Writing Darkness

The Works of Zachary Robert Long

Menu
  • Home
  • Gallery
    • Paintings
    • Cut-Up/Black-Out Poems
  • Blog
Menu

Author: Zack Long

Obfuscation: The Hidden of Art
by Zachary Robert Long (1211 words, estimated reading time: 6 minutes)

Posted on April 25, 2025April 29, 2025 by Zack Long

The mystery genre can largely be divided into three categories:  Who did it?, How do it?, and Why do it?   Each category requires the author or filmmaker to hide certain information from the audience: Se7en (1995) hides the who but gives the how and why. In Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) we…

Read more
A wooden bench sits in the foreground, behind it is a beach with the tide halfway out

My Son in the Sun
by Zachary Robert Long (2837 words, estimated reading time: 13 minutes)

Posted on April 9, 2025April 9, 2025 by Zack Long

Bills Hicks had a bit about how he didn’t understand what people saw in the beach. It’s where water meets land. What’s so special about that? But he had a change of heart on the matter while dealing with the cancer that eventually killed him. I get that. I never really liked the beach when…

Read more

Where Silence Meets Speed
by Zachary Robert Long (2500 words, estimated reading time: 12 minutes)

Posted on March 11, 2025 by Zack Long

I don’t trust electric cars. And no, before you ask, it isn’t because of Musk and the endless litany of issues with Tesla. Fiat, Lotus, Hyundai, Kia, Volvo, Jeep, BMW, they’ve all got electric cars of their own. So ignore Tesla. They’re irrelevant. I’m not one of those people that think cleaner energy is the…

Read more
Gromit catches a falling teapot in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Talking Teapots: A Wallace & Gromit Treatise
by Zachary Robert Long (1279 words, estimated reading time: 7 minutes)

Posted on February 17, 2025February 19, 2025 by Zack Long

When Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) was released onto Netflix this January, my family had to watch. It had been nearly twenty years since the last Wallace and Gromit feature film had been released, and sixteen years since the last short. The movie was an absolute delight, very charming. But there was one…

Read more

And I Breathe Your Blood Like A Carcinogenic Breeze
by Zachary Robert Long (2309 words, estimated reading time: 10 minutes)

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Zack Long

I’m sitting in the pub listening to Mark’s inane chatter when they walk in. She’s dressed in a tight fitting tube-top that leaves nothing to the imagination, but with a body that makes you crave a little less candor. He’s wearing a suit that you just know has an Italian name with a reputation dip-shits…

Read more

Against the Grain: Four Authors that Transgress Grammar
by Zachary Robert Long (1766 words, estimated reading time: 9 minutes)

Posted on January 26, 2025January 26, 2025 by Zack Long

“Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind” – Douglas MacArthur     Grammar is the mortar of the English language we use when building meaning through the use of words, sentences, and paragraphs. For many people, it is such a powerful tool as to be…

Read more
An aerial view of a hospital situated along an encroaching tree-line

A Trick of the Light
by Zachary Robert Long (2026 words, estimated reading time: 10 minutes)

Posted on January 15, 2025January 15, 2025 by Zack Long

The woods are darker now than they were this time last week. This disturbs her. Something she can’t quite put a finger on. The way it feels like every thing is always changing? Getting away from her? She wants it all to stay the same, her deepest wish is to freeze time. To hold her…

Read more

Whence the Rainbow Ends
by Zachary Robert Long (3869 words, estimated reading time: 18 minutes)

Posted on December 11, 2024January 19, 2025 by Zack Long

Mason needed it to rain. Okay, need was a bit of a strong word. He didn’t need it to rain. He wanted it to rain. Not one of those massive storms that sometimes hit Atlantic Canada and lasted all day and all night. No, what he needed was for it to piss down for an…

Read more
Two glowing yellow eyes peer out from the darkness of the closet

The Crow-Man
by Zachary Robert Long (3220 words, estimated reading time: 15 minutes)

Posted on October 31, 2024 by Zack Long

Charlie didn’t like it when the lights went out. The bed was warm and cozy, sure, but that was just because Mommy tucked the blankets tight around him every evening when she kissed him goodnight. He didn’t have a problem with that part. In fact, he quite enjoyed it. But then she would turn the…

Read more
The face of a cat, mouth opened wide to reveal fangs, emerges from darkness

Mrs. Tinkles
by Zachary Robert Long (4979 words, estimated reading time: 25 minutes)

Posted on October 2, 2024April 8, 2025 by Zack Long

Samantha is going to fucking kill me, Chloe thought as she stared into the gaping hole beneath the sink. “It was just the pipes,” she whispered. “It had to be the pipes.” But she knew that wasn’t true. The pipes made tons of noise, but they never sounded like a meow before. She’d been in…

Read more
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next

I write to try to understand, and because I have nothing better to do.

— José Saramago

Recent Posts

  • Obfuscation: The Hidden of Art
    by Zachary Robert Long (1211 words, estimated reading time: 6 minutes)
    The mystery genre can largely be divided into three categories:  Who did it?, How do it?, and Why do it?   Each category requires the author...
  • My Son in the Sun
    by Zachary Robert Long (2837 words, estimated reading time: 13 minutes)
    Bills Hicks had a bit about how he didn’t understand what people saw in the beach. It’s where water meets land. What’s so special about that?...
  • Where Silence Meets Speed
    by Zachary Robert Long (2500 words, estimated reading time: 12 minutes)
    I don’t trust electric cars. And no, before you ask, it isn’t because of Musk and the endless litany of issues with Tesla. Fiat, Lotus, Hyundai,...
  • Talking Teapots: A Wallace & Gromit Treatise
    by Zachary Robert Long (1279 words, estimated reading time: 7 minutes)
    When Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) was released onto Netflix this January, my family had to watch. It had been nearly twenty years since...
  • And I Breathe Your Blood Like A Carcinogenic Breeze
    by Zachary Robert Long (2309 words, estimated reading time: 10 minutes)
    I’m sitting in the pub listening to Mark’s inane chatter when they walk in. She’s dressed in a tight fitting tube-top that leaves nothing to the...

Archives

  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • May 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • November 2021

Categories

  • Blog
  • Poetry
  • Short fiction

©Zack Long 2025