The Benjamin Report

Instead of a weekly report this Saturday, enjoy these teasers for some of the stuff I’ve been working on. If all goes according to plan, each of these projects will receive their full release on this blog in the coming months.

From The Outside Looking In

A short story about a retail manager in rural Wisconsin looking back on his childhood while smoking with a teenage coworker. The story is told through six scenes, building up from when he was barely old enough to read to the moment he was forced to part ways with his best friend.

The Wonka Incident

Short fiction/Novella about a young American entrepreneur kidnapped, robbed, and left for dead in Belize who is recruited by the Belizean government to be a member of their industrial inspections team. He is assigned with a ragtag group of vagrants who were caught in similar situations to inspect the local Wonka Bubblegum factory. He meets interesting characters along the way in surreal situations (it is a Wonka candy factory after all). No one he meets though can compare in sadistic quality to the sinister Oompa Loompa in charge, Azul.

This sample is very bare-bones. Despite The Wonka Incident being the first story I thought up in this selection, it is also the one I’ve written the least for. More information for it will come in future posts. It is unfortunate that when my phone was stolen this past week, so with it all the notes I’ve written for this story.

The Bad Itch

An anxious teenage runaway is recruited into the staff of a sleazy Hollywood tabloid magazine. His creativity, angst, and recklessness set him apart from the other writers. He quickly develops into a powerhouse columnist and is consumed with greed and a psychotic egomania that takes physical form as an increasingly aggressive and unstoppable rash. As years turn to decades, his scratches to his itch turn to lesions that give him the appearance of a horrid monster. All the while the Earth is literally shrinking, causing catastrophes and destruction seemingly with no end.

The Bad Itch is a surrealist body horror serial novel, with parts to the story being released randomly over time.

These are all unfinished first drafts. I hope you at least enjoyed reading. I am excited for you all to see how all this crud turns out.