Miguel Gonçalves's Blog, page 3

Spilled Ink #15

INTRO

Welcome to the newest, and late, issue of Spilled Ink!

This will probably be a short one because it was Fantasporto week and I spent most of my time there, even if I didn’t get to watch any movies.

Why?

Because I always get my head into working mode and forget that I, well, don’t really work there anymore. But then I start talking with guests and answering questions and it’s like I never left, and it’s like an automated reaction I can’t avoid. I even was asked to the stage during the closing ceremony when the team was called up.

And that’s why I didn’t get anything done this week…

But that’s not to say I don’t have news!

WRITING UPDATES

Remember the submission I sent to Horror Tree? If you follow me on Instagram then you probably already know that it was accepted and should be out later this week!

These are really simple stories but they were fun, and challenging, to write. They are somewhat familiar to me and they revolve around a subject that I always seem to be drawn to, that of teenager interactions. I think I’ll talk more about that in another newsletter. For now, let’s focus on Tales of a Midnight Fire, the title I gave this collection of drabbles.

I also put a new chapter of The Haunting of Blackwood Manor, one that I had to alter at the last minute because I had to include something that happened to me in the story. That makes the second time a personal event made it into a story and they both are part of this serialized story. If you aren’t reading this, go do it. It’s a fun one.

I was also invited to two new projects and I’ll be giving them some attention in the next few weeks. They will be a bit different from what I’m used to, mostly in theme and genre but guess what? I’m up for a challenge.

Another thing that I want to work on too, is Project: Mud and Project: Cup, and once again I feel that I have too many projects but I can’t help but have ideas I want to try on them!

BOOK REPORT

I already read the two stories I really wanted to read on the Weird West anthology I got. The book really seems amazing but I wanted to try something else, as I’ve been craving to read some fantasy… Let’s see what happens this week!

PULL LIST

No comics this week… I’ll have some for you when you get the next newsletter, I promise!

ON-SCREEN

All I got to watch was the closing movie for Fantasporto 2024, an epic Chinese fantasy film that is but the first installment of a trilogy. Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms is adapted from the 16th-century fantasy novel Investiture of the Gods written during the Ming dynasty. It has amazing photography, amazing choreographies and battle scenes, and the special effects are really great. I can’t wait for the next two parts.

I’ll leave you with the trailer here:

THINGS I’M HYPED ABOUT

Projects, projects, projects!

I have so much cool stuff I’m working on, that it’s really hard to choose.

But I’m getting some new stuff for my next book and I’m so thrilled about all of it!

LAST WORDS

I told you this was going to be a short one!

Can’t wait to meet with you again next week hopefully with more stuff to tell you all!

Until then, let the ink of nightmares flow.

Thanks for reading Nightmare Ink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Nightmare Ink Presents Issue 9

Welcome to the next installment of Nightmare Ink Presents story, The Haunting of Blackwood Manor.

This chapter brings us a step closer to the climax of our story and I am really happy with how it is going. I just hope you are enjoying it too.

So let’s just dive in!

The Haunting of Blackwood Manor Chapter X: Dawning Secrets

The mood in the manor was heavy and apprehensive as Mark got downstairs. It had been for the last couple of days. He had noticed the changes and how the air seemed to grow heavy.

He had observed how Sarah had been distracted, how her gaze became lost as if looking for something, mostly when she thought he wasn't paying attention to her. He had found her more than one time in Alex’s room, sitting at the same spot he had seen her before. It was eerie to see her sitting there, looking at the same place she had been looking at, humming the same song. He had never got into the room again to interact with his wife as he had that the very first time he had found her like that.

He noticed changes in Alex too. His son, always so active and energetic in the mornings, had started to sleep in, sometimes looking more tired than the previous nights. Had the night terrors he had suffered since Addie's death returned? It had taken months of therapy and it seemed as if he was doing good, even his therapist had said the same when the topic of moving almost halfway across the country had come up. Maybe he should try to make Alex give him a call. Or maybe he should talk to Ollie about finding someone local, there should probably be one at the school. He still left to do his morning runs though, and even tired as he looked, he always put all his energy into it as if getting away from the house was the thing he wanted the most.

Only, Emily seemed to be unaffected by whatever was going on in their new house. Sure, she was staying later in the living room reading instead of retreating to her room as she usually did, but Mark didn’t read anything into it.  The armchair she liked to sit and read on was one of the most comfortable and cozy in the place and Mark was a little bummed she had taken to occupy it for so long, leaving him with no time to enjoy it. He even found her asleep on it one day as he came down in the morning. Or maybe she was just better at hiding how the house, or whatever it was had affected her.

Because even he had been affected. Mark had been seeing the old man from his dream at the house, who as it seemed wasn’t that much older than Mark himself, and more than that, the man had spoken directly to him.

It had happened the night after the kids had gone to town to help clean the Marquis. Mark had just finished reading a chapter from his book and decided to get a fresh glass of water before going up to bed. As he entered the kitchen his eyes fell on the brown envelope the kids had brought with them. Mark had completely forgotten about it, tossing it on top of the counter but now his curiosity peaked, and he decided to take a look at what it was.

Inside the envelope were two pieces of paper. One was a small handwritten note that read:

Dear Mr. Smith,

I hope things are going well at your new home, and if they aren’t I hope that the document I send you will shed some light on whatever is happening to disturb your stay.

I would be glad to tell you what I know and help you in any way I can.

You can find me at Cedar Books & Curios.

Hopefully, you won’t need me.

Kind regards,

James Morrison

Mark took the other paper from the envelope and looked at it. It was a xeroxed page from an old diary or a fragment of a letter. Mark's face turned sour when he went through the words. As he put the page down the man, who he now knew to be Silas Holloway, was sitting opposite him.

“You can see it, can’t you?” Silas' voice was deep and hollow. “She’s going to do it too if you don’t act first. I was late, oh so late, and doomed all of us. But you can make it right and save your family. You know what you must do. I’ll even help you…” He continued, his smile turning mischievous as he talked Mark through what he should do.

Alex had had another bad night. He had, once again, awakened to the feeling of someone standing next to his bed.

In the previous nights he had felt this presence, he had always made sure he didn’t look up in its direction, always keeping his head on the pillow doing his best to keep his eyes closed to avoid the temptation to look. He too, knew his horror movies, and that when things like this happened, the moment when the character looked was the moment he couldn’t deny what was happening anymore. But something inside it stirred, making him want to look. He couldn’t be sure what it was; if it was the realization that this was real life and that what he felt was just some kind of feedback from the bad dreams that had been plaguing him or just being in an old manor house that resembled many he had seen in so many horror movies he didn’t have enough fingers to count.

And so he looked. He did all he could not to scream.

A woman was standing next to the bed, her arms motioning toward him. He could tell she had been crying. She stopped as she noticed he was looking at her, and muttered almost in a sob.

“My son…”

He closed his eyes, harder this time.

When he opened them again the woman was nowhere to be seen and the sun was starting to rise.

Alex stood at the edge of the street having pushed the garbage up to the place where it would be retrieved later in the day.

He was trying to keep his mind busy, going for his early morning run, mostly trying not to think about the events of the previous dawn, and he had half succeeded, planning to ask Em if she wanted to go to town to grab something to eat and get some comics. Maybe they could ask Pete and Lily to join them.

“Yeah, that seems a solid plan,” Alex was thinking when something caught his attention. Through the corner of his eye, he saw the brown envelope sticking out of a trash bag. He had seen the envelope before going to bed so, whoever had thrown it away later that night. Alex picked the envelope out of the bag. It had been opened, so it could be empty, his father taking out whatever was inside and throwing away the envelope. But he could feel something inside, though. Maybe his father didn’t care for what the old historian had sent him and threw the whole thing away. He took out the contents of the envelopes and read them on the sidewalk.

He ran back home.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that I’m able to keep you invested in the story and the strange happenings of the Smith family.

As I said we are reaching the climax and planned finale of this story, and your feedback really means a lot to me. So don’t forget to tell me what you think.

See you next week,

M.

Thanks for reading Nightmare Ink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Spilled Ink # 14

INTRO

Welcome, my dear Inklings (just trying something new, tell me if you like it in the comments), to the latest issue of Spilled Ink!

I don’t think this will be a long issue, but one never truly knows as one starts writing, isn’t that so? I may be wrong.

I have some news regarding the evolution of some projects, and that will probably be the main focus of this newsletter, so let me guide you directly to it.

WRITING UPDATES

First, let’s talk about Nightmare Ink Presents and The Haunting of Blackwood Manor, as there is some stuff I need to say about it. I started this weekly project as something to force me to write more regularly so that I could get some accountability if I messed it up, and I know I’ve been on and on about how I fail to keep up with the plan and the word count and all that (you can read about it here) and it’s one I’m truly enjoying. It had some problems, mostly with the release of the chapters but I’m keeping it up to date, even if I have to release two chapters in the same week as I did this past one (Chapter VIII and IX, respectively). But what I wanted to tell you now is the following.

What you are reading, even if it has been under some editing is a rough draft of the story. You are having the first look at the story. Don’t know if I could call you Alpha Readers even. You are before even that. If Blackwood Manor ever goes to publishing I don’t know how much of it will stay the same or be redone. You’re having a look at something that’s really special at least for me and from my point of view. Also, you are getting it as I create it and you know what’s happening in the story almost at the same time as I do. So, if you ever want to have some input feel free to share your opinions and ideas with me. This story is as much mine as it is yours.

That said we are getting in the final stretch of this, or at least that should be the plan. And I really want to know what happens next. Gonna keep my eyes and ears open to the whispers that are telling me the Smith’s story.

Second, I submitted another short story to a Horror Tree submission call, well, in truth, it was three 100-word stories that work as stand-alone stories but if you read the three you get something extra. As soon as I have more news I’ll share them with you. In case you don’t know Horror Tree, it’s a website that shares submission calls for fiction, and mostly horror, and they also have their own submissions and share the chosen stories on the website. It’s a great support tool in case you want to send your works to submissions. I had the luck of already having one of my stories published by them, which you can read here, just scroll down until you find the Enter the Drabble banner and Last Moments.

Third, and last, Secret Projects. I’ve been thinking hard about one of my most intimidating and exciting projects ever. And I decided that I definitely would have to cut some of the ideas I had for it. Mostly due to budget reasons, and that pains me because it would have been an amazing project and I was really hyped about all the possibilities. I’m still hyped about the project and I can’t wait to have something more to share with you about it. What I can say for now is that it will be a short story collection and that it will have a specific theme to it.

BOOK REPORT

I just started The Good, The Bad, and The Uncanny today. I chose this one mostly because of three factors, Cullen Bunn has a story in it as does Josh Malerman, and it’s Weird West. I’ll be honest. I was never the biggest Western fan. I enjoyed some movies and stuff (still have great memories of the first time I watched Rio Bravo) but it never had a real pull on me. Until I found it mixed with other genres, mostly Horror and Steampunk. I was never extremely fond of the Wild West but the Weird West got its twisted fingers around my very core. Enter things like The Sixth Gun (Bunn one again) or the Deadlands RPG setting for Savage Worlds and how could I not be hooked? I’m only a couple of pages into the first story, which happens to be the Bunn one, and I’m already expecting a great collection of stories. Also, the introduction by Mr. Jonathan Maberry is one of those that can’t be passed over.

PULL LIST

So, let’s get this out of the way, once again. I won’t say that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is one of the best things I’m reading but, man, it’s so much better than it should be. Darkest Hour has been curve ball after curve ball, nothing like the campy TV series we were served in our youth (or at least, my youth). It’s dark, and edgy and tackles some of the series’ problems like the immense number and versions of Rangers. Also, the art is always on point, too. I truly recommend picking up this series.

The Becky Cloonan / Tula Lotay dual art in Somna is one of its biggest draws, but the story is reaching an incredible point. I can’t wait to delve more into the secrets that are being held by the characters and to find out how everything will turn out.

Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s new project is a thrilling ride. Masterpiece follows a young girl for whom finding out about her parents’ past turns her life completely around. There are secrets upon secrets to uncover and layers of subterfuge to get through and I’m here for it. It’s a spy/heist/coming-of-age project that I completely endorse and can’t wait to get more of!

Mr. Chip Zdarsky has no right to do this and I might hate him. He has no right to be both an incredible comedic writer and also a serious one. I never get to say this about his run on Daredevil, which is one I totally adored, but I’ll use Avengers: Twilight to say it. It’s a masterpiece (not to be confused with the one above). I always liked alternative future stories and reimaginings of heroes and this one has everything. It’s bleak, it hides something more than we can see at first glance, and at the same time doesn’t leave us without hope for the future, in a way. It’s the Marvel Universe future we never knew we wanted but now that we have it in our hands we are asking where was it all this time.

So, thank you for this Mr. Zdarsky, and thank you for bringing Mr. Daniel Acuña with you for the ride. His art truly brings your words to life.

ON-SCREEN

This week the screen becomes a big screen as Fantasporto opens its doors to the 44th edition of the festival. This festival means a lot to me, not only for all the movies I watched that otherwise, I would never have known of but also because I had the pleasure to work with them for the best part of fourteen years, first as a volunteer and then in a more official capacity. This festival was part of my growth as a person and as a creator. It’s a festival made by people who love cinema, from the directors to the production and public relations team. They are not only some of the most professional people I had the pleasure to meet and work with, they are also attentive, caring, and loving. They created a family. And you feel that too.

A bit about the festival, it started more focused on fantasy and horror, but in the last years, it has opened its selection to a wider variety of projects although not compromising the quality of the chosen movies. It’s considered one of the most important movie festivals in the world and if you attend it you’ll easily find out why. It’s on until March 10th, and you can find all the info on their website or Instagram.

This said I’ll be there every second I can spare!

THINGS I’M HYPED ABOUT

So many to choose from.

Between secret projects, ongoing stories, movie festivals, ComicCon Portugal being less than twenty days ahead, and more secret projects, it’s a hard choice.

But I’m hyped and that’s what matters!

LAST WORDS

Can’t wait to hear from you and to see what you think about this week’s report.

Your opinion truly matters and I appreciate it and the time you share with me by reading this.

If you haven’t picked up NIP ongoing story this is the time to do it, as I stated we are entering it’s final stage.

Can’t wait to talk with you again. See you next week!

Until then, let the ink of nightmares flow.

Thanks for reading Nightmare Ink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Nightmare Ink Presents Issue 8

Welcome once again to the pages, or to be exact, screen, of Nightmare Ink Presents.

It’s the second one this week and I know it might be a bit too much but it was something I couldn’t avoid doing. I even thought of doing an issue of NIP with both chapters of the story (this week’s and the one from the week before) but it would be a longer one and I decided on two emails this week.

And so, here it is, the ninth chapter of our story.

Hope you enjoy it!

The Haunting of Blackwood Manor Chapter IX: Echoes

Mark had woken up to listen to the kids leaving the house. They had asked him to take the car to go help their new friend Pete with the cleaning from last night's screening. He was happy to see his children making friends, and integrated, so quickly in the place that they would be calling home, hopefully, for many years. He had so many happy memories of this place and he wanted Alex and Emily to have the same. God knew his children needed it, especially Alex, with all that had happened to him last year. Lying in bed Mark thought about how we had wanted to bring the family here for some time but how only such a tragedy had finally made Sarah cave in. Was he a bad person for being glad to have had his way?

He remembered the conversation with his wife when she had told him that maybe it was time to move out. She had told him they should try for a summer and see how things would go. They had been here for less than two weeks and things were going ok. The kids were making friends and so were they, even if they had been his summer friends for long ago, reemerged from the waters of time to greet them. But Sarah had hit it off with Emma but being in the art business. Maybe Mark could talk with Emma and do his wife a surprise getting an atelier ready for her in one of the rooms on the top floor. Or maybe something with a kiln in the basement. He really should talk to Emma about that. But thinking about his wife made him start wondering where she was.

He had sensed she was not in bed when he had woken up, but he imagined she had gone to the bathroom or seen that the kids were okay when they left, maybe even preparing them breakfast before they left. But he thought she would be coming to join him in bed again, as time completely alone was hard to get for them.

Mark got up and left the room deciding to surprise his wife, wherever she was. As he crossed into the corridor, he heard a humming coming from the room down the hall. Maybe she was making the room up or had found something in the, still plenty, boxes they had to get through that belonged to Alex.

The humming continued and Mark couldn’t hide a smile.

“Even she is happy,” he thought as he neared the end of the corridor and Alex’s room.

He peeked inside trying to get a glimpse of his wife before rushing to lift her in a tight hug.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed her face turned towards the window. She cradled something in her arms, the soft hum directed at whatever it was. She wore a nightgown he had never seen before and never even knew her interested in that kind of clothing. And did her hair look different too? More curled and brighter?

He tried to enter the room but somehow couldn’t move. His throat was harsh, and he couldn’t utter a word. He forced his legs to move and finally was able to get into the room. The hum was clearer now, he didn’t recognize the tune, but he recognized the rhythm. His wife was humming a lullaby. Was she the one with a surprise in store for him?

He managed to get closer to the bed. Why was it so difficult to move? It seemed something was trying to hold him in place, to push him back so he couldn’t reach the woman in the bed, so he couldn’t reach his wife. A few more steps and she would be within her reach. As he got closer, his hand reaching for her shoulder, she turned in his direction.

Her skin had a sickly white tone to it, her eyes streaked with red veins. In her arms, there was that bundle, a green blanket or shawl involving something, and as she moved to look at him a small arm got loose and hung limp toward the ground. He noticed the purplish marks around the woman's neck. She looked at him with knowing eyes, but Mark didn’t know the woman in the bed, it certainly wasn’t his wife. Frozen in place Mark couldn’t do anything except stare at the strange woman, an intruder in his own home, and listen to her speak in a raspy harsh voice, all while trying to face the dread that rose to his heart. The woman got up and moved towards him. She spoke again.

“Mark?” Sarah called her husband as she got up from the bed, the wool sweater she was folding falling from her lap and into the ground. “Mark!” she called again.

Sarah had been getting clothes out of a box when she heard the soft crying again. This time she was sure she heard it. She was wide awake, having been up since the kids had started making a ruckus as they got ready to go to town. She had decided to surprise her husband, whom she had left in bed, as soon as the kids got out of the house. “Some well-deserved alone time” Sarah had thought, a sly smile drawing on her lips.

But then, shortly after the kids had left the crying had started. She had followed the sound to Alex’s room, the baby’s room, not Alex’s, it was the baby’s room, and he was crying again. “For how long can it keep crying?” Sarah found herself thinking. “Day and night. Night and day. It doesn’t do anything else but cry.”

She entered the room and moved to the bed, the crib?, and she started humming a song to calm the baby down. The baby kept on crying. She was at her nerve's end, always tending to the house, the baby, and her husband. “And does he help? Of course not. Always going around too busy to help, God knows doing what,” she muttered pausing the lullaby for just a second, a second which the baby took as a cue to turn up the volume on his crying. She reached into the crib, hands like claws moving closer, inch by inch, to the small body wailing at her.

“How easy would it be…” she whispered at the tune of the lullaby she was singing.

She picked the baby up, her mind changing tracks at the moment her hands touched the soft body of her son.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, there was a bed after all, she started cradling the bundle in her arms, rocking it in rhythm with her lullaby, looking at the baby with mixed thoughts running through her head. Still, the baby kept on crying.

And then she looked up from it, and Mark was there staring at her, frozen still as if in terror. She called to him, but he didn’t seem to be able to listen to her voice.  She pulled at him, to no reaction. She started to worry. “Is he having some sort of attack?” She moved toward the door and as she crossed the doorway the floor creaked.

“Sarah?” She heard her husband say from behind her and looking back she saw him moving in her direction a smile on his face. She smiled back at him.

“Everything will be fine,” Sarah thought as she moved back into the room, whichever spell had held them both now broken. She hugged him. “As long as we have each other.”

And now we are back on track!

Can’t wait to hear what you think about this chapter. I really like this chapter (which means you probably won’t), and I truly liked writing it, so, despite everything, I hope you all like it too.

Now it’s on to next week’s chapter and to what’s supposed to be the finish line, at least that’s the plan.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

Until then, don’t let the ink of nightmares dry!

M.

Thanks for reading Nightmare Ink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Nightmare Ink Presents Issue 7

Welcome to Nightmare Ink Presents.

Before anything else, I know this one is a week late, but I’m trying to make it up to you and have another chapter out later this week, which is already in the works.

So without further ado, let us delve into the next installment of our story.

The Haunting of Blackwood Manor Chapter VIII: Unexpected Meet-Ups

Alex parked the car in front of the old theatre and he and his sister moved to the entrance, noticing it was still barred by a crossed-steel gate. As they got closer to it a voice called their names from the other side of the street.

Pete was waving their way with one hand while holding the glass door to a shop on the other side of the street. He gestured to them to join him, and the twins did so. The decals on the window proclaimed the store as Cedar Curios & Books.

“Is there a store in Cedar Falls you don’t work at, Pete?”

Pete faked laughter before clasping the other boy’s hand in his own.

“Aren’t we funny this morning, dude,” he gave Emily a soft kiss on the cheek. “Milady,” he curtsied to the girl. Emily laughed at the silliness of their new friend.

“And for your information, I just helping Dr. Morrison with some boxes. He was getting in as I arrived at the Marquis. Come inside I’ll introduce you if you want.”

The inside of the bookstore, for that was what the store was really about, was a labyrinthine maze of shelves and piles of books. They were mostly old editions about all subjects and Emily was perplexed.

“Dude,” she said in a hushed tone as if talking normally would break the sanctity of the bookstore. “What is this place? It rocks!”

“Dr. Morrison is all about rare and hard-to-find editions and old books,” his voice seemed to boom amidst the quiet, and Emily had to repress the urge to scold him for being so loud “He’s also the town historian, so I guess it figures?”

They kept moving toward the back of the store. “Dr. Morrison, you’ve got some visitors!”

Pete's voice was louder as if making sure the man he was calling could hear him. “You’ll like him. He’s into spooky shit too and he’s got all these stories about Cedar Falls. I’ve been thinking of inviting him for a special OF session and just being him telling stories. Dr. Morrison!”

A rumble came from behind a heavy curtain situated at the back wall they were moving in the direction of, as if books and boxes were falling to the floor. A grumbling voice came from the same place too.

“What now, Pete?” the person emerging from the curtain was an old man, probably around his sixties, with a bearded face and long dark hair streaked with strands of silver that hung in a ponytail. His glasses hung on his shirt collar trying not to fall from it as he moved. To the twins, he looked like how a grandfather might have looked, if they had ever known theirs. “Oh,” he said as he noticed Pete wasn’t alone. “And you must be the Smiths kids. James Morrison, at your service. Pleased to finally meet you.” He moved to them a hand extended in their direction, which they took and shook in return.

“I’m Emily and this is Alex,” Emily said, jumping in to present themselves. “Amazing place you have here Dr. Morrison.”

“Ah, if only someone else thought the same… But they don’t and so I use the store as an excuse to buy more books,” he gave her a knowingly smile. “Kind of my own personal library instead of a store, and one by far more interesting than the public one.”

Dr. Morrison let out a loud laugh, and to Emily who laughed too, he seemed like Aziraphale and his relation to his bookstore in Good Omens. Pete and Alex looked at each other shrugging.

“But tell me, Alex and Emily, how is life at the Manor?” His face seemed to have darkened a bit as he changed the subject, all the joviality drained from him and being replaced by a harsh seriousness.

“Not bad, we are still settling in, and we still have lots to get done. But the place is treating us well,” Emily tried to put aside her bad dreams as she answered, trying hard so her face didn’t betray her words.

“That good, ah?” he looked from Emily to her silent brother, his face almost hidden in darkness, eyes fixing on the boy. “Is it treating you well too, Alex? Nothing to say about that house? Nothing at all?”

“Nothing,” Alex was balling his hand behind his back trying not to shake. “Treating as well.”

“Oh, that’s good,” his demeanor had changed again, and it seemed that the heaviness in the room had been lifted. “That’s really good, indeed. It’s just that an old house like that, and one with so much history, might be a bit scary. Especially at night. But it’s treating you well, so that’s grand! Ah, that reminds me. I have something for your father, I had expected to be able to give it to him personally, but I don’t know when I’ll see him,” he moved to a shelf behind the counter on the other wall and started rummaging through its contents. “Now… Where did I put it?”

The twins looked at Pete who just gave them a he’s always like this look. When the man returned, he held a brown paper envelope in his hand.

“Here it is! I knew I had put it somewhere! So, you give this to your dad, ok? I think he’ll appreciate it. Now don’t you have anywhere else to be? You lot probably have something else you should be doing and so do I. But, come on by whenever you like, maybe I can lend you a book or two Emily,” he said to the girl.

They said their goodbyes and made their way out the door and into the Marquis.

From behind the store window, Dr. Morrison watched them go.

“Treating you well, is it?” he said to no one. “As if it could. Let’s just hope I’m not too late.”

“But tell me what the hell are you two doing here?” Pete asked the twins as they moved toward the Marquis.

“Well, we thought we could help you with the cleaning from yesterday,” Emily looked at him. “We were talking and decided it wasn't fair to let you do everything alone.”

Pete smiled at her, although sheepishly.

“Thanks for the help. It will be faster this way, then. Lily had texted me if I needed help but I told her no, but we'll be having lunch if you two want to join us,” Pete said as he pushed the door open. Alex noticed he hadn't used a key to open the door. He could also hear noise coming from the inside. Had anyone else come to help that had the key to the theatre? His friend has already told them that Lily wouldn't be coming. He hadn't mentioned anyone else, but he knew someone was already there, after all, he hadn't tried to open the door. “Maybe it's his aunt,” Alex thought. “After all it's her theatre.” As soon as he thought this the door slammed shut and a voice came from deeper in the room.

“Pete, I'm done with the screening room. But I'll need help with the bathroom. You know how messy it gets sometimes.”

It was a male voice. Alex couldn't really place it but he knew he had heard it before, somewhere.

“Got company, E.,” Pete directed to where the voice had come from. “Better show yourself.”

From a door, the now recognizable frame of Ethan Hayes appeared. He saw the face Emily made when she saw him.

“What? Can't I help out?” Ethan tried to steady his voice, but he clearly was on the defensive.

“No, no. Of course you can,” Emily tried to repress her astonishment. “Just didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Well, I am. So, let's clean up, okay?”

“Yes, sir!” Pete said, standing at attention, which drew a laugh from everyone.

They had been going on with the chores when a knock came from the lobby front door before it opened and a head peeked inside.

“Hello?” The voice was soft and shy. “Is there anyone here?”

Pete went to the door to find Jenn Rhodes standing at the entrance.

“Jenn! Wait, don't tell me. You've come to help?”

“Well,” she said smiling shyly. "I was passing by and saw your car and decided to ask if you needed any help."

The conversation had drawn the others to the foyer. Jenn noticed them.

“Oh. Seems like you have lots of help already,” she seemed to grow smaller as she spoke.

“Not a thing as too many people, when it comes to cleaning. Would you mind helping... Emily check the drinks from last night?”

The girl nodded and moved to where Emily stood, raising a hand at her.

They met Lily at Joey’s, Cedar Falls coffeehouse and teenager meeting point, after finishing the cleaning. Ethan had excused himself claiming he had to go to practice, and Jenn had said she had to go home so there were only four friends around the white plastic table.

“Are you telling me that Mr. Star Football player was on clean-up duty and I wasn’t there to see it?” Lily’s voice left implicit that she also meant something else. Something on the lines of and I wasn’t there to tease him about it. “Wait,” she turned to Pete. “Was that why you didn’t want me to go help when I texted you?”

“I know that you two don’t get along and honestly I didn’t want the drama of dealing with both of you bickering,” he gave his friend an unapologetic shrug, who threw a ketchup packet at him. “But into more interesting things. What did Morrison give you?”

This is it for now, but as I said I expect to have a new chapter out this week so we are back on track.

I’ll be waiting for your feedback as I always do.

Until next time,

M.

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Spilled Ink #13

INTRO

Welcome, welcome, welcome! To this week’s issue of Spilled Ink, Nightmare Ink, and Miguel Gonçalves, official newsletter. How did this past week treat you?

Mine was ten days long. Not an exaggeration either. I only had a day off from my “real life” work and on that same day I started at 10 pm for a night shift so does it really count as a day off? I did all kinds of shifts too, which completely messed up my internal clock. There was a day or two that I didn’t know if I was in today, yesterday, or tomorrow.

Even, with all of that, I managed to do some writing and outline some new ideas, but I also missed deadlines, all of which I’ll talk about in the next session of the newsletter.

As Intros go this is a short one, so let’s move on to what you really want to read.

WRITING UPDATES

I started outlining a new story which I’m calling Project: Cup but at the moment it’s just a very rough idea and I did it mostly so I won’t forget what I want it to be about and to streamline some ideas. This will probably be that project in which I’ll do one thing or another while in between projects or when I have a blockage on the story I’m currently working on.

I wrote a small intro for a collaborative project, currently going by Project: Mud, mostly so the other writer could see what I had in mind and I got good feedback from him. I’m not revealing names for now but I think this will be a fun project if nothing else for the experience of working with someone else.

There’s another project that has been on my mind that I wanted to see something done with, but I don’t have enough on it for now. I’ll put that one on the waiting list and see what happens. All I can say is that it’s something I haven’t ventured myself with a lot.

Apart from those, this week has been dedicated, as most past weeks have been, to The Haunting of Blackwood Manor. I’ve got a solid chapter and a quarter of another, but I missed the deadline for the release of Chapter VII in Nightmare Ink Presents issue 8 and now I have too much to launch two chapters in a week, as it would mean a longer email which might be boring for some people. What do you think? I’ve been thinking about the options I have, one of which was two issues of NI Presents this next week. What do you think?

I’ll leave you with an excerpt of Chapter VIII:

““But tell me, Alex and Emily, how is life at the Manor?” His face seemed to have darkened a bit as he changed the subject, all the joviality drained from him and being replaced by a harsh seriousness.
“Not bad, we are still settling in, and we still have lots to get done. But the place is treating us well,” Emily tried to put aside her bad dreams as she answered, trying hard so her face didn’t betray her words.
“That good, ah?” he looked from Emily to her silent brother, his face almost hidden in darkness, eyes fixing on the boy. “Is it treating you well too, Alex? Nothing to say about that house? Nothing at all?”
“Nothing,” Alex was balling his hand behind his back trying not to shake. “Treating as well.”
“Oh, that’s good,” his demeanor had changed again, and it seemed that the heaviness in the room had been lifted.”

BOOK REPORT

I’ve finally finished Spin a Black Yarn by Josh Malerman. This one took a bit more than I wanted because I hardly had the time to pick it up. The stories were all good even if I liked some better than others. What I really liked about this book is the world-building and creation that Malerman does. He did the same with Goblin, the only other book by in I’ve read, creating a city through various stories and its characters. I think that Goblin, as a town, calls more to me than Samhattan, the town featured in Spin a Black Yarn, but the characters in Samhattan are without a doubt closer to my own and the type of character I feel drawn to. Or a least I think they are.

I won’t tell anything about the stories presented in the book, they are better if you go in without knowing anything. But I’ll tell you it’s worth the time and, if you’re like me, you’ll enjoy this one. I’ll also make sure to read more Malerman in the future and I already have my sights on the next book by him I want to read.

This said I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to read next. I have some choices lined up but I’m still trying to figure out my mood. As of today, the choices are:

You don’t need to vote but you can if you will. I just won’t guarantee I’ll read what most of you choose, but I’ll definitely take your advice into consideration.

PULL LIST

I’ve been to the comic store this week, well I go there every week and sometimes more than once a week but this time they had the new orders ready so I got some books. And you know what that means! I’ve read a lot of comics, and now you get to hear me (read me?) talk about them!

Bunn, Bunn, Buuuunn! You should have read this as Mozart’s Symphony No. 5 symphony beginning. If you haven’t, go back and do it now. Done? Ok, let’s go. I’ve read the three monthly Cullen Bunn series I’m currently buying one after the other and I can’t say which one I’m enjoying the most.

Invasive is starting to unravel its secrets bit by bit, like taking the sutures out of a wound weeks after surgery which is a good analogy if we take in stride that this one is a body horror story about surgery and body modification addiction.

Ghostlore is finally pitting the opposing sides in the “ghost war” against each other and the first shots have been fired. I’m really invested in this one and I think that there’s still a lot of (ghost)lore to be explored and I can’t wait to see what Bunn will do with it.

Just three issues to go on A Legacy of Violence, the other Bunn medical horror story, one that has been keeping me on my toes from the beginning. In all honesty, it’s been practically impossible to know what’s going to happen next and I’m loving that feeling. The uncertainty, the expectations, the dread. I adore feeling like this at the end of a book.

This one was one I picked up on a whim mostly because of Peach Momoko’s amazing cover (that’s the first one you can see below). Gumaa is a South Korean comic written by Jee-Hyung Lee, who also divides the artist spot with Nabetse Zitro. The story is a mixture of urban fantasy and crime, with a woman who uses dark magic to fight a drug cartel, taking center stage in the story. I still have mixed feelings about the art and colors on this one but the story is fun to read and I’m enjoying it.

Jeff Lemire’s and Andrea Sorrentino’s latest installment of The Bone Orchard Mythos is reaching its final leg with only two issues to go. Tenement for me has been my favorite of all the Bone Orchard Mythos books and this last issue just made it even better. As a whole, this title has everything: mystery, horror, compassion, and betrayal. It also delves deeper into the mythology that encompasses the series than any of the previous ones, and I’m eating it up line, hook, and sinker. I just can’t wait for the next chapters and for the next series to see how the overall story will unfold.

Universal Monsters: Dracula has reached its conclusion and I have to say that James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds did an incredible job on this one. The story while for the most part following along the lines everyone by now knows, was still fresh and interesting mostly due to Tynion’s writing that has that hypnotic effect not unlike the title character’s power. This effect is elevated to even higher heights by Simmonds’ art, which makes you follow along the story and will make you give yourself completely to the page. When you get to the end of the comic, or even worse the story, you’ll find yourself yearning for more, once again like you would for the title character. This series is Dracula turned to paper and ink (and yes Dracula has always been paper and ink, but this one feels special). Pick it up if you can. You won’t regret it. To finish, this was a good start to the Universal Monsters comic franchise but it raised the bar very high to the following ones. Let’s see how they fare.

The counterpart to Ram V’s The One Hand is out and I might say that this is one of the most interesting projects I’ve seen in some time, and it makes me try something like it. If in The One Hand we had Detective Johannes’s side of the story, in The Six Fingers, by Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar, we finally get to see the killer’s side. I really enjoyed the story on this one not only because of the way it complements its “twin” title but because it makes us go deeper into the story of the killer than if it had to divide pages with the investigation part. I think that from now on I’ll wait for having read both titles and talk about them in the same newsletter.

Here are some comparisons between both titles:

The “same” scenes on The One Hand (left) and The Six Fingers (right)ON-SCREEN

I’ll be rewatching some of the X-Men: TAS in preparation for X-Men ‘97. I wanted to review the five seasons but I don’t know if I’ll be able to. Probably just going to look for a best episodes or which episodes to watch online and just go with those.

I’ve watched a couple of episodes of the new Law & Order: SVU season, and that was it for this week.

Still haven’t got around to watching the movies I wanted, though.

PLAYLIST

On the playlist this week was, to no one surprise, Lore. I’m almost getting up to date with that one and I’ll need a new podcast soon. If you have any suggestions just send them my way.

Also, one of the episodes gave me what might be a fun story to play around with. Let’s see what comes out of it.

THINGS I’M HYPED ABOUT

I’ve been having ups and downs when it comes to my Secret Book Project but I’m still very hyped about it in general.

I also decided to embark on a couple of other projects that are way up in the hype scale.

More on everything as soon as I can.

LAST WORDS

This is it for this week, and we’ll meet again soon.

I’ll leave you with a part of Josh Malerman’s Afterword on Spin a Black Yarn. As I read it I decided I’ll have to be more like this instead of thinking that stuff might not happen and that I’m just fooling myself.

So, celebrate what you have, those little victories that we, as humans, overlook most of the time, and enjoy every moment of your creativity and life.

Tell me your thoughts on this week’s Spilled Ink and make sure to be back next week. If you can, tell a friend to join you here too.

Until then, let the ink of nightmares flow.

Thanks for reading Nightmare Ink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Spilled Ink #12

INTRO

Hello everyone! Welcome to another issue of Spilled Ink. I have a lot to unpack in this intro… So, sorry in advance, and let’s get to it!

The first thing I want to tackle here is that I’m disappointed with all of you who follow this newsletter and the Nightmare Ink Presents one. Kidding. The one I’m disappointed with is myself. Why, you ask? Well, because in the middle of a chapter, I messed up and changed the name of a character. Not only that, I kept using the name for a whole other chapter, returning to the correct name in a later one.

I only noticed it because as I was writing the latest chapter I was like wait, that’s not his name, is it? and it wasn’t. I don’t know if any of you noticed that error, the names are pretty similar: Mark and Matt. But there’s a reason for me to have made that mistake. The character's surname is Smith and as I write it I’m always reminded of the Eleventh Doctor actor, Matt Smith. But I ask of you if you see anything like that or anything you perceive as an error on my part, just tell me. I won’t be mad, what I will be is forever grateful. And glad you like my stuff to the point you call me out when you think I messed up.

That said, I will take care of the error in a day or two and this entry will have no reason to exist. You can read the story so far here:

Chapters I & II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

The second thing is a bit more personal.

I’m not the best people person you might come to know. I only say this because I finally got to meet one of the people who really liked “The Scarecrow Man” and my writing and I was at a loss as to what to say and fumbled over my words and must have come out as a babbling baboon. So, if you ever meet me just keep that in mind. I truly appreciate all of you guys. I’m just getting used to all of this. And let’s hope the person in question didn’t take it personally.

And to finish this intro, I just wanted to say that “The Scarecrow Man” is available to buy at the Gorila Sentado space at the Bedeteca do Porto. You can find it in the amazing company of “Sweet Wind” and “In the Dust of Our Planet”. There are also some Nightmare Ink Samplers 2024 available too.

“The Scarecrow Man” in display at the Gorila Sentado space at the Bedeteca

This is all for the Intro, let’s get to the stuff that really matters!

WRITING UPDATES

I decided that I should share a bit of how I plan my work, so let me break down how my writing schedule has been in the last weeks, please take it in stride that this is influenced by my “work” schedule and other stuff I might have going on, after all, I need a bit of social life.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are mostly for The Haunting of Blackwood Manor, usually, I try to write the bulk of that week's chapter on Tuesday, with Wednesday being reserved for edits and some fine-tuning. Or sometimes, for Ultimate Deletion and a total rewrite of the chapter.

Saturdays and Sundays are for Spilled Ink, only it’s more of a write-what-you-can without any of it being planned and completely written out of order (this week this is the first section I’ve written for the newsletter).

On Mondays I try to rest or to plan for the coming week, mostly concerning myself with Blackwood Manor or Other Projects.

Thursdays and Fridays are for the above-mentioned Other Projects, of which I have plenty, and there are still more ideas I want to work on. And this is the point where I wanted to arrive at with all this talk.

At this moment I have these “parallel” projects:

Project: Shovel - a short story that started as a goofy idea and that might have turned serious, part of which is already written. This will be more thriller and atmospheric, than straight-up horror.

Project: Mirror - a fairy tale retelling, the name might be a giveaway but I have a twist that might be fun. This one will require a bit of research.

Project: Kids - one of my dearest projects and the one I might be working on the longest. It is now on its third iteration, as I wasn’t satisfied with what I had written. In this form, I have a chapter of it ready. It will mix two themes I like a lot, one being a contemporary legend / urban myth.

Project: Legacy - a three-story series following a family of witches, each set in a different year. I used to imagine this one set in a place very similar to where I live and parts of that setting are still in it. Something in the vein of the Fear Street Netflix series. I already have the outline for the all series and already have some lines for the first story.

Project: Video - this one is paranormal horror and it’s my only work in progress that I’m writing in Portuguese. This is kind of being made for a specific purpose and it might end up having a spin-off.

Project: Drop - one of those ideas I really want to do but don’t really know how because I have a very specific idea of how I want to do it. But I truly like what I have in mind for it.

Apart from these, I also have what I usually refer to as Secret Projects. These are projects that are in different phases of development:

Unnamed Project - a collaboration with another writer. We are still working on the kinks on this one and deciding on what this will be. But, and if he’s reading this newsletter it will also be a surprise for him, I’ve already written around 600 words of a proto-first chapter for it. It’s planned as a Noir story, but what road we will follow is still unknown.

Project: Salvation and Project: Block - two short stories that are already written but to which I’m trying to give a new lease on life. Possibly involving other mediums that I had never tried before.

New Book Project - although this one already has a name I will only reveal it later on. But it will be a compilation of various stories that I plan to do something special with. I already talked with some people about this one and I have great hopes about it.

A lot of these projects are part of a shared world where I wanted to set my stories, about this, I will only say that it mostly will be soft references and “callbacks” and that the stories may not be published linearly, so you can have a reference in a story to something that is not published yet, or not even written.

In between there are also submission calls I want to submit to, and there will probably be other projects I’ll end up adding to the list. Ideas never stop right?

Since I talked about submission calls, and I don’t remember if I touched this subject before, I got my first submission answer and unfortunately, my story wasn’t chosen to be part of it.

On the other hand, I was invited to have one of my other stories as part of a new anthology. I can’t divulge much at the moment. As soon as I can you’ll be the first to know!

I know I’m probably forgetting something, but we have always next week, right?

This week I also tried to get out of the house to write. I used to do this a lot and write in cafes or at Starbucks, but this time I decided to go to the Gorila Sentado space at the Bedeteca do Porto, which opened last week. It was great to have a place to write without all the distractions of home. That and I had the company of my friend Daniel da Silva Lopes (who’s the brains behind Gorila Sentado) and it’s always easier to create when the people around are invested in creating something too.

Here’s a picture of my setup for that day, and a peek at Daniel's work too.BOOK REPORT

PULL LIST

I read less comics than I wanted this week. But I read Manga, which is something that I haven’t done in a long time. I’m thinking about start reading more of those too. So let me guide you through what I read this week.

The manga I read was Steel of the Celestial Shadows v01. It’s about a man who can’t touch metal and whom metal can’t touch. It seems good in theory but not if you’re a samurai who can’t wield a sword. Things take a turn to the weird side when a woman arrives saying she wants to marry him. After that, this turns into a samurai / supernatural story and I’m curious to know which route will take.

In comics, I read issues 1 and 2 of Mortal Terror, a different take on the story of Jonathan and Mina Harker, and Lucy Westenra. It plays with the idea that mortals are the true monsters and that they want to destroy the vampiric civilization which as to hide itself not only from the sun but also from the savage mortals that roam the world. This one was an interesting read and I want to see where Christopher Golden will take his narrative. Tim Lebbon’s art, which at times takes you back to the Hellboy universe, also helps to elevate the book to a higher standing.

Ram V’s The One Hand is one of the projects I was more excited to read and it didn’t disappoint. A detective story set in the future but that maintains its story well grounded in the noir genre, due also to Laurence Campbell and Lee Loughridge’s art and colors, respectively. It centers around a near-retired police detective who just gets a case to track down a killer he is very familiar with, a killer he already tracked down twice before. This one is part of a two comic book storyline, the Detective side of the story being told in The One Hand and the Killer side on The Six Fingers.

ON-SCREEN

I have only been rewatching The Legend of Vox Machina and mostly it’s been a twenty-something minutes episode per day…

I’ll leave you a “best moments from season one” video I found on youtube.

I still have to watch Talk to Me and I was told to watch the Terrifier franchise. I truly hope to get more time to watch stuff.

PLAYLIST

Decided to take a break from Lore and spent a couple of days listening to something that is not really what I usually listen to.

Due to a post on Instagram, I got hooked on a country song, and from there I fell down a rabbit hole that got me lost for three or four days on a Country music extravaganza.

And for your pleasure, I’ll share with you the song that lived rent-free in my head this past week.

THINGS I’M HYPED ABOUT

To be honest, I’m hyped about how I have been in such a productive mindset and about how I’ve been trying to bring so many things onto the page even if only to have an outlet for all the ideas swirling around my head.

And, of course, seeing the projects evolving is also a hype-inducing situation (even if sometimes it can be hard to see that evolution).

The invitation for the anthology also got me hyped, and I can’t wait to see which other authors will be part of it. Although I’m sure I’ll be in great company.

LAST WORDS

This is it for today, and sorry for it being such a long one, as I feel I have already taken more time than I should have from you.

Tell me things. Did you catch the mistake with the names? Which projects do you want to know more about and which ones do you think you’ll be more interested in?As always I want to know what you think.

I hope you have a nice week and see you in the next issue.

Until then, let the ink of nightmares flow.

Thanks for reading Nightmare Ink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Nightmare Ink Presents Issue 6

Hi everyone,

Due to a lot of stuff, I had to delay the release of this issue of Nightmare Ink Presents but it’s finally here and I won’t take any more of your time!

The Haunting of Blackwood Manor Chapter VII - Otherworldly Frights

“So, Lily,” Sarah asked the girl as she served her some scrambled eggs from the pan her husband had just passed to her. “What brings you here so early?”

They had invited her for breakfast, which she at first refused but ended up accepting.

Lily retold to the whole Smith ensemble the reason for her being there, just as she had done to Alex on their way to the house.

From the stove where he was now flipping some pancakes, Mark anticipated his wife's line of thought.

“Sound logic, getting a ride to come this far, but…” he looked at the table from over his shoulder. “What would you do if you hadn’t found Alex on his run?”

Lily pondered her answer for a while.

“I would wait around. Maybe go on a walk a bit further down the path,” she paused to eat a bite of her eggs. “Of course, I wouldn’t stand at the front door like a creepy stalker waiting until I saw movement inside.”

Something in the way she had said the last sentence made everyone else at the table think that that would be exactly what she would have done. A shiver went up their spine as each one individually imagined looking out of a window and seeing a girl standing in the hazy morning light. Imagining how that vision would play with their newly arising fears.

“I’ll admit I haven’t planned that much in advance. But I met Alex and everything turned out alright,” she gave them a smile that lifted all the uneasiness away.

“And how were you thinking of getting back to town? Or will you walk?” This time it was Emily asking the question, an air of true curiosity on her face.

As if prompted by the question a loud, pressing, hard knock came from the front door. Lily jumped in her chair, exhaling a hushed fuck.

Mark got up and went to the front door, Sarah following him but staying at the edge of the kitchen door, motioning for the kids to stay in their places. The three teenagers still around the table could hear a hushed conversation coming from the entrance. After Mark passed by his wife giving her a reassuring smile, following him was another man, he looked a bit distraught, eyes darting to every corner of the rooms he passed by, as if looking for something in the shadows.

“Honey, this is Ollie Evergreen. Ollie, my wife, Sarah.”

Ollie extended his hand to Sarah who took it.

“That’s Alex, who you already know, and that´s Emily,” he said pointing at his son and daughter. “And I think you know who the girl sitting in between them is,” he smiled jokingly as he finished the sentence. Ollie was going to say something but was cut off by his daughter.

“Sorry, Dad. I totally lost track of time, I didn’t meant to.”

“I’m sure your dad understands. When we were more or less your age, we lost track of time more often than not.”

While her husband was talking Sarah offered Ollie breakfast but he politely declined, saying that he was good.

“And it’s okay, Lily,” he said to his daughter, his voice a bit coarse and low. “I just wished you would have told me where you were. Always glued to your cell phone but never for what matters.”

Outside, near the parked Evergreen’s pick-up, plans were made for later in the day, the kids would go for to the Marquis for the screening and the parents would have a quiet dinner.

As the pick-up left the Smith’s driveway, Ollie glanced through the rearview mirror at the manor house getting smaller in the distance.

“I was chilled,” he muttered under his breath. “Didn’t you notice the cold, Lil?”

His daughter looked at him, a puzzled look on her face.

“Not really, dad. I didn’t feel anything. Are you okay, Dad?”

Ollie muttered a half-hearted yes and then they drove home in silence.

A few hours later the Smiths were ringing the doorbell on the Evergreen’s two-story house.

Lily opened the door screaming that the Smiths had arrived and that they were in the living room before grabbing Emily’s wrist and dragging the other girl to her room.

“So, which one do I wear?”

Lily looked from Emily to the three outfit combinations she had laid on top of her bed.

“The goal of the outfit being?” Emily asked back to what seemed to be her new friend.

“Well, most of all to let Ethan Hayes see what he’s missing,” Lily sat on the bed and looked Emily in the eyes. “It’s not I’m interested in him, I just want to make him wonder.”

“Oh, I think we can certainly do something about that. Let’s see…” Emily smiled slyly at Lily as both started raiding the drawers and closets. In the less than half an hour they took to prepare, Emily borrowing one or two of Lily accessories, Lily gave a roundup of everyone they would meet later that night.

As they got down the stairs both girls could hear their parents talking to each other, their mothers off to the side talking about art, and their fathers and Alex talking about sports most likely. The moment they were noticed at the foot of the stairs, their mothers rushed to them complementing their make-up and choices of clothing, their fathers on the other hand complained that maybe so much production was a bit too much for just a night at the movies. Alex remained, still and silent, as he watched Lily, loose blond hair and a white flowy summer dress, get to the landing. She looked, in comparison to all the experiences he had had since coming to Cedar Falls, like an angel. He sensed something aimed at him just to notice his sister's gaze piercing a hole in his forehead. She moved closer to him.

“You okay, dufus?” She asked, her voice low so no one else would notice.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m good,” Alex told her, eyes still fixed on Lily.

They got out of the house, bags of food prepared by Lily’s mom in their hands, to their parents shouting the usual stream of advice at them, which they knew the kids would probably ignore.

Lily had downplayed the Marquis. That was the thought on Alex and Emily’s mind when they got to the movie theatre. It was one of those old places with a white marquee where black block letters would be put to announce the movie playing at the time which at the moment stood blank, a central glass booth at the middle of the entrance where tickets were one time sold if they were still not. The Smith kids stand in awe of such a place, coming from multiplex-land where all was the same wherever they went.

Alex was the first to speak.

“Do they still screen movies here?”

“Oh yeah, not that many though. But Mrs. Henessey, she’s the owner, tries to keep the theatre working and let us use it in exchange for some help around it,” she looked at Alex. “She’s Pete’s aunt, which also helps. Oh, you’ll like Pete, Em. He’s a horror nerd too,” she said the word in a non-judgemental way, after all, she was also one of them.

As if he had been listening through the glass door, atop the stairs behind the ticket booth, that now opened Pete appeared.

“Welcome, friends old and new to another OF, that’s Otherworldly Frights for you plebes, presentation!” He made grandiose moves and tried to project his voice. “May your mind be fractured, and your spirit shaken!”

Alex looked at the guy at a loss, Emily and Lily just bursting into laughter.

“Oh man, this is a first,” Lily was able to say in between laughs. “Guess he is trying to put a show for you two. Nice first impression.”

“Really? And OF was the only thing he was able to come with?”

The four teenagers burst into laughter as Pete’s head wrapped itself around the situation.

“To be honest I had never said that out loud before. But a movie club needs a name and that’s the one I’m sticking with. Name’s Pete. You must be Emily. Your brother didn’t tell me you were so beautiful.”

“I just told you she liked horror…” Alex said.

“Well, she is.”

“Let’s get inside before Pete tells us that to get in, we’ll have to make an account on his OF club,” Emily said turning to Lily and both girls walked into the Marquis foyer.

Pete punched Alex’s shoulder.

“I know she was sister but she’s feisty. I like it.”

“You do? You can keep her man. I’ve been putting up with her for seventeen long years.”

“Oh… maybe I will. Just remember you told me too.”

“And I’ll also tell you good luck with that,” Alex said pointing at her sister as both boys followed the girls’ steps into the theatre.

The foyer had half a dozen people waiting inside, Lily and Pete introduced the Smiths to everyone, including Ethan Hayes that stood mouth agape when Lily passed him by just giving a side glance while saying to Emily that’s Ethan Hayes star football player to which Emily, doing her best resting bitch face, make a quick nod and walked by. The Otherworldly Frights movie club had been created as a pet project by Pete and his love for movies. It had started as a small gathering for friends in Pete’s aunt's basement, but as he got older Pete asked her aunt if he could start using the old theatre to which she had said yes. The group had grown bigger but always remained a close unit mostly because they usually only screened horror and sci-fi.

“I choose a very special movie for tonight. I know it will probably be very hard for some of you,” he glanced at Ethan, “because it’s subtitled but I checked and there are no hard words so everyone should be okay.”

Everyone laughed, even Ethan.

“So, let’s get inside and bask in the harrowing, dark, and atmospheric horror that is the 1960 Mario Bava masterpiece Black Sunday or in the original Italian La Maschera del Demonio.”

“He was doing good…” Emily muttered to Lily as they entered the screening room. “Until he tried the Italian…” Both girls tried hard not to giggle as the movie started.

After the movie ended, they gathered again in the foyer eating and discussing the movie, the techniques used, the storylines and plot, and how if a remake was made now, it wouldn’t hold a candle to what they had just seen even with all the CGI and effects of today, or maybe because of that. There were also comments about Barbara Steele and on how she was a horror powerhouse and that there was no other Scream Queen who could get to her level, which caused a discussion about Jamie Lee and how Jenny Ortega and Mia Goth were already on top of their game as their generation horror first ladies and how they still had a whole career in front of them. In the middle of all that a cry of “and she was hot, why are all scream queens hot” which sent a round of laughter around the room.

When the food was gone and the discussion ended, they all went their way, Pete telling them not to worry and that he would take care of cleaning the following morning.

“It wasn’t a half-bad night, was it?” Emily asked her brother as the family drove home from the Evergreen’s house.

“You kidding? It was great,” he looked at his sister. “Know what, Em? I think we’ll be okay here.”

His sister nodded at him and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Even with everything thing that’s happening to me,” he thought to himself.

This is it for the week. Once again sorry for the delay.

I hope to hear from all of you and most of all, I hope you are enjoying my little tale.

See you in a week, hopefully on schedule, take care.

M.

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Spilled Ink #11

INTRO

Hello everyone and welcome to Spilled Ink!

As you might know, I attended Mercado do Contra yesterday (if you are reading this newsletter the day it came out). It was my first time as an official guest at a market and it was a nice experience, even if when it came to sales it wasn’t that great…

My table at Mercado do Contra

Despite that, I met some amazing people, some of whom I have been talking to for some time but haven’t met in person, made some new contacts, renewed old ones, and discovered some great projects.

Some of the people I met I expect to collaborate with them soon, in one form or another, too. So it was a good opportunity for me as a writer and for NI as an imprint.

And I had a blast attending the market and had a great fun time there, so there’s also that. We have, for the most part, a great community of creators here in Portugal and it’s amazing when we all can be together.

And I also got some nice stuff. Let’s go through it quickly, shall we?

A Little Girl by André Caetano, is a little book about a girl going through the forest. It has no text so it leaves part of the story to the reader to interpret and make its own. This also came with a postcard and a map and André even threw in a print! I truly can’t wait to start reading this one.

Planeta Satélite #2 by Ricardo Baptista, I told Ricardo to choose one of the books he had for sale for me to get. He explained to me what they were about and we settled for this one. Probably this will be the next one I’ll read. But I can’t wait to see the adventures of Inspector Fagundes in print.

Sonora, witten by Marco Fraga da Silva and illustrated by Rafael Antunes. This is an interesting one as it’s just plain text with just some illustrations throughout it. Something that looks right up my alley. Marco is also the author of Uluru, one of the portuguese comic projects I really want to read.

A Chave Adormecida (The Sleeping Key), by Miguel Lázaro, is a fantasy comic book that draws its inspiration from some of the genre tropes and mixes it with aspects from some fairy tales. This one I read and I kind of liked the overall idea of the story and want to see what the author will do next with this world.

Free Lance by Diogo Carvalho, is a book I wanted to get for quite some time mostly because of it being from Diogo. As he was at the market yesterday, I took that as a sign and got it! This one is also fantasy, although this one is about a sellsword.

Last, but definitely not least, is Sweet Wind #2 by Daniel da Silva Lopes, who by now is a name known to all of you. This issue continues the adventureof our hero, while he wanders towards his destination. I really like the art in this one especially a double-page spread that Daniel made into the postcard you can see at the bottom of the photo. And did I mention the gorgeous print??

It was also the first time I had the Nightmare Ink Sampler 2024 available to the public and I think people enjoyed it. I’m really proud of the work that we did with that one.

The Sampler is also available to buy in the NI Ko-fi shop. It will be free with any other purchase and I’m thinking if I should make it available as a pay-what-you-want pdf, but I’m not sure yes. But, especially for you who have been keeping up with me here, I’ll make the PDF available for download below. Hope you like it.

Nightmare Ink Sampler2.24MB ∙ PDF fileDownloadDownload

And now to other matters!

WRITING UPDATES

I’ve been elbow-deep with preparations for the market so writing was slow this week.

I planned a bit of the next chapter for Blackwood Manor, but you know how plans and I get along so it doesn’t mean anything…

This week I’ll start working full speed on my next book project, one of the Secret Projects I talk about sometimes, that will be a bit different from what I usually do, at least in a way. What I can tell you is that it will involve various parts until it reaches its final form and I’m a little scared, to be honest. Hopefully, I will be able to tell you something more about it soon.

I also wrote two paragraphs of a new story that I’m still not sure how it will go, and maybe it will be one of two stories that tell different parts of the same story. Let’s see how that one goes but I think that it might be a fun one if I manage to write it. And it’s one of the only stories I’m writing from scratch in Portuguese.

BOOK REPORT

I made little progress on the book I was reading and failed to finish it this week as I said I would in the last newsletter… I’m really sorry I haven’t finished it yet, mostly because the story I’m in is one of the best vengeance stories I have read.

I’ll try to do it this week, I promise.

PULL LIST

On the comic side of things, I only managed to read some X-Men-related titles, so I won’t bother you a lot with this one this week too.

Funny that on the day I go to the comic book store this section is always gigantic, isn’t it?

ON-SCREEN

I know, I know… It wasn’t this week that I watched anything I said I would…

Except the other day I woke up in the middle of the night and rewatched a couple of The Legend of Vox Machina until I fell asleep again.

That counts as something, right?

PLAYLIST

I’ve been listening to a Portuguese YouTube channel while I write, and I know it’s strange to just listen to a YouTube channel, but bear with me.

Histórias de Terror PT is a Portuguese channel that narrates original horror stories and other paranormal reports. It’s really enjoyable to hear to and it can scare the hell out of you at times. You can find it here, the only thing is that it’s in Portuguese…

THINGS I’M HYPED ABOUT

Even in the aftermath of Mercado do Contra, I’m really wanting to dive in full in all my projects, especially the secret one. I think it will be one of the most ambitious things I have done up until now.

LAST WORDS

So, this is it for today. It was a smaller newsletter overall except for the intro where I ramble a bit, and for that I’m sorry… Kind of.

I’ll be waiting to hear from you in the comments as always and to know what you thought of all the things I shared.

You can also scold me for my lack of reading and watching stuff if you want… Maybe then I’ll force myself to do it.

And now to prepare myself for Super Bowl! And sorry in advance if you are a Chiefs or 49s fan, but none of the teams area favourite of mine but I’ll watch it anyway…

See you next week and until then, let the ink of nightmares flow.

Thanks for reading Nightmare Ink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Nightmare Ink Presents Issue 5

Welcome back to Nightmare Ink Presents.

This one is a bit later than usual but here it is, so I won’t take any more of your time and will let you dive into the newest chapter of our story.

The Haunting of Blackwood Manor Chapter VI - Morning Chill

Emily left her room as soon as she saw the first rays shining through the windows. She hadn't been able to fall asleep again after awakening to the strange sound, her eyes locked in the place where the wallpaper had been peeling, waiting for it to happen again. But, it hadn't. Mostly because there was no wallpaper surrounding her, just grey walls waiting for a new coat of paint.

Before leaving her room, she thought about picking up "The Killer Within" but decided against it. She just wasn't feeling it. She ended up picking "Tress of the Emerald Sea" instead. Fantasy would be a better fit for today. Sanderson would find a way to fuck her up but at least it wouldn't haunt her at night. As she came to the stairs, she noticed movement in her brother's room but kept moving on, descending them two steps at a time.

As she got to the foot of the stairs, she started making her way to her usual reading spot but decided against it, the memory of when she had fallen asleep there on their first day at the house suddenly too vivid in her mind. She decided to go outside and sit on the porch bench. It was a chilly morning, the sun not yet high in the sky and so Emily pulled herself under the blanket that rested in a basket under the bench, its soft wool comforting her. She looked in the distance towards the edge of the woods to her right, the sun rising behind the canopy of the trees. She looked at the green on the cover of her book and opened it.

Matt and Sarah came downstairs together, laughing.

At first, Sarah didn’t want to get out of bed, but her husband teased her until she relented, but not before throwing a pillow at him.

“So, Mister,” she opened the curtains letting the sun come into the room,  the last drops of dew evaporating from the window sill. As she did, she saw Alex in the distance, where the path to the forest started. “I got out of bed as you wanted, what do I get in return?” She continued, hugging her husband from behind, her hands sliding down his chest and past his starting-to-appear beer belly.

“I’ll make you breakfast,” Matt said without missing a bit, turning to her. “It’s my best offer.”

Sarah pouted and Matt laughed, before planting a kiss on her lips.

“Now get dressed and let’s go downstairs.”

As they both did, the dreams and wander of last night, at least for now, were the last thing on their mind.

Alex had just awoken when he heard his sister get down the stairs.

After some time, he had finally been able to fall asleep but was surprised to awake in the same position he had when he had been roused from the nightmare as if his body knew better than to roll over to the other side of the bed. He didn’t feel rested, but he needed to move. That was the way coped with the bad things in his life. Which had started as a hobby, and later became the basis of his school life, was now an outlet. And so, he ran, not away but just enough to leave his ghosts behind. And that worked for him, at least until the moment he stopped.

He sprinted down the stairs, through the kitchen, and out of the back door barely noticing his sister, almost mid-book by now, curled in the bench. He lifted a hand in her direction and greeted her with a Hey, goblin! Before going down the porch stairs, missing the raised finger she gave to his back taking care not to lose the page she was at.

He started through the yard as he usually did but as he reached the path to the forest he stopped. Just the idea of going down the path he had gone in his dream filled him with an overwhelming feeling of dread. So, he turned and made his way to the main road. After, a while his earphones died and he cursed himself for not checking their charge last night. He thought of turning back and cutting the run short, but the morning was serene, the sun a quarter of his way up in the sky and the chirping of birds was inviting so he decided to keep going.

He had been making his return run home, after going a bit more than half an hour down the road when he heard a faint sound behind him. He ignored it, rationalizing that, in this kind of place there was always a noise or another. Even so, a bead of cold sweat ran through his body mixing with the sweat from the run. He kept on running and as he did the noise became constant, and faster as he pushed his muscles harder. He wanted to look behind him, to see whatever was making that sound. But he didn’t dare, he knew what he would see if he looked, he was sure of that. He also knew that he could keep on running but he would have to stop sometime, and wouldn’t it be better to face his ghosts sooner than later? “Yeah, it would,” he thought. “Just not today,” he almost said out loud when he heard a voice calling his name. But there was something different with the voice. It was not the voice he was expecting to hear calling him. Definitely not the voice he had heard in his dreams. Not Addie’s voice. He glanced behind him, quickly and saw a figure lifting an arm and waving at him. At first, he didn’t recognize whoever it was but after a second a name formed in his head, Lily Evergreen.

“My father went to get some supplies for the store and I asked him to leave me nearby so I could come meet you,” Lily had offered when Alex asked her what she was doing so far out of town on foot at this time of the morning, but not before she had given him a huffing Dude I’ve been running and calling after you like crazy didn’t you hear me.

They were making their way back to the manor as they spoke.

“And you wanted to meet me because?” Alex asked in return.

“Duh, first we fumbled all of the twenty-first-century conventions and didn’t exchange socials at the very least, so if I wanted to ask you and your sister to come to, for example, attend a special session at the Marquis the only way I had to do that was coming to the Manor. And that’s what I did. And about the time, well, I wasn’t going to walk all the way here, right? So, I hopped at the chance to get a ride from Dad.”

They were now halfway to the house and Alex was weighing all the information on his head.

“Sorry, for not answering right away, I was a bit lost inside my head.”

“Lost? You seemed to be running from a ghost when I called you,” she must have noticed something change in Alex's demeanor because she stopped herself. “But everything ok now, so no biggie.”

“So, what’s the Marquis?” Alex asked looking at her.

“Oh boy… So…” and she kept on talking until they reached the house.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope to see you here again when we return next week for another exciting (?) chapter.

As always we at Nightmare Ink await your comments. Also, we would like to know what you think of the story in its entirety and what you expect from it. We want to know it all.

See in a week,

M.