Love, Magic, and Irony
Incomplete narratives possess a strange gravity. Without a resolution, the characters remain in a state of perpetual potential, their conflicts unresolved and their desires unfulfilled. These short stories are presented as fragments—pages torn from a book that doesn’t quite exist yet—asking the reader to supply the missing context and emotional closure.
We approach this collection as an experimental program bridging interdisciplinary arts and applied artificial intelligence. The goal is to understand how digital tools can act as functional partners in the writing process, reshaping storytelling and scriptwriting workflows while fostering deeper digital literacy.
From the tenderness of Romance to the cynical edge of Dark Comedy and Satire, today’s posts cover a wide emotional spectrum. This entry features a collaboration of voices, including Eva Suluk, Jamie F. Bell, and Tony Eetak, who guide us through twisted versions of Urban Fantasy and Horror.
Do not look for the end. Instead, look for the threads that are left dangling and consider how you might tie them together.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Delving into the macabre and the magical, this post highlights the synergy between dark comedy, horror, and urban fantasy, while touching upon minimalist romance and psychological thrills. As a hub for experimental publishing, we use creative technology to produce short stories that challenge conventions and engage readers in the nuances of digital literacy. Our goal is to pioneer the future of AI-assisted narrative, demonstrating how satirical and paranormal elements can be woven together to create unique reading experiences in an increasingly digital world.
Splintered Timbers, Renewed Light
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Romance | Genre: Romance
Late autumn, inside the Willow Creek Seniors’ Centre. The air is stale, the light anemic, and the hum of routine hangs heavy. Daniel Wallace, a creature of precise habits, arrives for his daily ritual, only to find his sacred space occupied by an unknown, formidable woman.
A Ten-Pin Invocation
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Romance | Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rona hated Lane 12. It was sticky. Not just with spilled beer and soda, but with something older, a lingering residue of bad luck and missed spares. But tonight, she didn’t have a choice. This was the lane assigned for the final match, and she knew her opponent, Denny, had chosen it for a reason. In the cacophony of crashing pins and cheap rock music, a different kind of game was being played, and the score was kept not in frames, but in favours owed to the house.
The Nordic Concept
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Minimalist | Genre: Satire
The family gathers in a hyper-modern, sterile living room to decorate a sparse Christmas tree, battling over the conflicting desires for aesthetic perfection and sentimental chaos.
The Trail’s Unseen Bloom
Author: Tony Eetak | Category: Paranormal Romance | Genre: Dark Comedy
The path, softened by pine needles and damp earth, swallowed the last echoes of their boots. The land lab, usually bustling with the hopeful chatter of students and volunteers coaxing life from the soil, had fallen into an unnerving quiet. The summer’s efforts – the neat rows of strawberries, the burgeoning raspberry canes, the robust cucumber vines – were now just memory, leaving behind a faint, sweet decay in the humid air. A peculiar, almost metallic tang, unlike any natural scent, clung to the undergrowth, a quiet hum just at the edge of hearing, almost an expectation.
The Root of the Rot
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Psychological Thriller | Genre: Horror
The air hung heavy, thick with the scent of wet earth and something sharp, almost like burning copper, that clung to the back of Ethan’s throat. Below the skeletal branches of oaks, where new, sickly-bright green buds fought through the grey, the ground dissolved into a sucking mire. His boots, heavy with accumulated muck, protested with each withdrawal, making a sound like a wet kiss breaking. A cold drizzle, fine as mist, settled on his face, mingling with sweat that wasn’t from exertion alone.
About the Project
By design, these stories have no beginning and no end. Many stories are fictional, but many others are not. They are snapshots from worlds that never fully exist, inviting you to imagine what comes before and what happens next. We had fun exploring this project, and hope you will too.
The Unfinished Tales and Short Stories collection is part of an experimental, creative arts and research program by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners collectives. Each chapter is an interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment focused on two key areas: AI-Assisted Scriptwriting, where researchers explore using AI to generate story ideas, plot structures, and alternative story arcs to enhance creative development; and Talent Development and Training, where the project studies the necessary skills for creative professionals to manage AI and immersive technologies in production, helping to inform future training curricula. The project was made possible with funding and support from the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program and the Government of Ontario. We thank them for supporting the arts, digital transformation research and innovation in Ontario.
About the Author
