Robert Kostanczuk’s ‘A Visitant Comes to the Window’ in WordCrafter Press’ Midnight Roost Anthology

I asked fellow Midnight Roost anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to Midnight Roost (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).

Let’s start with a Hallowe’en-themed introduction to the anthology as a whole:

Robert’s contribution is A Visitant Comes to the Window. Here’s the opening:

At first a bothersome thing, the bug noise became a lulling rhythm of nature for Pike Ansblath.
He accepted the ruffled bleating as part of summer.
One night, while lying on the couch, Pike tried to pin down what the noise sounded like.
It was, he determined, basically a whistle… with a little ripple effect.
A neighbor who overheard it one day likened the sound to a muted chirp; that made sense, too.
The sounds of summer insects always confused Pike. They blurred into one hodgepodge… crickets, flies, bees, etc.
Who cared?
He got mad at himself for thinking about bugs so much. There were other fish to fry — his love life, for instance, was motoring along quite swimmingly.

How the story came about:
The night sounds of bugs during the summer always intrigued me. I wanted to turn that into something darker, and combine it with a protagonist who’s a young lothario. I thought the combination would be quirky in an interesting way. Then, I introduced an insect like no other.
Continue reading “Robert Kostanczuk’s ‘A Visitant Comes to the Window’ in WordCrafter Press’ Midnight Roost Anthology”

Kaye Lynne Booth’s ‘Melina’ in WordCrafter Press’ Midnight Roost Anthology

I asked fellow Midnight Roost anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to Midnight Roost (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).

Let’s start with a Hallowe’en-themed introduction to the anthology as a whole:

Kaye’s contribution is Melina. Here’s the opening:

Melina flips her tail playfully at her little sister, Elsbeth, who gives a mental titter and swims off in the opposite direction. She lets her gain some distance before flipping her tail to swim after the youngster. I promised to keep an eye on the youngster, not hold her captive. Little guppies need to have the freedom to explore and learn occasionally, too. When Elsbeth needed instruction, Melina need only to send a thought message, so all she had to do was stay in waters within the vicinity of the young mermaid. Elsbeth is a good kid, and she will blossom to become a fine mermaid soon.

How the story came about:
“Melina” began as a challenge to write a Merciless Mermaid story for the 2022 call for submissions for the Western State Colorado University and WordFire Press. I’d never written a mermaid story before, so I began researching to learn all I could about mermaids. Legends about mermaids vary, but they are not all Disney’s Ariel. Some claim mermaids have the ability to enchant men with their song and are often confused or combined with the sirens who drew many a sailor to their deaths just by singing their eerie song. Other tales told of mermaids who traded tail for legs and became landbound to live among humans. Still others reported mermaids who devoured their mates, with sharp teeth and glowing eyes.
The character of Melina is a young mermaid who sacrifices herself to a fisherman’s net to save her younger sister. Due to her young age, she’s only just started her mermaid training, so throughout the story, she discovers how to use her powers out of necessity. Her captors aren’t very nice or very bright, and she finds herself trapped with no one to come to her aid. Since I was still learning about mermaids, my character was, too.
But there lies the problem, because that single altruistic act of sacrificing herself, meant to endear her with readers as a sympathetic character they could relate to, left me with a character who was naive and sort of innocent, not very merciless at all. How do you make an dark protagonist?
I wrote this story by the seat of my pants, letting the characters steer the plot. My character kept saving people at her own expense, instead of doing evil deeds. Because of this, I pretty much knew it wouldn’t make it into the Merciless Mermaid anthology. Melina just wasn’t scary enough. The story wasn’t dark enough. I was hoping to at least draw comment from the Merciless Mermaids editorial team, but alas, my story was rejected in the first round with no editorial comment. Even before I got the rejection letter, I started planning the rewrite for this year’s dark fiction anthology from WordCrafter Press.
I tried a number of techniques to make my young mermaid scarier, and give the story a darker tone. I revealed her feelings of strength and powerfulness when she takes her first life. She still saves a life by taking a life, so it isn’t truly an evil act. She was strong enough and smart enough to take action to save herself. I tried to make her more devious.
I realized part of the problem was the human female character, who was older, and more confident, and viewed herself as Melina’s rival. I figured that if Melina could turn her rival into an ally, it would help make her a stronger character. So, that’s what I did. Or at least, what I aimed for. The final result is a character who readers can empathize with, who is only as merciless as she needs to be. And a dark story that might be funny at times in a dark humor sort of way. It’s my story in Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories, and I hope you’ll give it a go.
Continue reading “Kaye Lynne Booth’s ‘Melina’ in WordCrafter Press’ Midnight Roost Anthology”

Robbie Cheadle’s ‘The Behemoth’ in WordCrafter Press’ Midnight Roost Anthology

I asked fellow Midnight Roost anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to Midnight Roost (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).

Let’s start with a Hallowe’en-themed introduction to the anthology as a whole:

Robbie’s contribution is The Behemoth. Here’s the opening:

May 1488
The sun breached the horizon, spilling brilliant light across both sky and ocean. The water, an expanse of silver satin encrusted with clusters of glittering diamonds, paid homage, gracefully rising and dropping into curtseys.
The light unveiled the dark grey behemoth, seated on the shore. It illuminated her edges, turning them into a froth of lighter grey lace. Shards of brilliance splashed across her sombre mourning dress. The aging face of the immobile matriarch disappeared into thick, golden edged clouds, leaving a headless hulk.

How the story came about:
The Cape of Good Hope was also known as the Cape of Storms because of the treacherous winter storms that resulted in a total of 26 shipwrecks at Cape Point alone.
Legend has it that when Bartholomew Dias rounded this Cape of Storms and saw Table Mountain, he thought he was seeing a gigantic titan of the deep with it’s head veiled in white clouds. He imagined that the tides that foamed around the foot of the great mountain were the titan’s roar. The moment of Dias’ first sighting of this titan was described in the poem, Lusiadas, by Portuguese poet, Camoes. Camoes called the monster Titan Adamastor and depicted him as condemned to dwell imprisoned forever in the ‘furtherest confines of the south’ – the Cape of Storms. According to the poem, this sentence was passed by Jupiter when the Titans were vanquished following a war between these deities that lasted ten years. Adamastor and his brothers were imprisoned in various huge mountains around the world. Adamastor was filled with bitterness at his imprisonment and at losing the love of the queen of the sea, Thetis, and he swore eternal vengeance on all who should approach him and disturb his solitude. He shouted his rage and warnings of doom at Dias when he rounded the Cape.
In 1500, Dias returned to the Cape of Storms on his way to Sofala. As his fleet rounded the Cape it encountered a violent storm. Four of the ships, including the one captained by Dias, disappeared and Adamastor’s warning was fulfilled. From this unfortunate maritime disaster, the legend of the Flying Dutchman came into being.The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship which is said to have never been able to make port and is doomed to sail the oceans forever.
(and i have to tell you, folks, The Behemoth is one fine read!)
Continue reading “Robbie Cheadle’s ‘The Behemoth’ in WordCrafter Press’ Midnight Roost Anthology”

DL Mullan (aka Undawnted)’s ‘Mangled’ in WordCrafter Press’ Midnight Roost Anthology

I asked fellow Midnight Roost anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to Midnight Roost (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).

Let’s start with a Hallowe’en-themed introduction to the anthology as a whole:

DL’s contribution is Mangled. Here’s the opening:

Lub-dub.
Over the sound of my heartbeat in my ears, I heard indistinct clatter in the background. At first, the sounds seemed muffled and distant. With each syllable, my surroundings resounded with a concussive force against my eardrums.
Even though the pressure stung, the picture in my mind’s eye became cohesive. I heard people walking and talking down tiled halls. Words like doctor, nurse, surgery, and triage floated through the air.
From my gurney, I perceived the frantic pace of the hospital. Wind rushed by me as bodies breezed in and out of the room. The air streamed past me felt as cool as the night time temperature.
It was night. I remembered something, but I could not bring forth other memories. Incoherence threw challenges at my cognition. Images splashed in my mind’s eye, but the slideshow was out of context and chronology. My twentieth birthday party appeared. Then a picture of my graduation from boot camp took its place. Darkness of a moonless night, where millions of stars shown in their galaxies above, filled me with apprehension. The wave of the United States flag displayed the red, white, and blue in the wind.
Next, I heard an explosion. I saw an array of colored lights as my synapses overloaded and the world around me turned black.

Continue reading “DL Mullan (aka Undawnted)’s ‘Mangled’ in WordCrafter Press’ Midnight Roost Anthology”

The Alibi (A John Chance Mystery) – Chapter 27

No, not completely brand new. Pieces from previous chapters rearranged and edited for story flow and continuity.

I’ve learned to live with such things. Hope you can, too.

Enjoy.

The Alibi – Chapter 27

 
Rexall Shaul stood quietly at the top of thirty flights of stairs. He made it through antoher day without suspicion. As before, he was the last one to leave the offices.

But he hadn’t left the building yet.

And Thorne was a nasty bitch when fucked with. She didn’t like being out of the loop. Any loop.

Her he could handle. Her and five or six of her people? Not so much.

He received word the NXS had gone active but he didn’t know where. Somewhere along the Atlantic shelf, he suspected but couldn’t be sure.

He hadn’t seen any more ghosts since close to a month ago.

He hadn’t heard any Beatles, either. That cleaning crew quit a few days later.

Connection?

He handed it off for others to handle.

He’d discretely pumped Thorne about any new tech SkyHook had in the works. Nothing. And he knew her tells. She was good, he was better.

He missed the Beatles music and smiled. That cleaning crew really had a thing for the Yellow Submarine album.

Check his watch, relax, breathe.

Two-forty-five seconds later he walked around his Exige, the pilot inspecting his craft before takeoff.

Satisfied, he stopped at the driver’s door, pulled out his phone, tapped a number.

The Exige rumbled to life and the driver’s door opened. Patches of the Exige’s antireflective coating glowed as if several flashlights shone all it, all in close proximity. Shaul turned around.

Nobody.

More tech? Something popped and he looked up.

A crack started in the concrete wall behind the Exige. Shaul watched it crawl like a crazy ant down to the corner of the garage. His jaw ached. He clutched his ears. Tinnitus like coming up too quickly from a dive, or climbing too high without oxygen.

An explosion shook SkyHook HQ’s building down to its foundations, and pieces of Rexall Shaul embedded themselves in the concrete walls at the front of his car.


Previous entries in The Alibi (A John Chance Mystery)