Storyfeather Gazette: A planetoid haunted by plants, a giant eye staring from a ceiling, and the musings of a dying monster-hunter

Published 6 months ago • 2 min read

October 2025 Issue 2

In this issue: Short stories and podcast episodes from the second half of October, and a welcome to a new year of storytelling.

Circle format, a three-quarters view of Nila's smiling face from a photo with an oil paint filter applied.

WELCOME TO THE YEAR OF WILDCARDS 🃏

In typical fashion, I've been planning for the end of my twelfth year of storytelling, and somehow didn't get announcements and things done in a timely manner. So, Year 13 is already here. The theme? Wildcards. One thing I'll do is pick a card from whatever decks I have in my home, board games, Tarot, or maybe I'll even be inspired to create my own deck? I'd love to. If that gets limiting, I'll see what else I can explore.

As for Year 12, I'll send a proper farewell soon. But in the meantime, the year has one more story for you, below.

✒️ 🪶 🎙

Greetings! I'm Nila. Every week, I release a new short story and a new podcast episode spanning the genres of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, mythology, fairy tale, fable, and horror.

Whether you're in the mood to read or listen, I've got stories to tell you.

Hauntober 🏚

✒️ For this month's theme, tales of hauntings...but not by ghosts.

🎙 The podcast episodes are about unsettling abodes and the price of fighting monsters.

Titles and taglines below. Enjoy!

Short Stories

Digital drawing. Strange flowers. At center, on red stalk, a flower with five petals, three arrayed at top, two draped below. Three ghostly mask-like smiling faces where the petals meet. Tendrils fall from behind the upper petals to either side. At the base of the stalk is a heart that seems cut open, vessels extending up the stalk and some extend to either side out of frame. At bottom right are five pale bell-shaped flowers with what appear to be arms and hands emerging from their centers. At bottom left is a dark pink stalk with regular branches that end in a white berry with a black pit that resemble eyeballs. The central flower's roots spread out at bottom. Watermark of “Storyfeather” along stem or stalk just below the petals. Copyright notice along right side reads “Copyright © 2025 Nila L. Patel.”

We have finished Year 12, the Year of Praxis. The word essentially means "practice." Through the stories, I'm exploring elements of my writing practice.

Each link below leads directly to the story post.

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE DOCKS

A ship appears at the docks, several months after it's declared lost, with half its crew missing and strange injuries on its hull. ⚓️

Genre: Mystery, Horror
This is the last story of Year 12!

And we're rolling straight into Year 13...

PLANET OF THE LAUGHING STALK

A team is sent to a remote planetoid to find out why no one has heard from the researchers stationed there. 🥀

Genre: Mystery, Horror, Science Fiction

Podcast Episodes

Digital drawing. Central figure, a woman, her top half, seen from below at an angle. She’s facing away, standing in a room where the ceiling and parts of two walls intersect at her left, around waist level. The woman wears pants and a t-shirt and her hair in a ponytail. She holds a carving knife in her right hand, held down and behind herself. Her left hand reaches up towards a huge eye in the ceiling. Most of the iris and a small portion of the whites are visible. Eyelashes extend out at left. Watermark of “Storyfeather” along wall in image at left. The rectangular image is made square with top and bottom borders with blurred portions of the main image.

We're in season 8, the Year of Revisitation. Each episode is a standalone story, but it's inspired by an earlier story.

The text links below go to the Explore page on Storyfeather, where you can listen to the episode, find the links to the episode(s) that inspired it, and more.

Pressing on the Spotify embed image leads to the episode's Spotify page.

THE INFERNAL BARGAIN HOUSE

Surely, a beautiful old house sold at a bargain must have a sinister history. One new homeowner is about to find out. 🏚

Genre: Horror, Mystery

The Infernal Bargain House

Oct 17 · Storyfeather

41:19

THE EYE IN MY CEILING

What starts as a curiosity, a light on the bedroom ceiling that seems to have no source, heralds the appearance of a huge eye that just watches and watches... 👁

Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction, Horror

The Eye in My Ceiling

Oct 24 · Storyfeather

30:25

THE FINAL MONSTER I FIGHT

A hunter dedicated to keeping the world safe from monsters has one final monster to fight. 👿

Genre: Horror

The Final Monster I Fight

Oct 31 · Storyfeather

34:38

⚓️

Seven months later, the ship comes sailing silently into port in the middle of the night.

The hull is riddled with deep scrapes and rusty pocks. Half the crew members are missing.

The other half seem unable to relay any sensible information.

Piracy was ruled out. Likewise, inclement weather. The Favonian traveled through a storm, but it couldn't have cause the damage the dock master saw from the outside.

And no pirate or storm could have done what she saw to the ship's insides.

—From "What Happened at the Docks"