FicStack Curation #1

Gary Mucklow, Tina Crossgrove, Kelly Xan, and 3 others

Oct 27, 2025

After much talk, several announcements, and a curation team build, it’s finally here! FicStack curators have been trawling through Substack and have found the following eleven gems for your viewing pleasure.

Be sure to give the featured authors a read, a like or two, drop them a comment, and maybe give them a restack.

Tina Crossgrove, Existential Dread and Other Hobbies
It’s Spooky season, so this week I actively looked for stories that sent shivers down my spine and gave me the heebie jeebies.

“30 Days Red” by Victor W. Clubb, Bent But True. A blood-red moon shows up, and suddenly everyone’s skin becomes a cursed Etch A Sketch. At first, it’s weird. Then it’s horrifying. Over thirty days, a town unravels—along with reality, sanity, and the boundaries between body and belief. Something’s coming, but the real horror? It might’ve been here all along. This one made my skin itch–literally!

Kelly Xan, The Author Wars
As October comes to an end, I wanted to give you a unique duo of stories. Many spooks have come your way, and are still on the horizon, but I found these two in a sea of scares, and they stuck out to me.

“Fragments Against the Ruins” by Jack, Blessed are the Fires. I came into this story expecting a little morose dystopian tale. What I got was a STUNNING dialogue between man and technology about what it means to truly be alive. If you want a little tearjerker that will also leave you with hope, this is the fic for you.
“The Echo Of Evermore” by Lady of the Lake, KC’s Chronicles. A precious, cosy fantasy where the moon watches a little dragon grow up and take to the skies, all the while seeing it for more than just its scales and might, but for the gentle, magnificent creature that it is. Need I say more? No, no, I needn’t.

Jade Fox-Morgan, Jade Fox-Morgan
Let’s face it, no matter the season, I’m going to be on the search for the weirdest, out-of-your-comfort-zone stories that give me the creeps. Seeing as it’s Halloween, though, these seemed perfect.

“Stuck” by Ajinkya Goyal, Innocently Macabre, feels like a reimagining of The Purge. Not in the blockbuster, spectacle sense, but at the level of human impulses, fear, and the breakdown of rules. What starts as disorienting becomes ethically fraught. And there’s no better time than now to read about characters dressed in costumes.
“handless/chain link” by Clancy Steadwell, Persona Non Propria, is just a story about some guy who doesn’t have a hand. But the author turns it into a story about navigating social spaces and facing your fears. What makes this story exceptionally compelling is Steadwell himself. Steadwell’s writing is easy to read and absorbs you into the stories he creates automatically. If you’re in the mood for a piece that doesn’t rely on jump scares but still makes you gasp a little, this is the one.
“Thorned Cathedral” by Mata Haggis-Burridge, The Inciting Incident, is a chilling narrative set in a seemingly idyllic small town, where the community’s attempt to revitalise an abandoned lot takes a sinister turn. This story evokes the haunting atmosphere of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” blending a sense of communal unity with underlying dread. Looking for a haunting mystery? Here it is.

Yaba Armah (Gh’d Company), Wicked Little Things
The two stories I stumbled upon this week both begin on a road. But what very different roads they are. Get settled. You’re in for a ride.

“Goat Pie” by Kaothar Kadir, Chaos & Kismet, takes road kill to a whole new level. “Goat Pie” is a delicate thriller that will stay with you for days. Kadir uses one event–the death of a goat–and seamlessly wraps multiple lives within it. This is the kind of story that will leave you philosophising about the difference between a writer and a storyteller. Kaothar Kadir is a storyteller. And when, not if, you find yourself craving more of Kadir’s work, check out Tales by Kadir for four more short stories that are equally as riveting.

“The Realm Report” by Jenna B. Neece, Jenna B. Neece Productions: Stories, Art, & Podcasts, is a study on how to give your setting, main character energy. “The Realm Report” is a warm grounding hug in a world that feels more and more untethered. It is therapy dressed up in fantasy. Each magical element sings with some intangible truth about self love, forgiveness, and acceptance. Fortunately for us, this is just the beginning. “The Realm Report” is a new series by Jenna B. Neece. There are currently two episodes out and I for one will be patiently waiting for the third.

Qibra, Qibra

Here are two stories for you this week about loss, sacrifice and what matters most.

“When Mona Fell Apart” by Judith Ashcraft. During a job interview, Mona’s pinky finger falls off. This story gripped me on the first read and hit even harder on the second. It uses bold, unsettling imagery to reveal uncomfortable truths. I’m talking about the kind that makes you double-take and haunts you long after the last line. The brilliance is in what Judith doesn’t say. There’s no explanation, no revelation, just the quiet horror of a woman disintegrating while the world expects her to keep functioning. No one notices. Only we do. Judith trusts the metaphor to speak for itself. The horror isn’t supernatural. It’s the reality of losing yourself piece by piece while everyone expects you to keep showing up. Bold, emotionally honest genre-blending storytelling that deserves attention.
“The Clockmaker’s Gift” by Jenifer Jorgenson, Snark Floats. He thought his grandfather had played favorites when the will was read and he was left with only a clock. What follows is a story about obsession and finding meaning in the present with those who matter the most when everything else falls away. I love stories exploring time, but here, Jenifer makes time travel feel intimate. Instead of world-changing events or paradoxes, she went small and human. A couple becoming addicted to the impossible. We can all see ourselves in that situation. It’s beautiful and bittersweet.

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