Release Day: Summer Terrors

Summer Terrors is another excellent horror drabble collection from Black Ink Fiction that includes five stories written by me.

Description:

"Everyone knows the big names of summer horror and their stories. But what about the maintenance man who doesn’t like his rooftop encroached upon? Terror at summer concerts? Tentacles...lots of tentacles." **

Buy a copy here.

My stories:

The submission call asked for summer activities gone wrong. Although I've never been a fan of hot weather, there are still plenty of things I like to do in the summer: swim, camp, hike, etc. When I was younger, I would spend at least part of my summer at Girl Guide camps where we would canoe, practice archery, sing campfire songs, and more. 

Each one of these horror drabbles is inspired by my memories of hot summers as a kid.

 

"The Sprinkler", "Sand"

Growing up we did not have a swimming pool. It wasn't until I was an adult and I spent four summers working at a swimming pool retail store that I realized just how expensive maintaining a pool is. My parents were wise not to get one. 

To beat the heat, we would run through sprinklers and go to the beach. For me the beach wasn't just about swimming, it also gave me the opportunity to make sand sculptures. Luckily for everyone else on the beach, I preferred to build castles with moats rather than monsters like the one in my story.

 

"Firelight", "Stargazing"

By far my favourite summer activity is camping. Both of these drabbles are (very) loosely inspired by my time with the Girl Guides of Canada. I joined when I was seven years old and stayed in for 28 years. I eventually left because of the time commitment. It takes a lot of work to be a leader!

Girl Guides is where I learned how to build and maintain a proper fire. It's also where I learned about constellations. I still remember how to locate about 6 different ones using Orion as a signpost. 

 

"An Afternoon Swim"

My fifth drabble is kind of a combination of those memories. The reference to the beach is rather obvious, but the connection to my time in Girl Guides comes from the reference to the floating ladder. Each summer I spent a week at Camp Adelaide, a property that sadly doesn't belong to the Girl Guides anymore. At camp we had swim time down at the beach. Out in the deep end of the swimming area, there was a floating dock that we could swim out to and jump off of into the water.

Sadly, there were no monstrous events at the summer camps I went to. Maybe one day.

 

**Note: None of my stories have tentacles. Sorry