Latest Kickstarter - A Sherlockian/Lovecraftian Mashup

 Sherlock & Friends: Eldritch Investigations

Up on Kickstarter, a new campaign for fans of mystery with a bit of cosmic horror! This is an anthology of 9 adventures featuring Holmes’s friends & rivals as they pit their detection skills against Lovecraftian horrors. The campaign ends May 2, 2024, so check it out here.

Every backer at $6 or more will receive an electronic copy of the anthology, Sherlock & Friends: Eldritch Investigations (EPUB & PDF) which features 9 adventures (over 80,000 words). These tales 'channel the spirits' of Victorian and Edwardian age detectives that graced the dime novels and pulp magazines of this golden era. Reward tiers for paperbacks and hardcovers available as well! 

Here's the cover reveal! Slick, eh? The stories are excellent as well. All edited and ready to go! 

Monster Fight at the O.K. Corral Anthology

Let's do this thing! Accepting stories for a new Weird Wild West anthology to be launched via Kickstarter in March, 2023. Title: Monster Fight at the O.K. Corral.

Looking for 12 to 15 new and original western horror tales, from 3k to 5k words each. Artwork, too. Funded via Kickstarter. Contributor paperback and $40 one-time payment (with bonus incentives). 

Sub window open now through Dec 31, 2022. Email me (see graphic) for complete guidelines and payment proposal. All writers welcome.

The Curious Case of Kevin Klaag

A few years ago, my friend Stoney Setzer and I started a project called Tremble Town.

Those who know me say, “What’s new? Every project of yours, you started years ago!” Okay, that’s true, but just hold your horses a moment. (grin)

Tremble Town is a place where strange happens. The stories in this universe are supernatural thrillers or maybe tales of spiritual suspense. Some feel the genre is an oxymoron, but it’s basically “Christian horror” – storytelling on the darker side but with a moral underpinning.

Anyway, we're developing the universe of Tremble Town, which includes the goings on in the small communities of Ichabod, NC, and Sardis County, TN. Once we write all of the tales (or a substantial number), we plan to publish them either in collections or as interconnected standalones.

Consider these stories episodes that can be enjoyed individually in any order but also slowly reveal the mystery behind the strange events that occur throughout the series. We just need to get crackin’ and add to the oeuvre.

Welp, a few years ago, I wrote a short horror/thriller called The Curious Case of Kevin Klaag. I didn't know it at the time, but it really fits the Tremble Town world. So today, I updated the story which was only about 3800 words. I adjusted some things and added a new, extended ending (about 2300 words) to bring it to just over 6,000 words.

I'm really proud of it. And I want you to read it!

But here’s the deal. We’re not going to release these stories for a while. So I’ve come up with a work around. I’ve redone my PatreonPage and now that I’m a full time writer, I’ll be adding new content every week there – exclusive, first access to patrons. Only one tier - $5 a month. You can quit any time.

Here’s what you’ll get for about the same cost as a foofoo coffee from your favorite barista. Each month you’ll get:

• ·         Exclusive early access to a never-before-published short story.
• ·         An e-book or e-novella from my backlist that is also for sale online.
• ·         Weekly chapters to enjoy from my current Work-in-Progress.
• ·         Interaction via the comments about all things speculative fiction.

Unadulterated entertainment… Wait, that kinda sounds wrong. But you get the idea. I’ll keep you stocked with some interesting reads, and you come away amused and happy. What a bargain!

If you want to read The Curious Case of Kevin Klaag right now, then head on over to my Patreon Pageand subscribe. It’s easy peasy. If you want to read the first story in our Tremble Town series, you can purchase Accidents on Amazon. I look forward to hearing from you and finding out what you think!

~*~

Do you like original fiction with a speculative bent? Sci-fi, fantasy, magical realism, horror and supernatural suspense. Do you like supporting indie writers? You've come to the right place! 

I'd like you to invite you to become a monthly patron at my Patreon Page. As a supporter you'll receive new stories every month and a weekly chapter in my current WIP. Give it a try! Details on Patreon.

~~~~~

Hey, I'm Lyndon Perry, a speculative fiction writer living in Puerto Rico. I'm a former pastor and current husband, father, coffee drinker, and cat-wrangler. You can find me almost anywhere online, so check out my various Linktree Locations and say hello!

More Micro-Fiction for #FreeFictionFriday

Hey, All!

Another end to the week and another Free Fiction Friday! Last time, I posted a short collection of micro-fiction (stories less than 500 words). This week, a few more short shorts, but also adding some speculative haiku called Horrorku (for horror) and SciFaiku (for sci-fi).

By the way, most of these were written about 15 years ago – as experiments or practice or just having a blast exploring, putting words together. They appeared in such online zines as MicroHorror, Bewildering Stories, Flashshot, Aphelion, Scifaikuest, Mindflights, Thaumatrope, Tales from the Moonlit Path, and Long Story Short.

Hope you have fun with them. Let me know which bit of doggerel you enjoyed the most. And make it a great weekend!

<>< 

Show, Don’t Tell

“Read to me what you’ve channeled so far,” she says.

I clear my throat. Death and destruction await the one…

“Cliché.” My muse frowns. “What else?”

I fumble at my manuscript and turn a page. Blindly, the Mummy exits the tomb…

“Derivative,” she says.

“But these are your ideas!” I protest.

“My ideas. Your anemic attempts.”

“This is my first stab at horror,” I rationalize.

“Ah, then,” she nods. “First rule of fiction—write what you know.”

“Could you tell me how?” I ask.

My muse produces a stiletto. “Here, let me show you instead.”

(The next poem is the same story structured as a horrorku.)

Writer's Block

death and destruction…

cliché my muse scoffs

      I falter once more

the mummy will rise…

banal she now cries

     I weep at her feet

respite I plead

she frowns at my prayer

     searing thoughts remain

the death of me

I’m now sweating blood

     she starts to smile

write what you know

my muse says with a knife

     and shows me how

<><

SciFaiku Collection

Au Naturale

denuded satellites

race across earth’s open fields

     streakers celebrate

Proposal

first stop Saturn’s rings

on to diamond-like stars

     alien engagement

Generation Gap

white hot, young sun boasts

super nova still on fire

     and replies, eat my dust

Our Christening

alien suitor

seed long forgotten

     orphan earth

star pollen falls

fullness of time

     human life

magi from space

showering gifts

     reunion

Courtship

suitors from space

scatter gifts to earth

     alien proposal

diamonds sparkle

against velvet heavens

     engagement announced

humans transcending

don Saturn’s rings

     cosmic wedding

<><

Twitter-Bytes (≤140 characters)

“I think our baby is a changeling!” I told my Stepford wife. So I wasn’t surprised when my doppelganger showed up and said I had to leave.

~*~

“Tell me how to write horror,” I beg my muse. “Write what you know,” she replies and pulls out a stiletto. “Here, let me show you now.”

~*~

I married a serial killer. Fortunately, he only murders strangers. But lately we’ve drifted apart; he said he didn’t know me anymore...

The Time Had Come

He sat in his chair and waited. She said she would come and he did not doubt it. She’d come for his roommate earlier and had taken him. Away. He knew it was only a matter of time.

He fidgeted. He wasn’t scared; he just didn’t want to go. But he couldn’t tell her that. She wouldn’t have listened anyway – he’d seen her take plenty of others. Friends and acquaintances passed every so often. Most of them with smiles on their faces. He could never understand that. Where they were heading just wasn’t someplace he wanted to go.

You’ll see him again, she had said, laughing, when his roommate left. I know, he’d tried to respond. I know!

He soon heard footsteps; they were coming nearer. She was coming back like she said she would. For him.

“Time for supper, Mr. Grossman,” the aide called out, bubbly as ever. “Shall I take you to the dining room now?”

He grunted. What choice did he have? He’d had a stroke the previous year and couldn’t walk or talk. So the aide wheeled him down the corridor. He would see his roommate again as promised, at dinner. After all, she said she would come.

The Resignation

Dear Al,

I quit!

I’m sick and tired of being bossed around. We agreed on three wishes. But your last wish was always for three more. You could never quit. It was like a drug with you. "Your wish is my command." Yeah, right. My wish is my command now, baby.

Plus, you asked for impossibilities. Like wanting a plan for world peace. Or trying to understand the mind of a woman. You even wished for tasty jello. Unbelievable!

Al, from now on you'll be rubbing your own stupid lamp. I'm going into business for myself.

No longer yours,

Genie

All stories and poems (c) 2007-2022 Lyndon Perry

Btw, if you want to subscribe to these weekly stories so you get them in your inbox, 

go to my Substack page and subscribe. Every Friday, a short story. Free! What a deal!

~*~

"Tip a buck, get a book."

(via PayPal.Me - an e-book from Tule Fog Press.)

This blog is reader supported. Thank you for your support!

Find me on Facebook where I post nerdy memes and share about my writing projects.

A Micro-fiction Horror Story

Here's a micro-fiction horror story in 175 words. Do you enjoy these weekly #FreeFictionFriday pieces? Don't miss a one - subscribe to my free Substack newsletter and get a story each Friday.

~*~

The Farm by Lyndon Perry

“Ol’ Mickey Donald had a farm, A-E-I-O-U…”

“Would you get it right?” Sissy’s brother yelled from down the hall. “It’s Old MacDonald – E-I-E-I-O.”

“Ronald McDonald had a farm…”

“Now you’re just being silly,” Brother said as he pushed open the door to his sister’s room. He looked at the farm animals grazing in the middle of her bed. “What are you doing?”

“Playing Old MacDonald,” Sissy replied. She moved the cows toward the edge of the covers. “They’re stuck on a mountain and can’t find their way down to the farm.”

Brother just stared at his sister and shook his head.

“Have to use your 'magination,” she said. “See, this cow is about to fall off a cliff.” She pushed the cow over the edge. Eeee.

“You’re nuts,” Brother said. As he turned to leave he muttered, “Sheesh. Old MacDonald…” 

But instead of walking back out the door, he stepped off the side of a mountain. 

“Eeee iiii…” Brother yelled as he fell.

“Would you get it right?” Sissy yelled from up above. “It’s E-I-E-I-O!”

~*~

"Tip a buck, get a book."

(via PayPal.Me - an e-book from Tule Fog Press.) 

This blog is reader supported. Thank you for your support!

This story originally appeared in MicroHorror, September 2007.

The Frankenstein Saga by Merrie Destefano

 A dangerous holiday. A deadly curse brought to life.

Hear Mary Shelley's tale like you've never heard it before! Frankenstein meets Dracula in this award-winning Gothic retelling of this classic story.

The Frankenstein Saga - Shade, Dusk, and Dawn.

A friend of mine, Merrie Destefano, has a new series out. It's called The Frankenstein Saga - Shade, Dusk, and Dawn. (link to Audible) Sounds super cool to me. Check it out.

Who is the author?

Merrie Destefano is a writer and artist living in Southern California. Her books have been published by HarperCollins and Ruby Slippers Press, to name just two. She has worked for Focus on the Family and The Word For Today and written for Victorian Homes, Haunted: Mysteries And Legends, American Farmhouse Style, and more. Her co-authored art books include How To Draw Vampires, How To Draw Zombies, and How to Draw Grimm's Dark Fairy Tales.

Merrie studied art at Northern Illinois University, met her husband at a kazoo parade, rides her bike almost every day, laughs at all jokes, and ugly cries during corny movies. You can find out more about her projects on her website.

<><

Note: I featured this series in my latest newsletter - and gave away some freebies! If you'd like to subscribe to my monthly newsletter, click here, and I'll send you one of my e-books as a thank you gift. 

Happy reading (or listening) to your favorite books this holiday season! - Lyn

New! Tule Fog Tales, Issue Two

NEW!

The second issue of Tule Fog Tales features six dark fantasy stories from me, Lyndon Perry! 

These imaginative tales published by Tule Fog Press are filled with the ghostly, devilish, supernatural, and psychological horrific. 

Perfect bedtime reading for before you turn out the lights!

Stories include:
+ One Midsummer’s Night
+ Maysi’s First Assignment
+ Captain Tyler’s Ghost
+ Yes, Allie, There’s a Bogeyman Under Your Bed
+ To Tame a Demon
+ The Curious Case of Kevin Klaag

Speculative. Supernatural.

Available from:
Amazon
Apple
Barnes and Noble
Rakuten Kobo
SCRIBD (soon)
Smashwords
Other Booksellers

---

Thought. Would anyone be interested in subscribing to Tule Fog Tales? Say, 10 e-issues for $20 (vs the 'news stand' price of $29.90, a savings of almost 10 bucks). Let me know if that sounds like a feasible endeavor. Thanks.

New from Gustavo Bondoni

From my most recent Tule Fog Press newsletter...

Not sure about where you live, but Kansas is cold right now! Freezing rain expected this week. So the joy of snow and a white Christmas is over - now comes the dark dreary days of real winter.

All the more reason to read a book! And we have just the thing coming up in about a month. A new release from Tule Fog Press - Gustavo Bondoni's collection of dark fantasy called Pale Reflection.

We've created a Facebook Event Page here, so be sure to attend this special launch online, March 1, 2020. (The book will go on pre-order sale later this month!)

Gustavo is a prolific short story writer and a novelist to boot. Hailing from Argentina, his work ranges from science fiction to mainstream stories, passing through sword & sorcery and magic realism along the way. He has been published in fourteen countries and seven languages to date. To find out more about Gustavo Bondoni's projects visit his website here.

And as always, thanks for reading! 

Story Behind - Curious Case of Kevin Klaag

This was a strange one.

It was an abandoned story start with the title appearing hand in hand with the opening scene - Kevin Klaag looks in the mirror one day...and he's someone else. And it had happened before.

But then, as I've often done in the past (for a bunch of reasons listed below), I quit the story and moved on to another story start (which I probably also abandoned - for a bunch of reasons listed below ;).

So with this #60DayChallenge (writing 30 stories in Oct/Nov - and I just finished #27, so am on track to complete the challenge in a few days), I found the Klaag file on my computer and pounded out the rest of the tale.

It did not go the direction I'd first imagined at all!

Sometimes I'll make plot notes at the end of the story start to remind myself what I was thinking and how my future self should finish the story. Well, those plot notes on this one were pretty useless once the story took off. It became a weird, and oddly told, psychological horror piece. Let me know if you want to read it. (Adult themes and words.)

So why did I abandon stories in the past? Here are some random thoughts, not sure if any are the real reason or if some kind of combination took place in my brain.

- I didn't know how to write a story past the opening scene (character in a setting with a problem). Oh, I knew about basic plot structure, but didn't know how to move the story forward by creating tension until the climax and resolution. I'm better at that now, but far from an expert. At least I can power through a story and get something on paper. Whether it's a good story is another matter.

- I was afraid of finishing it. Of course, I'd finished stories before but then I'd send them off to a market and they'd get rejected. Or I'd self publish and someone would pooh pooh it. I hated rejected (still do) and feared the process of receiving negative feedback via reviews. This kind of fear is debilitating for a lot of writers, I think. I'm still not cured, but this short story challenge has helped me learn to just write for me and not worry about what others think of my stories. And I never read reviews anymore.

- Some say people quit writing because of a fear of success. I've heard that phrase off and on for a long time but have no idea what it means. So it may or may not apply to me since I'm clueless as to what fear of success implies.

- I'm sure there are other reasons which I may add here later as they occur to me. If you want to follow my story challenge progress, click here. Until next time, thanks for reading.

Review - Pink Plastic Flamingos

From Big Pulp, (Horror Section)

"Pink Plastic Flamingos"
by Michael Turner

Ronnie, a small time criminal, gets by on a little B-n-E as he calls it. Especially when the caper's easy, like breaking into little old ladies' homes. He knows where his grandma keeps easy cash and figures other people her age hide things in about the same places. Plus, without any security, today's heist would be a pushover. That was Ronnie's first mistake, thinking there was no alarm system. In this short but engaging horror story, we're treated to quickly paced tale that is entertaining and creepy at the same time. You won't look at a yard full of pink flamingos the same way again.

Horror (PG to PG13)
About 2300 words
My Rating: 8 of 10
Take an early lunch and read it.

Review - An Evening's Walk

From Fear & Trembling, (Double-Edged Publishing)
(Cover art © 2008 by E.J. Mickels II, art wrangler at F&T)

"An Evening's Walk"
by Wesley Lambert

This short suspense piece worked hard at setting the scene - proper foreshadowing, couple red herrings, eerie descriptions, slow build - then a quick climax and conclusion. And while I enjoyed the surprise ending, it was more cute than creepy and so all of the urgency of the buildup fell a bit flat. I might have cut the heavy description (written in a very literary style, competently executed, but a bit much), planted a few more obvious clues, and turned this into a true flash fiction. Still, a fun little story.

Horror (PG)
About 2150 words
My Rating: 6 of 10
If time, read it over lunch.

Review - Frank Hunter vs. The Crawling Brains

From Membra Disjecta, Volume 1, Issue 2

"Frank Hunter vs. The Crawling Brains"
by Nicholas Ozment

A hilarious romp through a 1950s B movie from the perspective of Eddie Reed who wakes up during a film's opening credits to realize he's playing Frank Hunter, a Big Game Hunter and husband to a 44D Blond Bombshell named...quick, check the wedding announcement...Cindy. Whew! After an awkward but exciting (he kisses his wife, hubba hubba) opening scene, Eddie quickly orients himself to the task at hand by recalling all those sci-fi/horror flicks from his childhood. Monster Brains from Space are on the prowl and he has to save the world before the Saturday matinée ends! Will Frank figure out a way to end this 'deadly menace' before it's too late?! Will he get beyond second base with his wife - and slip past that dang Hays Code before 1968? You'll have to tune in and find out!

Sci-Fi/Horror/Humor (PG to PG13)
About 5100 words
My Rating: 8.5 of 10
Take an early lunch and read it.

Review - The Voice Within the Book

From Demon Minds, Spring 2008 Tales of Terror

"The Voice Within the Book"
by Heather Kuehl

This short horror piece is a suspenseful and entertaining story that adds a fresh mystery angle to a somewhat predictable (given the title) plot. But the writing is fairly solid and the characters adequately described so as to elicit in the reader an emotional interest in their outcome. A couple of creepy parts kept me, like Matthew (the protag), reading (hint hint); and not a lot of blood and gore, for which I am grateful. The most interesting character is the antagonist (the "Voice"), which has a personality and agenda all her own. An agenda that is as delightfully disturbing as the ending. Worth a read even if you don't enjoy horror.

Horror (PG to PG13)
About 3,450 words
My Rating: 6.5 of 10
Read it over lunch.

This Week's Challenge

This Week’s Challenge: Create a character in a genre you would normally avoid. (in my case that would be vampire horror) (also remember this is a first draft with very little editing as per the rules) The Audition by Lyn Perry "How were the auditions?" my wife asked when I finally plopped down beside her in bed. "Horrendous," I replied. "So many stupid genre stereotypes I practically laughed my way through the day." "I vant to suck your blooood," my wife teased. "Exactly!" I chuckled, but not really amused. "No, really. I vant to suck your blooood," she persisted. "What are you talking about?" I turned to face my wife - who wasn't exactly my wife. There was something... "Ahhh," I cried as she attacked my neck. "You weren't the only one holding auditions today, my sweet," she murmured, right before I joined her for eternity. BTW: Although I'm not really into horror, I do have a couple of micro-fiction pieces up at MicroHorror. My first stab at this genre (if you get my meaning ;-) is a piece all writers can relate to titled, "Show, Don't Tell" (95 words). Plus, a little "horror humor" story was accepted titled, "The Time Had Come" (202 words). Sweet dreams! UPDATE 8.25.07 - The above story was accepted by MicroHorror!
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