Ray Bradbury once said, “Write a short story every week. It's not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, particularly because in the process of writing with consistency, you get better. However, the inverse of this statement is also true: Write a short story every week; it’s not possible to write 52 good short stories in a row.

Over the past few editions, I have featured some Brief Attractions (read: short stories) of which I am quite proud of. 🧚‍♀️ The Traveler, the Tavern, the Fae and 🗿 The Gaping Maw are two of my favorite pieces, and they will be moving through the editorial process for publishing consideration. The unfortunate reality is not every Brief Attraction incites my excitement as much as these two. 🦾 Carbon Simulacrum has some promise, but will require a great amount of set up work to give it a good pay off. And then there’s 🛗 Shit Out of Luck, this edition’s feature, of which I am less than pleased with. However, it is right in line with the purpose of the column, which is to show up, create, and share a new story with zero preparation.

Sometimes you hit home runs. Sometimes you strike out. The main thing is to keep fucking playing. So here we are. In this edition you will find a Brief Attraction with much to be desired. This is, of course, my own judgement of the work and I am often my own worst critic; you may find this story to be more palatable. If so, awesome! I do hope you enjoy consuming it, whether you love it and share it with others, or hate it and tear it apart as you read it.

As usual, I want to point out that not a single word of this edition—nor any prior—whether expository or narrative (read: editorial content or stories) has been written with the use of AI. I now feel it entirely necessary to state this fact since AI has become prevalent in a number of ways across society, and I want to reassure you, my dearest guest, that what you consume here is all dreamed up by a human—me—and created by hand, the old fashioned way.

Let’s get into it →

With the advent of writing a new short story every week, a more robust system of management is necessary, especially considering how some of these stories may well be wrapped into other universes coming into existence in the Calamity. Dark Father, an Introduction is one such story, written with a character in mind who will play a major role in the Children of the Damned series. As such, this week has been spent augmenting the story management and publication pipeline system I have been slowly building out. This, however, is doing nothing to slow me down, as 🗿 The Gaping Maw is now complete and on the desk—figuratively—of one of my editors and other short stories are garnering some attention from my close associates.