Humor, Grit, and the Fantastic
Here you will find a collection of unfinished tales, each a carefully selected moment from a larger, untold story. These segments are designed to immerse you directly into a scene, leaving the beginnings and endings to the theater of your own mind. It is an invitation to engage with the unknown, imagining the characters’ full journeys beyond these pages.
The project represents an experiment at the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence. It examines how digital tools can function as a partner in the writing process, fostering new forms of storytelling and advancing digital literacy. The goal is to demonstrate technology’s capacity to augment and inspire creative writing.
This collection explores the sharp wit of Dark Comedy, the stark realities of Hardboiled narratives, the expansive realms of Fantasy, the subtle wonders of Contemporary Magical Realism, and the rugged landscapes of the Western. Leaf Richards and Jamie F. Bell contribute their distinct voices, bringing these diverse genres to life with unique perspectives.
We encourage you to interact with these stories not just as a reader, but as a co-creator. Allow your imagination to fill in the missing details and complete the narrative arcs in ways only you can envision. Each interaction makes the tale uniquely whole.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Immerse yourself in a fascinating array of Dark Comedy, Hardboiled, Fantasy, Contemporary Magical Realism, and Western short stories, further explored through Poetic / Lyrical, Gothic Horror, Epistolary, and Urban Fantasy categories. We are dedicated to enhancing digital literacy and revolutionizing publishing by harnessing creative technology, driving the exploration of AI-assisted narrative and the future of digital publishing.
The Scoured Banks
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Poetic / Lyrical | Genre: Dark Comedy
The sluggish river, a ribbon of murky green, meandered under a suffocating summer sky. The air, thick with the scent of wet earth and distant urban decay, pressed down on the narrow bank where scattered debris clung to the roots of an ancient willow. Humidity clung like a second skin, promising no relief from the sun’s relentless glare, making every movement a minor act of defiance against the oppressive heat.
The Weight of the Tundra’s Breath
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Hardboiled | Genre: Hardboiled
A biting wind scoured the stunted birches, stripping them bare. The tundra, a canvas of burnt sienna and dull gold, stretched to a horizon where the sky hung heavy and bruised. Every breath was a frosty cloud, every step a reluctant push through the deepening mud and ancient, waterlogged moss.
Ancestral Walls
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Gothic Horror | Genre: Fantasy
Carson, the last of his family line, is in his decaying study, overwhelmed by the ancient, malevolent magic of his ancestral home. Sarah, a determined scholar, enters and confronts him, unraveling the house’s dark secrets through a tense dialogue.
The Infinite Stroll
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Epistolary | Genre: Contemporary Magical Realism
The comforting hum of The Portage Coffee House offers a momentary reprieve for Mikael, a young man adrift in the wake of academic completion. Beneath the surface of clattering cups and hushed conversations, he seeks answers to life’s grandest questions, unknowingly engaging with a presence far older and wiser than it appears.
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.
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 an experimental, creative research project by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners Storytelling clubs. Each chapter is a unique interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment, born from a collaboration between artists and applied AI researchers, designed to explore the boundaries of creative writing, automation, and storytelling. 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.
