The latest issue of The Sirens Call eZine is out!
Filled with horror and dark fiction, poetry, and photo-inspired prose from Pen of the Damned!
I’d like to thank the contributors, who made this another great issue!
I’ve got a new short story up on Pen of the Damned! This one is titled Hand of Credence.
On Pen of the Damned – 08/08/2018
Weekly horror fiction from the authors of Pen of the Damned!
In celebration of publishing my novella, Zero Perspective, I’d like to share an excerpt from the first chapter with you, the awesome person reading this post. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for reading, and an even bigger thank you if you decide to pick up a copy of Zero Perspective!
…After suiting up and meeting Grant and Miles at the airlock, John led the team into the Esometa.
“It’s a ghost ship,” Grant said, shining his helmet light down the dark, silent corridor.
“Have you ever heard a ship be this quiet?” Miles asked.
“It’s completely shut down,” John added. “Dead in the water, so to speak.”
“Why are the gravity systems still operational?” Miles noted.
Grant shook his head. “Strange. They shouldn’t be.”
They made their way down the hall. John tried to prepare himself for the sight of corpses, which he felt sure they’d find. His stomach cramped at the thought.
“Where’s the bridge?” Miles asked. “You know the designs on these ships, don’t you Grant?”
“I thought I did,” Grant answered. “This corridor should have ended ten meters back and I still can’t see the end of it. It doesn’t conform to the design specifications. I don’t understand.”
“You’ve got the right display, haven’t you?” Miles’ tone carried a wavering anticipation.
“Of course I have the right one.”
“Then where the hell are we?” Miles asked.
Grant studied the information on his arm display. He seemed transfixed, the soft glow of the screen casting pale light on his face. His eyes stared hard, jaw locked in concentration.
“Well?” Miles took a step closer to Grant.
“I don’t know,” Grant said. “Let’s turn around and go back. Maybe we just missed it in the dark.”
“Where does your computer say we are?” John asked.
“It’s not working,” Grant answered.
“But what does it say?”
“It says we’re not even on the ship. It says we’re out there,” he pointed a gloved finger at one of the port windows, “in space.”
“Then it’s obviously malfunctioning,” Miles said.
“No shit,” Grant replied. “I just said it wasn’t working.”
“We’ll turn around and make our way back,” John said. “We don’t want to get lost in here. We’ll go get a replacement so we know where we’re going.”
Grant looked hard at John. “Sure, we need a new computer. But something still isn’t right about this. I know these ships like the back of my hand. And I’m telling you, there’s no way this corridor is as long as it is. I don’t need the computer to tell me that.”
“Radio the captain,” John said. “Let him know our situation before we move on. Maybe he knows something about the ship we don’t.”
“This is Grant to Tyson. Come in, Tyson.”
They waited for an answer, but were met with silence. Not even static came through the speaker.
“Grant to Tyson. Can you read me?” He tapped his helmet. “Hello? Tyson, are you there? This is Grant. We have a situation.”
Sweat beaded on John’s brow. A drop ran down the bridge of his nose and rested at the tip. He focused on it, blurring all else in his vision. It shook slightly, as though seismic activity rumbled beneath the surface of his skin.
“I’m not getting anything,” Grant said. “Nothing at all.”
“This is John. Can anyone hear me?” He tried to keep his voice calm, despite the simmered blood rushing through his heart. He didn’t want anyone to panic. That would make a bad situation worse. And things were already off to a less than perfect start…
Zero Perspective is available from these retailers:
Signed copies are also available! Contact me by email at LeeFormanAuthor@gmail.com
My debut novella, Zero Perspective is now available!
Lost in the depths of space and time, swallowed by something unknown to humanity, a derelict ship is adrift in an alternate reality.
John and his crew board the vessel, the Esometa, on a rescue mission. The ship’s been lost for two weeks with no explanation. When they discover its occupants dead and decaying, a mind-bending journey begins.
The Esometa takes them down a path filled with horrid creatures and bizarre events from which there may be no return…
Available from these retailers:
Print edition on Amazon
Kindle edition on Amazon
More places to buy coming soon!
I’d like to thank everyone who has followed my blog. Your support and likes on my posts are invaluable!
I’d like to share with you a piece I wrote for Pen of the Damned, A Growing Boy.
This piece is part of Damned Words 30, a collection of short pieces inspired by the same photo. You can read more HERE on Pen of the Damned
A Growing Boy
by Lee A. Forman
Hunger never left his distended paunch. No matter how much she brought, his gut could not be sated. Spindly arms pulled rotten meat into a foul orifice. Brown saliva and undigested chunks ran down his stained frontside into a puddle of filth. Familiarity still rested in his eyes. They followed her with affection, resting deep behind puss-filled lumps which grew around them. She wondered if he still had legs beneath the mass of pulsating skin at his bottom. But it wouldn’t have mattered. His proportions already filled most of the barn.
She took the sandwich bag of teeth from her pocket and remembered his smile. How sweet and simple he once was.
A low groan erupted from his belly. Tremors of a wanting stomach rumbled under her boots. The fly-infested supply of food nearly depleted, she’d have to find a way to feed her growing boy.
Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Twitter @leeandrewforman, and find me on Facebook as well as Instagram at lee_forman_author
by Lee A. Forman
Preserve their milky flesh; make bare soft, pink innards. Harvest remains, cover them in garnish, make beauty of woeful frames. Consume the fetal home—the birthing apparatus—for it is not lasting. But the tiny, wriggling creatures, perfect for trimming. They grow with skill, become things that made them. They pose for desire, malleable to intention. To play with life and death, their brittle models, is to be a god with artful power. Divine imagination is the finest tool. To make rich and vibrant something dull, paint life onto spilled passing.
Beautiful as the collection stands, it is but practice. Want of larger work—a showpiece worthy of burning hearts—fuels stimulus with copious motivation. The hunt must seek substantial result. Perhaps, something less of nature. A fine canvas, tall and supple. The grand puppet of evolution. Two masters of the Earth, to be my servants. They’ll birth the final piece, to be emptied of mortality, and filled with tender love of my pursuit.
Read more twisted flash fiction stories based on this photo on Pen on the Damned!
Includes stories by A.F. Stewart, Mercedes M. Yardley, Jon Olson, Nina D’Arcangela, Mark Steinwachs, Christopher A Liccardi, Scarlett R. Algee, Lydia Prime, and John Potts Jr
My short story, A Slithering Offer, is now available to listen to for free on The Wicked Library! It’s part of Episode 803: Extra Wicked Winter Anthology 2018
This story was originally published on the horror-fiction website, Pen of the Damned
A Slithering Offer starts at 1 hour, eight minutes into the episode
A Slithering Offer (Audio Podcast Version)
February 2018
I’m profoundly excited to announce that my story, A Slithering Offer is up on The Wicked Library! It’s a Patreon exclusive as of now, and I’ll say The Wicked Library is well worth the support of its listeners! They do amazing work. They’ve turned a few of my stories into audio podcasts and they blow me away every time!
I’d like to give a special thanks to Daniel Foytik and everyone over at The Wicked Library for the work they do! They breathe life into stories, give them an edge that couldn’t be achieved by reading them alone!
Click HERE to become a Patreon member and get all the extra goodies The Wicked Library has to offer!
Nine flash fiction stories – one photo. Check out what Pen of the Damned has to offer this month on ‘Damned Words 25’ including my own interpretation, ‘Misapprehension’
Includes stories by Brian Moreland, Jon Olson, John Potts Jr, Mark Steinwachs, A.F. Stewart, Christopher A Liccardi, Joseph A. Pinto, and Nina D’Arcangela
Follow Pen of the Damned on Twitter @penofthedamned And like us on Facebook
Pen of the Damned is a collection of dark tales told by those who freely dive into the maw of damnation and live to tell their stories. Every Tuesday a new story is posted to the site by one of its handful of eclectic writers. And once or twice a cycle, the members write their interpretation of a photo prompt as a group post. The stories are short and not so sweet, with a lingering aftertaste of terror.
If you haven’t checked out the site I dare you to take a look into the pitch black, if only to see if you can find the light again.
Lee Andrew Forman 