What is this?
The Mausoleum of Gratuitous Fear is an homage to EC Comics, like Vault of Horror or Tales from the Crypt. A story is told through three different perspectives, much like how those books would have a “Crypt Keeper” or a “Vault Dweller.” The main difference is that my story is extremely mundane, taking place on a weeknight at an Applebee’s.
The true horror, though, comes through as we realize how the manipulative storytellers are also reflections of common hero archetypes that our society probably should reconsider holding in such high esteem.
Where is this?
You can find JPEG images of the entire publication below. Please feel free to enjoy and share. If you do copy these images for whatever reason, please make an honest effort to link people back to this site or to the store page .
At some point, I would like to copy a complete text transcript here for accessibility. But unfortunately it is now only available online as images.
Physical copies of Mausoleum can be obtained from my shop .
Why is this?
The incredibly hard-working poet Christopher McCurry started a generative writing project called “Tell Me a Story” where he challenged a select group of writers to write a story – in any medium – every month.
For the first month, I made the first draft of Mausoleum. I must have had a backup of creative juices ready to be purged, because I didn’t create anymore stories for the group after that. Plus, I was neglecting my long-form writing, which is where my passions really lie.
After joining my current writing group, I quickly finished a first draft of my current novel. As Stephen King recommends in On Writing, a first draft deserves a break, not just to let you rest but to allow you to revise it with a more-distanced (and less subjective) perspective. During this break, I finished Mausoleum and sold it at a local zine festival.
The Complete Text
What do you think?