RIP Doctor Briggs, we hardly knew ye.

  This story was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, like, duh, and in particular the tales of Randolph Carter. Here’s a few I had in the back of my mind while working on this:

  Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

  The Dreams in the Witch House

  From Beyond

  The Silver Key

  Through the Gates of the Silver Key

  Under the Pyramids

  The Shadow over Innsmouth

  ...and a whole bunch more!!

  The cover art is Philosophy (1899–1907) by Gustav Klimt, which is in the public domain.

  I hope you enjoyed reading this little experiment! I wanted to see if I could successfully copy Lovecraft’s style, which is fairly distinct from my own. How did I do? Let me know in the comments. It’s a tricky style, but eventually you discover the rhythm to it, and it starts to flow out naturally. And it’s fun to throw in all those slippery little adverbs while you can. I think I did okay.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Another goal of this project was the rapid release of content. I am an extremely slow writer and slower editor, and have wasted many an evening belabouring every little word. This RR writing contest was a good excuse to just shove it out the door, imperfect as it may be.

  This project also served as a great distraction from the anxiety of shopping a story of mine around to various agents. Oof. If you’re an agent or publisher, and are interested in sardonic fairy-tales, let me know, eh?

  Anyway, if you liked this you should check out my other works, Nin the Seeker and Thy Secrets Should Be Sung, both available to read on this very site. Wow! I promise, they have, like, actual dialog in them. And aren’t just walls of text.

  That’s it for now! As always, thanks for reading.