Echoes of the Unfinished
These stories arrive not as polished novels, but as incomplete tales and open-ended scenes. Like pages found scattered on a desk, they capture moments of high tension or quiet reflection without providing the comfort of a resolution. This format invites the reader to step inside the gap between what is written and what remains unsaid, using their own imagination to construct the missing context.
This collection represents an experimental program at the intersection of human creativity, interdisciplinary arts, and applied artificial intelligence research. It serves as an exploration of how digital tools can act as a partner in the writing process, shaping new forms of storytelling and scriptwriting while enhancing digital literacy skills and workflows.
Today’s selection offers a wide range of styles, moving from the grounded emotional weight of Literary Fiction to the high-stakes world of Techno-Thrillers and the dust of the Western frontier. Featured authors Leaf Richards and Jamie F. Bell provide the creative foundation for these distinct pieces.
We invite you to engage with these unfinished tales not as a passive observer, but as an active participant. Read the scenes, absorb the atmosphere, and let your mind write the ending that the text leaves open.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
This collection spans the gamut from the intimate nuances of literary fiction and family sagas to the high-stakes tension of techno-thrillers and psychological sci-fi. By analyzing themes ranging from time travel paradoxes to cinematic magical realism, we aim to redefine the landscape of modern publishing. Our project is dedicated to advancing digital literacy through the lens of creative technology, exploring how AI-assisted narrative can breathe new life into short stories that challenge genre boundaries.
A Slackening Current
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Domestic Thriller | Genre: Literary Fiction
A biting spring wind whips off the churning river, tugging at Rory’s worn jacket. Beneath a sky the colour of bruised plums, she picks her way along the muddy bank, the damp chill seeping through her trainers. The air carries the faint, metallic scent of damp soil and something indefinably industrial from upstream. It is a walk she takes to clear her head, but today, the landscape feels less like a refuge and more like a stark, gritted mirror.
The Glacial Unveiling
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Magical Realism | Genre: Techno-Thriller
The old community hall smelled faintly of damp wool and stale coffee, a scent that clung to the worn linoleum and the plastic chairs arranged in a loose circle. Outside, the early winter night was already a profound, inky black, only occasionally broken by the distant, spectral shimmer of the northern lights, a constant reminder of how far north they truly were. Inside, the fluorescent lights hummed with a low, insistent buzz, casting a harsh, unyielding glow on the faces around the table, a stark contrast to the soft, shifting sky beyond the frost-rimmed windows.
Scuff Marks on the Evening
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Slice of Life | Genre: Western
The oppressive heat of a late summer day lingered, trapping itself within the wooden walls of the small cabin. Outside, the dust held the last faint warmth, and the air hung heavy and still, smelling faintly of dry earth and distant sagebrush. A single, battered lantern threw a weak, flickering circle of light across the porch of the general store, outlining the worn planks and the heavy silence of the frontier night.
Parallax Approaches the Asymptote
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Time Travel Paradox | Genre: Psychological Sci-Fi
Sasha found Maxine in the north field, where the grass had been baked a pale straw-yellow by the relentless August sun. She wasn’t wandering, or crying, or doing any of the things Sasha had rehearsed comforting on the walk over. She was sitting, legs folded, in the centre of a vast, intricate pattern of stones. It wasn’t a spiral or a circle, but something that seemed to violate the very ground it rested on, its lines appearing to curve into impossible dimensions. Maxine was perfectly still, a small, calm island in a sea of geometric madness.
The Stasis of Iron and Ice
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Cinematic | Genre: Family Saga
The Winnipeg train station, usually a bustling artery connecting the vast expanse of the prairies, was a tableau of static humanity. Outside, a blizzard raged, plastering the grand windows with swirling white, reducing the world to a frantic, opaque blur. Inside, the air hung heavy with the cloying scent of stale coffee and desperation. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting a pallid glow on the rows of hard, unforgiving plastic seats that had become temporary beds, offices, and battlegrounds for a small army of stranded travellers.
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
