STORIES TELLING STORIES

• "Zombies" (Nov 2013 of Playboy) - High schoolers begin electrocuting themselves by applying a cardiac defibrillator's electrodes to their temples and turning it on, which results in permanent brain damage. Dubbing it "The Great Leap Backwards" more and more people begin electrocuting themselves in order to willfully return to a state of childlike ignorance. At the airport, the narrator, Trevor, applies the electrodes to his head and is about to turn it on, but his Uncle stops him.

NARRATION by Eric R. Hill

PRODUCTION by STS Media | Seeing ReDD Productions

Alfie Zimmer, a traveling salesman peddling gourmet frozen foods, pulls into a Motel 6 in Nebraska for the night and contemplates ending it all...

"All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" is a short story by Stephen King. It was originally published in the January 29, 2001 issue of The New Yorker magazine. In 2002, it was included in King's collection Everything's Eventual. 

Narration by Eric R. Hill

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HAUNTED is a novel made up of twenty-three horrifying, hilarious, and stomach-churning stories. They're told by people who have answered an ad for a writer's retreat and unwittingly joined a "Survivor" -like scenario where the host withholds heat, power, and food. As the storytellers grow more desperate, their tales become more extreme, and they ruthlessly plot to make themselves the hero of the reality show that will surely be made from their plight. This is one of the most disturbing and outrageous books you'll ever read, one that could only come from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk.

Narration by Eric R. Hill

A "Luckey Quarter" for 2024.  Our best wishes for a wonderful and prosperous New Year, kicked off by a short story by Stephen King that we hope shares a little luck with our listeners

STORY:  "Luckey Quarter"

AUTHOR:  Stephen King

READER:  Eric R. Hill

DJ BLAND returns to wish us all well this holiday season and bring us an olde timey story from the OG king of the christmas story... Charles Dickens. 

"What Christmas Is as We Grow Older" was first published way back in 1851. 

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Journey and A Memoir Blue are candidates for video games as an art form for their unique approach to the silent narrative.  Much like our earlier installment highlighting GRIS, a visual story can be just as compelling as one reliant on narration and text.  A Memoir Blue shows us an interactive poem, written without words, that taps into the wonder of childhood and the challenges of being a parent.  And Journey is the same parable of the hero's journey we’ve been retelling since the dawn of time - drenched in desert imagery and biblical allusions that implore us to continue moving forward when all hope is lost and we feel our most alone.

Narrated by Eric R. Hill

This is the second half of “Everything’s Eventual” and the season finale of our “Hell to the King” series for STS SPOOKTOBER 2023.  

Narration by
Eric R. Hill

STS SPOOKTOBER  2023 was produced in collaboration with Stories Telling Stories and STS Media Group… writing you a personal letter at Mitlhouse Studios in Milton, Vermont… Casting around the globe to your frontal lobe wherever podcasts are found… SPOOKTOBER is also streaming on YouTube @ StoriesTellingStories.  Make sure to give us a review wherever you stream our show, we really appreciate it!  You can show your support for free by following us on Facebook and Instagram, help us get to 500 subscribers by subscribing on our YouTube Channel, and if you so choose, going a step further and supporting us on Patreon for $1 a month or more!

And until next year... Stay spooky!

This is the first half of “Everything’s Eventual” episode 4 of our 5 part “Hell to the King” series for STS SPOOKTOBER 2023.  Be sure to tune in episode 5 to hear the second half of the story! 

STS SPOOKTOBER is produced in collaboration with Stories Telling Stories and STS Media Group… writing you a personal letter at Mitlhouse Studios in Milton, Vermont… Casting around the globe to your frontal lobe wherever podcasts are found… SPOOKTOBER is also streaming on YouTube @ StoriesTellingStories.  Make sure to give us a review wherever you stream our show, we really appreciate it!  You can show your support for free by following us on Facebook and Instagram, help us get to 500 subscribers by subscribing on our YouTube Channel, and if you so choose, going a step further and supporting us on Patreon for $1 a month or more!

And until next time... Stay spooky!

SPOOKTOBER 2023 “Hell to the King” is our tribute to one of the most prolific, iconic, and important contemporary authors of horror, and a true living legend… Stephen King. We will be highlighting 5 lesser-known short stories this year so make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. 

Performed by Eric R. Hill

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Episode 2 of SPOOKTOBER 2023 is "Graveyard Shift"

“Hell to the King” is our SPOOKTOBER tribute to one of the most prolific, iconic, and important contemporary authors of horror, and a true living legend… Stephen King.  We will be highlighting 5 lesser-known short stories this month, so make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. 

STS SPOOKTOBER was produced in collaboration with Stories Telling Stories and STS Media Group… eating you alive at Mitlhouse Studios in Milton, Vermont… Casting around the globe to your frontal lobe wherever podcasts are found… SPOOKTOBER is also streaming on YouTube @ StoriesTellingStories.  Make sure to give us a review wherever you stream our show, we really appreciate it!  You can show your support for free by following us on Facebook and Instagram, subscribing on our YouTube Channel, and if you so choose, going a step further and supporting us on Patreon for $1 a month or more!

Welcome to SPOOKTOBER 2023… “Hell to the King” - our tribute to one of the most prolific, iconic, and important contemporary authors of horror in America today, and a true living legend… Stephen King.  Episode 1 is "The Man Who Loved Flowers."

Narration by Eric R. Hill

The New York Times called “Gone Home” the greatest video game love story ever told.  It’s beautiful in its desolation… It's haunting in its endless hallways, and the seemingly simple story doesn’t exaggerate and it doesn’t pander.  It wholly represents itself in a time and place that as time goes on fewer and fewer of us will be able or willing to remember.  The awkward teenage years.  When love hurts and life is a bitch and the whole world has abandoned you.  The verisimilitude of solitude. 

Analysis written and read by Eric R. Hill

"Letters to Katie" read by Cassandra Cibra

SEASON SIX PREMIERE "GRIS: A Story Without Words."  "GRIS" stands as a remarkable piece of interactive art that showcases the power of visual storytelling through emotional depth and crossing multiple artistic and philosophical ideals to create a one of a kind experience for those curious enough to explore a world without words.  The first in our season-long series arguing the merits of video games as an independent art form.

Written and Read
by Eric R. Hill

Even the tallest of tales are rooted in some sort of truth... 

Originally told by Allen Morse from the small town of Calais, Vermont, "A Strange Tale" speaks of a first-hand account of a handful of residents freezing their elderly and infirm in order to save resources enough to survive the brutal winters - only to turn around in the spring and return their frozen kin to perfect health in time to plant the spring corn.

My family and the Morses have history going back to the founding of the village of Calais, and I've heard talk of this as an old secret of the mountains before I ever discovered the published account.  Did the founding families of Calais possess the secrets of human hiberation, or is this just another of Allen Morse's tall tales?  You be the judge...

LOCKED IN A VACANCY ep31

... There was no colour upon her cheek, not even upon her lip; yet there was a stillness about her face that seemed almost as attaching as the life that once dwelt there:—upon her neck and breast was blood, and upon her throat were the marks of teeth having opened the vein:—to this the men pointed, crying, simultaneously struck with horror, "A Vampyre! a Vampyre!" 

"The Vampyre" by John William Polidori

First published in 1819

Recited by Eric R. Hill

Episode 4, Young Goodman Brown, comes to us from 1835 and continues our trek backwards in time to find some of the earliest forms of short story horror in the modern age. Nathaniel Hawthorn weaves a tale rich in religious imagery, doublethink, and madness set within the time of the Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. It is a fantastic example of the Puritanical mindset and how even amongst likeminded folk they were often riled in philosophical struggles against good and evil. Hawthorne hypothesizes - based on his own personal guilt that his father was a judge during the Witch Trials - that evil is inherent in all people and that the truly pious are those few and far between with the courage to stand against their community and hold firm to their beliefs. And with the Young Goodman Brown, the Devil is everywhere and is much more familiar than you or I give him credit for.

"A Story of a Weir-Wolf" which was first published in 1845 is arguably the first published werewolf story written by a woman; author Catharine Crowe.  But this is by no means your typical werewolf story... as the suspense and fear come not from the visceral and supernatural power of a creature that exists between animal and man, but from the callousness, cruelty, and jealousy of our own emotions and the power that this negativity can have to galvanize the masses and turn a level-headed community into a witch hunt... all because of the jealous lie of a single individual. 

Read by Eric R. Hill

"The Yellow Wall-Paper" is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine.  It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature for its illustration of the attitudes towards mental and physical health of women in the 19th century.

Read by Eric R. Hill

IT'S SPOOKTOBER SEASON AGAIN!  This year we examine five masters of horror from the very early days... For episode 1, we examine a story that has been spoofed, retold, and explored across every conceivable medium and still remains as chilling today as it was upon its release over one hundred years ago... this is... THE MONKEY'S PAW by W.W. Jacobs

As read by Eric R. Hill

Written and read by Eric R. Hill

All photo and video footage from my personal or family collection