I’m thrilled to announce that my flash fiction story “Desolation of the Wendigo” has been published in Dark Descent Vol 3 by Dark Holme Publishing. You can buy the individual issue of Dark Descent or subscribe to read each new issue as soon as it’s published.
Some of you readers who follow me might have read the original iteration of this story under my flash fiction tab. The truth is, I wrote this story a long time ago and always had it up as a free read. It’s always been a personal favorite but it’s never gotten much attention. I submitted the original story to a few places over the years but nobody was interested.
Before summer (of 2024) I found out Dark Holme Publishing (who published my first Ashur Kang story) was putting out a microfiction zine that they plan on eventually turning into a full print anthology. Remembering this story, I decided it might be a good fit. Upon rereading though, I realized it wasn’t quite up to snuff. Instead of ditching it, I decided to rewrite the story and I really, really liked how it came out. I ended up submitting and here we are. It’ll also be featured in the print anthology coming out the summer of 2025.
The premise of Desolation of the Wendigo is pretty simple. What would happen to the Wendigo (an evil spirit that lures humans in the forest to eat them) if wildfires burned down its habitat. Though the story is short, its a grim look at the consequences of climate change and the terrible destruction brought on by these yearly wildfires the US has been experiencing, all seen through the eyes of a malicious, insatiable evil spirit.
I like this story and I feel its never gotten the right eyes on it. Hopefully this publication changes all that. In the future, I might do a compare and contrast of the original version to the rewritten version. I think that would be a fun way to track my progression as a writer. Anyway, I’d love to hear what you folks think of the story. It’s short, but trust me when I say that the other stories in this issue are worth the read as well.
Caleb James K. 