Fiction, Florida, and the Crickets

The Proud Boomer Dispatch

Episode Overview In this episode, we dive into the chilling short story “The Sweetest Mouth” by John Harris. We explore the terrifying concept of a supernatural entity that moves effortlessly through the physical world to feed on a highly specific and abstract diet: human faith. We unpack the story’s tense climax, the horrifying implications of unanswered prayers, and the dark irony of a monster drawn to the very prayers meant to ward it off. Key Themes & Highlights * The Anatomy of a Monster: We discuss the nameless creature’s ability to move through walls like water and how it perceives human time as an uncompelling invention. * The Taste of Faith: An exploration of how the entity categorizes different prayers as literal flavors. We break down why it finds the “grief-prayers” bitter and the “furious bargaining prayers” of the desperate tainted by disbelief. * The “Protection” Vintage: We analyze the core horror of the story—why the creature considers a child’s pure, unbroken prayer of “Keep me safe” to be the sweetest and most exquisite meal of all. * The Confrontation: A dramatic breakdown of the story’s climax, where a nine- or ten-year-old boy’s unwavering devotion meets the chilling reality of a monster standing right behind him, breathing air cooled by fifteen degrees. * The Sweetest Moment: We discuss the author’s exploration of the exact moment a pure belief system meets undeniable evidence against it, right before it shatters. About the Author John Harris is a Navy veteran and the author of “Not Done Tet” on Amazon. He is the creator of The Proud Boomer Dispatch, a Substack dedicated to essays, horror fiction, and opinions on “getting older without getting boring,” and to writing the thoughts most people only have at 2 a.m. Resources & Links * Read the Story: You can read “The Sweetest Mouth” and find more of John Harris’s horror fiction on his Substack, The Proud Boomer Dispatch. * Subscribe: Readers can subscribe to the full archive, which includes one exclusive piece monthly and zero sponsored content, for $10/month or $85/year. Other segments on the Substack include Proud Boomer Wellness and Florida Stories. * Contact: If this story got under your skin, you can reach out to the author directly at john@theProudBoomer.com. Get full access to The Proud Boomer Dispatch at johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The Proud Boomer Dispatch

Episode Summary: In this episode, we dive into “The Old Hunger,” a chilling horror story originally published in The Proud Boomer Dispatch. We explore the terrifying twist of fate that occurs when a ten-thousand-year-old monster—a creature that has consumed ten thousand children over the millennia—enters a modest home to feed, only to discover that the five-year-old girl inside is an even older, deadlier predator. Key Topics Discussed: The Nature of Ancient Hunger: We discuss the creature’s “geological” hunger, describing it as an unstoppable, accumulating pressure rather than a simple biological need. Building the Dread: A breakdown of how the author uses the mundane setting of a Collier County home in August to build tension. We analyze the chilling juxtaposition of a child’s pink bicycle and a bruise-colored ribbon next to a wind chime made of bones. The Perfect Trap: We explore the story’s turning point, where the monster realizes the girl’s pink room—complete with a crescent moon nightlight and a shelf of stuffed animals—is meticulously curated bait designed to lure ancient creatures. The Predator Becomes the Prey: An analysis of the unsettling conclusion, where the monster realizes it is outmatched by the girl with winter-grass hair and flame-blue eyes, ultimately becoming just another “soft animal” ranked by size on her shelf. About the Author: John Harris is a Navy veteran with three published books and a fourth on the way. He writes The Proud Boomer Dispatch, a publication featuring fiction and essays about “getting older without getting boring” Get full access to The Proud Boomer Dispatch at johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Loretta Faye and the Florida I Know

The town of Punta Seco isn’t on most maps. The ones that do show it spell it wrong. This episode is about why I went there anyway. This week, I talk about why I started writing fiction, what Florida actually looks like from the inside, and how a sixty-one-year-old woman running a bait shop in a town nobody’s heard of became the most interesting character I’ve ever put on a page. Also: a manatee named Gerald. A pelican with a Lightning McQueen Croc stuck on its bill. And what happens when a retired hydrologist drives until the road runs out. The Story The first Loretta Faye story is live now on the Florida Stories Substack. The Gospel of Loretta Faye — A woman, a manatee named Gerald, and the particular mercy of running out of road. This is not beach read Florida. This is the Florida where the bar and the church share a parking lot and the water tower is painted to look like a manatee in a sombrero and nobody can fully explain why. If you’ve lived here, you’ll recognize it. If you haven’t, you’ll believe it anyway. That’s the point. Read it here: floridastories.substack.com Where To Find Everything The Proud Boomer Dispatch — Weekly newsletter, opinion essays, and the podcast. johnsproudboomer.substack.com Proud Boomer Wellness — Evidence-based health writing for people over 50 who are tired of being talked down to. proudboomerwellness.substack.com Florida Stories — Fiction. Loretta Faye. Weird, true-feeling tales from the state I live in. floridastories.substack.com Subscribe Paid subscriptions are $8/month or $50/year. You get the full archive, one exclusive piece every month, and the knowledge that you’re supporting work with zero sponsors and zero algorithm telling it what to be. Questions, story tips, arguments: john@theProudBoomer.com [john@theProudBoomer.com] Read more by following the Proud Boomer Dispatches on Substack for the weekly newsletter, fiction, and opinion essays. The Proud Boomer Wellness Substack is where the health writing lives. And Florida Stories is where Loretta Faye and the rest of this gloriously strange state show up. Paid subscriptions run $8 a month or $50 a year. Full archive, one exclusive piece per month, no sponsors, no algorithm. Just more of this. john@theProudBoomer.com [john@theProudBoomer.com] Get full access to The Proud Boomer Dispatch at johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Fiction, Florida, and the Crickets

What We’re Talking About Writing fiction for a newsletter audience is a weird bet. Most people follow a writer on Substack because they trust that person’s take on something specific. Health, politics, money, whatever. Then you show up with a short story set in a bait shop on US-1 and half your subscribers look at it like the menu just changed languages. This episode is about that bet, and why I’m still making it. Florida Stories The fiction series running on the Dispatch is called Florida Stories. Not the Florida of postcards and retirement brochures. The actual Florida. Pahokee. Islamorada. The retirement villages where the parking lot feuds have been going on longer than some marriages. Real places, mostly invented people, and situations that feel true even when every detail is made up. The next story drops this week. A charter fishing operation out of Islamorada. It is not about the fish. The Audience Problem Nobody Talks About Fiction readers don’t behave like essay readers. They’re slower. They sit with a story. They don’t click or share right away because they’re still thinking about the last line. Substack’s recommendation system doesn’t know what to do with that. The numbers look worse than they are, and if you’re not careful, you start writing for the metrics instead of the reader. The readers who find the fiction write back with full emails. About their uncle who worked the docks in Fort Pierce. About a bar in Homestead they hadn’t thought about in twenty years. That’s the audience worth building, even if it takes longer than anyone wants to admit. Links * Subscribe to the Proud Boomer Dispatch on Substack: johnsproudboomer.substack.com [https://johnsproudboomer.substack.com] * Health and Wellness essays on Medium: medium.com/@theproudboomer [https://medium.com/@theproudboomer] * Support the work: buymeacoffee.com/theproudboomer [https://buymeacoffee.com/theproudboomer] * Questions or story tips: john@theProudBoomer.com [john@theProudBoomer.com] Subscribe Five dollars a month or $50 a year. Full archive, the fiction series, opinion essays, and one exclusive piece every month. No sponsors. No algorithm telling this thing what to be. Get full access to The Proud Boomer Dispatch at johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Nobody Reads Horror on a Tuesday

Episode summary John gets honest about the specific frustration of writing dark fiction on a platform built for newsletters about morning routines and market trends. Substack rewards frequency and broad appeal. Disturbing fiction requires neither and delivers both badly. This episode is about what happens when you stop trying to solve that problem and start writing for the readers who were always going to find you anyway. What’s covered Why Substack’s discovery tools work against genre fiction writers. The tension between the platform’s appetite for volume and the patience good fiction actually requires. Why nobody subscribes to a Substack for the stories, and what they’re actually following instead. How “Mile Marker 47” found its readers not through promotion but through specificity. Why being precise enough to lose the wrong readers is the only strategy that holds up. Referenced in this episode “Mile Marker 47” [https://johnsproudboomer.substack.com/p/mile-marker-47] and “Processing Delay [https://johnsproudboomer.substack.com/p/processing-delay]” are both available on The Proud Boomer Substack. Paid subscribers get the full archive and one exclusive piece per month. Subscribe / Follow Substack: Medium: https://medium.com/@theProudBoomer [https://medium.com/@theProudBoomer] Email: john@theProudBoomer.com [john@theProudBoomer.com] Paid subscriptions: $5/month or $50/year. No sponsors. No algorithm. Get full access to The Proud Boomer Dispatch at johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe [https://johnsproudboomer.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]