Weekly Unfinished Tales and Short Stories from our Dataset
These stories are presented as part of our research into digital transformation in the arts.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
The Great Tree Rescue
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Action-Adventure | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The living room was quiet, too quiet, save for the insistent whisper of snow lashing against the windowpanes. A vast, empty corner waited, a silent sentinel for the tradition that hadn’t yet arrived. The air carried the scent of cold fireplace ash and unfulfilled promise. Outside, the world was a blur of white, thick flakes clinging to the glass, erasing the familiar street beyond. The silence was heavy, only broken by the distant, muffled groan of a snowplow that seemed to be losing its battle.
A Painted Promise
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Gothic | Genre: Satire
The winter evening pressed against the old sash windows of Agnes’s sitting room, a heavy, velvet-blue blanket of cold. Inside, the air hummed with the warmth of a dutiful, if slightly dusty, electric fire and the scent of old books and something faintly herbaceous, perhaps lavender. Outside, the town square had become an optical assault, a meticulously choreographed light show pulsing with an almost aggressive cheer, its synthetic glow seeping through the gaps in the drawn curtains. Agnes, perched on a floral armchair worn smooth by decades of quiet use, watched the orchestrated spectacle, a chipped teacup clutched between her arthritic fingers.
The Carol
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Horror | Genre: Cyberpunk
The frost-patterned window served as a temporary scrim, separating Mandy from the manufactured joy below. Outside, Neo-London pulsed with an electric, artificial cheer, its towering structures draped in light-strands of impossible colours. Synthetic snow, churned by rooftop dispensers, drifted lazily, clinging to the grimy ledges and the cyber-trees lining the promenade. It was a spectacle designed to soothe, to distract, to make the ceaseless churn of corporate life bearable, even for a moment. But Mandy knew the true nature of the city, and the delicate balance that held it all together felt as precarious as a snowflake on a live wire.
The Star’s Return Through Snow
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Literary Fiction | Genre: Action-Adventure
The snow was a living, breathing thing, an insurmountable white wall that stretched from the frozen riverbank to the distant, blurred silhouette of the old cottage. Thomas pushed a gloved hand against the stinging cold, drawing a ragged breath that caught in his throat, each exhalation blooming white before him. His muscles screamed, a dull, insistent ache radiating from his hips and thighs, but he kept moving, one slow, deliberate step after another. The forest, a silent sentinel of spruce and fir, held its breath, the muffled silence amplifying the rhythmic crunch of his boots, the only sound for miles. The air carried the crisp scent of frozen pine needles and something mineral, like static before a storm. He wondered, briefly, if he was entirely mad.
Winter’s Branches
Author: Eva Suluk | Category: Military Fiction | Genre: Military Fiction
The air in the common tent was thick with the scent of recycled oxygen and something vaguely metallic, a scent familiar and unavoidable. Outside, the vast, unbroken white of the northern reaches stretched towards a horizon obscured by a perpetual, iron-grey sky. Inside, however, a fragile, almost defiant warmth clung to the periphery of the inadequate heaters, coalescing around a small, skeletal fir tree that stood awkwardly in a corner, its branches thin and uneven, yet somehow still holding the promise of a distant, more tender reality.
About the Project
The Unfinished Tales and Short Stories collection was an interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment in 2025. It was part of a creative arts and participatory research project by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners collectives. It focuses on two key areas: AI-Assisted Storytelling and Scriptwriting, exploring AI tools for generating ideas, plot structures, and story arcs; and Talent Development and Training, studying digital skills, literacy and training needs for creative professionals by experimenting with AI and immersive technologies to inform future projects. Funding and support were generously provided by the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program and the Government of Ontario. We thank them for supporting the arts, digital transformation, and applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) research.
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