[Image is that of a pale peach coloured book cover featuring a red jelly with a skull inside it. The title is Well Rendered and the author is C. M. Weller]

This Halloween, give the gift of reading one of the What-the-fuck-iest creepy story I’ve written to date: Well Rendered.

A story of domestic abuse, cannibalism, and murder most justified.

Vision-impaired readers can get this story in plain text here.

As always, my October Short is FREE! Get it now!

Call for Betas!

I’ve recently finished a short [>2K] story for All Hallows’ Read and it involves domestic abuse, murder most justified, and minor cannibalism.

I have it ready in DocX, Epub, Mobi, and MarkDown formats. Get back to me with your best contact details and I’ll send you a copy.

Happy birthday to me! And as is the custom, you all get a gift. This year, for All Hallows’ Read, you get a twilight-zone style story about how nobody deserves what they get in life.

Visually impaired readers can read it here.

Get if now at Smashwords!

FRESH NEW ALL HALLOW’S READ!

Show the ones you love a scary time with a fresh new spooky short from C. M. Weller!

BUY NOW! $0 to pay, $0 interest, FOREVER!

Challenge #00431 - A056: One Dark Evening at a Motel of Ill Repute

“Dear person checking behind the curtain for serial killers, DO YOU MIND?!? Sincerely, serial killer trying to take a shower”

[AN: That’s practically a story on its own.]

Hannibal shrieked and hid his junk with the shower rose. And both hands. “What the hell, Will?”

“Sorry. It’s this place. It’s like I'm compelled to check the shower curtains for serial killers.”

“Well, there’s just me. Do you mind?”

“Sorry. Sorry. I’ll go check the broom closets again. Sorry.”

He sighed. What else could he expect when they were staying at the Bates Motel?

[Muse food remaining: 38. Submit a prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!]

Challenge #00001: Sara with a Manual while on Ordeal

 geekhyena answered: Have you read Diane Duane’s work? If so, Sara with a Manual while on Ordeal.

I am not remotely familiar with Duane. I should pick her up, one of these days. Nevertheless, I shall attempt this with my own reality(s).

Fiction ho!

Manual Ordeal

“So…” Hank drawled. “A few questions…”

“Do keep them brief.” Sara turned a page, frowning. It was written in two languages by someone who barely understood either of them. Using it as a rosetta stone to decipher what was left of the controls was, if not an exercise in futility, at least something to stop her going mad with boredom. “I am trying to concentrate.”

“How long has this been happening?”

“Subjectively, on and off for five years. By events, two days total. Blame Forge.”

Hank shrugged. “That answers my second question. Third: Where are we?”

“I don’t recognize the universe, but it appears to be a derelict space ship. We’re lucky we have power and air.”

“How long does this last?”

“I must be touching everything I was touching when we went in the first place. And you had to go juggling with my hairpin.”

“I was merely–”

“Trying an untested skill you’d only observed in recordings with inappropriate tools on an unfamiliar device. And you dropped it. Down a grille.”

“Do you have a magnet?”

“In my other pants. Currently inconveniently located in another dimension.”

“Chewing gum?”

“Other pants.”

“Anyth–”

“Other. Pants.”

“Perhaps I could–?”

“Don’t. Touch. Anything.”

Hank sighed. “I get bored, too.”

“Fabulous. Help be unravel this console. But don’t touch anything.”

Challenge me?

Posting fanfic isn’t going to help me be a better writer [New year’s resolution#1: Work to improve myself] but it is going to attract my old fans, which means more readers. I need readers :)

So. Along side the fanficcery that promises to become a long-standing tradition in this blog [over 100 fanfics, remember?] I am going to accept challenges from my audience.

Send me a springboard. A favourite phrase, a title of some media you love, ask a question about my pet universe[chronicled partially here], even an In-a With-a While-a*. I will concoct a drabble or a short story right here on my blog. Just for you.

*In-a With-a While-a is a game from Theatre Sports, where actors improvised a scene based on “in a [Place] with a [anything, really] while a [event]”.

Short stories concocted this way may be ‘Plot-What-Plot’s. You have been warned. Questions may be answered factually as well as fictionally. You get to decide which is which.

You can use my Ask box or use an answer. I don’t mind either.

This challenge will be reposted when I’ve run out of springboards.

Good Boy is live!

The potentially stomach-twisting story of an old man and his dog…

Nor Gloom of Night is live!

Published and available for sale for a lousy $1.99 [coughbuymybookscough]

Previewable here.

Please buy my stuff. Writing is the only thing I can really do.

A polite request

I’m trying to raise some moneys for my next trip to Thailand [ticket price $2500] by selling my written works on/via Smashwords.

They need covers.

I have the artistic skill of a distantly-deceased moose.

So. Therefore, I must ask kindly for someone to design front covers for RTFM, Nor Gloom of Night and perhaps Good Boy if I can get it somewhere where I like it a bit better.

I might even publish a fantasy story I’ve had on the backburner for a while, called Of Cats and Kings. It’s basically a rewrite of Puss in Boots from the POV of the cat.

Want to see it? I’ll be posting it tomorrow.

Covers need to feature my pen name [C M Weller] and the title. The recommended size for the cover image is 1600 pixels wide by 2400 tall. I’m guessing it also helps if the artwork is also interesting without being spoileriffic.

And considering that these are all short tales [maybe not with Good Boy after I’ve rewritten it…] this may be something of a challenge.

As I am currently skint, the only thing I can offer is credit where credit is due. Links to art sharing accounts can be discussed.

Thanks in advance for your time, effort and understanding.