“Nothing that surrounds us is object, all is subject.” – André Breton
A saw wants to cut. What else is it going to do? It’s a saw. Nobody blames the saw when a kid cuts his finger off in shop class. The kid should have payed closer attention. After all, a saw wants to cut. (Continue Reading…)
Hell is other people…
“Penance” is a PseudoPod original. “This story began, as some of my stories do, with a quick, visual flash of something odd and unexpected just before sleep. I began the story as a humorous tale, but it quickly let me know that it wanted to be a horror tale instead.”
“Mallecho” was previously published in the print and e-book anthology, ARCANE, by Cold Fusion Media, edited by Nathan Shumate.
“Jack” appears here as an original, says Jack’s editorial fore-brain.
Larime Taylor’s “A Voice In The Dark” can be purchased here!
Hell is other people…
‘Wake,’ my ghosts said. ‘Come.’
They spoke asynchronously, like a flock of noisy birds. Their voices pulled me from sleep and I opened my eyes to the throng of them at my bedside.
‘Why?’ I asked. The long, morose faces stared back at me, gray and insubstantial, and mute once again.” (Continue Reading…)
Essay features short clips from Disney’s Thrilling Chilling Sounds From The Haunted House (1964), Terror Tales By The Old Sea Hag (1959 – date dubious), Scary Spooky Stories (1973), A Coven Of Witches’ Tales (1973), Nightmare!! (1962), Alfred Hitchcock’s Music To Be Murdered By (1958) and Silica Gel: 50) Noisy Children Party.
“Barking Mad”
“Shortcut”
“From The Deep”
“Quite Mad”
“Christ, I Think It’s Death”
Going nowhere… faster….
Interstitial music is “Fearless Bleeder” by Chimpy, available from Music Alley.
Train sounds are from SoundJay.com.
Cave drips are from FreeSound.org.
“Midnight Express” by Alfred Noyes
It was a battered old book, bound in read buckram. He found it, when he was twelve years old, on an upper shelf in his father’s library; and, against all the rules, he took it to his bedroom to read by candlelight, when the rest of the rambling old Elizabethan house was flooded with darkness. That was how young Mortimer always thought of it. (Continue Reading…)
PSEUDOPOD PRESENTS THE WINNERS OF THE ESCAPE ARTISTS FORUM’S FLASH FICTION CONTEST 2013
That’s when I saw them. Three shapes dressed in enemy kit, slogging from their lines in the pockmarked soil to allied trenches to the southwest. Each had air tanks strapped onto their backs and had faces blocked by masks and gas bottle tubing.
Music: Brice Catherin “Number 3: Version for violin and chamber orchestra” available at The Free Music Archive.
There are four members of the violin family: the violin, the viola, the cello and the double bass.
She hadn’t been afraid, only curious and surprised. Something was sitting on the desk. It looked like a rat, or mouse. Three feet tall with orange fur and wild eyes. She remembered how it smiled at her. How it spoke.
The boy crept out of the front door, distant streetlamps bouncing dim reflections off his smooth cheeks, breath misting in the chill air. Pete couldn’t help but smile. The boy was just the right size, old enough to have grown some real muscle but still well short of being a man. He was downright plump compared to the half-starved urchins Pete was used to. Strange for a boy with a family to be out at this time. Hadn’t his parents told him the night was populated by thieves and killers? Their loss.
“Ripe for the plucking, yes,” Pete whispered. “How tough, strong, how healthy.”
Things are not always as they seem…
Help Gail Carriger get CRUDRAT up and running by checking out: CRUDRAT!
Interstitial music is “Fearless Bleeder” by Chimpy, from Music Alley.
“Down By The Sea Near The Great Big Rock” first appeared in MASQUES (1984).
“The Demon Fields” has been performed in San Diego, and can be found at Gchatus, but Pseudopod is its first published appearance.
A shorter version of “Pawn” was a Semifinalist in the 2010 Escape Pod flash contest, where it was titled “Queen.”
“Down By The Sea Near The Great Big Rock” by Joe R. Lansdale
Down by the sea near the great big rock, they made their camp and toasted marshmallows over a small, fine fire. The night was pleasantly chill and the sea spray cold. Laughing, talking, eating the gooey marshmallows, they had one swell time; just them, the sand, the sea and the sky, and the great big rock. (Continue Reading…)
“Passing Grade” is a PseudoPod original.
“The Killing Machine” has never been formally published before, but an edited version was presented at the 2nd Open Reading for Beijing Writers, which is a small quarterly event open to anyone in the Beijing area who writes creatively, in any form. “When we are guilty of evil, do we deserve empathy? When we are victims of evil, are we capable of feeling empathy for those who have harmed us? Just how much punishment is too much? Where exactly do we draw the line between justice and cruelty?”
“Awaiting Redemption” was bought by the Horror World web site. “People can claim a religious faith but use it strictly as a cover for their own cruelty (that has nothing to do with their religion).”
This wasn’t cutesy time. You don’t get personal with the bad things coming for you. You don’t make sweet talk to nightmares. Just make it through to the other end. That’s your only job. Or something along those lines. (Continue Reading…)