My short story Firefly has been published by The ManifestStation. It’s a simple story about a young girl who captures a firefly in the back yard to help cheer up her ailing sister.
Content warning: terminal illness of a childMissy caught the firefly in mid-air, cupping her hands around it to form a tiny, dark cave. She could feel the insect’s delicate footsteps tickling her skin as it wandered across her palm, searching for a way out.
“Got you!” she whispered, victorious.
My sci-fi flash fiction story Pop’s Time Machine has been published in Issue #4 of Drip Literary Magazine. It’s the story of a boy whose father insists he has a time machine in his head.
When I was eleven years old, I told my dad I wanted to invent a time machine. He told me he already had one. I asked him where it was.
“Right here,” he said. He tapped his forehead and smiled. “All I have to do is close my eyes, and I can travel back in time as far as I want.”
My dark sci-fi story Just What I Want is now free to read in Issue 9 of The Stygian Lepus. It’s a story about what happens when your digital personal assistant understands you so well that it starts doing things for you before you even ask.
Amy examined the shipping label. It was addressed to her. “Never mind!” she yelled back. She carried the package into the kitchen and opened it. Her eyes lit up. “Clara, did you order this for me?”
Blue LEDs flickered on a featureless black cube hovering over the kitchen counter. Tiny gray text on the front edge identified it as CLARA: Completely Lifelike Autonomous Robot Assistant. A woman’s voice emanated from within.
“I thought you’d like it.”
My short sci-fi story Coherence has been published in Amazing Stories. It’s the story of a synthetic assigned to replace an elderly widow’s deceased husband, and what happens when it refuses to replicate the bitter resentments of a loveless marriage.
I’m this way because Sam was this way, and because this is how Rose expects me to be.
My short horror story Things Are Looking Up has been published by 7th-Circle Pyrite. After a man and his wife are in a fatal car accident, the man decides he will do anything to see his wife one more time.
She’s so close, I can practically touch her. The only thing between us is a few feet of freshly-turned earth.
All I have to do is dig.
My post-apocalyptic eco-horror story From Below has been published by MetaStellar.
In the flooded remains of Old Manhattan, the wealthy stay dry and well-fed in their penthouses, while everyone else is left to fend for themselves against the unseen horrors lurking just below the surface.
Content warning: cannibalism (implied), gore, suicide
My short horror story Something’s Wrong With Mom has been published by Literally Stories.
It’s the story of two brothers who wake up in the middle of the night to discover that their mother is on the ceiling. Again.
Content warning: suicide (implied)
My post-apocalyptic horror story One Last Step has been published in the Halloween Special Edition of Dark Matter Magazine. It’s a story about a little girl stalked by an unseen shadow-thing across a post-apocalyptic landscape.
“Will it hurt?” I watched my father roll the sewing needle between his fingers, its tip glowing orange-red in the heat of the flame. My eyes welled with tears.
“Just a little,” he replied.
The audio production of my horror story Uncle Pumpkin’s Tongue has been released on S20E5 of The NoSleep Podcast. It’s the story of a Halloween carnival ride with a sinister secret.
The story starts around 19:05.
Content warning: sexual harassment
In addition to publishing my dark sci-fi story Set For Life, Radon Journal dug deep into my background to come up with some great interview questions covering a wide range of topics, from writing to game technology patents to anti-procrastination browser extensions, and more. You can read the interview here.
Warren talks about instrumental horror music playlists, convergence of video game tech and writing, PS5 patents, anti-procrastination browser extensions, the New Jersey to horror pipeline, and film/TV writing.
Warren Benedetto 