I am writing this on Monday afternoon, World Goth Day, in case you didn’t know. It’s an appreciation of the subculture and its music that began in the UK in 2009, and since the previous Saturday, yours truly has used it to continue shaking off the vestiges of social anxiety disorder by going out to a goth night in North Philadelphia (shout out to the Bonehaus for that). So as I write this, with one of my gothy playlists playing, I drift off to think about the darkness, a culture of very nice yet introverted persons–

and bloodshed.

Splatterpunk remains in my mind, piercing every pysnapse until they leak their own quizzical form of hemocyte. I said last time I was working on a splatterpunk novel, which has slowed a bit. However, I have good news. Well, good for those who can stomach it. I have finagled my way around the sloth of the novel by penning a splatterpunk short story on Kindle Vella.

What’s Vella? Oh, it’s a still-in-beta Amazon tech wherein authors can write a story one episode at a time. The first three are free to read anytime (in the US), with the fourth on up costing tokens you can buy on Amazon. It’s in the Vella page, top right corner, a wee key emblem. Just click it. New folks get 200 tokens free still, I believe?

But right, the bloodshed. ‘A Handful Of Eyes Makes Madness’ is the name of the short story game, a tiny tale about a woman attempting to flip a house for money. Now if only a certain irritating scratch would let her have some peace, things might proceed as planned. What? Sounds too safe, you say? Oh well, pal, that’s how you lure them in. This is horror. Gotta make ’em feel safe, you know.

As you can imagine, this is splatterpunk so a simple scratchety scratch won’t make your guts do a loop-de-loop. Fret not. While I do warn the faint of heart early on not to go further, for the curious, things will get very messy, and messier still, as episodes roll out.

Expect it to be a 10-episode story. Low financial investment, and seven of them are already out in the cold world. Big on the blood loss and depravity. I mean, this is not gothic horror.

Although I do love me some gothic horror, so the next short story…

Okay, a new idea is forming.

If you read my short, don’t be shy. Let me know what you think. As for horror as a whole, what’s your fave type? Gothic? Splatterpunk? Universal Monsters? Vampires?

I’d like to know.