horror

A collection of 26 posts

autumn

The C-Store Round Two

On the last day of my annual North Dakota trip, I was riding in the car with my three other travel buddies. We'd spent the week wandering around the prairie, and on our final night my male friend realized, we were out of tonic water. "Did you

autumn

Ghosts...

We have a friend who asked us to go on a ghost tour. I'm into spooky stories, but I have to admit, I am not a believer in ghosts. But, it sounded fun. We met our ghost tour leader on the somewhat crumbling steps of the local Elk&

houses

Gov Showers

In what seems like another lifetime ago, I moved into a house I rented from the government. It was a tiny thing, no actual foundation, totally crooked to the road, built in the late 1920's and forever maintained with parts from that era. We used to joke it

cats

Physics Be Damned

At one point we lived in a house with a concrete slab foundation. When we moved out of it, we moved to a farmhouse with... Well, not a concrete slab foundation. The first night we spent on the ground floor of the house, my husband fell asleep almost instantly (he

horror

The Wild West

One summer night, my friend invited me up to his town to watch their local rodeo. This was about two and a half hours north of me, just over the state line. It seemed like a good idea to me, so I got in the car, and made the journey,

desert

That Looks Ominous

The second time I ever hung out with the guy who would become my husband, he asked me to go stomp around some sun-blasted, stick infested, section of scrub oak filled Forest Service land. He said he wanted to go quail scouting (it was spring, so not hunting season) and

horror

The One-Armed Cowboy(s?)

I live in a rural town. Like most rural towns, it contains a Dollar General and a box auto parts store. They line the edge of the two lane highway. They share a sidewalk that runs before both stores before ending, some long gone city planner's attempt to

horror

The Mantle Of Responsibility

I ended up at a training in one of those states that begin with a cardinal direction. The training campus was reminiscent of Hogwarts or some Disney castle land, the campus rolling and beautiful. Big stone buildings nestled into a wooded area, complete with baby deer bounding up the paths.

books

Reading Patterns

I read a lot. Not like I've got a super famous BookTok feed or anything like that, but last year I read about ninety books. I loved Mexican Gothic. Historic, etherial horror involving a female protagonist, a weird mansion and sentient fungi, I mean what's not

art

The Grocery Store

There are two kinds of people. Multitaskers and those that cannot multitask. It turns out, I am married to a man who despises multitasking, while I love multitasking. This is always exemplified when we go to the grocery store together. I'm the kind of person who will say

desert

The Patriarchy

My husband and I were invited to a friend's for a dinner. We were asked to bring something to share, and my husband decided he wanted to make some venison shoulder, and I decided I wanted to make a lemon torte. Well the day of the event arrived,

horror

Malls

There is something deeply unsettling about the American mall. When I was a child, I remember going to the mall with my mom to get new school clothes. My brother and I hated to be dragged there, but the whole expedition was for us. My mom quickly realized that we

horror

Everyone's Offended

I'd left my glasses in the car. I'd been swimming, and had forgotten a case for them, so I hadn't brought them inside. I was done swimming, walking down the little hallway that would dump me back outside, to my car and glasses, when

houses

You Can't Go Upstairs

Every now and then you get home from work, get into your comfortable clothes, and melt into the couch, excited by the fact you're finally home. One day I was doing this, and my husband came in and sat in the chair across from me.  We stared at

horror

The Prayer Room

In my early twenties, I lived in an adobe house. It had been built in the late 1800's, and was one of those houses where they'd never really installed a heating system. Instead, they had some sort of allegedly functional heater in the basement, and then

horror

There are Two Types of People...

...Those who feel color, and those who do not. My husband is one of those people who doesn't feel color. In fact, I know, without him reading the previous sentence, that such a statement makes no sense to him. But me. I feel color. Colors have the ability

travel

Phoenix Invades

One year for my birthday, my husband booked us a cabin on a little guest ranch outside of Prescott, Arizona. The ranch lay off a twisting of Forest Service roads in the Pinon/Juniper forest, and in the dead of winter we were some of the only guests. The ranch

food

The Process of Pears

When we moved into our house, we were told the pear tree in our front yard was just going to make wormy pears. We were told we should learn to make cider. Which, when we moved in in the middle of winter, seemed like a fine autumn activity. Of course

horror

Just Nope

I got invited to pitch a horror movie once. Which was cool, but a little outside of my wheelhouse. First, I didn't know how to pitch, so learning how to do it was a big deal, but more frighteningly, I had to watch a bunch of horror movies

horror

The Horror Of Teeth

The day before I was moving to another state, we were cleaning out the fridge and we made a fridge-clean-out-cheese-plate. There were tomatoes, olives, pickles, cheese, and a variety of other things. I took a bite of the cheese, and I felt something hard in it. I took the half

horror

Subject: IT Help Tickets

I used to work at this place that couldn't keep an IT person on staff. So for two years we didn't have an IT person. There was an entire six months where I couldn't print a document. When I asked if we could have

cats

Credit Card Fraud is No Joke

A long time ago, before I was married, my then fiancé, lived in a very remote area. This place he in which he lived was actually the physical address of the depths of despair, and it was particularly horrifying in the winter. No cell service, no Internet, only a few

horror

The Reading

There is a cool independent bookstore by my house, and one night, they held a reading by several local authors. I recruited some people, and we attended. Now, it's important to know that while I love writing and reading, I don't love poetry. Not like I

desert

Cash... It's not really my thing

When my parents came to visit, we went walking through the trendier part of town. We came across the grocery store my friend likes to call "By people from L.A., for people from L.A." And to say it's a grocery store is kind of

horror

Horror Books for People Who Don't Like Horror

Don't like horror? I didn't either, until I realized I thought all the books I liked were magic realism, except that when I read an actual book labeled magic realism, I didn't like it. Turns out I like horror, whomp, whomp. Without further ado,