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Tag / Short Stories
March 27, 2020
by Johnny Compton

Today’s Short Story: Michael Montoure’s “Counting From Ten”

Pseudopod has been good to me over the years. But before I was ever one of their authors, I was one of their listeners, and one of their earlier stories is still one of my favorites. Michael Montoure’s “Counting From Ten” is a pretty direct tale centered around a gruesomely, cruelly injurious series of “accidents” that are, of course, not actually accidents at all.

To an extent, it has a bit of the old EC horror or Golden Age of Radio “supernatural poetic vengeance” vibe going for it, except it has a lot more heart–and therefore heartbreak–than the similarly styled Vault of Horror or The Witch’s Tale stories had. Its secondary protagonist and primary victim, Tommy, isn’t the total bastard that so many Tales From the Crypt villainous agonists were. Yes, he’s brought the misfortune that maims him onto himself, but he’s more of a hapless shlub, albeit a criminal. READ MORE

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Category: Stories
August 24, 2019
by Johnny Compton

The Problems with Paying Writers with “Exposure”

Generally speaking, exposure alone can be worth it. The television show Shark Tank provides easy evidence of that. For any not inclined to immediately click out of this post, the linked inc.com article breaks down just how beneficial an appearance on the show can be to a business that has a product to sell directly to consumers, regardless of whether the business hooks a “shark” as an investor. Bombas socks, for instance, got passed on by every investor on the show, but nonetheless saw their sales skyrocket. I even looked into buying a pair, but just can’t bring myself to spend quite that much on socks; even so, I’d have never even known of Bombas if not for the Shark Tank appearance, and the stats evince that the same applies to many other people. 1 More importantly to many other buyers. And that’s just one example of many from the inc.com article. In many of those cases, the owners of the business come out ahead by not getting an offer, since they get an increase in revenue without having to relinquish any of their business interest (at least not since Mark Cuban killed ABC’s previous policy of demanding a percentage of any company’s equity or royalties in return for just appearing on the show). READ MORE

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Category: On Writing
March 2, 2015
by Johnny Compton

Today’s Short Story: “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon” – Philip K. Dick

Details can be vital to a story. Details allow worlds to feel lived in, characters to breathe. But details needn’t be intricacies.

In Philip K. Dick’s science fiction short story “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon” the details enrich the story’s future, planets and technologies with plausibility, but eschew needless complexity. This isn’t to say the story is “simple” (hardly) or basic, just that it’s direct. I’m also not saying that complexity and intricacy are inherently bad. They can be misplaced, however. Or abused to mask story flaws, like an overly complicated cologne might be an attempt to overwhelm your sense of smell, trying to hide that the fragrance simply isn’t appealing. READ MORE

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Category: Stories
February 16, 2015
by Johnny Compton

Today’s Short Story: Stephen King’s “One for the Road”

At this point, almost any horror story featuring vampires is a reclamation project. I don’t need to rehash it here, but what the hell, I’ll do it anyway.

Vampires have become many things. Stylish, moody, desirable, heroic, even enviable. But they haven’t been proper horror villains–at least not consistently–for a long time.

Partly due to the setting, I think, the vampires in Salem’s Lot weren’t black-garbed, urbane charmers who happened to drink blood, but monstrous sub-humans with a hunger so unchecked they’re likely to kill off or convert their entire food supply before they realize what they’ve done. Salem’s Lot is not a perfect novel, and isn’t Stephen King’s best, but it still might be my favorite of his. Vampirism as presented in this novel isn’t merely a burden or disease; it’s not something you can struggle against. Its communicability seems less bite-related and more like it’s riding on a general miasma of malfeasance that has settled over a small town already nurturing its share of unpleasantness. READ MORE

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Category: Stories
February 3, 2015
by Johnny Compton

Today’s Short Story: Ramsey Campbell “Call First”

Ramsey-Campbell-Call-First“His mind was backing away faster than he was…”

That’s one hell of a line (well, hell of a half of a line). Lean, efficient, and brilliant. As a horror writer, you sometimes face the issue of trying to come up with yet another semi-fresh way of saying, “this person is really, really scared.” It’s easy to overthink it, overdo it, and often harder to just summon a direct, fat-free line like this.

“His mind was backing away faster than he was…” READ MORE

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Category: Stories
December 5, 2010
by Johnny Compton

Published Short Stories

Here’s a select list of some of the stories I’ve had published.

“ffuns” – Pseudopod – Episode 692

I have a spreadsheet where I make notes for short story ideas. I don’t keep up with it nearly as well as I should. Upon revisiting it once after a particularly long period of neglect, I saw a note for a story idea that just said, “Reverse snuff film.” That’s it. I couldn’t remember what else I had planned for the story or how it had even popped into my head, but I felt compelled to make a legitimate story out of it. Turned out to be one of my better works thus far, I think. READ MORE

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Category: Published Stories

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“People say things like, ‘The rule is that you never show the devil.’ But if you have a good-looking devil, and it looks convincing—well, yes, you show it! It’ll scare the shit out of the audience. If you have a stupid devil, then you don’t show it.”

– John Carpenter

 

“If fighting will clear us out of this trouble, I am willing to fight or do anything else… I will get all I can back alive, and the rest I will kill.”

– William Tillman

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