I was on a Horror writing panel at Multiverse with author Derek Austin Johnson. We were discussing the difference between writing long form vs. short form and literary vs. horror. Derek was saying something along the lines of, “In a literary novel, you could spend say three paragraphs, I don’t know, describing your character’s socks. You can’t get away with that in a short horror story.”

To which I said, “Unless the socks were eating him.”

The audience laughed and there was a brief moment Derek and I looked at each other. Then I scrambled for notepaper and a pen while he shouted “Dibs!”

“No dibs!” I retorted, “I already wrote it down.” I showed him the scrawled note Socks eat man.

Two days later, waiting for my flight, I wrote this creepy little tale.

Published in Dark Recesses Press, Vol. 6, Iss. 14