Category Archives: Christmas

Christmas Stories III

This is the last set of stories I wrote for the Christmas contest. (You can read most of the others here and here. I’m not going to post the slice of life or satire stories. They are the weakest.)

I bent the rules a little here. The stories were supposed to be a maximum of 500 words, but there was no prohibition in the rules against sequels. So the following four are linked. The viewpoint character changes from one story to the next. I’ve posted the original stories, not the ones I submitted for the contest, meaning not all of them will be under 500 words.

I was participating NaNoWriMo when I wrote these and used them for my word count. I was writing short fiction, not a novel. I used these stories as personal challenges and tried writing things I wouldn’t normally write, just to stretch myself. For example, the first three of these stories are what is considered sweet romance. (This is not a genre I typically read, much less write.) You can read the first three without reading the fourth, although the observant reader may pick up on a slight discrepancy between the first and second parts.

The fourth story resolves the discrepancy, changes the reader’s understanding of what is going on, and makes the whole thing dark fantasy. Continue reading

Christmas Stories

The local writer’s group had a Christmas story contest recently. There was a five hundred word limit and no restrictions on how many times you could enter. I entered a dozen stories. One of my won 2nd place. I’m including it and another entry below. I’m including the original version of the winning story. It’s a little longer than 500 words, but I like it better than the shorter one I submitted. One of the judges said it made her cry. (Mission accomplished!)

The second story here is just a bad joke. I’m including it because it is still 2020, and you haven’t suffered enough yet. Continue reading

Merry Christmas

Arctic Viking by Dave Seguin

To all who celebrate, Merry Christmas.

And to all who don’t, have a nice day.

And since we’re told that everything these days is political, here’s a little something seasonal.

 

Christmas Ghosts: “Four Ghosts in Hamlet” by Fritz Leiber

“Four Ghosts in Hamlet”
Fritz Leiber
available in Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories
paperback $14.99
ebook $9.99

This post is another that is serving double-duty. Not only is it a Christmas ghost post, but today, December 24, is the birthday of Fritz Leiber (1910-1992).

This novelette draws upon Leiber’s experience as a Shakespearean actor. It’s the story of a troupe of Shakespeareans who have hired a down and out actor who used to be well known before he crawled into a bottle. Continue reading

Christmas Ghosts: “The Wish” by Ray Bradbury

This Christmas ghosts post is going to be a little different. I’ve been traveling most of the day and don’t feel like writing much.  Fortunately, I don’t have to.

Sue Granquist, AKA Goth Chick at Black Gate, has done the heavy lifting for me.  You need to read her post. It contains a link to a PDF of this story. Ms. Granquist has written a powerful and moving account of what this story means to her. I can’t top it. I read this story back  in high school when I read Bradbury’s collection Long After Midnight. In the years since, I had forgotten the story entirely. It simply didn’t have a huge impact on me when I was fourteen (give or take a year). Now that my impending geezerdom is on the horizon, I can relate to it much better. Fortunately not yet as much as I probably will some day.

Go read it.  You can thank me later.

Christmas Ghosts: “The Ghost Child” by Bernard Capes

“The Ghost Child”
Bernard Capes
Available in Spectres in the Snow
ebook $0.99

Christmas is a time for children. Christmas is a time for love. Christmas is a time for ghost stories.  “The Ghost Child” combines all three in a chilling way.

There will be spoilers with this post. You have been warned.

This story has an odd structure. It’s narrated in the first person, but the narrator isn’t one of the principle characters. In fact the only purpose the narrator seems to serve is, well, I need to introduce the main characters first. Continue reading

Christmas Ghosts: “Bone to His Bone” by E. G. Swain

“Bone to His Bone”
E. G. Swain
available in Winter Ghosts: Classic Ghost Stories for Christmas
ebook only $0.99

E. G. Swain was a friend of M. R. James and wrote a series of ghost stories starring the Reverend Roland Bachtel, the Rector of Stoneground,  This is one of them.

The story takes place on Christmas Eve, and the Reverend Bachtel can’t sleep. So he gets up and goes into his library to read. The matches aren’t where he left them. As he’s fumbling for them in the dark, someone puts the matches into his hand.

The good reverend lights a match only to discover that there’s no one there. What is there is a book on the desk. Bachtel never leaves books out. The book is one on gardening; it was part of a library left by a long-dead rector in a previous century.

The book is initially closed, but when Bachtel turns away, he hears the book open and pages turning. His eye is drawn to a line that seems to be telling him to enter the garden. The page turning happens twice more, and Bachtel believes he is being told to go to a particular place in the garden and dig.

When he goes to the directed location, he finds a shovel…

Swain’s ghost stories are similar in style and tone to those of James, but without the menace.  This was the first of the Stoneground ghost stories I’ve read.  I’ll be reading some of the others.

Christmas Ghosts: “The Green Parrot” by Joseph Payne Brennan

“The Green Parrot”
Joseph Payne Brennan
available in Nine Horrors and a Dream
paperback $9.95
ebook $7.96

Today’s post serves two purposes. Not only is it a ghost story, but today, December 20, is the birthday of Joseph Payne Brennan (1918-1990).

“The Green Parrot” is a brief little tale. The unnamed narrator, whom the reader will probably assume to be an alter ego of Brennan since the story is in first person, is a writer who has moved to a small inn in the hills of Connecticut to finish a book. In late November he decides to take an afternoon off since he is on schedule and drive about the countryside.

And on the way back he takes a shortcut…

These types of things are never a good idea. Continue reading

Christmas Ghosts: “A Mysterious Visitor” by Ellen Wood

“A Mysterious Visitor”
Ellen Wood
can be found in The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories
hardcover $23.07
paperback $16.99
ebook $7.99

Today’s ghost story, like yesterday’s, is concerned with the Indian Mutiny of 1857. This one is more concerned with the mutiny itself than a ghost, although there is definitely a ghost.

Ellen Wood wrote sensation novels in the 1800s. This story certainly is in that vein. Continue reading