Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

You are here: Home / Archives for flash fiction

Dreaming of a White Christmas: Advent Ghosts

By

Each year at this time, my friend Loren Eaton organizes Advent Ghosts. It’s simply an opportunity for writers to have a little fun and continue the very old tradition of telling “scary ghost stories” around the yule log during the Christmas season. 

There are no prizes, and it isn’t a contest. The catch is this is flash fiction. As Loren says, “100 words, no more, no less.” The challenge is telling a complete story using a word count novelists would consider their opening paragraph. 

On the free short fiction page on my website, you can read previous efforts. (I took a couple years off during COVID.) Below are my stories from this year. 

 

White Christmas

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…” plays on the radio. 

“I don’t know why they play that silly song here. It’s not like it’s ever going to snow.”

Announcer interrupts the music. 

“The first nuclear missiles have already exploded in the now white-hot war between nuclear powers India and Pakistan. It’s unknown if other countries will get involved, but fallout from the blasts is expected to cover the globe.” 

“That’s on the other side of the world. It doesn’t matter to us,” Momma says. 

Momma come to the window! It’s snowing outside!

How can that be? We live in Miami!

 

Krampus goes up town

Ted sat at the bar dejected. All of his investments and real estate deals collapsed. He lost everything. 

They wouldn’t stop playing Christmas music. 

“Who cares if it’s Christmas eve? The markets are closed and I can’t fix things,” he slurred at the bar. 

A distinguished man entered and sat beside Ted. 

“Why so glum?” 

Ted laid out his tale of woe. 

“Ted, were you honest in your dealings?”

“I might have cut corners. Everything was only going up and then it just collapsed today!”

“Have you ever heard of Krampus?” The man’s smile didn’t reach his dark, cold eyes.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my friends, 

By

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my friends, 

For some of us, this has been a tough year — it feels like we’ve all been saying that for the last several years, of course. Still, I’m glad this one is nearly in the rearview mirror. 

I’ve been making a conscious effort to get myself in the Christmas spirit this year. I’ve decorated my office and have gone to several events as well. 

A friend of mine organizes a flash fiction event for holiday ghost stories called Advent Ghosts 2023. One hundred words, no more, no less. I haven’t participated the last couple years, telling myself I didn’t have the time. But this year, I made time. It felt good to get back to normal. The flash fiction pieces I am contributing this year are below. 

I’ve also written a couple longer short stories that I’d like to share with you. They are free on my website. One is a Santa origin story. It includes time travel. Santa is from Outer Space

A more serious story called Pearl Harbor Christmas is based on the true story, and other survivor stories, from the attack on Pearl Harbor. Tony Sereno was missing for 18 days until his family got a telegram that he was alive. 

On the free short fiction page on my website, you can find links to previous Advent Ghosts flash fiction submissions. 

This year’s submissions.

 

White Christmas

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…” plays on the radio. 

“I don’t know why they play that silly song here. It’s not like it’s ever going to snow.”

Announcer interrupts music. 

“The first nuclear missiles have already exploded in the now white-hot war between nuclear powers India and Pakistan. It’s unknown if other countries will get involved, but fallout from the blasts is expected to cover the globe.” 

“That’s on the other side of the world. It doesn’t really matter to us,” Momma says. 

Momma come to the window! It’s snowing outside!

How can that be? We live in Miami!

 

Krampus goes up town

Ted sat at the bar dejected. All of his investments and real estate deals collapsed. He lost everything. 

They wouldn’t stop playing Christmas music. 

“Who cares if it’s Christmas eve? The markets are closed and I can’t fix things,” he slurred at the bar. 

A distinguished man entered and sat beside Ted. 

“Why so glum?” 

Ted laid out his tale of woe. 

“Ted, were you honest in your dealings?”

“I might have cut corners. Everything was only going up and then it just collapsed today!”

“Have you ever heard of Krampus?” The man’s smile didn’t reach his dark, cold eyes.

Lastly, I’ve put a Mike Scott novella on sale. This isn’t a countdown deal. It’s just $0.99 (or equivalent) in all Amazon markets around the world. But get it now before it goes back up to full price!

Oil and Water: Crash in Curacao

A jet plane crashes in the waters off of the island nation of Curacao catapulting international news photographer Mike Scott on a chase to figure out who brought down the plane and why. More importantly, he must save the life of the pilot he rescued from the water after the crash and his own life in the process.

 Oil and Water weaves a story of international intrigue with oil cartels and mercenaries sent to disrupt their plans.

https://www.booksbyeric.com/book/oil-and-water/

That’s enough for now. Happy Holidays to everyone and see you in the new year.

Eric

 

Everyone loves a Christmas ghost story…

By

Have you ever wondered about the line in the song “Scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago?” People used to gather around the hearth at the winter solstice, days before Christmas, and tell ghost stories to each other.

For several years running now, Loren Eaton has organized the Advent Ghosts collection. (He did take a year off, but the birth of a new child will do that.) He coerces as group of writers to submit original scary Christmas/Solstice-themed stories. The catch is, the stories must be 100 words, no more, no less.

Writing flash fiction is always an interesting exercise in telling a story, with the intent of making someone’s skin crawl using only 100 words. It is just as important what you leave out as what you put in.

Below are my submissions to the effort this year. If you want to read more, go to the Shared Storytelling: Advent Ghosts page on Loren’s I Saw Lightning Fall page and follow the links. There are already a bunch there and more will come throughout the day.

You can also see past year’s submissions on my Free Fiction page.

Enjoy!

Roasting Over an Open Fire

Nothing says the holidays for me like the smell of fresh meat cooking over an open fire in the fireplace. There is just a magical feeling that comes with it. I have so many family memories of hunting with my father and grandfather. And for them, generations before that. I can’t wait to eat.

This year we are going to have a special treat, too. As soon as we get those eight reindeer butchered.

But first, we have to decide what to do about the fat man in the chimney. He should’ve known there was a fire in the fireplace.

Costume?

“That’s a great costume, very realistic. But what are you doing here?”

“I’m Krampus. I take bad children and whip their parents for letting them be ill-mannered.”

“We don’t celebrate that way. We believe in free-range parenting and never discipline our kids. They learn better that way and don’t believe in things that will hurt them. We want them to have a safe space to grow up.”

“You know the real world isn’t like that, right?”

“It’s our choice to protect them and shield them from bad things. Well, anyway, that’s a nice costume.”

“Who said it was a costume?”

Cliff was his own man

By

Cliff was his own man.  That much was for sure. All the guys at the rally the night before told him so. When they were all chanting together, listening to what the leader told them, and shouting back jeers and cheers, where appropriate, he felt important and independent. No fake scientists with their fake news were going to change his mind.

This morning he turned on the news, but it was the same old drivel again. News reporters, paid for by the liberals and the elites, talking about global warming. Don’t they know it’s actually a cooling period? The earth is getting colder, not hotter. He had read that just a few days ago on the internet site he followed regularly. They reported on stuff the mainstream media wouldn’t tell anyone. It’s all a big hoax.

“I mean literally, follow the money. The crybabies just want to make money and keep people like me working minimum wage jobs. It’s all just a scam to keep people like me down.”

The grand exalted leader said that at the rally last night, too.

Scientists? They don’t know what they are talking about. He had read that all the scientists who said global warming was a hoax had been silenced. They lost their jobs or were shouted down the liberal media. Science was all about the money, too. He knew more than all of them did.

Heading to work at the job he hated, he almost forgot it was the day of the big eclipse. He hoped his boss let them go outside for a few minutes to check it out and see what all the fuss was about.

The day wore on into the afternoon and it was close to time for the eclipse. In fact, looking out the window, Cliff could tell it was getting darker outside.

“Hey guys,” the boss said. “It’s time for the eclipse. Let’s all go outside and watch. I even got special eclipse glasses for you. I don’t want any of you to hurt your eyes.”

Most of the staff was excited about the chance to watch the eclipse although a few were more interested in the chance to take a break and stay on the clock. Nothing like getting paid for a few minutes without having to do anything for it.

Cliff took the paper glasses from his boss, but didn’t like the look of them.

“Another scam. I wonder how much some ‘scientist’ made off these things,” he said and tossed his glasses to the ground.

“It’s time. Everyone, put on your eclipse glasses.”

Cliff stood at the back of the group and watched his co-workers put on their goofy glasses and stare at the sky while it got darker.

“We’ve survived for hundreds of years without these stupid glasses and now we all have to have them or the scientists say our heads are going to explode or something. I don’t believe it. Just like global warming. It’s not real.”

Cliff looked straight at the sun as the eclipse reached its peak. He wasn’t going to listen to any stupid scientist.

He was his own man.

Privacy Policy