Tiny Little Vampires & the Tell Tale Press

I hate mosquitoes. I mean, I really hate them. I hate them so much I wrote a weird little gross-out pseudo-rant about a guy in a hotel room being tormented by the little fuckers so much it drives him nuts.

Why mosquitoes?

Because with most creatures, even the gross or dangerous ones, you can usually find one redeeming quality. But not mosquitoes. Everything about them is vile and repulsive. They really are tiny little vampires. With wings. The problem is, as much as I hate them, they just love me and can’t stay away. They aren’t much of a problem in the UK. It’s not warm enough for them. But the moment I step off that chilly little island I get bitten to shit.

A few years ago I did a load of research about mosquitoes, either for my own amusement or for a non-fiction article I never wrote (I forget which) and ended up incorporating a lot of it into a story called Tiny Little Vampires. A flash version (less than 1000 words) of this story previously appeared in my collection X2, but the only reason it reached that state was because I cut it down on the advice of a prospective publisher who then decided they didn’t want it anyway.

Sigh.

Truth be told, I was never entirely happy with either the original or the flash version. I knew the story had potential, and thought it could be much better than it was. So sometime last year I stripped it down and built it again from the ground up, so to speak. Then, after a few edits and some polishing, I started submitting it again.

And here we are.

You can now find it on Tell Tale Press.