7 - The Damned Thing and the Middle Toe of the Right Foot by Ambrose Bierce

7 - The Damned Thing and the Middle Toe of the Right Foot by Ambrose Bierce

This week we have special guests Cai and Frankie to help us read two stories by famed American writer, soldier, journalist, attempted prospector, and disappearing artist Ambrose Bierce. He was shot in the head in the civil war, taught himself how to be a journalist and then got obsessed with writing short stories. When he was in his early seventies he decided he wanted to go on a long ramble that might lead to his death and disappeared while with Pancho Villa's army in Mexico during the Mexican revolution. We read two stories in this episode: - The Damned Thing - A man lies dead on a table and men surround him. They read his journal, and the dead man, a homesteader, recounts his dealings with an unseen force. - The Middle Toe of the Right Foot - Saturday is for the gentlemen and these fellas go out and quaff some spirits and then get in a duel with a stranger. They decide the duel should take place in a dark, abandoned haunted house. Sounds good! Ambrose Bierce always has some funny, sardonic lines. His work has elements of science fiction, horror, you name it. Dig it!

6 - The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft (PART 2/2)

In this episode we read parts 7-10 of the Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft. Dr. Armitage gets a posse together and heads to Dunwich to see what has been happening with the some massive invisible force that has been crushing houses and the powers of science and knowledge are pitted against otherworldly creatures and powers! It's spooky! It's weird! and I have my friend Nona here to help me read it. So you enjoy now. It's free. It's free to enjoy this episode. We made it for you. yeah you.

5 - The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft PART 1/2 (1929)

In this episode of Small Frights and Other Delights we read chapters 1-6 of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" (1929). This story is one of the most popular entries in the "Cthulu Mythos" and was originally published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales. The tale centers around a strange child born to an old family in the fictional Massachusetts hamlet of Dunwich, where an ancient evil is trying to re enter our dimension through obscure, blasphemous means. Nearby cows look anemic and skinny. Neighbors tell of strange sounds coming from the Earth and nearby mountains. There's a dang four year old with a beard in the story. In modern terms, the vibes in Dunwich are off, big time. H.P. lovecraft must have had some bad dreams or something, because, man, this story has got some grade A1 premium cosmic dread in it. all killer no filler. I am joined today by Nona Anderson, who is a fantastic voice actor. She really elevates the story telling and made it a lot more fun to record. Give us a like! Give us a follow! You can make my life better by pressing a button on your phone! Much love!

4 - The Night Wire by H.F. Arnold (1926) and Far Below by Samuel Barbour Johnson (1939)

In this episode of Small Frights and other delights, I ready two classic stories from the pulp magazine "Weird Tales", H.F. Arnold's The Night Wire and Samuel Barbour Johnson's Far Below. Both are in a similar vein of dark, atmospheric horror. The Night Wire (10:00) : https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68555 In the Night Wire, in a skyscraper in a metropolis late at night, strange transmissions come into a radio operator's office from a far away land called Xebico detailing the unraveling of a city by supernatural causes. Far Below (31:00) : https://archive.org/details/WeirdTalesV34N0119390607/page/26/mode/2up In Far Below, a journalist visits with a squad of policemen guarding the New York City subway from an army of strange creatures that come out to terrorize the riders of the subway in the small hours of the morning. Enjoy the stories! Enjoy your life!

3 - The Boneyard by Robert Greene (2025)

In this episode I read one of my own short stories, the Boneyard. I wrote it for a scary short story competition at a local community college, Madison Area Technical College, and it got published in their yearly chapbook. This story was inspired by my time living in rural Texas. In this story, a farm worker discovers that a strange orphan lamb isn't like the other lambs on the farm.