Bringing you stories, book and game reviews, writing tips, and updates from author S.G. Baker.
"You know why they always have a fence around the graveyard?" my grandpa asked me. A brittle October afternoon flashed past outside the truck windows. "Why?" I asked. "Because people are just dying to get in!" Neither of us laughed. As we passed the cemetery, we surveyed all the corpses pressed against the wrought-iron fence, … Continue reading #Spooktober2020 Day 14: Grave
You looked so confused when you possessed your portrait. A portrait you never commissioned yourself. I had spent most of my life painting your likeness. Getting closer and closer to a perfect reproduction. When at last my painting looked just like your face, your soul had no choice but to return to me. At the … Continue reading #Spooktober2020 Day 13: Portrait
At the door leading to the basement, my fingers locked around the door frame, keeping him from dragging me down into the dark. "Stop it!" I yelled at him. "I didn't do anything!" "You're dangerous." A hysterical laugh bubbled up in his voice. "I should have seen it before!" He had me by my legs, … Continue reading #Spooktober2020 Day 12: Hysteria
I had felt the touch of the wraith for some time when I went to visit a psychic. "When do I die?" I asked her. The woman - I had forgotten her name already - gave me a funny look. "Just, y'know, do your little crystal ball thing and tell me." I waved my fingers … Continue reading #Spooktober2020 Day 11: Wraith
Introduction The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi follows the characters of Angel Velasquez, a "water knife" or enforcer of the will of a big water rights company; Lucy Monroe, a journalist living in Phoenix, AZ; and Maria, a teenage refugee from Texas. Struggling to alternately survive the dwindling water crisis, uncover the murders and espionage … Continue reading Book Review: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
I snatched your body from the jaws of death when I exhumed you from the dirt. Your soul, though, I'm not so sure of. You returned to consciousness screaming. "Let me go baaaaaack!" Maybe I shouldn't have resurrected you in the graveyard. "Shhh!" Scrabbling across your own grave dirt, you crawled toward your open coffin, … Continue reading #Spooktober2020 Day 10: Resurrectionist
One year after my brother died, I found his last discovered geocache. Just a plain, hollowed out rock down by the local creek. I knew it was the last one he found, because he had logged the date in the geocache journal. I ran my fingers over his name. Next to the exact date he … Continue reading #Spooktober2020 Day 9: Journal
Up to now, my friends and I had solved every puzzle, survived every horror of this sick fun house, but now they both lay in pieces among the hidden traps guarding the exit. I bit my lip, reading the sign again. You made it! Just waltz on out! Following the sign's suggestion, they had both … Continue reading #Spooktober2020 Day 8: Waltz
On the outskirts of a forgotten town, I found a person with a white sheet draped over them. The sheet covered their entire body. They stood in front of a burnt out building on the side of a gravel drive. Just stood there. All day. No one else came or went. And I sat on … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Lent Shape
"Don't move," mommy whispered. We stood together in the middle of our cornfield. We had our arms stretched out in a T-pose, resting along poles lashed together like a cross. The same as the poles that held up the scarecrows dotting the field around us. We each held bundles of straw or twigs. "We're being … Continue reading #Spooktober2020 Day 7: Scarecrow
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