Every writer has a beginning—a single spark that sets their imagination on fire. For me, it all started years ago with James Patterson’s BookShots. I can still remember pulling one from the shelf and being struck by how compact it was. These weren’t sprawling novels that demanded weeks of reading. Instead, they were sharp, fast-paced stories you could finish in a single sitting.
That format fascinated me. It proved that a story didn’t need hundreds of pages to pull you in, twist your emotions, and leave you thinking long after you closed the book. The power was in the precision—every word mattered, every scene carried weight.
As I continued reading them, something began to click. I realized that I didn’t just enjoy consuming short, impactful stories—I wanted to create my own. But my voice, naturally, leaned darker. My imagination has always been drawn to the unsettling corners of the human mind, the shadows we avoid, and the questions that linger long after the lights go out.
That’s how my own journey into psychological horror short stories began. I found freedom in the short form—it lets me build tension quickly, distort reality, and end with a lingering unease that makes readers wonder what’s real and what isn’t. Like BookShots, my stories are designed to be consumed in a single sitting, but instead of racing hearts from action, I aim for racing minds from dread and uncertainty.
Short stories give me the space to experiment, to push boundaries, and to tell tales that might not work as a full novel but feel perfectly haunting in smaller doses. Each one is a snapshot of fear, mystery, or twisted reality—just enough to pull you in and, hopefully, leave you looking over your shoulder.
That’s the inspiration behind my collections, The Unknown and The Unspoken. And it all traces back to those first slim paperbacks by James Patterson that showed me a story doesn’t need length to leave a lasting mark.
-Shantay Nicole Ballard
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