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Sad Monster

@dyre.bsky.social

Sad monster and resident coffee gremlin what writes about uncomfortable subjects and fantastical things that lurk in dark places. Is normal about trees. || store: https://payhip.com/AReinke || || Fuel me: https://www.paypal.me/authoramberreinke ||

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J.D. Buffington@jdbuffington.com · 31m ago

Thanks, Mary! I love history. If we’re talking historical horror, that’s my haunted house novel to a T! Houdini, Vietnam, 1990’s roiling turmoil, and Afghanistan stop-loss back to back tours…war fucks us all up. But especially inside Backlund House. #HorrorWritersChat

In the House of In Between

The Backlund House is haunted, but no one knows why. No violence has taken place there, no one has died inside its walls. Over the course of a century, what-or who-haunts the storied property remains ...

bookshop.org

Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️@lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 41m ago

Thanks for another great #HorrorWritersChat Mary! By the Blood is my most historical horror novella - a vampire priest in 19thC Bavaria protecting his ward from angry mobs and a vampire coven who want to claim her.

Lawrence Harding (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️@lhardingwrites.bsky.social · 11mo ago

By the Blood Ursula's new governor, the mysterious Fr Marcellus, must defend her from accusations of vampirism. He knows they're false. He should know - he's a vampire himself. But the stakes soon rise when the undead also take interest in Ursula. 💙📚 #booksky ko-fi.com/s/6793e39b5b

Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 41m ago

I'm snatching up Hellraiser and we're going to the 16th century, #HorrorWritersChat, see if we can't get a cenobite in a witch's/gossip's bridle. There were so many weird little torture devices then, and oddly specific 'sins'. Curious where it would go.

Mary Wyrd (she/her)@marywyrd.bsky.social · 54m ago

Make horror history with a new setting. Q4: #HorrorWritersChat - Choose an existing horror IP or horror creation and add it to an historical period different from its origin. Share your idea. ---- Outro in 10 mins

Question Four. Choose an existing horror IP or creation and add it to an historical period different from its origin. Share your idea. Example: Predator plus 1719 Northern Great Plains became Prey (2022) Quote post your answer and include the hashtag #HorrorWritersChat - NO links or covers! Save your self promo for the outro (after answering the questions). Please LIKE, SHARE, and COMMENT on other posts. Background: The outside of a small gothic mausoleum. The photo is taken from the corner, showing the arched entrance on the right and an arched window on the left side. Duotone filter: berry and black.
Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 57m ago

Too many ways, #HorrorWritersChat, too many. A lot of my past trauma tends to go into my stories but especially in the *way* characters react to the horrors I put them through. It's a sardonic response born of emotional numbness, so I gotta break through that to scare them. Which is the fun part.

Mary Wyrd (she/her)@marywyrd.bsky.social · 1h ago

Making it personal. Q3: #HorrorWritersChat - In what ways has your own history (past) impacted or inspired your horror writing? Examples: giving a character your childhood trauma, reimagining an experience with a different ending.

Question Three. In what ways has your own history (past) impacted or inspired your horror writing? Examples: giving a character your childhood trauma, reimagining an experience with a different ending. Quote post your answer and include the hashtag #HorrorWritersChat - NO links or covers! Save your self promo for the outro (after answering the questions). Please LIKE, SHARE, and COMMENT on other posts. Background: The outside of a small gothic mausoleum. The photo is taken from the corner, showing the arched entrance on the right and an arched window on the left side. Duotone filter: berry and black.
Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 59m ago

Ah, #HorrorWritersChat, they reveal things as I write but it's usually not much. I feel the less the reader knows the better. As example, my clown story mentions a past relationship that went poorly for the MC, informing his desire to be accepted as he is. Otherwise you get nothing.

Mary Wyrd (she/her)@marywyrd.bsky.social · 1h ago

Even fictional characters have a past. Q2: #HorrorWritersChat - How much history, how much of a past, do you give your horror characters? Share an example.

Question Two. How much history, how much of a past, do you give your horror characters? Share an example. Quote post your answer and include the hashtag #HorrorWritersChat - NO links or covers! Save your self promo for the outro (after answering the questions). Please LIKE, SHARE, and COMMENT on other posts. Background: The outside of a small gothic mausoleum. The photo is taken from the corner, showing the arched entrance on the right and an arched window on the left side. Duotone filter: berry and black.
Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 1h ago

Ello, #HorrorWritersChat! I am late again T^T I is a sad monster what writes disturbing fiction and I'm not actually sure what counts as historical horror? I thought it meant 'takes place in the past' but cursory research suggests otherwise so... I have no idea... how to answer

Mary Wyrd (she/her)@marywyrd.bsky.social · 2h ago

Welcome to Horror Writers Chat. It’s time to explore the past. Q1: #HorrorWritersChat - Introduce yourself, the horror you write, and share up to three historical horror fiction stories you’ve enjoyed. (Horror set in the past.)

Question One. Introduce yourself, the horror you write, and share up to three historical horror fiction stories you’ve enjoyed. Quote post your answer and include the hashtag #HorrorWritersChat - NO links or covers! Save your self promo for the outro (after answering the questions). Please LIKE, SHARE, and COMMENT on other posts. Background: The outside of a small gothic mausoleum. The photo is taken from the corner, showing the arched entrance on the right and an arched window on the left side. Duotone filter: berry and black.
Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 15h ago

Whoever created the loud, growly horror sting: you made a lovely thing but the overuse of it has unfortunately made me hate you in a deep and personal manner.

Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 16h ago

When you become super anxious about eating and have kept meals so infrequent your body is absolutely in starvation mode it feels like a targeted attack for there to be an ad for cheeseburgers when you search for lactose-free meal replacement shakes.

Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 2d ago

Is offering free copies of things in exchange for reviews/ratings a thing I should be doing? Keep seeing it and I am...intrigued...by this idea >.> I'd be worried they thought it needed to be nice though, which is silly. You can get free words and tell me they suck. I am a grown cup. I'll be okay.

Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 2d ago

Irritation for one, intrigue for the other, #SumLuv, both burn to lust pretty quickly though. I have a tendency to write characters who fall into bed easily and then take time to fall in love. They snark a lot too. I love me some snark apparently.

After Ignatius was guided into the booth and the vampire sat across from him, where he removed his leather cap—revealing how red his eyes burned as well as a distinct lack of hair on a very tan head—words decided to find tongue. "What are you?" "A vampire, like you said." The words came with a sigh as Bo relaxed, stretching arms along the back of the seat. Ignatius scoffed and nodded towards the nearly full diner, "Do they know that?" "This is around when I were made, so no, they don’t." Leaning sudden enough to knock Ignatius back, Bo smiled in a terribly unfriendly manner, showing the pointed tips of fangs desperate to burst from his jaws. “And they won’t.” Rolling his eyes, Ignatius waved the scary face off. "Right, and I suppose they don't mind a few people missing every now and then?" "I don't kill.” Bo relaxed into his seat again, eyes on the window, fingernails clawing through the mess of black and gray curls on his face. “Not since...not since I were made into this thing.” A laugh and it was Ignatius' turn to lean on the table, catching eyes and naught but a faint image of the vampire reflected in the window—enough to seem normal to anyone else. "So, what, are you munching on raccoons out back or something?" Looking back at a face too pleased, he sighed. “Animals don’t hit the spot, so I take sips here and there and spend a night or two with someone every so often. They just remember we had a good time. No need to make a fuss." Ignatius ached to ask why the big idiot was reliving life in this time, this place, flagrantly leaving marks where he shouldn’t. Or why the place had an odd air to it, why the conversations he could hear were gibberish and why the woman he'd spoken to lost her bubbly attitude the moment he wasn't looking. But, having never met a vampire in person, he was entirely uninterested in the bigger mysteries of the diner. "But bitemarks. You can't erase a wound." "No, but you can leave it somewhere they won't”—Bo huffed and rubbed his head—“I have a system, alright, and it works. I've been doing just fine." "Mm-hmm." Ignatius, elbows on table and chin in hands, watched the vampire glance around the diner. Nibbling his lip for the puff of desire his focus earned, he waited until those deep red eyes returned to his before he smiled calculatingly slow. "So, just fine, the 'beast' miss bubbly over there mentioned wouldn't be a big ol' truck would it? That nightmare we passed on the way here maybe... why would a vampire become a trucker, isn’t that a bit too much sunshine for a dead thing?" Rubbing his head again, Bo gripped and tugged at his own beard after, leg shaking the tabletop as it shook beneath it. "You know I have questions too." "That's lovely," Ignatius drawled, leaning back to soak in such delicious discomfort. "But you ruined my meal, and my job, so you're going to answer mine." Sighing, Bo laid his head on the window and chewed his lip, eyes ever-redder as he spoke too quickly, "Sun don’t bother much and I was trucker first. Then I met someone pretty who was in trouble." Narrowing his gaze at Ignatius, his voice calmed to a sharp point, "Turned out he was the trouble." "Your eyes are implying things they shouldn't." Was all he got for his efforts as Ignatius stretched and pulled his feet up onto the seat to share a lean against the window. "Where's your master now?" "Dead," Bo said too easy. Not popped or sneered just...stated.
📚 Ellie Rhymer! Spaceships and Scoundrels 📚@ellieyellu.bsky.social · 2d ago

Meet cutes don't have to be "cute"! They are a plot device 🧡 But! Let's talk about how they DO feel about each other early on! Is it fairytale love? Is it *lust* at first sight? Hate at first sight? All?? Snips here are welcome (always welcome if you want to answer anything with a snip) 🧡 #SumLuv

Romance Writers Summer of Love #SumLuv @EllieYellu Day 3: Love at First Sight. Do they fall in love at first sight, or does it take them a little longer?
Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 2d ago

Okay this will take a page or three, #SumLuv, and I'm not sure it's a meet-cute, but it is how they meet...and *I* think it's cute. >.>

His truck's changed a bit over the years—bigger sleeper, more fuel-efficient engine, darker windows for the weariness the sun brings—and his name's gone round and back again more than once to keep down suspicion, but Bo never stopped driving. Never stopped being fifty either, or hungry for things a man should not eat. Luckily he found young men still enjoyed his company, more so with all he could see in them—all he could tease—and it was much easier to control himself when he sipped on one or two every few hours. So he picked up hitchhikers, drove them where they were going and stole a bite when they insisted on paying for their ride by riding him. Once in a while he'd keep them longer for more of a meal, getting a room and bringing them to the brink of death with how much he took...but never beyond. He'd not killed another—of his own accord—since he woke as this other thing: vampire, obviously, but he didn't care for the word. He was no movie monster. The careful meals were not for any altruistic reasons, if he were honest with himself, and it was terribly difficult to keep so careful. To not devour all he tasted. But Bo led a simple life before he died and despite having trouble seeing himself as living still, or even human, he quite wished to keep things simple. Killing people up and down the highway was not simple. So he didn't kill. As a bonus, switching to contract sometime in the 80s, he rarely had to deal with anyone directly if he didn't want to. Which meant fewer sources of temptation. Not only did he keep his job, he found a new highway that was all highways, making it a might quicker to do it...and easier to feed without drawing suspicion. Simple. Comfortable. Bo would call himself comfortable. His unlife easy, predictable even for all he could sense and do. Boring to some but he was content. At peace with himself. Then he stepped out of the room he'd rented for a nice, predictable evening and walked right into something insane.A stout woman rushing from a nearby room with what senses insisted wasn't even human dressed as a cartoon of a little girl trailing behind her. Shackled and leashed. "Pretty sure that's something bad," He muttered to himself, considering his options. Bo didn't get involved, usually, but he didn't see inhuman things often and that was certainly an inhuman thing for how the air around it wavered like asphalt in summer. It could be dangerous, he thought. What if the woman's in trouble. Or the thing is. The thing looked more in trouble, if he was honest. "Running out of time," he muttered again and looked back at his room. His dinner wouldn't wake for a few more hours—finding food set beside the bed for him, a roll of cash and a little note of thanks. "Yep, doing it." Nodding to himself, Bo zipped faster than the woman would see to snap the leash and whisk the not human thing away. Stopping roughly a mile from the motel, he set the thing down behind a smattering of trees and brush and immediately dodged angry hands aiming for his chest and face. While a voice like molten silk tried to screech at him, "You. Fucking. Idiot!" It had been warm in his arms but remained it even out of them, air yet wavering around it to prove how hot the thing burned. Standing near it, Bo could imagine a roaring campfire. Something to keep him warm and comfortable...so long as he didn't get too close. But it wasn't the heat of it that mesmerized. "Gray..." Bo said too quietly, watching the thing intently, noting every little flare of pink in the warm gray of its eyes—emphasized by dark eyeliner. Its hair matched, exactly it matched, down to the odd shimmer in the low light of a setting sun. It was beautiful, if the human guise looked far too like a child for Bo—whose view of 'young' was around thirty.His gawking didn't seem to make the thing any less angry, as it clasped its shackled hands together and slammed them into his chest. A gesture which would have hurt anything else, but, well, Bo wasn't just anything. It did sting though, a hot poker through his layers—he wore a thick vest over short sleeves and right then had his leathers on as his last bite seemed to like them. "Do you have any idea what you did!?" The thing shrieked again. Ignored again for all the soft new color noticed in its eyes and hair, notice spilling a little louder with a confused breath, "Pink?" "Yes, yes pink." It threw its arms up and out and spun around as it ranted and raved at him. "I'm wearing a lot of pink. My target, who I was about to mark and now will never be able to, desired me in pink." Bo caught the wrists before hands hit him again, absently crushing and dropping the stinging shackles before kneeling to get those on the thing's ankles. "No, not the costume." He spoke to a not at all surprised face. "Your eyes. They're pinkish gray, which is weird. And you, you look human but I can't hear your thoughts and you're radiating." Bending slightly for a better look at those eyes, Bo noticed them flash again as he asked, "What are you?" Shoving him away, the thing huffed. "In deep shit! They'll have to send someone else and they won't bother to stop her, they'll just mark her and she'll keep breaking innocent souls and—fuck!" "You save souls?" Bo met a ghost once, trapped in a stretch of woods and forced to lure old women to its same fate every few decades. It wasn't terribly friendly but it looked sad and he wondered if there were a way to save it. The thing in front of him wasn't looking up anymore, it was muttering to its feet, "In a roundabout way, I don't want to talk about--" Snapping up to glare, it asked, "Why did you take me?" "I thought I was helping," Bo said simply.He did not expect the laughter. "Helping." It waved a freed hand and kept a sharp tone. "The bumbling zombie thought he could help?" Bo sighed. "I'm not a zombie, those eat flesh. I only drink blood and you were on a leash and in chains. Looked like you needed help." "I was where I needed to be!" It shrieked again before returning to pacing on the asphalt, throwing its hands everywhere as it spoke, "Her desire was so thick and deep and the vengeance would have been divine! Possibly literally. I—" Spinning on him again, the thing stepped closer to jab a hot finger into his chest. "What are you? Blood means vampire but vampires don't hunt the highway. They prefer cities." Carefully removing the finger from his chest, Bo nodded, took a breath and decided it was all too much for what was supposed to be any old Tuesday. "That's a lot you just said I don't understand and we're kind of out in the open here. You want to go somewhere else, maybe get a change of cl--" With a snap of its fingers the not human was in new clothes. A breath later it was considerably older—though no taller, keeping it chest high to Bo—with a sharp beard, a thin mustache and a few wrinkles around its mouth and eyes. Tying its hair in a low ponytail, it closed Bo's mouth with a tap under his chin. "Now where's this somewhere else you want to go?" The man said, as Bo could see it as nothing else in that moment. "I have questions." Questions. Yeah, Bo also had questions. Ones he definitely wanted to ask. "Hold on," he answered, scooping the man up and smiling too wide for the yelp before rushing back to the motel room. Not for the room, which was occupied, but a diner nearby—if a little out of time—he hoped far enough from the woman searching.
📚 Ellie Rhymer! Spaceships and Scoundrels 📚@ellieyellu.bsky.social · 3d ago

"In which somebody runs into somebody else, and then something falls, and they begin to talk, and their eyes meet and they realize they are attracted to one another" —Rodger Ebert Do you have a classic one? Or one that passes 😆 Did you avoid altogether? Snips welcome! #SumLuv

Romance Writers Summer of Love #SumLuv @EllieYellu Day 3: The Meet Cute. How do you feel about it? Do you have one?
Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 2d ago

Introducing (right to left) Ignoble Ignatius, Lech of the Third Circle of Hell and Mistress Melodia's Pettiest Pet and his maybe boyfriend Bo Blom. Also Garmr is there (the truck). A romantic story about them is interesting largely due to what they are, #SumLuv, how they compliment and contrast.

colored sketch of a semi truck with two men standing close and intimately laughing in front of it
📚 Ellie Rhymer! Spaceships and Scoundrels 📚@ellieyellu.bsky.social · 4d ago

Who are you writing about? What makes a romantic story about them interesting? Note there will not be a character art or face cast prompt, so feel free to do that here if you'd like! Don't forget alt text for images if you post them. #SumLuv

Romance Writers Summer of Love #SumLuv @EllieYellu Day 2: Character Introductions. Who are your romantic leads?
Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 2d ago

>.> I is late, #SumLuv... and sorry for spam. I tend to mix romance and horror and am writing two stories of the type but I'll focus on #Hitch, which is more comedic. It is about a trucker vampire and a bored incubus who don't know what to do about their feelings. Been writing it since January.

📚 Ellie Rhymer! Spaceships and Scoundrels 📚@ellieyellu.bsky.social · 5d ago

Welcome to 🧡 Summer of Love 🧡 a daily prompt game for everyone writing in the romance genre! What's up? What are you working on? How long have you been writing? Tell us everything! Well, tell us enough 😅 I'm excited to chat with you this month. Don't forget to tag #SumLuv

Romance Writers Summer of Love #SumLuv @EllieYellu Day 1 Introductions: Welcome! Introduce yourself!
Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 2d ago

Delgrij wouldn't be able to. Nor would Mitra. Memory issues. Faerai, as an adult, would be honest to a fault with more known than expected. The tone would be wistful but dark. Parnamyr is working on his, playing down his faults but not leaving things out. Tone is salacious, pretentious and whiny.

🌱🫜 Charlie (Chelizabeth) Delta 🦊🪻@charliedeltawrites.bsky.social · 2d ago

Tell me more about your #AwesomeCharacters Your character is writing their memoirs! How honest are they being? Are they playing up their heroism and the drama? Are they leaving anything out? Why? What tone will it have? #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 2d ago

"Oh, you're an author, anything I'd know?" The question is really, "Are you a household name?" And I'm sorry, grocery store cashier, but I don't think anyone who was would be shopping here. I tend to just say, "Probably not." But they don't like that answer. #writingq #WritingCommunity

Susan Savage Lee@susansavagelee.bsky.social · 2d ago

What’s one question you’re tired of answering as a writer? If I have a book published. Not because someone wants to actually read it, but more so they can classify me as a “real” writer…or not #writingq #WritingCommunity

Sad Monster@dyre.bsky.social · 2d ago

I've been making my men bigger and hairier and treating them as the hottest thing on the page. I am not apologizing for it, bears be hot, I'm just admitting I have noticed and it wasn't actually on purpose, but I have embraced it and I cannot be stopped. #writingq #WritingCommunity

Susan Savage Lee@susansavagelee.bsky.social · 4d ago

What’s a physical trait you’ve started using more in your stories? For whatever reason, there are a lot of mustaches popping up on my background characters 😂 #writingq #WritingCommunity