Unlikely Stories

Unlikely Stories is an anthology of horror and comedy stories based on several real-life incidents. After writing over two dozen exclusively non-fiction books, the author was forced by several governments to name this book as 'Unlikely Stories' and release it only as a fiction title (!) with a rather quaint description. Their verbatim copy follows:

Boy meets girl. Both fall in love. Boy proposes marriage. Girl postpones decision for one month. Girl's gonna leave next day. Until then, boy tries to impress girl by telling stories -- funny stories... scary stories... and all kinds in between. No worries. Everything ends well.

The stories were tough to come by. Having given up on fiction years ago, the young man had to marshal some old personal anecdotes, wild tales told by strangers, and even some vividly detailed nightmares for his first novel. Like a male Scheherazade, he somehow wove those yarns together. They also just about helped him bag his babe.

As a result, the stories are mostly supernatural/paranormal fantasies with ample doses of action, sci-fi, romance, horror and humour. The entire book is in first person and everything happens very fast. There is never a dull moment.

• The trip: The lead is invited by his friend to spend the weekend at a resort. There, he meets the first heroine Vampira. That is not her real name.

• The swim: The lead decides that Vampira is the soul mate he has been waiting for 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 scamster who escapes to the US 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 secretly a mind-reader.) He is forced to try his hand at performing an exorcism that the Church has given up on.

• 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 in a rural area 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 current owner wants the paranormal activities investigated. The second lead tries and almost gets killed.

• Family planning: This is an over-the-top parody of the controversy about MEN WRITING WOMEN.

V. Subhash is an invisible Indian writer, programmer and illustrator. Subhash is a native of Kerala and Tamizh Nadu, and lives with his wife, kid and mistress. In 2020, he wrote one of the biggest jokebooks of all time and then ended up with over two dozen mostly non-fiction books including Linux Command-Line Tips & Tricks, CommonMark Ready Reference, PC Hardware Explained, Cool Electronic Projects and How To Install Solar. Subhash pursues numerous hobbies and interests, several of which have become the subject of his books. He used to have pet tortoises but they died in a parking accident. Everyone was crushed. Subhash is notorious in the UFO community for claiming that aliens do not exist, that is, on Earth. His probe into 'aliens' revealed that they are just ordinary employees/contractors of US military and space agencies. They begged him not to go public so he had no choice but to publish his findings in a fiction work titled 'Unlikely Stories'!

Subhash writes, illustrates, designs and produces all of his books using only open-source software. Subhash has programmed in more than a dozen languages (as varied as assembly, Java and Javascript); published software for desktop (NetCheck), mobile (Subhash Browser & RSS Reader) and server (TweetsToRSS); and designed several websites. As of 2023, he is working on a portable Javascript-free CMS using plain-jane PHP and SQLite.