Mason Reed
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masonreed.bsky.social
Mason Reed
@masonreed.bsky.social
420 followers 1.1K following 160 posts
(he/him)
Musician, artist, filmmaker, and writer from West Texas.
I work as a videographer to fund my four cats and one dog.

https://linktr.ee/masonreedwrites
I block AI users.
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masonreed.bsky.social
I'm releasing this short story to my friends this Friday. Happy to share it with anyone who comments on this post.
#WriteSky #Writers #Writing #Authors #Fiction #Horror #ShortStories #Music #Ghosts #Singing #Halloween
the battered cover for a songbook titled, "12 CHARMING SONGS for MEN," the corner is covered in blood. under the title reads "A short horror story by MASON REED"
October 29, 2025 at 3:40 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
The last paragraph of my latest short story.
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #Writers #Authors #Writing #Horror
Like a vacuum, the ashes of the book shot up through the chimney into the early morning fog. My ears rang. My voice was shot, but I still yelled out in fear and victory. I was free. I fell to my knees, onto the blanket and the broken frame. The shattered glass ripped into my left knee. I felt nothing. The pain from my heart, the adrenaline, had made me numb. I pulled out the shards and sat back on the couch, blood ran down my leg, through my slacks. I picked the picture up from the floor, careful not to smudge it with blood. I stared at it and began to cry.
October 15, 2025 at 3:17 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
A synonym for today.
#WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #Writers #Writing #HorrorWriting #Horror #ShortStory #Fiction
September 25, 2025 at 4:03 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
Just designed the cover for my barbershop quartet themed short horror story.
#CoverArt #GraphicDesign #Writing #Writers #Authors #Art #Artist
an old fashioned looking songbook cover with 4 singing men. the title reads, "12 CHARMING SONGS for MEN. A short horror story by MASON REED. *NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE BARBERSHOP HARMONY SOCIETY"
September 24, 2025 at 6:48 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
Micah became an alcoholic after the death of Charlie's mother, fifteen years before this scene. Charlie and his partner, Dot bring take-out food to Micah on Thanksgiving.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #Writers #Writing #Authors
A snippet of text reading, "“No, just—just leave,” Micah said. “Just leave and have a nice Thanksgiving without your fuck up dad.” “Dad, get the hell off the floor and eat something," Charlie said, reaching down to help his father to his feet. "When was the last time you ate an actual meal?” Micah winced and groaned in pain as he stood up. That collarbone injury from the car accident never truly healed like it should have. “Do you have any coffee?” Charlie asked, hoping to sober him up some. “I don’t know,” Micah belched. Charlie walked him over to the dining room and sat him at the table while Dot pulled the food out of the take-out bags."
September 24, 2025 at 2:42 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
The street dog didn't know that she was all part of a plan

To get sent on a one-way trip without a place to land.

To get a lead in a science race against the USA,

They sent the furry cosmonaut up there to outer space.
A black and white picture of Laika the space dog.
September 21, 2025 at 6:28 AM
masonreed.bsky.social
My whole novel takes place under a red shroud that covers the earth. Every couple of chapters there's a TV news story that gives context to the world.
#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WriteSky #AlternateHistory #SciFi #Authors #Writing #Writers #Horror #Thriller
Screenshot that reads, "[Lower third: SHELBIE WOODDARD ‒ CBS NEWS] “Like many Americans, Jonathan and his wife were left in financial ruin when the shroud covered the earth. The red lights only made matters worse as Jonathan’s wife Norma succumbed to red light’s disease only one year later.” [Lower third: DR. LOUIS CREEL ‒ TEXAS DHHS] “It was the vitamin D deficiency in the elderly—what most folks now call, ‘red light’s disease’ or even just ‘red’s.’ What I mean to say is, that night wasn’t just a horrific event for the average healthy person. It really hit our most vulnerable the hardest.” [Lower third: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ‒ WHITE HOUSE PRESS CONFERENCE NOV. 30, 2017] “But we must never forget the brave men who gave their lives in a pursuit of a free life for us from the shroud. Major James R. Schofield and Captain Toby Thompson. They shot at the shroud with the best missiles. The best missiles we have. I told them to give them everything we have, and they did. They gave that shroud and those lights, they—they really gave ‘em hell. We could’ve never known that the shroud was as low as it was! Really a shame. Lost some good guys up there.”"
September 18, 2025 at 2:58 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
Another snippet from my a cappella themed, horror short story.
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #Writing #Writers #Horror #ACappella #BarbershopHarmony
A screenshot of text that reads, "She scanned the books, put them in a bag, and I paid my dollar. I stepped outside the Goodwill and the cool, autumn breeze cut through my navy oxford shirt. I zipped up my cardigan. When I got to my car, I pulled the songbook out of the bag and looked at it again. So neat to have a piece of history in my hands. I wondered if I should scan the arrangement of Sweet Adeline and post it online somewhere. I've been in this hobby for a while, so surely, if I had never heard of it, lots of others probably hadn't either. I felt like a music historian or some sort of archivist."
September 15, 2025 at 3:39 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
I've been working on a horror short story based around a cappella singing.
#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #writing #writers
Screenshot of text that reads, "When I sat down at my desk, I remembered I had a half-finished recording on the audio software. I pressed the space-bar to play it. I could hear the slight crackle of the fireplace in the background, the B-flat from the pitch-pipe, my anticipatory breath, and—you know, one is never quite ready to hear the sound of a woman screaming in fear. It's louder and scarier than it is on a movie or TV show. When I began to sing on the recording, all I heard was screaming. And I mean bloodcurdling. Not my voice. Not me screaming. This was the scream of a woman. A woman in pain. You could hear her entire soul in the scream. In shock, I pressed the space-bar again to pause the recording, and the screaming ceased."
September 11, 2025 at 1:40 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
Just finished up this painting I had on the back burner. #DnD #DigitalPainting #Art #Painting #HalfElf #barbarian
A hesitant-looking half-elf, lit by a torch.
August 20, 2025 at 2:03 AM
masonreed.bsky.social
took a picture of a fox today
A gray fox
July 30, 2025 at 1:42 AM
masonreed.bsky.social
Another update on my painting. #digitalart #painting #dnd #barbarian #art
A work-in-progress painting if a worried man wearing glasses.
June 22, 2025 at 4:56 AM
masonreed.bsky.social
A little WIP piece I started last night. #digitalart #sketch #wip #dnd #barbarian #art #drawing
A sketch of a worried half-elf
June 21, 2025 at 6:59 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
#CurseOfStrahd #Vampire #DnD #GraphicArt #DigitalArt #Gothic
The red silhouette of a coffin with a vampire's fangs cut into it over a black background. White text reads, "Please, come in..."
June 18, 2025 at 8:01 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
This is my first Dungeons & Dragons character.
#Art #DigitalArt #DnD #Barbarian
an early twenties man with ginger hair and glasses, he holds a red great axe. He has blood stains and rips on and in his clothes.
June 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
This comes at the end of a dream sequence. It's one of the few chapters that just flowed out of me. I had no clue where it was going until it was done. It was a lovely experience. #WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #Writers #Writing
Screen shot of text that reads, "Although it had been ten hours since he laid down, he felt like he had slept the entire night in a blink. He was still exhausted and now covered in sweat. The perspiration on him and his sheets made him think of the clothes floating down the river with the salmon, and the horrible image of the bear eating his sweater. He rubbed his face. His beard scraped against his hand, and he remembered his dad’s gray stubble from dinner. His phone buzzed on the nightstand; it was eight thirty-six in the morning and he was late for work."
June 18, 2025 at 4:18 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
Based on actual events lol #WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts
Screen shot of text that reads, "Charlie arrived at KPHC at nine a.m. and walked through the back door right as the morning editorial meeting was ending. The newsroom was a long, L-shaped hall lined with drab, gray cubicles from the nineties. For ten years, upper management promised to replace the cubicles with nice modern desks, but it never happened—the sales team got new office furniture every other year, however."
June 16, 2025 at 8:19 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
Working in the TV news industry for nearly eight years taught me that there are, "Susans" in every newsroom across the country. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips
Screen shot of text that reads, "“Chuck E. Cheese!” her voice pinged at his ears like a chicken pecking for corn. Charlie walked to her desk, trying to keep his temper in check. All the other reporters edited their own stories, but Susan was an old pro, and old pros didn’t edit their own stories. She had worked on the east coast in the late eighties, when unions were the law of the land, and when unions were the law of the land, the reporters were not allowed to even look at the editing equipment, let alone touch it. But this was Texas in twenty-seventeen and the only unions around were the credit unions that sponsored the stocks portion on the five-o’clock news. Susan was just starting to get the hang of the old editing systems, but when KPHC upgraded to high definition in the mid two-thousands, they switched to a new editing software, and all hope was lost with getting her to ever edit anything again. “Are you ready to work on my story?” she asked him. “Let’s do it,” Charlie said. And so, they did. For two straight hours. In the editing bay, Charlie was seconds from snapping at her the entire time. She brought out an irritability in him. She knew what she wanted, and she was determined to get it; she just didn’t know the keyboard shortcuts to get there. At the end of the session, he could nearly predict, and lip sync her phrases: “No, no, no, no, no.” “Yes, good. Let me hear one that again.” “Play that again.” “No, no, no, no, no.” “Where’s that clip we had earlier? What did you do with it?” “Play that again.” Once they finished, it was another award-winning news package from KPHC’s Susan Gutierrez, and Charlie was proud of the end product, but the process was grueling."
June 13, 2025 at 3:38 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
I really need to do some more writing. #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips
Screenshot of text that reads, "Charlie barely slept that night. Dot had stayed over, and they had a nice dinner of Thanksgiving leftovers, but as he laid next to her while staring at the ceiling, all he could think of was the fractures in the plaster of the walls, and the shroud above the earth, crushing him while he slept. What a way to go, he thought. Not with a bang, but with an unknowing splat. Dot slept on Charlie’s chest, wearing one of his old T-shirts. Her breath across his skin and her bare leg across his thighs were warm. Around three a.m., Charlie realized that if he matched the rhythm of her breath, it would soothe him to sleep, yet he still tossed and turned, desperately seeking a REM cycle."
June 11, 2025 at 9:45 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
The passing of Brian Wilson has deeply affected me. Truly a creative titan, and someone who endured immense suffering. His music has been with me through every monumental moment of my life. May he rest in peace.
Brian Wilson in the 60s, wearing a toy fireman's helmet
June 11, 2025 at 9:32 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
You know a doc is good when it gets you examining your life choices. Pee-wee as Himself made me feel like I haven't been being weird enough.
Letterboxd review of "Pee-wee as Himself," which reads, "Paul was a bastion of creativity and joy. He was weird, and that was good. We should all strive to be weird in a world of conformity."
May 28, 2025 at 1:35 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
Fellas, is it gay to...
*checks notes*
drink from a straw?
A news headline where a Texas house republican said only the women in his house drink from straws.
May 24, 2025 at 2:29 AM
masonreed.bsky.social
screen shot of text that reads, "Fog came off the mountains and separated. Charlie thought the cliffside kind of looked like Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore without carvings. His brain almost filled in the sculptures of the dead presidents. He looked at his watch again, it was eleven-eleven. Definitely dreaming, he thought. “You won, Chuck! Is Chuck okay?” the deeper, disembodied voice said. “I prefer Charlie, honestly,” Charlie said to the air. “Helen, can you make a note of that, dear?” “Take your own notes, Gregg! I’m not your bleedin’ secretary!” the higher voice said. "
April 17, 2025 at 3:42 PM
masonreed.bsky.social
The Trump egg cartoon, but it's about the Super Bowl.
February 10, 2025 at 2:54 AM
masonreed.bsky.social
i am going to turn into the joker
Google search trends for "fascism" with a significant uptick over the past couple days.
January 22, 2025 at 1:42 AM