Links to My Fiction

Experimental Pieces (with a bonus airing of dirty laundry against Ellen Datlow)

Elementary and Middle School English classes are not fun for anyone. Teachers have to teach grammar rules. They have to make sure that you can write with some competence and that requires that you learn about nouns and verbs and gerunds and all that shit that you just use now in daily conversation without thinking.

First person. Second person. Third person. According to most early English classes, stories are either written in the first or the third person. It’s either “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die” or “Johnny Cash didn’t shoot anyone, not even when he was doing cocaine.” However, second person stories are out there in the world, just waiting for their time in the sun.

Generally, there are two major ways to use second person. Either you want to bring an immediacy to the action, making the reader feel like they are in the situation. EC Horror comics and their imitators often used second person to great effect. “Mary, you are not thinking about your mother. Mary, you are burying your father. Mary, come back. You left your favorite Zippo with your father’s corpse.” Else, you can write a story where everyone is talking to the main character in a way that strengthens the mystery. I’ve written both kinds of second person stories.

”A Gun to your Head” is the latter version. The main character is being menaced by a woman that he knew in high school. She fell upon hard times, but YOU are fucked. Seriously, if you don’t give her a loan, she’s going to end you.

Next up is “Hey Man”. “Hey Man” is one of those stories that I wrote as a fun little experiment in using vernacular and trying to make conversation. The beat poets definitely influenced me a great deal in high school. Of course, none of them used their poetry to write a short short story about the Black Death.

I was very proud that this got in Ellen Datlow’s honorable mentions for one of those Best Horror anthologies, but now I don’t give a fuck. Datlow has disappointed me too many times in too many ways. Usually personal stuff like not knowing why Jews didn’t like Jeremy Corbyn to the way that she joined in on the Maoist Cancel Culture Party against Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki when one of his ex-friends wrote a bullshit rant against him that hinted at a lot but ultimately said nothing more than “he didn’t put me in any of his anthologies and I thought we were friends!!!!” When one of those idiot bluesky fucks decided to write some idiot twitter feed saying “You can’t solve colonialism by elevating one guy” and called Ekpeki “the global south whisperer”, Datlow was one of the first people to go “oh wow, that’s so insightful.” I would have defended Ekpeki regardless, because he’s my friend, but when the accusations were that ridiculous and the Global South bullshit was being shoveled, there was no question of calling bullshit. And getting the antisemitic racist hate mail.

I don’t like Ellen Datlow. I think she’s full of shit. And there’s no fucking reason to put Neil Gaiman’s shitty boring post-American Gods stories in every “Best New Horror” anthology.

Anyhow, here’s a “Hey Man.” It’s fun.

Finally, we have “Intoxicated Fuckheads”, my first sale. Damn, it’s been a long time since I was writing about rock stars. I think this one is also in the second person. Because I’m that clever. I don’t love this one, but it got a couple of fans and subscribers when I posted it the first time.

If you like me and want to help me out (the academic fraud income stream got killed by AI), please either get a paid subscription or donate to my gofundme. I also write and edit for private clients. So if you have an memoir you need revised or a resume in need of polishing, please email me at omanlieder@yahoo.com or

My latest story sale was “Go Ask Ophelia” to Cosmic Horror Monthly.

I’m also starting to put my reprints on Amazon. These are different than my substack reprints (they will meet in the middle), so you can now buy either Snuff or The Christmas Video. Only 99 cents!

Finally, I’m coming out with a new Dybbuk Press book soon. It’s been awhile as I had to take care of my mom in those years (Andrew Cuomo killed her). Buy the last one.