original dark stories by meg sefton

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash I am working this weekend and won’t have time for seasonal story writing. I wrote this flash fiction several years ago and this week, taking into account comments from a respected fellow writer, I revised it and have posted it in my new publication on Medium, “The Beautiful Story.” Hopefully, I will be able to drum up more writers for the journal, but in the…

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash Merry Christmas. I wrote this little dark Christmas folktale retelling a few years ago and revised it today and decided to publish it in A Dark Wood. Please stop by, using this friend link. Margaret

John Cameron, Unsplash A flash fiction for these tumultuous times containing elements of humorousness, raucousness, racism, classism and a smooth finishing note of redemption, published today on Medium. This is a friendship link, no paywall. I hope you are well. Yours, Margaret

Today, I published a 500-word fiction which I penned after the 2020 election. It is a fantastical fictional take on a 2024 presidential candidate, a satiric apologetic, a microfiction hopepunk. I hope this finds you well. Margaret Friend link, no paywall. photo by Matthew Gonzales, Unsplash

Photo by Herman Sanchez on Unsplash I developed my short story “Blood Maiden” from a fifty-word story I posted here on my blog a couple of years ago. A reader commented on it, and I felt encouraged to expand it. Comments mean so much, and I thank readers who do this. Sometimes they make me think more than I might normally think about a story and stir up my curiosity. Even though I composed this…

This story has been long in the works for me and I’m so happy Imogene’s Notebook accepted it for publication. It was published today. To write this, I used my interest in fairy tale, and specifically, the enigmatic character of the Baba Yaga, to help me tell a story of something of an autobiographical nature at least in its emotional component, a story told slant.  The link provided above is a…

Photo by Katarzyna Pracuch, Unsplash For the spooky season, I’ve been publishing mini-collections of my 50-Word horror stories. Here is my most recent collection. I am very interested in having writers apply to write for my journal A Dark Wood. If you write dark stories of any length and are a member of Medium, stop by the journal. I will post more about this later. In the meantime, here is a…

El Hefe by Morgan Burke, flickr In a darkened arthouse cinema pub on a Saturday night, the women watch a documentary film called Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, about a beautiful, famous man who tragically dies. The women sitting at two adjacent tables close to the exit are known to each other, but they prefer the anonymity of the darkness and use it as an excuse to ignore the women…

Photo by Megan Nixon on Unsplash One day, Miss Bingley will have to purchase a stepladder to reach the top leaves of the West African tree she grows on her apartment patio. As it is, the tallest leaves are now up to her shoulders, but one day, the tree will be as tall as a man, taller. Every morning, she lovingly wipes down the dusty, lyre-shaped leaves, thinking of Hermes who had appeased…

Florida Memory: Unidentified woman boarding the Orange Blossom Special train: Sebring, Florida, flickr My flash memoir “Travelglam” was published in Morning Musings Magazine last week. Here is the friend link, no paywall. I hope you are doing well this Monday. Sincerely, Margaret

Photo by Jack Harner on Unsplash A piece of mine was published in a wonderful journal on Medium called Rainbow Salad. I hope you like it. Have a wonderful Saturday. Thank you for reading. Sincerely, Margaret

Photo by Diego Marin, Unsplash A piece of mine was published today on #Medium in Imogene’s Notebook. It is a romantic flash fiction piece about a near encounter. Have a wonderful Sunday. —Margaret View at Medium.com

View of Chipola River from porch, Florida Memory, circa 1885, flickr I am very happy that a personal essay of mine, originally published in Cowboy Jamboree‘s Townes Van Zandt issue “Travelin’ Thru Townes,” was published today in The Journal of Radical Wonder on Medium. It is a brief exploration of what it means to be a creative person living with bipolar disorder and suicidal ideation. I am…

Florida Memory: A young girl poses with the “Easter Bunny,” circa 1953, flickr I have a dark offering for those of us who feel the rose is off the #Easter bloom, especially since the inception of the pandemic a few years ago. A brief summary: four 50-word #horror stories set in a pandemic age in which children experience uncertainty, loneliness, and fear, in which darkness and anxiety are…

Unsplash photo by Jeb Johnson At Medium’s Pub Crawl this week, I met a wonderful editor and decided to submit this historical flash fiction about Amelia Earhart and her husband George Putnam. I’m glad to have found a way to revive my involvement with the platform and I’m really excited to have found the publication Morning Musings Magazine. I hope for more such opportunities. This historical…

Florida Memory, flickr I did something this week I never imagined myself doing. I touched a man I didn’t know. It happened in the theater, and I shouldn’t have allowed myself to do it. But I haven’t touched a man in four years. Maybe it was like going to the grocery store hungry. He was a big man, not totally my type, and he seemed intensely clued in on his food. But he was the only man in the…

Florida Memory: Child Petting a Cat, 1880, flickr On Halloween, Granny makes celery casserole while we play in the woods, the old Oviedo celery fields. We play with the ghost children as the cheese melts and the milk softens the stalks. Under the moon, Papa fiddles while Granny dances on a door to make the ghost children happy.