I suppose I'm going through a brief horror phase right now. Writing, that is.

It started with an idea for a short tale to submit to the new Borderlands 5 anthology. My writers group seemed to like the results, and there were a few other horror stories in my idea folder, some that have been there for ages, and I felt like finally writing a few of them.

I'm putting another in front of my group tonight, this one based on a true account I once heard my grandmother speak about, from her days working at the Texas State Hospital. The story, about a pregnant mentally-retarded girl who was brought in one night while my grandmother was on shift, frankly freaked me out (I don't remember how old I was when I overheard the story), and I've always wanted to use it in a horror story.

Anyway, we'll see how the group takes this one. I've also started working on a new short horror tale set in my hometown of Lockhart. When I was in junior high school, there was a brief spate of tabloid journalism in our local paper, the Lockhart Post-Register, regarding "The Plum Creek Monster", a wolf-like creature that apparently enjoyed eviscerating local livestock. I think they may have just been trying to sell more newspapers and drum up a new weird kind of cottage tourist industry. Didn't work, but I always thought it would be good fodder for a creepy, small-town horror tale.

I'll let you know how it turns out.