Sinister Minutes

Fear, culled from the very first issue of Weird Tales magazine, released in March of 1923. How will you react when faced with your greatest fear? Will you freeze in place? Will you run? Or will you face it head on, with the certainty that either the thing you fear or your fear itself will consume you? If you need an alternative solution to facing your fear, Tim has a suggestion, with a piece called "Hide!"

Image by M W from Pixabay

A theater experience that pulls ever so gently at the fragile strings that hold our minds a hair's breath away from utter insanity. What if the play itself was enough to cause something to happen, if the words spoken upon the stage invoked something dark and ancient. Later, Tim takes us down a dark and twisty path to show us "Something Under."Recluse Playwright comes to us from guest author William Edwin Cherico, a writer and filmmaker from Connecticut. He's been a lifelong fan of the works of HP Lovecraft and loves to get scared. He can be found at @WillChericoWrites on Instagram and @willcherico.bsky.social on Bluesky, and his own website at https://sites.google.com/view/william-edwin-cherico-writing/home?authuser=0

Today's story is all about television, and takes place during its heyday, a time when most people only had three or four channels to pick from. So pull up a spot on the carpet close to the set, grab a bowl of sugary-sweet cereal, and let's go watch Funny Forest Friends!Our tale comes to us from guest author Nathan Poole Shannon, who's an emerging writer of the strange and macabre... like water or ghosts he is slowly carving out his way in fiction. You can find him on Facebook as Nathan Poole Shannon, Author, and follow the eerie journey as it progresses!Then, it's time for "Don't Look," in which Tim takes you on a journey for which you're sure to want to keep your eyes open...

In "The Well," there's some really weird shit going on. Over there. Just beyond the edge of town. Might better tell the sheriff. Or maybe not.Then, just when you thought it was safe to go to sleep, Tim's blasting us with Night Terrors."The Well" was written by E.B. Sommer, whose work has been featured in The Daily Tomorrow, Manawaker Flash Fiction Podcast, and The Stygian Zine. She is an Associate Member of SFWA and can be found at www.ebsommer.comCover art based on an image by Volker Glätsch from Pixabay

Directions is all about the ways we get from point A to point B, and how much we rely on our phones to get us there in the most efficient way. After getting lost in the narrative, Tim leads us down a dark path with a piece he calls It Came From the Box.Graphic based on an image by Jiří Groh from Pixabay

In the strongest communities, each of us pitch in and do what's best for one another. Sometimes that requires a little sacrifice. Sometimes the sacrifice isn't so little. Open Market was written by guest author Brett R. Scott, who workshops their stories on Reddit, under the name Miss Mnemosyne.Then it's time for Tim to take us down a dark, chill set of basement stairs and lock us away in a piece he calls The Box.Cover art adapted from an original image by Michael Kauer from Pixabay

Guest author Harvey Carnell provides a tale of a modern family called "The Mother." How DO we get into that attic? And just how reliable is our narrator?After that, Tim provides some dark chill with a piece called Midnight Ripples.Harley Carnell lives and writes in London. His Pushcart-nominated fiction appears in Penumbra, the NoSleep Podcast, Bards & Sages, and Riptide Journal, among others. His non-fiction appears in Gamut, Aurealis and the Lovecraft Annual. Find him at https://www.harleycarnell.comImage by Kathrin from Pixabay