In Which Frank Wakes Up

"Spiders!"

Frank sat up in bed, blinking furiously. There was a taste like old milk in his mouth. No, that wasn't right - it was more like the rush of air from the cooler that the milk was stored in. He licked his lips to get the taste out, and came away with raspberries. No again. This was the artificial raspberry flavoring they used in candy, or lip balm. Frank felt like he should look to his left.

He did so, and found a girl there. "Huh," he thought, "that's not normally there."

The girl who was not normally there was very alert for having been just discovered.

"No, I'm not normally here," she said.

"Can you..."

"Read minds?" she asked, squinting meaningfully.

To read the rest, go to this page.

Batman: 11 Two Face, Part Two

Batman is a DC Comics character, and Batman: The Animated Series is owned by Warner Home Video. If you'd like to purchase this episode, you may do so here; if you'd like to buy the DVD box set, you may do so here. The story was written by Randy Rogel, and directed by Kevin Altieri.

We see a “previously on” clip show before cutting to the same title card. This time, the isolated xylophone strikes have unified into an ominous theme.

A Rolls Royce pulls up outside one of Rupert Thorne’s gambling establishments. In the back seat is what’s left of Harvey Dent. He flips a coin, and it lands bad side up - it’s time to dole out the punishment.

The Dent’s toothy chauffeurs kick the door down, brandishing Tommy guns. They look like larcenous versions of Howdy Doody.

The man himself walks in a moment later, pimped out in a half-white half-black suit.

To read the rest, go to this page.

I Will Buy You A New Life

Perfect shiny and new.

It is with joy and mild terror that I present to you the new Bad Ideas I Have Had, now called “Bad Ideas I Had” in everything but URL. You could call it Bad Ideas for short, which is what I call this place in my head. (I plan on dropping one word a year until the site is eventually a giant B, 40 feet high and luminous.)

I've overhauled the way the site looks and works to provide a better, cleaner experience. It still isn't perfect - sorry, Everclear - but I like it immeasurably more. I've also reviewed and edited all posts and works of fiction from prior to 2012. There were times when I felt like I was being haunted by my own ghost, but I pushed through.

Said works of fiction and Batman recaps are now located on my domain, though the posts that announced them and the comments remain here. I’ll continue to post samples of new fiction, but the full text will be on pages that are outside of Blogger. Click the Writing and Batman links on the side to access a full list.

Fun fact: This is the hundredth post on Bad Ideas I Had. I couldn't have planned the synchronicity if I tried.

Did you know that a lot of images here have alt-text, the words that you see when you hover over a picture with your mouse? If you’re not reading the alt-text on the Batman recaps, you’re missing half the fun.

I have two tumblrs now! The Microwave’s Ghost is short flash fiction (less than 300 words, sometimes only 100) that tends toward the macabre. It is full of tiny, morbid bubbles that pop in your face and leave an oily residue. Batman’s Day Out features captioned .gifs and screencaps from The Animated Series. Most images and captions are new, although a few of my favorites from the recaps will creep in. (“cap” density for this paragraph: 13%)

Both sites update once a day, Monday to Friday, and they already have a few posts so you can get a taste of what they’re about. They're accessible via the My Projects link on the side. Hopefully, they're just the start - I have so very, very many bad ideas.

I've put up a new piece of flash fiction called Keeping a Pet, a new Chapter One named Incident Report #77A-1, and while there isn't a new short story (yet), I've fleshed out The Northwest Corner in a way that disturbs even me.

That's it. Go poke around. If you like what I do, tell people via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, reddit, or however you get down. If you want to shout in the faces of strangers in a downtown area, it’s your call. Where I live, it seems pretty popular.