Monthly Archives: October 2015

Listen To My Story (Being Read By a Podcast)

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Holy potatoes, you guys. Happy Halloween!

I have a special announcement that has everything to do with today.

Do you know Blurry Photos? They’re a couple dudes that run my favorite podcast about ghosts, devils, witches, aliens, ancient histories, unsolved mysteries, supernatural chicanery, cryptids, conspiracies, fantastical science. They’re a couple of improv actors from Chicago and they keep the funny rolling while they delve into the weird.

In short, they’re pretty much exactly my kind of podcast.

But you know what else they do sometimes? They tell spooky stories. Haunting tales to chill the bones.

And this year for their 4th annual Ghost Stories episode, they read one of mine.

Go check it out now! It is on Ghost Stories 4, and my story is Weeping Thief, which you may remember being posted to the blog once upon a time. Continue reading →

The Shape of Family – Part Fourteen

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It’s Tuesday!

Go home, Tuesday, you’re drunk.

No? You’re gonna have your say and damn the consequences? Well, okay, but only if you promise to talk about a certain Captain Claymonte and her Winged Riders today. You will? Way to go, Tuesday!

<- Part Thirteen – Worship

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The Shape of Family

Part Fourteen – Pieces

by Rick Cook Jr

Their injuries were great, but Claire’s need was greater. She helped those most able to patch her soldiers up, kicked at Combs a couple of times to try and wake him. He mumbled but didn’t stir.

Hughes and Dawson. Were they dead? The bandersnatch made a point in not killing the rest of them, so why would he do so with Sergeant Hughes and Private Dawson? He nudged Jeffrey again after tending the worst of the wounds. Sadie leaned against a wall, nursing her own shredded legs, naked once more and no longer seeming to care that she was.

When she still couldn’t rouse her traitor, Claire knelt beside the pool of water and felt around for the man’s jacket, lost in the transformation Sadie had undergone to the jellyfish. She pulled it free and made a sound of disgust as skin and hair slid free from it. Continue reading →

The Shape of Family – Part Thirteen

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Tuesday is the day for words placed sequentially in order to have meaning from a fictional standpoint. It’s time for the weekly entry into the lives of shapeshifters!

Last week the bandersnatch escaped with the twins, leaving Claire and her Winged Riders – as well as Sadie – injured and lost in his den. We’re following that devilish bandersnatch this week, so get your hate stares on.

<- Part Twelve – Family

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The Shape of Family

Part Thirteen – Worship

by Rick Cook Jr

A setback, a setback. It’s only a setback, he thought. Twisting through the woods, shifting constantly to carry the girls. Pushing  himself harder than he should with his injuries.

Injured by a mutt. An abomination.  The bitch. The shapeshifting bitch.

But it was okay. It would be okay once he got to the church.

The sun was setting. That was good. He could secure his church and fill it with bodies.

He reached the edge of the churchyard, set way back in the woods, but not far from Stalbridge proper. And though the girls fought him, they couldn’t hurt him. Not in this form. But they cursed and cried out and he threw them to the ground in the yard, scoffing. Continue reading →

The Shape of Family – Part Twelve

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It’s Tuesday! What’s that mean? you ask. I’ll tell you, it’s storytime! Sadie the skinchanger was juuuust about to have her neck sliced open by the dogged Captain Claire Claymonte of the Winged Riders. Onward to story!

<- Part Eleven – Clash

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The Shape of Family

Part Twelve – Family

by Rick Cook Jr

The woman that appeared from a mouse fell back from Claire’s sword, tripping over Jeffrey’s body and tumbling to the ground. She was screaming something, but Claire couldn’t hear it. She was furious. She would have blood. She dashed forward, sword extended.

Then was knocked to the side, her sword thumping to the ground. Private Tanner stood where Claire had been moments before, shoulder held like a charging spearman. Her side ached where he had pummeled into her.

“What do you think you’re doing, Tanner?” she yelled, struggling to her feet, throwing off the hands of Sergeant Hughes trying to help her up.

“She’s crying for mercy, Captain,” Hughes whispered. Continue reading →

The Shape of Family – Part Eleven

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It’s Tuesday, which seems to occur once every seven days, almost like a schedule… It’s time for another entry in this shapeshifting bonanza, following the OG skinchanger, Sadie!

I promise not to type like that again. … For a week or so.

<- Part Ten – Visceral

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The Shape of Family

Part Eleven – Clash

by Rick Cook Jr

The crash to the floor jangled Sadie’s entire body, rattling her frame and sending her into flittering moments of unconsciousness. She should have taken Ursatrundle’s form, fought it out, but subtlety was the game and so she had hidden among the folds of Jeffrey’s trousers as the lowly woodmouse Finkscuttle.

And all she could do was wait. Jeffrey didn’t know she was hitching this ride, and Renee still had  no idea she was anything but a horse they left topside. Jeffrey stopped moving under the weight of the savage beast, but his chest rose and fell.

After the girl screamed, she fled up the dark, dank corridor. The creature shifted from man to shadow, swept her up, threw her in the corner while he dragged Jeffrey to the soldiers as Father Enole once more, trussed him up like a pig, and then smiled at them all. He didn’t seem able to sense Sadie’s presence, and she was glad of that. She watched him from the fold of Jeffrey’s pantleg. Continue reading →