A few weeks ago, I decided to write a completely new short story just for my monthly newsletter subscribers, a Dark Fantasy taken from a list of ideas I compiled last year when I was working on stories for Dreaming of a Dark Christmas.

(That’s on sale for $.99 (US) right now, so if you haven’t read it, hop on over and pick up a copy.)

The story is about a mischievous imp who, inspired by the hymn “Joy to the World,” decides to create a little havoc by taking the song a little too literally, with some dark and devastating consequences.

I’ve gotten through the introduction to the story, and though I have a mental countdown ticking the moments off in my head toward when the story HAS to be done, I can’t bring myself to actually write it.

It’s not the story. That’s firm enough in my head that I know what needs to be said and how.

It’s not even that the story is dark and twisted and a little evil. It is, after all, intended to be a Dark Fantasy, and those aren’t exactly rainbows and unicorns.

No, it’s the fact that this dark, twisted, somewhat evil story came out of my imagination.

I wrote a while back about the story that scared me so much in the writing, that I couldn’t write another short story for weeks after finishing that one. That’s the place I’m at with this current story, a little afraid to put words to paper (even digitally) for fear of what’s coming out of me.

The thing is, I’m actually pretty darn good at writing darker stories. If you think about it, most of my stories are dark in some way or another, and the ones that aren’t, readers just don’t seem to care for.

I’m looking at you, Cullowhee Witches.

When I was telling Richard, my editor, about “Joy to the World,” he just sort of stopped and stared at me for a minute, then said, “Where do these things come from?’

A few days later, we were talking about the tone of my stories, he agreed that they were, indeed, getting darker, but that “You do write dark stories well.”

How can I not concur, when the evidence is right there in front of me? The Vampyr Series is a steady seller. If I finished the final book (I swear, I’m working on it!) and threw some money at advertising, I’d probably make a killing off of it, in spite of some really negative reviews pertaining to the dark nature of the story. And it is dark. Never mind the sex and blood part. There’s torture and consensual non-consensual sex (which, yes, is actually a thing) and all manner of taboos being broken…which is why I started writing the darn story in the first place.

The Sunshine Walkingstick Series is equally dark, in its own way, for all that it’s set in a world very similar to our own. Sunny’s done some really bad things in the name of vengeance and, sometimes, survival, and it’s scarred her pretty deeply.

The Daughters of the People Series may appear to be fairly normal on the light to dark scale, but in reality, it’s a pretty dark story world. Ancient curses, blood feuds, an impending war? Not to mention out and out torture as punishments. It’s some dark stuff, and it’s only going to get darker.

Even The Pruxnae Series isn’t as light as it first appears. I mean, have you read about the Sweepers? Yeah, not fun creatures to be around.

That darkness is an abyss I’ve been tiptoeing toward for years, and now that I’m standing on the edge looking down into an utterly lightless place ensconced within my own mind, it freaks me out a little bit. Wouldn’t it you?

I mean, let’s face it. We all believe we’re good people, even those society deems as utterly despicable, so when you consider yourself to be a good person and you realize that maybe, just maybe, you’re not all sunshine and light, well. That’s enough to take anyone aback. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t pause and consider where such flights of fancy really come from, and what impact they may have on my readership once they’re released into the wild.

Yet, at the same time, I stick by the guiding principles I created when I first started writing: Story reigns supreme. Be true to the characters. If I refused to chase stories down the rabbit holes into which they’re leading me, I would be violating my core beliefs about story and would, thus, be a hypocrite.

So in the next couple of days, I’m going to grit my teeth and dive into that story and tell it the way it deserves to be told, even if it means jumping into that dark abyss in my mind for a little while. When you read it, though, just don’t say I didn’t warn you.