The Squirmzone's...

Library of Ancient Writings!

Or, well, not that ancient. Here I'll be collecting together things I've written, as of right now (July 14, 2024), that is entirely short stories that I have already uploaded to the Squirmzone, but in the future I'll add some more, and likely branch out into hosting some of my nonfiction/essay work as well. Check out the stories linked below!

A Kiss in Leningrad: My first and only real attempt at writing something entirely tender and romantic, written back during the height of the pandemic. Two close friends discovering how much they care for one another in a cool autumnal Leningrad in the 1970s.

Kazza of Killopolis

Kazza was a sword & sorcery character I came up with back in high school, though I only ever ended up writing two stories featuring her. Still pretty proud of how they turned out though, and I might return to the character someday.

Kazza of Killopolis in The Bog of Beasts: Will our valiant hero Kazza survive the fetid Swamplands of Yugga and survive to defeat the dread Guttersnipe?
Kazza of Killopolis in The Pit of Peril: Will our brutal hero Kazza survive the deadly pit of peril, where sword clangs against sword and man against man?

Horror Stories

Honestly most of the creative fiction I write is horror in one form or another. Four of the stories below are first-person paranormal tales; two of them are straightforward account, while the other two are an "archival" story, told in the form of collected documents (like a text-based found footage movie). The fifth is a body horror story that I wrote in the hopes of getting professionally published, to, unfortunately, no success.

Alone After Midnight: Watching the distant lights blink at night.
I Saw Something Terrible Through the Eyes of the Jack-o-Lantern: An "archival" tale about a small Ohio town beset by a wave of mysterious animal mutilations and attempted child kidnappings; but what connects them?
Tractor Beams: Self-explanatory.
Somatosensory: YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO SEE AT ALL
Ceaseless Growth: A woman begins to experience excessive, unnatural, and distressing hair growth, with other terrible effects. Content warning for body horror, descriptions of gore, and themes of body image issues.

Plays/Scripts

All the Way from Alexandria (2022): Written for a playwriting class in college. An attempt at a mummy story where the mummy is an object of pity and sadness instead of horror.
Just the Right Angle: A One Act Play of the Old West (2022): Written for the same playwriting class. A comedy western set during Reconstruction where a mathematically-inclined cowboy uses geometry to win a duel with a Texas ranger.

Nonfiction/Essays/Reviews on Other Sites

Bismarck, Browder, Biden: Joe's Hegemony versus Ours (2021): An attempt at an analysis of the Biden presidency from the tail end of its first year, and an argument against socialists (namely Eric Blanc, who I made into my de facto polemical opponent in the piece) who assert the need to ally with or subordinate to non-socialist Democrats. Some of the specifics here are maybe not the most relevant now, 5 years on, but the general thrust still works.
The Implicit Illiberalism of Crimes of the Future (2022): A review of David Cronenberg's last great film, about what it says about bodily autonomy, trans issues, the environment, and the general malaise of the "end of history."
The Safavid Merger: Sufism, Popular Islam, and the Rise of the Safavids (2023): The capstone research paper I wrote in undergrad, centering on the question of how the Safaviyya/Safavids went from a politically quietist, "Sunni" Sufi order to a radically political Shi'i movement that openly contested and won power in late medieval/early modern Iran.
The Double Tragedy of Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' (2023): Another film essay, reading Oppenheimer in the light of classical Greek tragedy, Aeschylus' fragmentary play Prometheus Bound, and the history and trajectory of American communism during the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Still really proud of this one.
Knowledge Develops Through Debate and Struggle (Jan/Feb 2025): Scroll down a bit, this essay about my experience at the first in-person congress of the DSA caucus I'm a member of, as well as Plato and Mao, is halfway down this page with other (really good!) writings by other comrades.
Motion Sickness (Aug 2025): Co-written with Lavender C., this is a bit of on-the-ground reporting from the most recent DSA National Convention!

Bogleech Creepypasta Contest Entries

From 2013 to 2019, I made a point to submit several stories each year to the Bogleech Creepypasta Cookoff, an annual internet horror writing contest during the wintertime hosted by Jonathan Wojcik over at Bogleech.com. I've often credited submitting my first stories in 2013 with kickstarting my efforts at creative writing, and Bogleech has been a major influence on my tastes, interests, and creativity since I don't even know how long. Below are links to all of the stories I submitted over the course of the 2010s, all hosted on Bogleech.com. Since these are from when I was a kid into a teen, I can't necessarily vouch for the quality of all of them, but I'll mark the ones that I personally think stand out with three asterisks!

The Boxes

A recurring loose setting of many of the stories I submitted to the Cookoff over the years. Kind of a proto-Backrooms, pseudo-Noisy Tenant kind of thing with multiple disparate worlds that occasionally, without real control, intersect.
The Boxes: Only Ever Buy the True Sodas (2013)
The Boxes: Super Happy Funland (2013)
The Boxes: The Island (2013)
The Boxes: Somewhere Over the Rainbow (2014)
The Boxes: Internal Scripture (2014)
The Boxes: Horse Hole (2015) ***
The Boxes: Tooth Fairy (2015)
The Boxes: Bootleg (2016)
The Boxes: Cabinet (2016)
The Boxes: Neighsayers (2016) ***
The Boxes: Checkmate (2017)
The Boxes: Stomach Bug (2017) ***
The Boxes: Chip Dip (2018) ***
The Boxes: Worm Castle (2018)
The Boxes: Bone Meal (2019) ***

Everything Else

The Hillbilly Horror (2014)
My Toilet Bit Me (2014)
Porcelain (2014)
Picasso (2015)
They Watch Us (2015)
Creepy Pasta (2016)
Down Under (2017) ***
I Turned Into a Mantis (2018) ***
Frozen Green (2018) ***
the TRUTH about ants (2019) ***

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