post-apocalyptic

Reading rec: Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” (1967)

I’m back with another reading recommendation for all you voracious readers out there. This time it is another short story entitled “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison.

Published in 1967, “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” is a classic of science-fiction horror. The story focuses on five humans who are held captive by a supercomputer, AM. The rest of the human race is gone, destroyed by AM decades ago. AM puts the five humans through various tortures as the story progresses, just as AM has tortured them continually for the last 109 years. “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” is grotesquely dark and fascinating, portraying a living hell from which there is only one escape: death. But when one is made immortal by a supercomputer, is the escape guaranteed by death even possible?

Continue reading →

Posted on by Dierking

Two releases for your reading pleasure

The end of February is here and it has been busy! As a result, I have two new releases for your reading pleasure: Two in the Bush and “Dead Meat Running.”

This last week I have been writing and editing up a storm with the result being a novelette, Two in the Bush, of 10,400 words. This piece was written for a contest on /r/WritingPrompts. Two in the Bush focuses on a down on his luck scavenger who tries to pawn off some items and gets a bit more than he bargained for in the end. Two in the Bush is written in first person perspective, a bit of a departure from my usual style, but it was a fun exercise to do something different for a change.

You can find Two in the Bush here.

If you’re looking for something even shorter than a novelette, last night I released my first short story, “Dead Meat Running.” From the description:

"Dead Meat Running" by J. H. Dierking“Dead Meat Running” is a dark speculative fiction short story of 6000 words.

In an apocalyptic future where man is hunted by monstrous beings and some will do anything to survive, is there any humanity left?

“Dead Meat Running” is available as a Kindle e-Book from Amazon.

Once again, the cover art was done by the terrific Trevor W. Shields. You can visit his website here.

What does March have in store? Stick around and find out.

– J

Posted on by Dierking