2018 Halloween Interactive Fiction – Instructions

It’s time to choose your own adventure again–my yearly Halloween Interactive Fiction begins tomorrow. It’s gonna be spooky, gonna be queer, and gonna be driven by you!

Here’s how it works:
Tomorrow (Oct 1) I’ll put up the introduction to a story, describing the situation the character finds himself in. Then, you leave a comment to the post with a suggestion for what the character should do next! You’re an invisible audience shouting things at the screen–but the things you’re yelling will help influence the character’s actions. Examples of what suggestions might look like: “Examine the mirror” or “break the vase” or “Don’t give up!! Think about your family!” Get your comments in by no later than 4pm PST the next day. Then, between approximately 5pm-9pm PST, I will put up the next part of the story. A new post will go up every day until Halloween!

(If contradictory actions are suggested by different people (“Break the vase” and “take the vase with you”, for example), I’ll make my decision based on which is suggested more and/or which is more in line with the protagonist’s established personality. In general, you can suggest whatever you want, even if it isn’t relevant. For example, “what do you look like, though?” could be a suggestion just as much as anything else—you are more than welcome to use your comment to learn more about the character(s) as well as advance the story.)

Anyone’s welcome to jump in on the most recent post–don’t feel like you have to be there from the start to play (though do read previous parts, just so you’re caught up on what’s happened so far).

(The small text: I reserve all rights to this work. If I eventually get this published in any form that requires me to take this version down, I will send copies of this online version, with comments left intact, to everyone who contributed suggestions, if I am reasonably able to get in contact with them.)

Everyone is welcome to play and I hope you consider joining in! If you want to dip your toes in and read a little about how this works first, feel free to check out the previous Halloween I.F. games I’ve run.

Let’s Get Started:
Comment to this post with a suggestion for our protagonist’s name! He is American, bisexual, in his twenties, a computer programmer who is between jobs after layoffs at his company, and has, to his own confusion, recently inherited an old countryside manor home left to him by his eccentric great-aunt.

[Completed Parts: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14 | Day 15 | Day 16 | Day 17 | Day 18 | Day 19 | Day 20 | Day 21 | Day 22 | Day 23 | Day 24 | Day 25 | Day 26 | Day 27 | Day 28 | Day 29 | Day 30 | Day 31 | Conclusion | Author’s Notes/Story Q&A]

Looking for other spooky stories I’ve written? Check out Empty Vessels, a m/m novel about a literally-haunted young man who, after getting to know some of the monsters he can see, decides to help save them from a greater threat. And please consider ordering Only Human, a m/m zombie novella about a guy seeing a doctor about a curse, who gets to know his doctor’s super hot–and super dead–receptionist (previously published in the Less Than Dead anthology).