Meet Presto!

 

It’s interesting how writers tend to get ideas for things right around the same time something else comes along where that idea could be used.

 

That’s what I was thinking recently, when my youngest sister, Millie, contacted me with a request. Millie and her wife, Allison, run an online group call Pumpkin Hill Haunters. Pumpkin Hill Haunters sells jewelry and books that fit along their themes of witchcraft, paranormal, and horror. They also post stories written by the haunters, as well as posts celebrating special events (like birthdays). And every Halloween, Pumpkin Hill hosts a spooky walk-through that is filled with awesome decorations and haunters acting out characters.

 

This year, Millie wanted to create a more kid-friendly version of Pumpkin Hill for kids. That’s actually what I suggested she call it, and so she did but without “for”: Pumpkin Hill Kids. All of us haunters get to create a post for Halloween, as well as spooky and horror stories that are more appropriate for children.

 

 

Millie is aware that I write children’s books, as well as stories for children. She reached out and asked me if I was interested in writing a series of stories for Pumpkin Hill Kids. I said yes and asked what sort of characters/animals have not yet been used for Pumpkin Hill. One of the animals Millie mentioned was a black cat, and that’s the one I chose. I told Millie that I actually had an idea of some stories to write about a black cat, but I couldn’t think of just what kind of stories they were. So a black cat it was and Millie suggested that the cat be a wizard cat. I was agreeable to that idea.

 

Next, we had to come up with a name for our cat. Millie said that maybe this cat could belong to a magician. I liked that idea so much that I instantly had that character in mind. Then we brainstormed names for the cat. We tossed around names and I looked up wizard names online. None of them grabbed me. Then, eventually, I remembered how some people use the words “hey, presto!” when talking about magic and magicians. So I suggested the name to Millie “Presto.” Then I said, “OK, you know what? I like it. Presto.” To which Millie replied: “Presto is cute! It sounds magical! Like Abracadabra.” With that decided, Allison created an image of Presto.

 

 

We all liked the picture that Allison came up with and I immediately got busy writing. I wrote two stories then and there. One of the stories was later polished and fixed up before Presto made his debut on the Pumpkin Hill Kids Instagram page on Black Cat Appreciation Day.

 

 

You can read the rest of that story at this link.

 

I am excited about this new writing opportunity and I look forward to writing more stories with Presto in the future. Hopefully, kids will like the Presto stories too. We’re already talking about creating merch for it, and now that I have a new publisher/illustrator for my children’s books, there just may be some physical books starring Presto the Wizard Cat!  

My Five Available Short Story Collections

May is Short Story Month so for the last five days of the month, I am promoting the five short story collections I have available:

 

30 Flash Horror Stories

 

Shadows

 

Monsters & Mayhem

 

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Vengeance from Beyond

 

I didn’t include The Worst Thing You Ever Did because it is currently unavailable. That will change later this year.

 

And because I have another short story collection coming out next month, this is the only time I can do this!

 

Maybe by next May, there will be 10 short story collections to promote? Who knows!

 

Anyway, without further ado, here are my five short story collections for the last five days of Short Story Month.

 

30 Flash Horror Stories

 

 

A mysterious sign only one man can see...trick-or-treaters getting more trick than a treat...and ghosts that never rest. These are just a few of the thirty flash fiction horror and Halloween stories awaiting you within the pages of this book. Read these stories at your own risk!

 

Buy link

 

Shadows

 

 

What sort of horrors lurk in the shadows What monsters are waiting to attack?

 

Shadows is a collection of 20 flash fictior stories bringing our worst nightmares to life.

 

From Halloween scares to Christmas creepers, these terrifying tales will take you into worlds of fright.

 

Shadows offers stories of ghosts, zombies demons and werewolves. But not all monsters are creatures of the imagination Be careful who you trust; within these pages are people just as monstrous.

 

Buy link

 

Monsters & Mayhem

 

 

Beware of the monsters who will strike at every turn! They are on a rampage through neighborhoods, hiding on top of roofs, or lurking within your dreams just waiting to materialize. Beware the scary creatures that could tear you from limb to limb or steal you away into the night! These seven flash and micro fiction stories offer new tales of monsters and the destruction they leave in their wake.

 

Buy link

 

 

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The best kind of revenge is the kind that no one would expect.

 

Ten girls have been tormented by people who thought it was okay to hurt them. They never expected them to fight back.

 

But they do.

 

Not only do they fight back, but they delight in freeing their inner monsters on anyone who hurts them.

 

Ten girls who have been wronged. Who have been forced to conform. Who have been laughed at one too many times.

 

These girls find the power within themselves to fight back and get their revenge. And make their tormentors pay.

 

Buy link

 

 

Vengeance from Beyond

 

 

 

Halloween is a time when the veil is at its thinnest between the living and the dead.

 

When a vengeful spirit makes contact with forensic psychologist, Essie Histor, the floodgates open for other ghosts to come through as well.

 

As Essie moves from one case to another, she realizes that if a ghost is set on revenge, nothing can stop it from making sure its attackers are delivered vengeance from beyond.

 

Buy link

My debut in erotic horror!

As a horror writer, I like to challenge myself to write in the other subgenres of horror. I have had stories published in paranormal horror, YA horror, and my novelette Home for the Holidays is extreme horror.

 

And now I have been published in erotic horror! Well, published as in, my story was included in a podcast.

 

I NEVER thought that I would have a story read on a podcast. As a Deaf writer, I always felt that podcasts were off limits for me. I have checked out many podcasts, and while some had closed-captioning and/or transcripts, many did not. So I figured that this was not something I could pursue as a writer.

 

Well, Crystal Baynam proved me wrong!

 

One day, in the author group chat which I am in, Crystal threw out an invitation for writers to donate a story to her brand new podcast, The Midnight Manuscripts. I was interested in participating because I wanted to explore the option of having my story read on a podcast. Yes, I NOW thought this was a possibility for this Deaf writer who cannot listen to podcasts just like all the hearing people can. So I donated a story and Crystal accepted it. Yay!

 

And this particular story is erotic horror! That is the reason why I submitted it. I didn’t think I could find a home for this story anywhere else, and since Crystal’s publishing company is open to erotic horror, I selected it to submit.

 

My story, “Love Slave,” was read on The Midnight Manuscripts podcast on February 21, 2025. And the best part? There are closed captions included! YAY!!

 

And! There is also a transcript!

 

A TRANSCRIPT!! ON A PODCAST!!

 

Double yay!!

 

This is so exciting. It’s my first erotic horror story and my first podcast publication credit! How neat!

 

Thank you to Crystal Baynam of Baynam Books Press for creating this podcast and accepting my story. And thank you to Onyx Brightwing for reading my story on the podcast.

 

You can check it out at this link.

(Warning: This story contains mature content.)

 

Well, now that I have had a story featured on a podcast, it looks like I will no longer exclude calls for stories from other podcasts! But I think I will check them out first to make sure they offer closed captions and/or a transcript.

No Fan Fiction? No Problem!

 “This story was actually written in 2016 then I put it away and forgot about it.” These are the words I wrote in an email for a recent short story submission. Why did I decide to just forget about that story after writing it? Because it was a fan fiction story, and outside of fan fiction websites, I wouldn’t have any luck placing the story anywhere.

 

That’s what I thought, anyway.

 

This call for stories that I came across changed my mind. I realized that my story didn’t HAVE to be a fan fiction story in order for it to work! It could be something else entirely. Something along the lines of my very own story with my very own characters with my very own ideas.

 

So that’s what I turned my short story into when I revised it before submitting it. I didn't use the same characters, I changed names, and I changed some other things in order to make it different. Doing all those things didn’t hurt the story at all. Sure, it made the story just your average sci-fi story, but it was no longer a fan fiction story. It no longer had characters in it somebody else owned the rights to, and the vehicle they used for time travel was not the same thing as in the story which somebody else wrote. (I had to do research on things used for time travel in fiction to make sure I wasn’t infringing on any other copyrighted material!)

 

Changing my story from “fan fiction” to “regular fiction” was not very hard to do. With just a few changes, it was my very own story.

 

And I knew that I could not have gotten that done if I had been too attached to keeping the story a fan fiction story. I mean, it’s just a short story! I could write tons of other stories and lots of other similar fan fiction stories.

 

Not only this, but I kept the original story, just in case I ever one day grow nostalgic for the franchise.

 

But the important thing is that I was willing to make those changes. I was not too attached to a story I’d written 8 years ago that I was unwilling to turn it into something I could send out for publication. I was willing to change a fan fiction story into something that was my own story, without another writer’s character or another writer’s copyrighted material.

 

It remains to be seen if this story will get accepted for the anthology. If not, I’ll have another story to add to my files to send out if I ever find somewhere else where it might fit.

Release the Monsters!: Monsters and Mayhem are stories of creatures and an evil ghost

 

One day, when I posted on Facebook that I planned to submit micro fiction stories to a website, a person on my friends list asked, “Do you think you could do a book of these?”

 

I saw that comment and thought, Challenge accepted!

 

This particular person owned a publishing company and I had the idea of submitting such a book to his company. So I reached out to him to inquire how many words the manuscript should be. He gave me a number and I got to work writing stories for it.

 

Later, however, when I submitted the manuscript to his company, an editor contacted me asking if the book could be longer. So I threw in some flash fiction stories to replace some of the micros, since the number of micros in the book did not increase the word count number. The flash fiction stories for only 7 stories in that book made it work.

 

That publishing company ended up shutting down before the book could be published, so I just held on to it. I got busy with other things, all the while keeping an eye out for a new publisher to submit it to.

 

Then the day came when I learned of a new press that would be opening soon. And this press was interested in publishing my book of 7 stories! However, it was some time before this new press got off the ground, but it recently launched and my book of stories was the second ebook it published!

 

Monsters and Mayhem was published by Twisted Dreams Press on August 28 and I am thrilled to see this “surprise book” become available for everyone to read. I’m glad I took that person up on the challenge to put this book of stories together. Who knew that going from submitting micro stories to a website would lead me to creating a book of micro and flash fiction stories?

 

Monsters and Mayhem is available as an ebook from Amazon. It was edited by Jennifer Horgan and the cover was designed by Rebecca Cuthbert.

 

Here is the book’s blurb:

 

“Beware of the monsters who will strike at every turn! They are on a rampage through neighborhoods, hiding on top of roofs, or lurking within your dreams just waiting to materialize.

 

Beware the scary creatures that could tear you from limb to limb or steal you away into the night!

 

These seven flash and micro fiction stories offer new tales of monsters and the destruction they leave in their wake.”

 

Here is an excerpt:

 

 

Swallow Pond

 

 

“It’s called Swallow Pond.”

 

The woman looked at her hiking companion, a man in his thirties whom she had met last week at a bar. “What?”

 

“That pond out there,” he replied, pointing at the small body of water the two of them had been staring at. He kept his gaze on the water. “It’s called Swallow Pond.”

 

“Funny name for a pond,” she replied, smiling humorously as she looked at it again. “I wonder if it really does swallow anything.”

 

He was silent for a long time. She turned her head to look at him and found him smiling at her.

 

“Do you really want to know?” he asked.

 

“Sure,” she replied, shrugging.

 

He grabbed her and pushed her into the pond. She screamed, but then took a deep breath as she hit the water. To her horror, the pond really did swallow her whole!

 

She groaned as sharp edges that seemed like teeth chewed her up as she descended through a water funnel. The sharp, piercing teeth tore into her body, crunching up her skull and gnashing her to bits until all that was left of her were bloody pieces that drifted to the bottom of the pond.

 

 

And here is the book’s buy link