Month / October 2021

by BiSKITs & Gravy

Halloween Is Coming ‘21

by Tony W.

Growing up I didn’t celebrate Halloween and honestly back then it was just a day. One day to dress up and get candy treats.  Now, in 2021! I take the entire month of October to celebrate.

This is the month that I read and watch all the horror I can digest. And just like with coming late to the celebration, I’m also a late arrival to reading and appreciating the horror genre and I’m making it up for the delay in consumption. I contemplate what it means to be in peril, to fear, to be haunted. I consider how social commentary fits into horror making it better, giving it depth and nuance. This is when I ponder the use of horror to shed light on what we fear, social structures, our othering of cultures and peoples, and the stigmatizing of differences. To explore the complexities of our emotions and where they might take us, or what they might call to us.

Horror is another genre often maligned that when mixed and matched with comedy, romance, heist, revenge, etc., is simply made better. Horror is/can be more than the sum of its parts. It doesn’t have to be just a slasher, ghost, Cthulhu, zombie, vampire – I could go on, but I think you get the gist. In fact, the more layers to the horror cake the better. Give me nuanced social commentary and history along with body horror revenge and monsters from another plane of existence or a serial killer, folklore, the marginalized, child abuse, and angry ghost. I’m ready for it all.

Here are my Top 5 horror reads so far this month:

  1. Ring Shout – P. Djeli Clark
  2. My Heart Is a Chainsaw – Stephen Graham Jones
  3. White Smoke – Tiffany D. Jackson
  4. Nothing But Blackened Teeth – Cassandra Khaw
  5. Night of the Mannequins – Stephen Graham Jones

You’ve watched the movies, so you know what to expect, right? Of course, you do. 

by BiSKITs & Gravy

Background: Baby’s First Gun

By: IO

This piece is some character background for a short story I’m procrastinating on revising.

Judy wanted her baby brother to finally grow up. It was gonna be his only nephew’s first birthday soon and he was finally gonna meet a relative of his that was younger than him. A desperate part of her hoped this meeting would finally wake Craig up to the fact that he’d been an adult for several decades already. 

Craig was as spoiled as a poor country boy could be. Their father, elated to have a son after the disappointing surprise that had been Judy (her name was gonna be Jude), liked to proclaim that he finally had someone to inherit. Nevermind that all their father had was a job on someone else’s payroll at their town’s mechanic shop. But he lost that all on his own, stealing money from the only guy with the skill to revive a beat-up tractor from the brink of death. The farmers who relied on that skill saw that theft as an attack on their livelihood and all but ran their family out of town. 

The family moved to another small town, far enough that gossip of their fall was but a whisper. Judy was a teenager and suddenly in charge of taking care of her father and brother while her mom tried to earn enough on tips at a diner to support them all. But Craig was still the golden child. 

They were never fully embraced by their new home, being outsiders. Even though Judy had lived there longer than she had in her birthplace, she was the last to be invited to any town gatherings. Until baby Hank.

Because Hank was born there, and a baby, he automatically was welcomed to any infant-friendly outings: 4th of July fireworks, bowling tourneys, tailgates, etc. And because, being a baby, Hank was unable to attend unaccompanied, Judy got an invite as well. And slowly she was becoming one of the locals. 

For Judy, there was a lot riding on Hank’s first birthday party. This was a chance to befriend other moms, expand her social group beyond the other waitresses and their pity invites. All she needed was for her younger brother to grow up.

by BiSKITs & Gravy

There’s A Human Under My Casket!

by K. Osorio-Teamer

When I’ve done all my scaring,

Screeching and teeth baring.

After my dinner is devoured,

I know that it’s close to the hour…

My cozy casket is calling me to sleep,

Mummy prepares a bat bath and I dive in deep,

I scrub under my wings and claws just right

Put on pjs, floss fangs, and say goodnight.

Then I get a spooky story and hugs and hisses,

I get a funny feeling that my Daddy Dracula misses,

My worry is weighing and then I blow my gasket,

UNHOLY SUNSH*NE! THERE’S A HUMAN UNDER MY CASKET!

by BiSKITs & Gravy

Thanks, I Hate It

By: IO

Her date for the homecoming dance gives her a mum with a carnation in it. The mum itself is only six inches long. Before looking back at the shaggy-haired boy who asked her to the dance until she accidentally said yes, she made her face pull back the corners of her mouth into an estimate of a smile. 

The child she never intended to have comes back from a day of kindergarten with a finger painting in primary colors on a 12 x 18” peace of light pink construction paper. It presents the piece to its mother, announcing at its highest volume that it is her portrait. She focuses on widening her eyes and mouth in a gesture that reads as excitement in humans, but threatening to all other mammals. 

Despite emphatically proclaiming herself a member of an infamous cult masquerading as a church in the hopes of never being invited to extra-curricular work events, she is required to attend her company’s secret santa event. Her gift from an overly bubbly colleague is a hand-crocheted stress ball in a swirl of pastels. She does not say thank you when she squeezes it as hard as possible, unraveling some of the yarn, while staring at the giver. 

She is dying, finally, and the nurse on her ward brings her a catalog of urns and caskets available from a local funeral home. The nurse had circled a small metal urn pretending to be silver with a note indicating their preference. She frowns at the selection, letting the expression get stuck, and writes her own note.