Competition, Justice, and Kinship
Contained within this collection are a series of unfinished tales, each a segment pulled from a larger, unwritten whole. These stories are presented as moments that demand the reader’s imagination to construct what came before and envision what lies ahead. It’s an invitation to lean into the mystery of an unfolding plot.
This project represents an experiment at the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence. It explores how digital tools can function as a partner in the writing process, fostering new forms of storytelling and advancing digital literacy. The aim is to demonstrate technology’s potential to augment and diversify creative outputs.
Today’s selection features the competitive spirit of Sports Fiction, the high stakes of Legal Thriller, the rugged individualism of the Western, and the deep complexities of Family Saga. Jamie F. Bell and Eva Suluk have contributed their insights and craft to these distinctive genres, offering a rich array of human experiences.
We encourage you to step into these narratives not just as an observer, but as an active participant. Allow your mind to complete the stories, filling in the unspoken details and envisioning the full arc of each character’s journey. Your imaginative engagement enriches every tale.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Engage with dynamic Sports Fiction, Legal Thriller, Western, and Family Saga short stories, presented alongside Gritty Realism, Psychological Drama, Cyberpunk, and Comedic Misadventure narratives. We champion digital literacy and push the boundaries of publishing through creative technology, dedicated to exploring the fascinating intersection of AI-assisted narrative and the future of digital publishing.
The Asphalt Debt
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Gritty Realism | Genre: Sports Fiction
The outdoor basketball court, baking under the relentless Winnipeg summer sun, is a crucible of desperation. Sweat drips, sneakers squeak against faded asphalt, and every breath is a ragged gasp. The air crackles with the raw tension of a game teetering on the edge, the distant drone of city traffic a forgotten backdrop to the unfolding drama.
A Guttering Flame
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Psychological Drama | Genre: Legal Thriller
The morning pressed in, a slate-grey weight against the city’s tired shoulders. Winter had clenched its fist around the courthouse, frosting the grand arched windows with intricate fern patterns that blurred the already dim light. Footfalls on the granite steps outside were muffled by a thin layer of fresh, powdery snow, each gust of wind a sharp, percussive slap against the heavy oak doors. Inside, the air hummed with a low, nervous energy, a cloying blend of old paper, polished wood, and stale coffee, carrying the cold seeped in through the building’s ancient bones.
Gold and Memory
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Sports Fiction | Genre: Sports Fiction
The frigid air of the arena, thick with the scent of ozone and polished ice, vibrated with a contained energy. Above, banners from forgotten championships sagged slightly, dusted with frost. On the sheet, a curling stone, burnished granite, carved a precise path towards the house, its rhythmic scrape against the pebbled ice the only sound that truly mattered in that charged moment. Two figures, senior in years but agile in spirit, swept with a furious dedication, their brooms a blur of focused effort.
A Frost-Kissed Bargain
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Cyberpunk | Genre: Western
The city’s perpetual hum, a low thrum of processors and distant transit, felt oddly muffled under the first unexpected blanket of snow. It wasn’t much, just a dusting, but it clung to the skeletal branches of the plaza’s few surviving trees and whitened the worn concrete of the benches, making the usual grime feel momentarily pristine. Overhead, the holographic adverts for synth-protein and cyber-enhancements shimmered, casting their garish colours onto the pristine white, creating a kaleidoscope of fleeting, artificial brilliance. The air, thin and sharp, carried the faint, metallic tang of static electricity from the power conduits running beneath the walkways, mingling with the earthy scent of wet soil and cold asphalt.
A Convoluted Winter Bloom
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Comedic Misadventure | Genre: Family Saga
The wind outside howled a flat, tuneless song, rattling the single-pane window of Owen’s shared studio. Inside, the ancient radiator clanked and hissed, fighting a losing battle against the encroaching prairie winter. Dust motes danced in the anemic light filtering through the frost-ferned glass, illuminating a space crammed with half-finished canvases, scattered charcoal sticks, and the faint, comforting scent of linseed oil and instant coffee. Owen hunched over a laptop, fingers stiff with the cold despite the thick wool sweater, scrolling through an endless feed of digital art, a familiar knot of doubt tightening in their stomach.
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.
