User blog:ChristianWallis/Read These New Pastas - No. 4

I’ve gone for a catchier title. I’ve always sucked at writing titles, and I’d like to give this blog another go. Consider this a soft reboot which was nearly titled "I Read These Pastas: You Won't BELIEVE What Happened Next".

Rules? I’ll only highlight pastas I have read and which were released since my last blog. Please discuss stories you think people should read, which can be from any time period on the site i.e. old or new. Simple. I’ll list stories released in the last 6 weeks-ish, you list stories in the comments that you like from any time. I can’t read everything so some stories may have been released recently which are good and which I don’t mention; doesn’t mean I don’t think they’re worthy of your TLC. Please mention them if you wanna generate some attention.

The Children Found a Flower – Skullmunch – this guy! You need to keep an eye on this guy. He’s a damned good writer and his other story is a great Lovecraftian tale. Cannot recommend his work enough. Short, gross, well-constructed; this story is a love-letter to creative monster design. Read it. Now. Right now. Go now, read it and then come back.

The Laius Reaction – Ivysir – NSFW! I’m a fan of stories like Ned the Nihilist. Any story that makes me feel uncomfortable has, in my opinion, succeeded as a horror. So, if you like grotesque stories that push all limits of common decency I introduce to you The Laius Reaction. Enjoy you sick sonnofabitch.

The Game of Mush – The Hungry Reader – It’s rare I’m impressed by a ritual pasta. Despite my enjoyment of stories that utilise different formats—e.g. SCP—I typically find stories that present themselves as long instructions kinda boring, just like… well, instruction manuals. So take it as a good sign when I say The Game of Mush is a fun weird ritual pasta that is definitely worth a read. It’s weird; I still don’t know how to interpret it but it made me want to know more which is a pretty awesome thing for a story to do.

There’s a Monster in the Treehouse – Royal Doom – I thought this was an atmospheric story. I’m not keen to spoil so just take away the following. This story is well written, original, short, and enjoyable. It won’t rob you of your day, it’ll cost you at most fifteen minutes and whether you like it or not it’ll leave a strong impression. Give it a go.

Old Writers – I can’t spend too much time dedicated to highlighting everything published, but I think it’s worth mentioning that many established writers have produced new work during the last month. Raidra has wrapped up her Houseguest series. I wanna get on top of that and read it from the start but I gave the latest entry a glance over and was pretty intrigued by what I saw. I’ll be finding some time soon to give it a read. On top of that Empy the Terminator has published a short and sweet story called A Stranger in the House, and one far longer story called Tryps. They’re both very good. Blizzardlemon has published an awesome story called Cruising Altitude. We also have Levi Salvos who won the competition last month turning up with two new stories, Those Who Die Peacefully in their Sleep and Infanticide, which are both very good. Toadvine has also published 76 Draper Street. SnakeTongue237 also has written Running out of Tombstones which I liked. Aaaaaaand Banned in CP published The Scalp of Rabid Wolf.

Needless to say a lot of established writers have written new stories for the month of Halloween. It’s not always feasible for writers to go and message people incessantly for reviews so sometimes I notice well established writers who are active in the community publishing to very middling feedback simply because this stuff gets lost in the activity feed. So rather than you notice one of your favourite authors updating their profile a fortnight later, or waiting for their patience to snap and for them to message you, I thought I’d beg you to read these stories on their behalf instead. Even if you just read one of these stories and leave a message it can have a big impact. Writers thrive on even the tiniest amounts of feedback; you don’t have to write the Odyssey in the comment section, but just let them know you liked their work.