Tom Coombe
calmtomb.bsky.social
Tom Coombe
@calmtomb.bsky.social
Horror writer, occasionally funny
Pinned
Thank you to everyone who has picked up a copy of my first short story collection. Your interest is much appreciated, a rare bright spot in a grim year.
The Clown King and Other Stories of the Pre-Apocalypse|Paperback
Something's coming...A teenage horror fan searches for the origins of a too-real, homemade slasher film. Two siblings inherit a statue that draws worshippers from around the world. A struggling restau...
www.barnesandnoble.com
I share this story whenever this question comes up.
December 13, 2025 at 12:20 AM
You’re hearing it more and more: you will see me one more time if you do good, you'll see me two more times if you do bad.
December 12, 2025 at 11:40 PM
You've heard of the Elf on the Shelf, get ready for the...

*posts an image of two things mashed together so inscrutable that people vandalize my car*
December 11, 2025 at 8:03 PM
It would suck if someone used this tech to flood YouTube with a bunch of terrible fake movie trailers.
Disney and OpenAI sign a deal to bring 200+ Disney characters to Sora

Disney makes $1 billion investment in OpenAI and will become a "major" OpenAI customer

openai.com/index/disney...
December 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Warming my heart by imagining a scenario where this photo was actually real and an unusually strong gust of wind came along.
December 11, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Yes. It feels like something recorded in a building with a carbon monoxide leak.
December 11, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted by Tom Coombe
need to pitch Capcom MEGA OLD MAN a brutal M-rated Mega Man game where he’s old and can’t move or jump like he did plus his rusted suit malfunctions limiting weapons so he has to rely on brute strength

Person on other end of Tim Hortons drive thru speaker: sir what the fuck are you talking about
December 11, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Significant other and I after finishing the Netflix series on James Garfield:

Her - It’s not realistic but I kind of wanted them to show him eating lasagna.

Me: He DID die on a Monday, so…
December 11, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by Tom Coombe
December 10, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Tom Coombe
Thank you for another fantastic #HorrorWritersChat! Here’s the dirt on me. I'm a horror writer and Media Director for The Horror Zine.

Web Site:
trishwilsonauthor.blogspot.com

Facebook (pen name Elizabeth Black):
www.facebook.com/elizabethabl...

The Horror Zine
www.thehorrorzine.com
December 10, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Tom Coombe
#HorrorWritersChat Thanks Eryn!

2 links today:

1) I’ll be one of the Locals in the Limelight at next year’s Granite Noir Festival in Aberdeen, reading my poem The Witch’s Hat at this event: www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/gra...

2) My end of year playlist: open.spotify.com/playlist/2Si...
December 10, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Tom Coombe
Thank you for another fantastic #HorrorWritersChat! Here’s the dirt on The Horror Zine. I'm a horror writer and Media Director for The Horror Zine.

The Horror Zine
www.thehorrorzine.com

THZ (Facebook):
www.facebook.com/thehorrorzine/

THZ - BlueSky
bsky.app/profile/theh...
December 10, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Tom Coombe
Thanks again #HorrorWritersChat!

As this was a music-themed evening I'm sharing By the Blood, a Catholic Vampire novella

It started as a thought experiment born of listening to Powerwolf's Blessed and Possessed album enough to consider taking the theological implications of undead clergy seriously
December 10, 2025 at 8:10 PM
The “making balloon animals” sound I referenced earlier comes from the title story in my collection.

#HorrorWritersChat
December 10, 2025 at 8:07 PM
The song is a "We Didn't Start the Fire" style tune that includes events that the main character is not aware of. But every time the song plays, they become part of the historical reality.

#HorrorWritersChat
Pens at the ready, Horror Writers. Q4.

Hang around for the outro.

#HorrorWritersChat
December 10, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Tom Coombe
Radiohead's Kid A album blew my mind the first time I heard it. It was just so different from anything I'd heard before - such an innovative, weird, beautiful sound. Horror's goal is always to "ruin the nerves," isn't it? #horrorwriterschat
Q3, #HorrorWritersChat.

Us writers are weird creatures. We can't help but shake and quake over a perfect line, but all the senses will get you, if you're open to it.
And music is a story in the ears. Just like a perfume is a story for the nose.
But can you translate it into writing? Do you?
December 10, 2025 at 7:44 PM
There are many, many song that fit this bill, and I have yet to be successful in channeling ANY of these, but:

- "Birdland" by Patti Smith
- "Hamburger Lady" by Throbbing Gristle
- "In the Pines" (various)
- "Pyramid Song" by Radiohead

#HorrorWritersChat
Q3, #HorrorWritersChat.

Us writers are weird creatures. We can't help but shake and quake over a perfect line, but all the senses will get you, if you're open to it.
And music is a story in the ears. Just like a perfume is a story for the nose.
But can you translate it into writing? Do you?
December 10, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Tom Coombe
Sound is something I struggle with a little in my stories - I'm always trying to describe scenes using as many senses as possible, but sometimes the sound just isn't distinctive to the action. I do try to find unique ways to describe sound when it's relevant though. #horrorwriterschat
Q2.
How do you use sound, music, or the absence of it?
And if we're speaking of the absence of it, Disturbed's Sound of Silence (with Myles Kennedy) is way better than the original of it and you'll just have to accept that.
I will die on this hill!

#HorrorWritersChat
December 10, 2025 at 7:25 PM
It's something I struggle with. I obsess over the exact right phrasing and it tends to fall by the wayside when I can't find it.

One sound-image I'm proud of is describing a character's voice as "someone making balloon animals," which is maybe the worst noise I can think of.

#HorrorWritersChat
Q2.
How do you use sound, music, or the absence of it?
And if we're speaking of the absence of it, Disturbed's Sound of Silence (with Myles Kennedy) is way better than the original of it and you'll just have to accept that.
I will die on this hill!

#HorrorWritersChat
December 10, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Greetings #HorrorWritersChat

Tom Coombe here, writer of various short horror stories. I don't often listen to music when I write, but when I do it tends to be a bit more moody/melancholy. In the last few years the Canadian band Timber Timbre has been my go-to on that front.
Q1.
#HorrorWritersChat, you know what to do.
No links. Not till the end. No sneaky promo. Just lots of lovely lovely chat.
December 10, 2025 at 7:03 PM
This is correct, making your name inaccurate.
December 10, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The one who lived her life in a perpetual state of anxiety or the one who lived her life in a perpetual state of resentment?
IN DEPTH | If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
www.independent.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 5:35 PM
The outside of our building is made from a really rough stone. I often imagine someone taking a guy with a shiny forehead—a random guy, mind you, no one specific —and just scraping their skull against the surface. Like I said, no one specific.
Stephen Miller: "If you subtract immigration out of test scores, all of the sudden our test scores skyrocket"
December 9, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Jimmy Fallon: ...so you'll just consume everything.

Artaxias, The Screeching Void From Beyond the Sun: ALL SHALL LIVE WITHIN MY MAW.

Fallon: That's so wild.
December 9, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Just one?
December 9, 2025 at 2:42 PM