Keep on keeping on...
We are deep into the final stretch of October, and the daily marathon of dread shows no signs of slowing down. While the main manuscript meters remain paused for the month, my desk has been transformed into a production line for short-form horror—and the milestone count is climbing rapidly.
The 31 Days of Horror: Reaching Story #25
By the time you read this on Monday morning, story #25 will officially be live, keeping the daily streak firmly intact as we barrel toward Halloween!
The published lineup has been expanded every day this month, with a final plan for a complete collection of 31 stories. Since our last update, I've added a whole host of new nightmares to the list:
- The Hole in the Road
- Unlucky for Some
- Go Faster!
- The Video Feed
- Platform Two
- Still Life
- Descent
- Caller ID: Me
- Collection
- Parking
- Incoming
- Midnight Craving
- Black Cat
- Microwaved Demon
From uncanny technical glitches (Caller ID: Me, The Video Feed) to classic atmospheric dread (Platform Two, Black Cat), maintaining this daily pace has been a fantastic workout for narrative compression.
In addition to Instagram, Threads, and Facebook, I've also started bringing these daily microfrights over to TikTok, expanding where these short stories can be read and experienced!
From Social Posts to a Bound Collection
Writing 31 distinct stories in 31 days generates a substantial body of work—and I want to ensure these tales have a life beyond the fast-moving, temporary scroll of social feeds.
I’m currently in the process of collating all 31 stories into a single collected volume. The plan is to package them into an anthology aimed for release on Amazon KDP very soon. It feels great knowing that this October challenge won't just vanish into the digital ether, but will instead become a permanent, standalone piece of work that readers can download, hold onto, and read every spooky season.
The Social Media Grind: Battling the Algorithm
It isn't all plain sailing, though. If I'm being completely honest, this month has brought a fair amount of social media fatigue.
The constant pressure to push stories across various platforms—only to be met with zero views or find out through "insights" that a pitiful 2% of my own followers are actually being shown the posts—is thoroughly disheartening. Writing the fiction is the joyful part; fighting opaque algorithms just to reach the people who already pressed 'follow' is an uphill battle that many indie authors know all too well.
That’s precisely why projects like the upcoming KDP collection, branching out to TikTok, and maintaining this direct blog are so vital. Social media platforms come and go (and suppress reach at will), but direct reader connections and self-published books remain under our control.
If you want to catch the final stretch of daily tales before the full anthology drops, head over to my Instagram, find me on TikTok, follow along on Threads or find me on Facebook!
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