Fifty short stories, each exactly 100 words long, fill this book.
From real life, to horrific werewolves, to fantastic worlds full of swords and sorcery, this collection of drabble will thrill and chill.
"[Emperor] evokes Shelley's 'Ozymandias' in a techno-dystopian sense..." - King Loke/Death Wish Poetry
"Powerful. Visceral." - Rick Jackson/MoshPitNation
"Does in one paragraph what so many writers are unable to do in one hundred pages." - Dan Stephensen/Damhnait
I have been unknowingly working on this collection of hundred word stories since 2022. It wasn't until I had written about thirty or so that I realized I could turn them into a book, and so I began to do just that. And now, with fifty drabble written, it is time to put that book, now titled Shapes in the Dark, out into the world.
The cover art was done by Geoff Parrell, a fellow Canadian hailing from Calgary. I first saw his work on Steve Stred's We Watch, and knew I wanted his work wrapping around my words. The second I saw the art for Shapes in the Dark, I knew it was perfect. It's spooky, but it's also fantastic, like some of the stories inside. The cover matches the contents in that there is a lot of things going on, but all are unified as one.
People who have read The Sweep will notice a couple drabble take place in that same world. There are also stories of gnomes helping young mages achieve their dreams, epic battles, short memoirs, and fictionalized scenes from real life around Edmonton.
Keep your eyes peeled here at the Hermit Rites Substack for more info in the coming weeks, and be prepared for December when Shapes in the Dark escapes my clutches and enters the world at large.
December 18, 2025
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In the Edmonton streets where corporate greed, gang wars, militarized policing, and homelessness intersect, a bloody massacre upends the night. The survivors are rounded up and taken, holding their own deadly secrets to be revealed by the light of the moon.
"An unnerving dystopian lycanthrope thrill-ride, 'The Sweep' heralds the arrival of a new and exciting voice in Extreme Horror. I ripped through this one!" - Steve Stred, Award Winning Author of 'Mastodon' & 'Churn the Soil.'
My debut novella is a gory story full of despicable characters doing despicable things to each other, sex, drugs, family, finding hope to continue when there seemingly is none, and werewolves. It is both a continuation and a setup to a much larger world that currently includes my short stories "The Bite of the Wolf" and "The Nightmare".
April 18, 2025
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