Sinister Minutes

The Custodian is all about the sort of menial job you hate and the pressures to keep doing it, while Lily gives us a taste of a very different profession: therapist. Our characters may be ready to switch stories by the end of their shifts. Then, Tim gives tops up our Halloween program with a chorus of the macabre, a pièce de résistance called "Disembodies Voices."

The Custodian comes to us from guest author Ed Ahern, who resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had about 700 stories and poems published so far, and fourteen books. He works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories where he’s a review board editor and at Scribes Micro, where he’s the idle figurehead.

Lily, previously published by Blood Moon Rising in July 2025, comes to us from the talented Emily Jones; a passionate writer who turns everything into an idea, even her darkest moments. Especially her darkest moments. She writes in many forms, from drabbles to novels, and enjoys exploring the darker side of genres. She's been published by The Horror Tree, Dark Holme Publishing, The Horror Zine and more.

Image by cocoparisienne from Pixabay

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Todays tale, The Resonance of Her Own Extinction, is a weird tale of a woman who receives a middle-of-the night phone call from a most unexpected caller - herself.

Then Tim works on his recruiting; he's getting ready to roll out an Army of the Dead. Check it out, you might just find yourself inspired to enlist.

Guest author Ghazifa Bashir is a writer and a student at Kinnaird College, Lahore. She is a second-place winner of the FIU Adam Smith International Essay Competition (2026) and recipient of an Honourable Mention at the Cambridge Re:Think Essay Competition. Her writing has appeared in Monograph Magazine, St. Stephen's College's PostScript (twice), Swim Press (twice), Florescence Magazine, Jarida Today, and The Disappointed Housewife. She has been published in the Yemipoet anthology, the BSP anthology Confessions of the Obsessed, and received a Commendation from the Author of Tomorrow Award. She was also a second place winner of the GGAC Essay Competition in Nigeria. Her work explores memory, erasure, and resistance across fiction, poetry, and essays.

Image by Pheladi Shai from Pixabay

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Todays tale, Golden Hour, comes to us courtesy of guest author Jordan Marie McCaw. She's an artist and writer living in Southern Oregon whose fiction has appeared in Stonecoast Review, Chilling Tales for Dark Nights, Creepy, and more. When she isn’t drawing skulls and cryptids or working on her current writing project, she’s taking care of her two daughters. You can learn more about her at @jm_mccaw on Instagram.

Once we've hiked up the mountain and captured that perfect shade of crimson, Tim's looking to open the holes in your head even wider with a sharp little number entitled The Cotillion of the Dead.

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Is your view of a meat market that of a butcher shop, with rows of bloody cuts intermingled with freshly-stuffed sausages? Or is it that of a crowded bar, where single people attempt to pair off ritually without finding themselves stuffed in tomorrow's trash? Or is it both?

Meat Market was published in print form by Schlock Webzine in July, and comes to us from guest author Amy Armstrong, who writes humorous and twisted horror stories for people who love a good squish and crunch, but want to think a little bit. Amy screens manuscripts for The Masters Review. She loves nerding out on all things horror and literary fiction. Her special turn on is a combination of the two. When she isn’t finishing an assignment for her UCLAx Editing and Publishing certificate, reading slush, or watching B-horror movies, Amy snuggles her dogs and naps. She also is a frequent panelist at MileHiCon and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference.

After we've made our visit to the meat market, Tim's sure to further tantalize your musical taste buds with a dessert entree entitled The Morgue Door Opens.

Image by Maciej Cieslak from Pixabay

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Guest author Charles Collister brings us "Trash Juice," a hard, horrific look at a minimum wage job and how it sucks the living soul out of anyone trapped within it...faster and more efficiently than anything Lovecraft ever dared dream of.

Charles Collister resides in Boston, Mass, where he's representing the Dorchester neighborhood in specific. He strives to write for other people too broke to do anything but stay inside and read. Check out his Substack (https://substack.com/@charlescollister)

After that delightful, mouthwatering excursion, Tim's continuing our dinner date with a lighthearted piece entitled So Pretty, So Dead.

Image by ImaArtist from Pixabay

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