Off the Beaten Path
WE’RE BAAAACCCCCKKKKKKK!!!
Did you miss it? All the glorious horror we collected from the chats over the last two weeks is now presented for your darkest delight. Let me tell you, we have some bangers in here.
Start this week off with the tale of two friends who follow the voice of God into the darkest corners of hell. Take a turn down the darkened streets filled with Scrabblers: here’s a hint - they’re hunting, and it isn’t steak they crave. End your tour of the dark and disturbing minds featured here with a response to our Summer Drive-In prompt. Curfew is set my dears.
Best if you stay inside.
Announcements
Author Interview Series:
Macabre Monday’s Summer Drive-In Contest:
Macabre Monday is in the midst of a summer-long community event: the Summer Drive-In. Every week through the end of August, we’ll post a new horror prompt. Write something inspired by it (2,500 words or less), post it to the Macabre Monday chat, and it’s in the running. The team will curate favorites along the way, and at the end of summer, the community votes on the best of the best, and the winners get a shot at being featured in a limited-run Macabre Monday anthology.
Submissions are open all summer, so jump in anytime. You don’t have to start this week to participate later.
Excited about our summer event? Spread the word! Share this post.
(To submit, simply link your story in the weekly chat. This allows us to easily facilitate community voting and keep track of things on our side.)
Prompt(s) - Two to make up for last week ;)
Static: A trucker driving through the night keeps picking up on the same radio broadcast, but it’s always seven minutes ahead of real time.
Homecoming: A woman returns to her childhood home to find her family still living there, exactly as she left them twenty years ago.
Track the prompts via the post below!
Have an announcement to share (releases, calls for submissions, or milestones)?
Let us know in the comments or the chat, and we’ll help spread the word.
Featured Stories
Standout posts from last week.
Daniel Fahey delivered an absolutely devastating short horror story, Personal Jesus. When a teen atheist makes friends with his movie theater coworker Nick, he gets a kick out of being a bad influence on him. What begins as a casual friendship built on horror movies and church services quickly turns into something darker, as Nick’s belief in God’s grace takes them down a path they can never come back from.
Daniel O’Donnell posted a short story about Jeb, a man who has never had to worry about much, not even when the Scrabblers drove the city into a curfew. Lights out, doors locked, everyone inside before curfew. But when the thin veil of his penthouse security is broken, Jeb finds himself in a fight to survive.
Bridget Riley dropped episode six of Ripples in the Cove, a Judith Temple mystery. Judith has a gift for finding the lost, but when she is the one who goes missing, her boyfriend is left to untangle the web of mystery surrounding her disappearance.
Jason Duck gave us a peek into the darkness, with three two-sentence horror stories. These are always fun, but beware. They pack a punch.
J.J. Walker wrote a brilliant short story in response to one of our Summer Drive-In prompts, called Cutting Corners. When the locals tell you to stay put, it’s always best to listen.
The Prompt - Sunset Curfew: A little tourist destination starts enforcing a strict summer curfew at sundown. The reason isn’t the one printed in the local paper.
Community Recommendations
Have a story you think deserves more readers?
Reply to this post or respond in the chat we’re always looking for pieces the community loves.
Recent Publications
Have a book or a story in a magazine or anthology published recently?
Post a link in the comments, and we’ll include it in an upcoming issue.
New Voices
New to the Macabre Monday community?
Post a link to your Substack in the comments! We’ll feature your work in an upcoming issue!
The chat is open. Bring your stories, your poems, your freshly published pieces and your works-in-progress. Bring the thing you wrote that you’re not sure anyone will understand. Someone here will. Come say hello.
Thank you so much for including mine! And now I have some eerie new reading material for my Monday!
This is a fantastic roundup there's a great mix of psychological horror, monsters, and mystery that makes me want to read every featured story. The Summer Drive-In prompts are especially creative. Which prompt has inspired the most surprising submissions so far?