A vintage-themed library desk with a spooky book titled 'Short Stories' in the center. The book's cover depicts a mysterious figure in a cloak walking through a dark, haunted landscape with leafless trees and an old building under a moonlit sky. Around the desk are stacks of old books, a magnifying glass, a skull, an ink quill, and parchment papers. In the background, a window shows a foggy street with street lamps and a clock tower outside.

A selection of C.J.’s published short stories.

A few are free to read.

Enjoy.

Book cover titled "Tide & Timber: An Anthology of Sensory Prose and Poetry" featuring a landscape with rivers, green hills, and a brown dog standing on the shore.
Cover of Black Sheep magazine, October 2025 issue, featuring a large syringe flying through a crowd of people at a concert, with a smiling female reporter in the foreground holding a microphone, and the magazine title and tagline about tales of terror and wonder.
Cover of Horror and Suspense Magazine, Issue 8, featuring a black and white eye with a red iris and a dark ink splatter in the center.
Cover of a magazine titled 'Under the Bed' featuring a dark, eerie image of a child's face with a creepy expression, pale skin, and dark hair, peering out from a small window or frame. The child's hand is reaching out with long, bony fingers. The background is textured and brown, resembling wood or bark. The magazine lists contributors and features, dated June 2014, with a warning at the top saying 'We DARE You to Look!'.

Confluence

(Available here)

Tide & Timber:

An Anthology of Sensory Prose & Poetry

Sterncastle Writers Collective

2026

My Brightest Stars

(Available here)

Black Sheep: Unique Tales of Terror and Wonder

Number 28

October 2025

Walks

(click to read)

Massacre Magazine

Issue 8

January 2016

Out of Print

Balloonees

(click to read)

Under the Bed

Volume 2, Number 9

June 2014

Out of Print

Book cover titled 'Fog & Shadows: Tales of Mystery from the Pacific Northwest' by Sterncastle Writers Collective, featuring a foggy landscape with a tree in the distance.

A Coalescing Cryptid Diaspora

Neskowin Ghost Forest (with Jill Hagen)

(Available here)

Fog & Shadows:

Tales of Mystery From the Pacific Northwest

Sterncastle Writers Collective

2025

Cover of a magazine titled 'New Maps' featuring a photo of an old stone bridge over a small stream in a wooded area. The magazine focuses on deindustrial fiction and lists authors such as Jeff Burt, Michelle Koubek, C.J. Friend, Ally Rivers, Adam Dorsheimer, and Terry Sanville, with additional contributors Justin Patrick Moore, Nathanael Bonnell, and Wesley Stine, for Spring 2025.
Magazine cover titled 'HEATER' with a dark, shadowy profile of a person holding a glass of whiskey.

Confluence

(Available here)

New Maps

Volume 5, Number 2

Spring 2025

Familiar Face

(click to read)

Heater

Volume 2, Number 10

January 2015

Out of Print