Unlikely Stories, 2nd Edition

Unlikely Stories is an anthology of horror and comedy stories -- an exorcism, an alien encounter, a haunted lift, a seance, a shapeshifter, a werewolf, a talking bird, an evil twin, an alien invasion and a distressed young alpaca -- all weaved into a witty love yarn. The stories are supernatural/paranormal/sci-fi fantasies with ample doses of action, horror and humour.
First edition stories
- The trip: The lead is invited by his friend to a resort where he meets the first heroine Vampira.
- The swim: The lead decides that Vampira is the soul mate he has been waiting all his life. He tells several stories to entertain his friend's kids and also impress Vampira.
- The exorcist: The second lead is an Indian crook who escapes to the West to start a new life. He attempts to go legit but finds competition from a professional medium operating under the trade name of Mademoiselle Zuma. She is dangerous because she is a mind-reader.
- Alien encounter: After the successful exorcism, this lead is asked to help a teenager who has been repeatedly 'abducted' by an alien.
- The lift: A recently deceased security guard haunts a lift where he had died and seeks revenge.
- Femme fatale: The second lead has a showdown with a female animal spirit.
- The seance: A young woman in the city is troubled by nightmares involving a hooded skeleton. A newly married nurse blanks out every night. She is also troubled by bizarre nightmares. Mademoiselle Zuma solves both cases.
- The haunting: An old mansion is haunted by a presence. Every new buyer and his family gets driven to such desperation that they eventually sell. The second lead investigates and almost gets killed.
- Family planning: The first lead and Vampira plan their life together. In the first ending, they get married. In the second ending (written by the lead after their first night), Stone Age Man (SAM) and Stone Age Woman (SAW) discover the mystery of life. (This is an over-the-top parody of the controversy about MEN WRITING WOMEN.) Other than some intimate events implied in comic fashion, there is no physical contact between the sexes in the entire book. Not even a kiss. The book is clean throughout. No swear words. No corny mushy dialogue. No degeneracy. No weirdness. Just no low-hanging fruit.
Second edition stories (Mademoiselle Zuma Chronicles)
- Shadows in the night: A young woman is troubled by a ghostly intruder at night.
- Zuma vs. Cutie: Zuma finds competition from an unlikely friend.
- The evil twin: A rich heiress is driven to desperation by a deceased twin who wants her to die as well.
- Alien chicks are nothing but trouble: A meteorite crashes down in the Atlantic. The site becomes an alien platform for launching attacks on English-speaking countries. No other countries are attacked. The world's sole super power collapses after a few days. The strangest thing about the invasion is that the aliens' primary objective is not humans but cows.
- Please do not smile at our alpaca: Zuma and her husband restart a farm devastated by the aliens. Things go well until her husband picks a fight with a South American.
NOTE: The second edition stories are mostly written from the perspective of Zuma.

V. Subhash is an invisible Indian writer, programmer and cartoonist. In 2020, he published one of the biggest jokebooks of all time - 2020 FRESH CLEAN JOKES FOR EVERYONE. He followed this jokebook with a tech book on the free multimedia-editing utility FFmpeg and a 400-page volume of 149 political cartoons.

Although he had published a few ebooks (using off-the-shelf software) as early as 2003, Subhash did not publish books in the traditional sense until 2020. For over two decades, Subhash had used his website www.VSubhash.com as the main outlet for his writing. During this time, he had accumulated a lot of published and unpublished material. This content and the advanced book-production process that he had developed helped him publish 21 books in his first year. In February 2023, Apress/SpringerNature published his rewritten and updated FFmpeg book as QUICK START GUIDE TO FFMPEG. Thus, by early 2023, Subhash had published 30 books!

In 2022, Subhash ran out of non-fiction material and tried his hand at fiction. The result was UNLIKELY STORIES, a collection of horror and comedy short stories. After adding new stories to this fiction title (for its second edition), Subhash plans to pause his writing and move on to other things.

Subhash pursues numerous hobbies and interests, several of which have become the subject of his books such as COOL ELECTRONIC PROJECTS, HOW TO INSTALL SOLAR and HOW TO INVEST IN STOCKS. He was inspired to write his jokebook after years of listening to vintage American radio shows such as 'Fibber & Molly' and 'Duffy's Tavern'.

For more, check out: www.VSubhash.in