Little Stories, Lasting Impressions

Links to Teasers on Medium & an Interview with Binky Ink Writing

Hey there, storytellers and fiction lovers! 👋

It’s finally summer in the UK and the sun has been warming my days, but making it a little hard to sleep. Still I look forward to the summer, I find the elongated daylight gives me extra energy. Plus I’ve always loved the trees in their green gowns and the garden bursting with colourful flowers. Just now the grass in my back garden looks traumatised — yellow and straw like, but somehow the weeds find enough moisture to survive!

I’m not complaining, and I’m paying it forward; sending some sunshine and blossoms your way in the form of fresh reads, warm encouragement, and a spotlight on you, the brilliant minds who keep this community glowing.

I’m curious — what does your writing life look like? Are you deep in your next draft, editing or plotting by candlelight after a day at work, or just gathering sparks of inspiration? Whether you tap prose on your phone, write it longhand in a notebook or hammer words out at a keyboard— just know that you’re not alone.

This is a writing family, and I’m so glad to have writers share their teasers here.

Teaser Tales (on Medium) can be your soapbox. Write a teaser that pitches a snippet of your published story, or indie book. Invite us to listen to your podcast, pay a visit to your website, or purchase an anthology with your word between its covers. Make us curious to read: share what it was that inspired you, show us another point of view or let a different character step up to the mic.

Write a teaser when you read something so good, you want to shout it from the rooftops — help another writer get more eyes on their work. Tell us about a prompt or competition so that more people participate. Build up our community!

If you’ve got a teaser to share — send it our way. Let’s captivate readers together! 📚 If you’re not yet a writer for Teaser Tales, please check Submission Guidelines and follow the publication to be eligible, then send a request to be added to Jacinta.

“Always leave them wanting more.”
— P.T. Barnum (often attributed)

✨ What Our Writers Have Been Up To

In June Teaser Tales wasn’t quite so busy as May, but we published 11 teasers, and Teasing Times, our newsletter.

We’re proud to showcase the most recent pieces from our talented contributors. These writers have poured heart and craft into their work — give them a read and some love. A little support goes a long way in fuelling great storytelling! 📖

Rising From the Ashes of Love by Binky Ink Writing

Serendipitous Tribulation Male Bisexual Romance Book Showcase

Kissed by the Fae by

JK Mill

~ Exceptional Erotica wants your your enchanted stories!

Stealing My Heart by Binky Ink Writing ~ The Thief and His Hunter Book 1 — Gay Romance Book Showcase

Priestess of Shadow by Gordon Purkis ~ Novel prequel — “Running” Book One Chapters 1.1–1.3

lettuce celebrate the goodness of a salad! by

Posy Churchgate

~ busting the myth that older women are numb from the neck down

Hope on the Wings of Darkness🌟 by Desarae Damschen ~ Of Vampires and Horses- Teaser- Flash Fiction

Who’s Likely to Win This Year’s L.O.S.E.R Award? by

May More

~ Smillew… unnotified here there and everywhere

Estranged Pirate Brothers Reunited by Binky Ink Writing ~ The Hidden Cove: Pirate’s Misadventure — Historical Dark Fantasy Book Showcase

A Trolling Troll, who is Trolling for Admiring Viewers, and MUCH More.. by J. Crispin-Ripley ~ Trolls just wanna have fun!

Girl Code — Confused by Posy Churchgate ~ Teaser for Dress Code Complicated

Juniper Berries: Sharp — Intoxicating — Unexpected🌟 by May More ~ My place to share stories that don’t behave

Tick Tock,Time to Catch Up With Teaser Tales🌟 by Jacinta Palmer🍂 ~ A rallying round-up for the month of May

🌟 icon denotes that a teaser is ‘featured’ by the publication.

Image by Lisette Brody on Pixabay, text added by author using Pixlr

🪂Sharing Far & Wide

Did you know that the link to a teaser gets shared in 3 places? On the day it’s published, it’s turned into a ‘bite’ for sharing on X and Bluesky. Every weekend the latest teasers are mentioned in the

Cocktail Club Publications

’ Digest, and shared on Substack. If you have an account in any of these places — please repost, to give teasers a wider reach.

🗣Writer Spotlight

This month, we’re thrilled to feature an interview with Medium writer and independently published author Binky Ink Writing. I’ve recently been hooked on her series “My Soldier, My ‘Hiro” an immersive gay romance.

In this candid Q&A, Binky — also Editor at Dominium Tenebrarum, shares her creative idols, how she deals with writing and editing, what inspires her characters, and sharing subjects close to her heart.

Have you written for other publications/ elsewhere, before your Medium account?

Yes. Before publishing my first ever book, I wrote for a few online magazines and websites, which are now offline. It was an interesting experience writing for other people. I also wrote some screenplays for indie films that I produced while working in indie film.

After a time, I focused solely on my fiction writing. I had a complete burnout in 2014, so one of my main focal points in my life was Stardust Destinies, which I published in 2019. Book 1, that is.

We all leak some personal history in our stories — who did you look up to when you were growing up?

Carrie Fisher was a huge role model for me. I loved and wanted to be just like Princess Leia. Later, when I read all the books from the Original Expanded Universe, my love for Luke and Leia grew tremendously. I wanted long hair like Princess Leia’s. And her strong yet sensitive nature, her ability to remain poised while showing her love, was an inspiration to me.

In terms of writers, J.R.R. Tolkien was a huge inspiration and motivation. I used to have tremendous difficulty with reading comprehension. And with writing. The first time I read The Fellowship of the Ring, I trudged through it, needing a dictionary, and it took me a few years. By the time I got to The Return of the King, I was flipping the pages more quickly. His worlds are so descriptive, and I loved the lore that he established in his books. That inspired me to create my own world with my own system of magic.

Do you write longhand, type directly into a document or some other method for recording your work?

I used to write everything by hand first. For Stardust Destinies, I prefer to write first by hand, proof, then type, proof, before even beginning with my usual editing and all the stuff I do before passing it on to my editor. I have another fantasy series in the works I’ve written by hand as well.

Nowadays, however, for most of my novellas and shorter novels, my thrillers and my romances, I prefer to type them out. It’s way faster, and when I’m writing a car chase or any other action scene, I can go through it a lot faster. Scenes play out in my head a lot before I have time to get them down on the page, so typing, despite a ton of mega typos at times, is more efficient for me.

You write in several genres; Do you have a preference?

Fantasy and Romance are my two favourite genres. There is romance in everything I write, even if a minimal element. Rare is it that there is none. Fantasy comes naturally, and I love inserting elements of fantasy in a lot of what I write, though I write more romance today than I did before.

Is what you like to read reflected in the stories you write?

Absolutely. Lord of the Rings and all of Tolkien’s books are reflected in the way I write Stardust Destinies. After reading a hundred Star Wars books, I wrote my own fan-fiction in that style. It helped me find my own style for other genres than just fantasy.

Each series I write, each genre, is a bit different. They all reflect my style of writing, but my fantasy reads a bit differently than my romance thrillers, for example.

Name a book that made you want to become a writer.

The Lord of the Rings. Though I wanted to write before then too, and I would write dinky things that I don’t even know where they got to. That book series inspired me so much, I wanted to create my own fantasy world, even before I dreamt of Stardust Destines, because yes, it was a dream first — a literal dream.

Have you ever taken revenge on someone and made them a ‘baddie’ in your fiction? Please spill the tea!

/chuckles sinisterly before bellowing a laugh

Do you even have to ask?

Where to begin? There was this bitch in Cegep who always put me down. One of our teachers kept triangulating for us to hate each other even more, comparing us all the time. She never could respect me, and it took me the three years that I was in the theatre program to be able to finally stand up to her and put her in her place.

I may have written her as a villainous wizardess in Stardust Destinies. Her ego should inflate at this privilege lol. Her features are similar, and the name I gave the character is a jumble of letters, many from her actual name. Spoiler: she gets defeated.

I have also written characters who represented aspects of the man who abused me or outright was him in a way — with different names, of course. One of my most recent romances, an Inkitt exclusive, has a character who is the MC’s ex abuser with very similar traits and who did almost identical things to him as mine did to me. That story was written in response to an emotional flashback and was very therapeutic to write.

Do you use writing prompts? If so, what works better for you — an image or an opening line?

It depends (for using writing prompts, and if I do, it’s an idea or concept or opening line, not images).

At times, I use prompts. When I first joined Medium, one of the first publications I found was Christine Graves’s (@ sapheyerblu) Enticing the Muse, which often has prompts. Not only were many lengthy short stories that have now been published in book format born there, but a few series as well. My Tenebrarum series began as a one-shot short story between Liam and Julian before it became a novel and an entire series of vampires and werewolves working together to save the realms.

The Thief and His Hunter was also born in that publication, less from a prompt, but the juices were flowing so well, I was so inspired, and Book 1 turned into a trilogy, now polished and published. And then into a trilogy of trilogies with some standalones. I wrote the draft for Book 9 recently.

Other stories come from dreams, like Stardust Destinies did, or from emotions I feel, like Into My Recluse Heart on Inkitt. Others just flow like Niagara Falls. I wake up, start my day and then…write 40K words because the scenes are on replay in my mind suddenly.

Do you prefer to write in 1st person, 3rd or (the rarer) 2nd person?

My preferred POV is 3rd by far. I like the whole subjective omniscient POV, which presents a few differences with single character 3rd, though I love single character 3rd the most now. I do also quite enjoy 1st person for a lot of romances, depending how I feel out the story and characters.

Each presents different things. With 3rd, it’s like I can angle the camera how I want, but with 1st I can really delve into the character’s internal thoughts in a very telepathic way, like a diary of sorts.

I did write a 2nd person story that was interactive on one of my YT channels where people voted for certain choices. I have yet to write the 5th and final part of it. It was a challenge in many ways and interesting to say the least. I think I will stick to 3rd and 1st, though, which I both like almost equally now, though 3rd remains my preferred.

Grateful thanks to Binky for being so open about her writing, it’s encouraging to learn how others tackle the craft.

🌈 A Final Note

Writing can be a solitary path, but it doesn’t have to be a lonely one. We’re building something tender and strong — a place where stories help writers be seen. Thanks for being part of it.

Keep writing, keep sharing, and keep showing up.

With gratitude and excitement~

Posy Churchgate ~ Editor

If any Substack writer would like to share a post on Teaser Tales without creating a Medium account, contact me by private message & we can discuss.