Dark Softly Tales

In a small Texas town, a young woman takes her dog out for a walk after dinner. She discovers an elderly fellow riding in an electric chair toward the graveyard. Curious, she follows him. Later, she’ll wish she hadn’t... Today's story is called Crypt Curiosity.

You can find this story in Graveyards—3 Tales to Chill Your Bones, Volume 6

Music: Dark Field by Michael Musco

It’s Halloween Night, Mich is throwing a ghastly party. All the neighbors will be there, and he has the perfect game planned down in the darkness of cellar… trick or treat. 

Tonight’s story is The October Game by Ray Bradbury.

Happy Halloween!

For other halloween tales check out

Eps 51: Smashing Roxy

Eps 53: Halloween Games

Or a scary urban legend tale called The Bridge by Alec Cizak

Music: A scary piano by Plaincask

Ready to solve the mystery? We come to the harrowing conclusion of The Screaming Skull. Halloween episode will be released a few days earlier. Enjoy! And I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween.

“Think of having boiling lead poured into your brain. Think of it. She was dead before she could scream.” Does that make you shiver? Me, too. Listen on to Part Two of F. Marion Crawford's The Screaming Skull.

I talk a little about the life of Crawford. The quote I mention in the podcast is below.

“The great law of division became clear to him—the separation for a time of the universal agent into two parts, by the separation and reuniting of which comes light and heat and the hidden force of life, and the prime rules of attractive action; all things that are accounted material. 

He saw the division of darkness and light, and how all things that are in the darkness are reflected in the light; and how the light which we call light is in reality darkness made visible, whereas the true light is not visible to the eyes that are darkened by the gross veil of transitory being. And as from the night of earth, his eyes were gradually opened to the astral day, he knew that the forms that move and have being in the night are perishable and utterly unreal; whereas the purer being which is reflected in the real light is true and endures forever.” ~ Zoroaster, F. Marion Crawford

Music: Air of Mystery by Manuel Ochoa

Watch Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven on Youtube: https://youtu.be/sisvA_gcijY

In the mood for reading? 

Check out Mav’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mav-Skye/e/B00I52M3J6

Check out Mav’s other creative work on her empire website here:

www.darksoftlytales.com

www.darksoftlytalespodcast.com

An old sea captain shares a tale of murder and revenge with a supernatural twist in The Screaming Skull by the fantastic F. Marion Crawford. This is the first part of three.

Music: Air of Mystery by Manuel Ochoa

Watch Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven on Youtube: https://youtu.be/sisvA_gcijY

In the mood for reading? 

Check out Mav’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mav-Skye/e/B00I52M3J6

Check out Mav’s other creative work on her empire website here: www.darksoftlytales.com

www.darksoftlytalespodcast.com

We celebrate our 100th episode with a gothic classic from the “saintly days of yorn.” The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is a chilling piece of literature that has captured imaginations for over 175 years. Listen and dream darkly.

I made storybook style YouTube video for The Raven.

Feel free to watch at: https://youtu.be/sisvA_gcijY

Music: Private reflection by Kevin Macleod

Welcome to the Waste land, a place where nothing survives except the grief of dreams. Fun little fact: Madison Julius Cawein's poem Waste Land was published in a journal that TS Eliot was reading at the time and most likely inspired his own version of The Waste Land, published a few years later.

Music: That Impossible Last Breath by Da Sein

Welcome to the Dark Softly Tales Summer Bite series, our theme this year is silence. The summer kicks off in Episode 88. Tune in every week where we bring you bite size pieces of fiction under the silence of a summer sun. 

In the mood for reading? 

Check out Mav’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mav-Skye/e/B00I52M3J6

Check out Mav’s other creative work on her empire website here: www.darksoftlytales.com

Silence is like a canvas for sound to glide across, and no one shows this better than Robert Frost’s dark, moody prose where wind calls to window flowers, dead leaves creep along the forest floor amongst graves. Eventually we end up where death has pressed his cold fingers, and a couple have a difficult conversation about grief and the death of their firstborn. Finally, we land back in the darkest hour in a quiet forest, where Frost infamously reminds us about promises to keep.

Frost’s poems are placed in order for a specific, theatrical affect.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Wind and the Window Flower

Ghost House

Reluctance

Home Burial

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Music: Frozen Tears by Calm Shores

Welcome to the Dark Softly Tales Summer Bite series, our theme this year is silence. The summer kicks off in Episode 88. Tune in every week where we bring you bite size pieces of fiction under the silence of a summer sun. 

In the mood for reading? 

Check out Mav’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mav-Skye/e/B00I52M3J6

Check out Mav’s other creative work on her empire website here: www.darksoftlytales.com

"The cruellest lies are often told in silence." Robert Louis Stevenson delivers an interesting viewpoint on silence, expression and speech. After our several weeks of reading through The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I thought the Dark Softly Tales audience would enjoy Stevenson's viewpoint in The Truth of Intercourse.

Music: Sublimation - Red Dictionary

Welcome to the Dark Softly Tales Summer Bite series, our theme this year is silence. The summer kicks off in Episode 88. Tune in every week where we bring you bite size pieces of fiction under the silence of a summer sun. 

In the mood for reading? 

Check out Mav’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mav-Skye/e/B00I52M3J6

Check out Mav’s other creative work on her empire website here: www.darksoftlytales.com