On the Fringes of Reality

Where the ordinary world reveals its true nature

About

Hello, and welcome to my corner of the internet, where the ordinary world reveals its true nature.

I’m Andy Brooke, and I write stories about the moments when reality slips—when the familiar becomes strange, and the everyday shows us glimpses of something far more unsettling lurking just beneath the surface.

My fiction explores those uncanny spaces where our comfortable assumptions about the world begin to fray. I’m drawn to contemporary horror that doesn’t rely on monsters or supernatural creatures (well, just occasionally 😆), but instead finds the terror in the things we encounter every day: social media notifications, apartment acoustics, the digital traces we leave behind. These are the stories that ask “what if?” and then push that question just far enough to make us start to feel uncomfortable.

I draw inspiration from a broad range of classic writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, and Guy de Maupassant, but I’m interested in translating that sense of creeping dread into our modern world. My work often takes the form of micro fiction—short, precise pieces that pack maximum unease into minimal words.

When I’m not writing, I can be found collecting strange local legends and examining the acoustics of old buildings with suspicious intensity. I’m fascinated by the idea that the extraordinary is always there, waiting—we just need to know how to look for it.

This site will be where I share new stories, writing updates, and thoughts about the craft of finding horror in the everyday. I hope you’ll join me as I explore these fringes of reality.

After all, the most unsettling stories are the ones that could be true.

Welcome to the edge of the ordinary world.

About

On the Fringes of Reality is a collection of contemporary horror stories that explore the unsettling spaces where our ordinary world reveals its true nature. Each tale examines the familiar through a darker lens, finding terror in technology, relationships, and the everyday moments that suddenly turn strange.