Tag: #NonFiction

Free Reads: Never The Ghost You Want

On By nicholasdayonlineIn Free Fiction1 Comment

In accordance with the Bram Stoker Awards® Etiquette Rules, for the Non-Fiction Category, I am offering this free version of “Never The Ghost You Want” (originally published in the 2021 anthology PARANORMAL CONTACT: A QUIET HORROR CONFESSIONAL, via Cemetery Gates Media) for Bram Stoker Award® consideration.

Title of Work: Never The Ghost You Want

Publisher: Cemetery Gates Media

Publication Date: 14 March 2021

Never the Ghost You Want

by Nicholas Day

I do not believe in ghosts but lived in a haunted house, years ago, and it fucking sucked. People just think you’re telling stories, for starters. They imagine you’re going a bit crackers. And maybe you are, but why wouldn’t you be? After all, your house is haunted, goddammit.

Now, I’ve had roommates before, sure, but they could be reasoned with, even possessed material form. Conversations may not have always been ideal, but they weren’t out of the question, nor did they require the aid of a medium or the clumsy fingering of a ouija board. These roommates were, best to my knowledge, alive. And, at the very least, they chipped in for bills, rent, and the occasional pizza. Motivations weren’t mysterious, and most of them didn’t slam doors.

In my experience, ghosts don’t give a fuck about you. In that way, they are actually quite a lot like living, breathing people, roommates or otherwise. Ghosts are busy doing their own thing. What you are doing is of little concern to them, or their need of wandering the hallways or marching up and down the stairwell, invading your dreams, what have you.

That’s how it started, for me, through dreams.

Continue reading “Free Reads: Never The Ghost You Want” →

Do you like ghosts? Do you like being depressed? Oh boy, do I have something for YOU.

On By nicholasdayonlineIn Free FictionLeave a comment

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“Never The Ghost You Want” was written on Christmas morning in 2020. Getting all that misery down on paper served as an exorcism. Cemetery Gates picked it up for inclusion in their anthology, PARANORMAL CONTACT, which felt a bit like last rites. And then, I moved on.

I never even bothered re-reading the story. I couldn’t, then. I have trouble, even now, though I’ve had enough private correspondence regarding the story to make me believe “Never The Ghost You Want” may, in fact, be very good. Readers seem to like it, seem to connect, and those are the notes a writer hopes to hit.

“Never The Ghost You Want” is a non-fiction piece. Now, I have written non-fic in the past, but most all of that has been squarely within the field of journalism (once upon a time, I used to cover the film circuit in Los Angeles). I’d never really written anything terribly personal.

Here’s a few snippets from “Never The Ghost You Want”:

Continue reading “Do you like ghosts? Do you like being depressed? Oh boy, do I have something for YOU.” →

Free Reads: “Never The Ghost You Want”

On By nicholasdayonlineIn Free FictionLeave a comment

“Never The Ghost You Want” appeared earlier this year as a part of Cemetery Gates’s anthology, PARANORMAL CONTACT (which you can buy HERE). It is a non-fiction piece, and the only story I have finished, thus far, since wrapping GRIND YOUR BONES TO DUST. I would very much like to share it with you!

Total transparency: I would love to see the piece get nominated in the Stoker Award “Non-Fiction” category. Now, that’s a long shot, but the story means an awful lot to me. And, Cemetery Gates has given me permission to offer “Never The Ghost You Want” FOR FREE as a part of my next newsletter (Sept. 27th).

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