Echoes of the Frontier and Beyond
This collection presents a series of incomplete scenes and partial chapters rather than polished, finalized narratives. Think of these pages as moments torn from a larger book, capturing characters mid-stride and plots in motion without providing a neat resolution. This format invites you to embrace the mystery, using your own imagination to construct the history that led to these moments and the events that might follow.
This project serves as an experimental program positioned at the intersection of human creativity, interdisciplinary arts, and applied artificial intelligence research. It acts as an exploration of how digital tools can function as a partner in the writing process. The goal is to investigate how these collaborations shape new forms of storytelling and scriptwriting while simultaneously enhancing digital literacy skills and creative workflows.
The selection featured today moves from the rugged lawlessness of the Western genre to the desolation of Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi, while also touching on Satire and Action-Adventure. The works presented here are penned by Jamie F. Bell. Each piece offers a glimpse into a distinct world, ranging from the dusty trails of the past to uncertain futures.
We invite you to step into these unfinished tales not merely as an observer, but as an active participant. Read through these excerpts and allow your mind to wander past the final period, completing the story in a way that is unique to your own perspective.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
This collection delves into the intersections of post-apocalyptic sci-fi and western tropes alongside urban fantasy and hardboiled noir elements. By examining these eclectic themes, our project advances the conversation on creative technology and the evolution of digital literacy. We aim to redefine modern publishing through AI-assisted narrative experimentation, offering readers a curated selection of short stories that bridge traditional action-adventure with minimalist satire.
A Split Log and Dusting Pines
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Urban Fantasy | Genre: Western
The air, thin and tasting of red dust and pine sap, hung heavy over the cracked earth where the last vestiges of paved road splintered into a thousand forgotten tracks. Spring had arrived, not with gentle showers, but with a harsh, relentless sun beating down on the scattered structures of Veridian Gulch, a place where steel fences met ancient, whispering plains. A new kind of quiet settled over the land, a pre-dawn stillness broken only by the distant, almost imperceptible hum of the Crimson Badlands.
A Curation of Ghosts
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Hardboiled Noir | Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi
The air inside St. Jude’s Hospital for Children was thick with the dust of thirty years of silence. It wasn’t ordinary dust; it was a fine, grey powder composed of desiccated plaster, decayed records, and the faint, persistent trace of caesium that set the teeth on edge. Brandon played their headtorch beam across the reception desk, the light catching on a plastic teddy bear, its eyes and nose melted into a single, grotesque tear. The official history, the one narrated by the soothing voice of the Archive AI, called this place ‘stabilised and memorialised’. The reality was just rot.
The Paradox Seeded
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Minimalist | Genre: Satire
A biting spring morning unfurls over ‘The Verdant Citadel,’ an intentional community cobbled together from salvaged timber and earnest, if misguided, ambition. The air, crisp with the scent of thawing earth and nascent growth, carries a faint undercurrent of woodsmoke and damp soil. A small gathering has convened in the central clearing, a patch of churned mud still battling the last vestiges of winter’s chill, all eyes fixed on a canvas-draped crate that promises, or so the rhetoric insists, a new dawn.
The Hum of the Great Divide
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Boys Love (BL) | Genre: Coming-of-Age
The big coach bus churned through the fading light, a low, mechanical hum vibrating through the floorboards and up into James’s bones. Outside, the last vestiges of late autumn in Minnesota bled into the pale, bruised purple of an early evening sky. Fields stretched to a hazy horizon, flat and featureless, occasionally punctuated by skeletal trees or the lonely glow of a distant farmhouse.
The Salt Stings Both Ways
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Boys Love (BL) | Genre: Action-Adventure
The generator’s cough was the first sign. Now, rain lashes against the lantern room glass, each drop a tiny fist against the thick panes. Inside, the immense Fresnel lens hangs motionless, its light extinguished, plunging the tower and the churning sea below into an unnatural, terrifying darkness. The only sounds are the wind’s howl and the frantic, shallow breaths of two boys who were never meant to be in charge.
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.
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