Short Story Time: Hershell’s Motel

Good morning, good day, good evening! It's the first Saturday of the month so it's time for another FREE short story! For the occasion, I've selected a strange little story about a strange little motel. It's titled "Hershell's Motel" and that's all I'll say about it to keep the mystery. It was originally published in the Bonded by Blood anthology in 2008. The tale was later reprinted in my first short story collection in 2010, The Bitternest Chronicles. You can download it as a PDF right here.

In case you missed them, you can download the previous entries in Short Story Time below, starting with a coming of age Halloween tale. Do you believe in the bogeyman? Do you believe in the Rattling Man? Find out who or what he is in “The Rattling Man”!

“Crimson Nightmares” is my take on the “Halloween” movie series. Written and initially published digitally back in 2011, this 106-page novella picks up 33 years after the events of the second "Halloween" film from 1981, the night when Michael Myers terrorized Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) and the residents of Haddonfield, Illinois. It follows little Lindsey Wallace, the little girl Laurie Strode babysat in the first “Halloween” (1978) film, who is all grown-up now and bears the scars of that terrible night to this day. She has moved to my fictitious town of Bitternest, Louisiana to get away from her past and has been leading a quiet life, that is until something inside Michael Myers snaps and he comes looking for her on Halloween. Add to that a killer clown with an agenda of his own and it’s a Halloween you won’t soon forget. It’ll be a showdown for the ages when Michael Myers comes to the eerie city of Bitternest.

“The Bypassed Mind”, a romantic suspense/fantasy story with some hypnosis thrown in for good measure that was directly inspired by the late, great Richard Matheson's novel Bid Time Return also adapted as the film "Somewhere in Time".

“Breaking and Entering”, the story of a man who enters people’s homes just for kicks, never stealing anything, just to see what goes on behind close doors. One day he’ll stumble upon something that will change his life forever…

“Scapegoat”, a tale about the Curse of the Cubs, the love of baseball, some time travel, and a whole lot of nostalgia. Even if you're not into baseball, this fantasy tale filled with mystery is sure to entertain you.

Last but not least, fans of Conan and Dungeons & Dragons can also download a PDF of the first two tales of the ongoing adventures of my Sword & Sorcery character AMOK right here.