the agonies

Corinne | 31, she/her | horror writer and living avatar of low art | work all over (see pinned)

[synonymsfordismember]

Gross Stories for You and Your Loved Ones

It's been a big year for publications, so I'm updating this post once again with my available stories! Some are free online, some are pay to read, but shoot me a message if anything's outside your price range and I'll just send you a pdf no problem.

Blanket CW: My work is horror and horror adjacent, and features gore and potentially uncomfortable sexuality more often than not. Proceed with caution; particularly intense works will have additional content warnings.

The Hero: A nasty little story about smoking weed and working food service and performing acts of incredible and senseless violence on behalf of your coworkers. Published in Mangoprism.

Satellite Office: A nameless lesbian engineer forced from her workplace after a traumatic event develops an unusual medical issue, which exposes hairline cracks in her marriage. This probably has nothing to do with what she does for work. Published by Sans Press in their Stranger anthology; nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Polly Says: On the eve of their annual guys and dolls trip, three iDollators and their silicone brides gather in the basement of their cohort's most ambitious for the unveiling of the newest enhancement to his doll, Polly. Things go downhill pretty quickly from there. CWs for sexuality and gore. Published in Cloaked Press's Nightmare Fuel: Body Horror anthology.

Born Sexy Tomorrow: A group of lovable twenty-somethings discover a nonverbal naked woman in the woods outside their lakehouse. CWs for heavy gore and cannibalism, I'm not kidding. Published in Reader Beware's fourth issue.

The Sound of a Gong: Every day, Cecilia, the lady of the house, is murdered with a hammer by the lord she never sees. Every morning, she wakes anew, trapped within the manor's walls. A Gothic time loop featuring light incest and lots and lots of circles. Published by Tales to Terrify, available to listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Rufus: Isolated and grieving in hot suburban sprawl, Aria Wilson returns to her childhood home for a summer alone. Rufus, the man next door living full-time as a dog, thinks she could use some company. Published by A Midnight Kind of Place in both text and podcast form, plus an interview with me about Rufus's origin as A Guy to Scare My Wife With, writing with alexithymia and my projects in progress!

NEW! Dead Wife: After a brutal car accident, two childhood friends meet in a basement to resurrect the narrator's dead wife. However, they fail to resurrect the dead marriage, and balk when Nora arises livelier than before. Published in Horrific Scribblings. CWs for domestic abuse, animal death and explicit sexuality.

NEW! Yes Chef: Both a culinary genius and a certified asshole, head chef Mikal Rime is tasked with preparing a special, one-time menu for a client at the haute orbital restaurant Escrow. His hunt for rare ingredients warps him in more ways than one. Published by Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine. CW for body horror (but like, sci-fi body horror).

[synonymsfordismember]

My sci-fi kitchen horror story "Yes Chef" is out now with Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine!

Set a couple of decades before the events of Space Trash, Yes Chef follows turbo-divorced bipedal isopod Mikal Rime, a head chef tasked with putting together an unforgettable dinner party for a weapons magnate's very forgettable wife. His penchant for rare ingredients takes him places his sous chef Susan wouldn't go with a gun.

This story has been cooking in the queue for more than a year, and I am beyond excited to finally be sharing it. It's set in the Space Trash universe, but focuses on some of the aliens that don't get much screentime in Space Trash and, like many of my stories, does not end well for anyone. Cws for body horror, some gore and animal death.

[metaphorfordeath]

My story "Nearest and Dearest" is now available to read as an online feature with God's Cruel Joke. Things haven't been the same for Emma since her fall, but at least she has her daughter Jane to take care of her now. There's nothing quite like the love a daughter has for her mother, the way Jane loves Emma. Nothing in the world.

3.3k, content warning for emotional incest and grotesque implications. Read the story for free right here:

Thanks once again to Lee for featuring another one of my nasty little stories in his excellent publication. You can read this along with my other stories Butterfly Stitch, Maintenance Email Transcripts, and The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA for free at GCJ, but if you can afford it I highly recommend buying an issue or two.

[coffinbutch]

I have a new story out now in God's Cruel Joke, which is sure to please/upset anyone who has ever felt weird about their mother.

[synonymsfordismember]

My sci-fi kitchen horror story "Yes Chef" is out now with Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine!

Set a couple of decades before the events of Space Trash, Yes Chef follows turbo-divorced bipedal isopod Mikal Rime, a head chef tasked with putting together an unforgettable dinner party for a weapons magnate's very forgettable wife. His penchant for rare ingredients takes him places his sous chef Susan wouldn't go with a gun.

This story has been cooking in the queue for more than a year, and I am beyond excited to finally be sharing it. It's set in the Space Trash universe, but focuses on some of the aliens that don't get much screentime in Space Trash and, like many of my stories, does not end well for anyone. Cws for body horror, some gore and animal death.

[metaphorfordeath]

My story "Nearest and Dearest" is now available to read as an online feature with God's Cruel Joke. Things haven't been the same for Emma since her fall, but at least she has her daughter Jane to take care of her now. There's nothing quite like the love a daughter has for her mother, the way Jane loves Emma. Nothing in the world.

3.3k, content warning for emotional incest and grotesque implications. Read the story for free right here:

Thanks once again to Lee for featuring another one of my nasty little stories in his excellent publication. You can read this along with my other stories Butterfly Stitch, Maintenance Email Transcripts, and The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA for free at GCJ, but if you can afford it I highly recommend buying an issue or two.

[coffinbutch]

I have a new story out now in God's Cruel Joke, which is sure to please/upset anyone who has ever felt weird about their mother.

[389]

[synonymsfordismember]

I've been experiencing something of a postpartum depression after finishing this last draft of space trash, and while I have another project going on, it simply isn't tickling my ivories that much. Would love to have another short fiction idea but those arise somewhat infrequently. Perhaps it'll be the summer of reading friends' work!

[librarycards]

pls ignore this is its too weird or too much labor, but i was wondering if you maybe had any tips or resources for ppl who have creative desires like writing but brain fog and fatigue tends to get in the way?

i do! it may not work for you bc people have very random/unexpected ways of dealing with this, but it's *very* common and there is hope :) [i think a lot of this is applicable across form, but i'm using "writing" here because it's what i'm familiar with]

one way is to be strategic about timing: this includes thinking about when you're least foggy/have the most energy, and/or the most "downtime" where there isn't anything in particular you need to do. many people wake up early so that they have alone time before their responsibilities. some people stay up late to write. i tend to do my daily writing (which I elucidate on below) in the evenings, around 7-10pm. whatever works, works!

relatedly: scheduling/routine is, for me, critical. i think it is for a lot of creative ppl. I write every day, in multiple ways: i keep a journal - i've done this since i was like 12, so it's as ingrained as brushing my teeth and i don't really think about it - and also work on some aspect of my current longest project [so, for the last 4 years, it's been the aforementioned second novel; for the 4ish years before that, it was Failure to Comply. i write other stuff during the daytime, of course, because writing is also my job(s). but if you're looking to establish a consistent creative practice, you don't need to be aiming for a certain hour or word count.

Instead: Aim for consistency and progress. Not perfection, not a "muse," not magic. There is no shame in making something that doesn't seem good, or that you end up deleting. in this particular instance, "perfect is the enemy of good" is 10000% true, and i think especially applicable to people who already experience external + internalized ableist ideologies on a daily basis. your art, regardless of what it is, should be a space where you get to make mistakes, change your mind, and learn new things. it should be something you can come to when you're tired, unsure, confused, scared, etc, even if it means just keysmashing and then closing your notes app for the day.

for me, having a daily practice, regardless of anything, means embracing the days where i write only one word and then despair, as well as the days i write pages. when i feel most depressed, in a very clinicized sense, i try to move from "everything i make now is going to be shitty :(" to "everything i make now is going to be shitty :)", not because i'm happy about it, but because....that's simply part of creating. everything is a bodily function. if you're not feeling good, maybe your poop will look weird. so too with writing. but you still do it. it can be mechanical. but it'll happen, and by doing it consistently, you give yourself the *opportunity* to locate insight hitherto buried, to have an idea creep up on your tiredself.

i guess in sum I'd say that the healthiest thing i ever did for my writing is something tantamount to body neutrality, which has also been an immensely positive addition to my set of frameworks for physical embodimindment. creative neutrality, i guess. this doesn't mean i don't tie my ego and personhood to work/productivity/quality. i mean, i totally do, and it sucks, but there we are. but it also means that i place that in a corner that does not touch my desire to chip away at something big, regularly. i make time every day to summon the urgency of whatever i'm working on, not because i'm proud of it at that moment, but because i want to give it another opportunity to give me something cool.

tl:dr: give yourself the gift of consistency and time, and don't be scared of making stuff that isn't good, or gets deleted, or doesn't make sense. write from wherever you want, physically, mentally, spiritually. give it the opportunity & even the expectation to happen and then work from there.

[cosmicanger]

tapestries by erin m. riley

[synonymsfordismember]

Hey, I know it isn't as clear here as it is on my main blog but TERFs are not my sisters, not my friends and are not welcome on this blog or to any of my work. This is a loving trans women zone only.

[tokkibean]

i do not “delete sentences” when they start “hindering the plot” i COPY PASTE THEM into a SEPARATE DOC made just for keeping all my USELESS LINES that i will also NEVER USE so therefore i should JUST DELETE THEM but i DONT because id FEEL BAD if i did

[harpyharpyharpy]

You don't actually have to kill your darlings. You can just put them in the oubliette #myoubliette

[louisegluckpdf]

i think every publisher should have to institute a ban on books that fail what i’m calling the “little life” and “what else?” tests

[louisegluckpdf]

for reference.

[helenvaughans]

Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.

–Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

[daisywords]

not everything in a story has to or should be "realistic" but in my opinion there's a level of illusion that should be maintained, and I think that's the actual problem that many people try to pinpoint with the "unrealistic" criticism. Dialogue shouldn't be written like an actual transcript of human speech, but should contribute to the illusion of a real person speaking. A character is a tool of the story, not a narrative, but we're trying to maintain the illusion that they are a person. Worldbuilding should exist to serve the story, not to be a perfect simulacrum of how every aspect of nature/society etc. would actually play out for real. But there should be the illusion that it could be real, that organizations and systems would operate in such a way, that people might behave in such a way.

in conclusion: "Is this realistic?" <<wrong question. "Does this serve the illusion or disrupt it?" <<now we're talking

[northwindow]

Halina Poświatowska, translated by Karolina Zapal and Ryan Mihaly

[syrenki]

i have a bunch of disgusting ideas if anyone's interested

[synonymsfordismember]

My new feel-bad story "Dead Wife" is out now with the webzine Horrific Scribes!

Two childhood friends resurrect Nora, the narrator's wife, after a brutal car accident, but balk when she comes back livelier than before. Content warnings for domestic abuse, animal death, explicit sexuality and gore.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for this story, but be sure to check out the wide variety of excellent horror stories hosted here as well! I'm so excited to share this story; it was a potential hard sell and an experiment in form for me, and I'm so pleased how it came out.