirty and filled with inefficiency and redundancy.”) and pick up a person: Leopold Lane.

Leopold is messy and chaotic where Crispin is neat and orderly. Sparks do not immediately fly when they meet but they are there. Then all hell breaks loose and they attempt to return to the office via “Thea,” Crispin’s magical transport that manifests itself (“herself?”) as a cellphone but something goes wrong and they find themselves bopping into various worlds with encounters with things out of a very fractured fairy tale. Things like cute, fluffy carnivorous fae-and-human-eating moths and a big, furry giant and (no kidding) a lizard-wizard.

Add Crispin’s imperious Mother (being Queen of the Fae will cause that!) and adorable pet squirrel Minkis to a wonky set of supporting characters rounding out the book.

What with Thea the handheld the book has a bit of the feel of “Quantum Leap,” which is one TV show that doesn’t get name dropped amid the abundant and very funny pop culture references in the book. References that are never overdone, by the way.

The story is well-told and the reader cares about Crispin and Leopold and if we can see one big plot twist coming, and not just the pair’s inevitable romance, it’s still a lot of fun getting there!

In the author introduction, J. Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding say that they alternated chapters with each author handling the point-of-view of a different character. Their styles mesh seamlessly.

The book has a fine cover by Kelly York at Sleepy Fox Studios.

“Office Of the Lost” is billed as “Chaos And Order Book One.”

Book Two should be well worth the wait!

Highest recommendations for “Office Of the Lost.”

And now, the words that authors dearly love: “Here’s a buy link.” https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/book/office-of-the-lost/

Posted in Books, J. Scott Coatsworth, Kim Fielding, LGBT, Office Of the Lost, Other Worlds Ink, Promo, Reviews | Leave a comment

Science Fictional Circus Convenience Store! (It will make sense, trust me!) Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Draws for June 2025 from Mike Mayak. (June 9th, 2025.)

Posted on June 9, 2025 by jeffbaker307

Here’s the draws for the June 2025 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. Followed by my usual long-winded explanation:

A Science Fiction Story

Involving A Circus Poster

Set at A Convenience Store

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 Six of Hearts (Science Fiction), the Queen of Diamonds (a Convenience Store) and the Seven of Clubs (A Circus Poster.)

So we will write a science fiction story, set at a convenience store involving a circus poster.

We’ll have the results here in this same space around Monday June 16th, 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!

And have fun!

——mike

Here’s the list:

Flash Draw Sheet for 2025 (“*” indicates prompt has been used.)

Clubs

A A Rusted Knife

*2 A Set of Stereo Speakers

3 A Spare Tire

4 A Moldy Wig

5 A Clown Costume

6 A Bowl Full Of Jelly

*7. A Circus Poster

*8 A Bottle Of Poison

*9 A Director’s Chair

10 A Bicycle

*J A Hair Sofa

Q A Crystal Ball

*K A Set of Leg Irons

Hearts

A A Mystery

2 A Fairy Tale

*3 A Caper Story

4 A Horror Story

5 A Fantasy

*6 Science Fiction

7. A Comedy

*8 A Paranormal Story

*9 A Shaggy Dog Story

*10 A Western

J A Romance

Q A Cyberpunk Story

*K Historical Fiction

Diamonds

A A Swimming Pool

2 A Pool Hall

3 A Space Station

4 An Olympic Stadium

*5 A Palace

6 A Trolley

*7 A Synagogue

8 A Library

*9 A Race Track

* 10 A Line Outside a Theater

J The Empire State Building

*Q A Convenience Store

*K The Australian Outback.

Posted in Mike Mayak, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge | 2 Comments

Get Lost with Rainbow Snippets! “Office Of the Lost,” from J. Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding. June 6th, 2025.

Posted on June 6, 2025 by jeffbaker307

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

` For Pride Month I’m posting snippets from “Office Of the Lost,” a fun new novel written by my friend J. Scott Coatsworth and Kim Fielding. https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/book/office-of-the-lost/ They alternate chapters, starting with this one from the point of view of Crispin, a finicky fae who works at the otherworldly Office Of the Lost. Crispin doesn’t realize he’s about to have an encounter with someone very messy.

He hummed happily as he worked his way down the Recovered Assets form, filling out every line with careful precision, dipping his quill in the ink pot with exactly the right angle and timing to collect the perfect amount of ink with nary a drop spilt on desk or parchment.

He was barely aware of the sounds of the other desk fae around him, sitting at the hundred or so identical white marble desks extending out from his like blocky petals of some strange stone flower.

Item Recovered? Check.

Item in Good Shape? Check.

Description of Item: Slightly used spelled red oak wand, possibly from the Third Dynasty.

World of Origin? Therrin.

That’s it for this week! See you next week with someone very messy! —-jeff

Posted in J. Scott Coatsworth, Kim Fielding, LGBT, Rainbow Snippets, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

“To The Summer Sweet.” Friday Flash Fics from Jeff Baker. June 6th, 2025.

Posted on June 6, 2025 by jeffbaker307

To The Summer Sweet

by Jeff Baker

I was fifteen and we were living on the edge of town when my Dad told me and my younger brother to get in the car that Saturday afternoon.

“What’s up?” Chris, my little brother, asked.”

“There’s been a fire just outside town,” Dad said. “Between here and Pending.”

Pending, Kansas was the little town about a half-hours drive from Millington. That was the larger town (“We even have more than one grocery store” my Dad would quip) where we all lived. My Dad had grown up in Pending and he said his friends had called the little once-a-week newspaper there “the Pending Doom.”

We could see smoke on the horizon as soon as we cleared the trees in our neighborhood.

We had the radio on (no satellite radio back then!) and Dad said he was trying to pick up the station from Wichita that broadcast panicky updates on the weather between songs. We kept the windows partway down, enjoying the feel of the summer air rushing through the windows.

We could see more of the smoke, a big, dark line that angled slightly east, fading a little as it crossed where the highway was. As we got closer we could see Pending’s water tower and grain elevator which I knew was just outside of town. The fire looked like it was a few miles south of that.

After a bit we could really see it: surrounded by miles of flat fields looking like green crew cuts we stopped the car on another back road. We could see across a field where there was another road and a line of low buildings. Further north of that was a pouring red fire billowing smoke into the clear blue afternoon sky. There were several fire trucks on the distant road, lights flashing.

“That’s on the old Country Road,” Dad said. “There’s an old warehouse out there. They still have a yard full of pallets. I bet that’s what went up.”

For a few minutes we watched the smoke and the fire in the slight Kansas breeze.

“I was all over these back roads when I was younger,” our Dad said.

“Hey! Let’s get closer!” Chris said.

“No, we’re far enough away,” Dad said. “We don’t want to get in their way.”

We watched the fire for a few more minutes. I couldn’t tell if it was being put out but at least it wasn’t getting any bigger.

Dad started the car again.

“Okay, let’s get home. Mom will be home in about an hour. We can grab some ice cream along the way.”

And that was what we did on the weekends back before cellphones.

—end—

Author’s Note: Yes, the title is again from Shakespeare. Sonnet #94. —-jeff

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