Holiday – PseudoPod

Holiday – PseudoPod https://pseudopod.org The Sound of Horror Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:07:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://pseudopod.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cropped-PseudoPod-chip-32x32.png Holiday – PseudoPod https://pseudopod.org 32 32 PseudoPod 980-B: Jesus Christ in Georgia https://pseudopod.org/2025/06/19/pseudopod-980-b-jesus-christ-in-georgia/ Thu, 19 Jun 2025 04:01:07 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=12254 “Jesus Christ in Georgia” was printed in The Crisis in the 1911 Christmas issue. It later appeared as “Jesus Christ in Texas” in Darkwater: Voices from the Veil. Use of the n-word 2010 interview with author Edward J. Blum about his 2008 book, W. E. B. DuBois, American Prophet: https://religiondispatches.org/iw-e-b-du-bois-american-propheti/

]]> PseudoPod 835: Trickin’ https://pseudopod.org/2022/10/28/pseudopod-835-trickin/ Fri, 28 Oct 2022 04:01:48 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=10911 PseudoPod 835: Trickin’ is a PseudoPod original. It’s time. Nestled beneath the rolling peaks from the mountain ranges, honeycombs of caves spread out in their like swollen slugs providing shelter from the weeping clouds. Raoul emerged from one of those caves. He scratched his scalp beneath his thick dreadlocked hair and squinted against the rain pouring across the lands.

]]> PseudoPod 790: The Humbug https://pseudopod.org/2021/12/24/pseudopod-790-the-humbug/ Fri, 24 Dec 2021 05:01:26 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=10389 PseudoPod 790: The Humbug is a PseudoPod original. Joshua caught it in a glass jar with holes poked in the lid. He came running up to the cabin with it, shouting, “I found a bug! I found a bug!” “There aren’t any bugs in winter,” Amanda said crossly, though no snow had fallen yet and the trees and ground outside were simply bare and gray. When Joshua placed the jar on the big…

]]> PseudoPod 737: Workday https://pseudopod.org/2020/12/25/pseudopod-737-workday/ Fri, 25 Dec 2020 05:01:01 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=9593 “Workday” first appeared in Shadows and Tall Trees 8 which was published by Undertow in March 2020 Reviews by Alex Hofelich for Shadows and Tall Trees 8 from Undertow Publishing and A Carnival of Chimera by Stephen Woodworth from Hippocampus Press. MEMO CORIVDAN INCORPORATED To: All Hourly Employees From: Human Resources Subject: Holiday Party Attendance Date…

]]> PseudoPod 729: What We Talk About When We Talk About Cooking Country & The Halloween Parade https://pseudopod.org/2020/10/31/pseudopod-729-cooking-country-and-halloween-parade/ Sat, 31 Oct 2020 04:02:47 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=9411

]]> Home Harvest Cookies https://pseudopod.org/2020/10/31/home-harvest-cookies/ Sat, 31 Oct 2020 04:01:12 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=9397 It’s these cookies I’m always coming back to this time of year. The pumpkin, the spice, the little tea frosting. I started making them back in, oh it had to have been ’89. I was trying to figure out what to do now that the kids were finally all off on their own. My quilting guild tried to put it in my head that I was good enough to start up a bakery on my own. I’d sometimes whip something up and…

]]> PseudoPod 697: Five Fridays During Lent https://pseudopod.org/2020/04/10/pseudopod-697-five-fridays-during-lent/ Fri, 10 Apr 2020 04:01:52 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=9128 PseudoPod 697: Five Fridays During Lent is a PseudoPod original. Spoiler “The Greek countryside crawls with legends of undead. They are a blend of what we today call vampires, ghouls and zombies, and they almost always meddle with the living. I have a book with such folktales by my desk for reference. So when during a writing challenge I was required to reach for the three…

]]> CatsCast 289: The Thing in the Basement https://pseudopod.org/2020/04/01/catscast-289-the-thing-in-the-basement/ Wed, 01 Apr 2020 07:00:37 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=9148 All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this…” It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from…

]]> PseudoPod 681: A Night of Many Months https://pseudopod.org/2019/12/25/pseudopod-681-night-of-many-months/ Wed, 25 Dec 2019 05:01:07 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=8946 “A Night of Many Months” was first published in Every Day Fiction 25th Dec 2017 He’d wondered, when he started the job, why he needed a belt with so many holes. Now he knew–it fitted around him twice and felt like it needed tightening again. It took months to visit every home in one night and he’d lived every minute, surviving on what was left for him. In some houses it was…

]]> PseudoPod 680: The Wild Wood https://pseudopod.org/2019/12/20/pseudopod-680-the-wild-wood/ Fri, 20 Dec 2019 23:21:37 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=8895 “The Wild Wood” was originally published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1957 Content Warning: Spoiler Sexual Assault, Abuse, Captivity [collapse] Do you find most perfumes reek of banality and bad French puns? Do you want perfumes that resonate with your dark heart and blackened soul? Do you want perfume that speaks to you…

]]> PseudoPod 672: In Regards to Your Concerns About Your ScareBnB Experience and The Halloween Parade https://pseudopod.org/2019/10/31/pseudopod-672-scarebnb-and-the-halloween-parade/ Thu, 31 Oct 2019 04:01:07 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=8827 PseudoPod 672: In Regards to Your Concerns About Your ScareBnB Experience and The Halloween Parade is a PseudoPod original. Effie Seiberg: “As a card-carrying wuss, this is the first horror-eque piece I’ve ever written. This story finally lets me say that my work can be found in every single Escape Artists podcast, which is very exciting because I’m a wuss when it comes to horror and…

]]> PseudoPod 670: The Devil Came to Mamie’s on Hallowe’en https://pseudopod.org/2019/10/18/pseudopod-670-the-devil-came-to-mamies/ Fri, 18 Oct 2019 22:09:38 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=8770 “The Devil Came to Mamie’s on Hallowe’en” was first published in Cemetery Dance Magazine #60 Content Warning: Spoiler Animal cruelty [collapse] It was Hallowe’en night, and business was slow at the whorehouse. Leona didn’t put much stock in the stories that kept other folk indoors on this night. She’d laughed over stories about Jacky-Ma-Lantern…

]]> PseudoPod 619: The Ghost Guide’s Tale & The Halloween Parade https://pseudopod.org/2018/10/31/pseudopod-619-the-ghost-guides/ Wed, 31 Oct 2018 04:01:29 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=7603 “The Ghost Guide’s Tale” first appeared in Quantum Theory for Cats which is available in both print and audio. Outside the Minster, every eventide, You’ll see him wait- the smiling Ghostly Guide. Top hat on head, dressed in Victorian fashion, He’ll tell you stories full of gore and passion. “For just three pounds I’ll chill your blood,” he cries. And people pay him…

]]> PseudoPod 618: Goblins & Little Orphant Annie https://pseudopod.org/2018/10/26/pseudopod-618-goblins-little-orphant-annie/ Sat, 27 Oct 2018 00:10:05 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=7599 “Goblins” was first published in order to add an original story to the deluxe hardcover edition of my first collection NEVER BET THE DEVIL, which was release last year (2017) by Strix Publishing. “Little Orphant Annie” is an 1885 poem written by James Whitcomb Riley and published by the Bowen-Merrill Company. First titled “The Elf Child”, the name was changed by Riley to “Little Orphant Allie”…

]]> PseudoPod 570: The Jamcoi https://pseudopod.org/2017/11/23/pseudopod-570-jamcoi/ Fri, 24 Nov 2017 00:43:44 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=3713 The Jamcoi was first published in Disintegration Visions in 2012 and was reprinted by Apex on their website on November 26, 2014. Content warnings: Spoiler Cruelty to animals [collapse]…

]]> PseudoPod 522: The Christmas Spirits – A Tale of the White Street Society https://pseudopod.org/2016/12/23/pseudopod-522-the-christmas-spirits/ Fri, 23 Dec 2016 05:01:04 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=2522 The Christmas Spirits was first published in “Tales of the White Street Society” in December 2012. Another true horror story of the season mentioned in the intro can be found here. You can have your Paris, your London, your Vienna, your Rome; for this good Christian there is no city more sublime than New York at Christmastime. As I walked to the White Street Society clubhouse…

]]> PseudoPod 470: The Santa Claus Parade https://pseudopod.org/2015/12/24/pseudopod-470-the-santa-claus-parade/ Thu, 24 Dec 2015 22:57:06 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=1879 “The Santa Claus Parade” was first “published” by Helen as a Christmas card which she had specially printed with artwork by Chris Roberts and sent around to friends and family in 2013. It was reprinted and first made commercially available in GIFTS FOR THE ONES WHO COME AFTER (ChiZine Publications, 2014) which recently won the World Fantasy Award and the Shirley Jackson Award! “This is one of…

]]> PseudoPod 466: Bad Newes from New England https://pseudopod.org/2015/11/26/pseudopod-466-bad-newes-from-new-england/ Thu, 26 Nov 2015 11:04:36 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=1850 PseudoPod 466: Bad Newes from New England is a PseudoPod original. the story payment will be donated to RUNNING STRONG, a Native American charity. This act of goodwill stirred great cheer in the people of New Plimouth and, with freshly raised spirits, they bade the Wampanoag enter; opened home and hearth in the spirit of God, and offered to share their modest bounty…

]]> PseudoPod 462B: Halloween Parade 2015 https://pseudopod.org/2015/10/31/pseudopod-462a-halloween-parade/ Sat, 31 Oct 2015 04:01:13 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=1830 PseudoPod 462B: Halloween Parade 2015 is a PseudoPod original. The parade looks different this year. There are floats, there are always floats, but they’re interspersed with individuals. People who either bring the audience’s attention or simply refuse to allow it to be anywhere else. The first as always, is the woman in the suit and gloves and as always, she’s smiling.

]]> PseudoPod Christmas 2014 Bonus Flash: Tradition https://pseudopod.org/2014/12/24/pseudopod-christmas-2014-bonus-flash-tradition/ Wed, 24 Dec 2014 13:52:22 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=1448 PseudoPod Christmas 2014 Bonus Flash: Tradition is a PseudoPod original. “It was at WriterHouse in Charlottesville, Virginia that I founded a member group for sci fi, fantasy and horror writers to meet and support each other. It’s a fantastic group and they helped motivate me to write, edit and submit this piece. Winter holidays are usually such a happy time, I wanted to try and do…

]]> Bonus PseudoPod Halloween Flash: Jack And The Bad Man https://pseudopod.org/2014/10/25/bonus-pseudopod-halloween-flash-episode-jack-and-the-bad-man/ Sun, 26 Oct 2014 00:38:48 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=1385 A slightly different version of this story was first published in the October 2011 issue of Underneath the Juniper Tree, accompanied by original artwork by Ken Lamug. The Journey Into kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/763571195/edgar-allan-poe-meets-ken-scholes-a-journey-into-e/posts The Ghostwoods Books Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/960264226/

]]> Bonus Christmas Flash 2013 – Helpers https://pseudopod.org/2013/12/24/bonus-christmas-flash-2013-helpers/ Tue, 24 Dec 2013 17:11:17 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=830 “Helpers” was first published in One Buck Horror Volume 3 – you can order it here. 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.

]]> PseudoPod 362: Go, Go, Go, Said the Bird https://pseudopod.org/2013/11/29/pseudopod-362-go-go-go-said-the-bird/ Fri, 29 Nov 2013 23:50:44 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=771 Copyright (c) 1967, 1995 by the Literary Estate of Sonya Dorman; first appeared in DANGEROUS VISIONS edited by Harlan Ellison; used by permission of the Estate and the Virginia Kidd Agency, Inc. She said of this story “Perhaps I wrote (it) because sometimes that’s the way the world seems, or perhaps I hope that when my daughter’s generation grows up it won’t need or want to run for its life…

]]> Bonus Christmas Flash 2011 – Coming Home https://pseudopod.org/2011/12/23/bonus-christmas-flash-coming-home/ Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:02:01 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=371 This story originally appeared on Gothic.net on December 15th, 2005 AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT…. “My mouth is sour with whiskey and the loaded shotgun lays heavily across my lap in my sofa chair. This is my Christmas Eve ritual.” Read the full text here: Gothic.

]]> Pseudopod 260: Saint Nicholas’ Helper https://pseudopod.org/2011/12/16/pseudopod-260-saint-nicholas-helper/ Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:01:04 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=369 Pseudopod 260: Saint Nicholas’ Helper is a PseudoPod original. Saint Nicholas looked just like he did in the picture stories: tall and thin, with a grand white beard that flowed to his waist. He wore a red-fur trimmed coat, a tall bishop’s hat, and clutched a gold staff. He smiled and said something, but Greta wasn’t listening. She hid behind her elder sister Heike and stared at…

]]> Pseudopod 259: To My Wondering Eyes Did Appear https://pseudopod.org/2011/12/09/pseudopod-259-to-my-wondering-eyes-did-appear/ Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:01:39 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=367 Pseudopod 259: To My Wondering Eyes Did Appear is a PseudoPod original. A figure obscured the flames of the fireplace: a man. Bettia sat up quickly, blinking away sleep, thinking it was her father. But this man was shorter, rounder, and part of her groggy mind considered Santa Claus, and that she must have slept for days. Her eyes adjusted and she could see that the man indeed…

]]> Pseudopod 253: Trying To Stay Dead https://pseudopod.org/2011/10/28/pseudopod-253-trying-to-stay-dead/ Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:01:30 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=361 Pseudopod 253: Trying To Stay Dead is a PseudoPod original. The Parade music is “Restless Spirits – Underscore – Halloween 2” by Film Composer David Beard. Music from Music Alley. Trying To Stay Dead by Richard S. Crawford. Doctor Bell’s assistant led me into the tiny exam room and gestured at the leather-padded chair in the center. ‘Are you ready to do this?’ she asked, smiling.

]]> Pseudopod 218: Flash on the Borderlands V https://pseudopod.org/2010/12/24/pseudopod-218-flash-on-the-borderlands-v/ Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:01:05 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=308 Pseudopod 218: Flash on the Borderlands V is a PseudoPod original. “The Snow-White Heart” was originally published in Talebones #39, Winter 2009. ‘M’ Is for Manhattan and “Hoofprints in the Snow” are PseudoPod originals. On the third day of Christmas, the Devil brought to me… By A. Nathaniel Jones Narrated by Ben Phillips As I walk home, I hear crackling bones under my…

]]> PseudoPod 166: Something There Is https://pseudopod.org/2009/10/30/pseudopod-166-something-there-is/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:01:48 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=245 PseudoPod 166: Something There Is is a PseudoPod original. Something There Is by Joe Nazare As if reading Montresor’s thoughts, Luchesi reached down toward his feet; his hand came back proffering a long-necked bottle. “Here,” he spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, after shooting a look towards the palazzo’s attendant-less hallway. “Medoc — what I just happen to have handy with me…

]]> Flash: Stepfathers https://pseudopod.org/2009/06/20/flash-stepfathers/ https://pseudopod.org/2009/06/20/flash-stepfathers/#comments Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:01:34 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/?p=198 Flash: Stepfathers is a PseudoPod original. Stepfathers by Grady Hendrix Read by Nerraux He’d spent his free period reading up on the Lurker at the Threshold, the All-in-One and the One-in-All, the Opener of the Way, and now he tried to detect the signs of Its presence. But nothing smelt like the stench of the grave. No hideous ichor was seeping out from underneath his bedroom…

]]> https://pseudopod.org/2009/06/20/flash-stepfathers/feed/ 15 PseudoPod 017: Upon The Midnight Clear https://pseudopod.org/2006/12/22/pseudopod-017-upon-the-midnight-clear/ https://pseudopod.org/2006/12/22/pseudopod-017-upon-the-midnight-clear/#comments Fri, 22 Dec 2006 05:22:00 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/2006/12/22/pseudopod-017-upon-the-midnight-clear/ Originally appeared in the December 1998 issue of the webzine Gothic.net E-zine. Music provided by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society She was mercifully quiet for a while, as though thinking of something to say. “Must be difficult, though, travelling on your own. Dangerous, even.” I laughed, probably for the first time since the plane landed. I’d heard that too often before…

]]> https://pseudopod.org/2006/12/22/pseudopod-017-upon-the-midnight-clear/feed/ 17 Flash Fiction: From Famine to Feast https://pseudopod.org/2006/11/23/flash-famine-to-feast/ https://pseudopod.org/2006/11/23/flash-famine-to-feast/#comments Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:01:12 +0000 https://pseudopod.org/2006/11/23/flash-famine-to-feast/ From Famine to Feast first appeared in FlashSpec: Volume One Happy Thanksgiving, and bon appetit! The boy’s face was a thick, fluid rendering of blowflies. They crusted his eyes like false lashes, and crawled around his chapped, broken lips, their shimmering wings vibrating against their fat black bodies. The boy’s stomach was distended; he looked like a spoon…

]]> https://pseudopod.org/2006/11/23/flash-famine-to-feast/feed/ 8