Greetings!
Welcome to Campfire Tales an all-new monthly micro-fiction contest I accidentally started back in March 2026.
My initial goal was to encourage creativity for writers from all experience levels, countries, and backgrounds by offering interesting and often open-ended prompts. 500 words is aimed to create quite a challenge-as it’s often difficult to tell a story in fewer words.
Having written many micro-fiction pieces, some that have won awards and sitting as a judge on short fiction panels, what I’ve found is there’s nothing quite like a prompt being thrown at you that requires compelling voices, plots, and resolutions in condensed versions to inspire and awaken the creative mind.
Each month we’ll announce a winner of the prior month’s contest along with a new prompt. In order to maintain integrity and to ensure our contest is as fair as possible, we’ll invite a guest judge. We will remove all entrants’ names before releasing the stories to our guest judge.
Welcome Friends, to Campfire Tales!
Find Out More About May’s Campfire Tales Contest!
As the fire crackles and the shadows stretch, a brand-new story waits for us in the flames.
This month, we’re inviting you to tell a tale in 500 words or less.
May’s Prompt: “Be Warned”
Rules/Details:
500 words or less
One submission per person
NO AI
NO EROTICA
Deadline: Friday, May 22th 2026
Format: .docx (.doc)
**We will NOT accept any other file format**
Please include: Name (or pen name) and email address
Send submission to info@aaronkcrocker.com
Subject Line: Campfire Tales
Authors who have been published in Campfire Publishing’s anthologies are encouraged to submit!
STORIES WILL BE JUDGED BLINDLY (Please include your name in your file with submission. All names will be removed before being sent to our guest judge)!
Winner receives a $10 AMAZON GIFT CARD, and their story and bio will be featured in May’s Newsletter!
We all have a story! —tell us yours. Keep it dark (or twistedly funny) and send it our way for a chance to be featured in next month’s newsletter!
May’s guest judge is Linette Kasper:
Linette Kasper is an avid writer of supernatural fantasy but enjoys dabbling in other styles, especially horror and suspense. She has released three novels, Daimon, Rogue, and Phoenix, from her first series. She also has a horror short story, “What They Did Not Know,” published in Fundead Publications’ anthology One Night in Salem, and a fantasy short story, “Indelible,” published in the Rejected fundraising anthology by Aaron K. Crocker. She also presented at the Library of Congress on “Fantasy as Escapism.” When she is not writing, she also enjoys editing works by other authors for Campfire Publishing.
She has lived in Virginia all her life but likes to travel even though she has never gone farther than the east coast and is afraid of flying. She enjoys long walks in old cemeteries, binge-watching TV shows, and trying to stop time frame by frame.
Congratulations to Jennifer Weigel!-Winner of our April 2026 Contest!
April’s Writing Prompt Was “Awakened”
Interview with a Zombie
by
Jennifer Weigel
Marcy Newshound, coming at you live from Studio Armageddon. So, I got an exclusive opportunity to interview a newly risen zombie, keep watching for all the juicy details.
***
When did you first realize you were dead?
I’m dead? Really? No, I can’t be dead. Are you sure?
Yeah, you’re dead, no question. Sorry to break the news. What’s it like?
I mean, I can’t get warm but I’m not cold. It’s not uncomfortable.
But it seems I haven’t taken a breath in forever, like I have no idea how long it’s been. [Wheeze.] OK, that just feels weird and unnecessary, so I guess I’m not suffocating. Though now I’m starting to become aware that I have to consciously suck in air to talk to you… like how bizarre is that? That’s not something I ever had to think about before.
I totally can’t feel my heartbeat. Crap.
I’m sorry to spring all of this on you all at once. It must be unsettling. Do you have any idea how you wound up like this?
I… I’m not sure. Last thing I remember, I was walking home past the horde. Then I heard your voice and I woke up here. Like this.
What did you do to me? Did you kill me?!
I didn’t have anything to do with that. The show producer was clued into the exclusive interview opportunity and brought you here. The camera crew and I all sat around for three hours waiting for you to rise. Do you know what caused you to come to?
I woke up because you all are being too loud. Like you just don’t know how to shut up. Seriously, it’s really annoying.
We were just conversing quietly amongst ourselves while we waited. Nothing much.
Look, I don’t mind the idle chitchat. But it’s not about that. Everything you do is so… ugh. I can hear all of you breathing, your hearts beating. And I smell and taste your blood and saliva in the air between us. More than that honestly. It’s disgusting.
OK, that’s more than a little creepy, let’s move on. So, what happens next?
No idea. This whole being undead thing is really new to me. I don’t even know how I died. Will I start shuffling mindlessly about the streets with the horde? I assume so, since that’s what all the undead do, but when does that start?
Right now, I can’t focus on anything. You’re all too much. It’s like your sounds and smells and presence, it’s oppressive. And I swear I can feel you think. It’s all getting in my head, and I just want it to…
Why are you looking at me like that?
I’m… so… hungry… Brains…
Aiieee!
***
We interrupt this program with breaking news. It seems that the undead scourge is in fact spread from one to the next by being bitten. Please stay tuned as we follow the newly-zombified reporter Marcy Newshound on our all-new show Undead Ahead.
Jennifer Weigel is a multi-disciplinary mixed media conceptual artist Jennifer Weigel lives in Kansas, USA. Weigel’s favorite foods are unagi don or broiled calamari steak and frosting with or without cake. Weigel was previously a staff writer for Haunted MTL and is now involved with Nat 1 Publishing. Author of Witch Hayzelle’s Recipes for Disaster trilogy and a myriad of short stories, poems, art discourse, and more drifting around the Interwebs. Learn more on her website here. https://jenniferweigelart.com/
April’s Guest Judge is James Lawson Moore!
James’ Feedback:
“Interview with a Zombie was the clear winner. The humorous news anchor angle was well done; I’m not usually one for zombies, but that story kept my interest.”
–James Lawson Moore
James is a poet and writer from Virginia, currently working at the front desk at the Boydton Public Library. His works include “Ghost in My Head” and “Small Things like These.”
Check out the stories from past winners of Campfire Tales below!
(Our March Prompt was “Locked Within”.)
The Freak Girl in the White Dress
by
Mark Mackey
The moon was out and full as the little girl in the white dress stood outside my college dorm room which I was locked within. She used freakish talons to enthusiastically shove grasshoppers into her mouth; crunching on them madly. She stared up at me with black soulless eyes and flung herself forward, scrambling up towards my open window. I backed away, my face bright with fear as she scurried in and I felt her sharp pointed teeth bite into my flesh.
Mark Mackey is a long-time resident of Chicago, Illinois, with no plans to relocate elsewhere, either city or state. Has written tales included in various anthologies and co-written the Soulless, a harrowing horror novel commencing on an ocean liner and concluding on a mysterious island.