11/17/2025 Author Notes Series: EASY PICKINGS, Splatterpunk Zine 14

It's been a few weeks since I've done an Authors Note for you all. Ironically enough, I had almost forgotten about this short story that I wrote for Jack Bantry's Splatterpunk Zine Issue 14, last year.

It's short, brutal, and has, in my opinion, a rather well-deserved ending. This time, I went with the idea of elderly people getting revenge on those that choose to prey on them. When Jack approached me for a story, I remember seeing yet another horrible story on the news of elder abuse. It made me realize two things, or perhaps, made me remember them again.

I've been aware of the tragic state of nursing homes, care facilities, senior living complexes, etc. and just how fraught with abuse and neglect they can be. That was the first thing that had been on my mind that week. The second was how helpless most people assume them to be, which is a fair point, many are, but... many are not.

Focusing on that last idea, and how angry the first point makes me, is what led to this particular story. In Easy Pickings, there is a sleazy maintenance man that works in a senior-living high-rise, and he is exactly the kind of lazy, dishonest, mid-level thug that you might expect him to be. Randolph also views the senior apartment building as his own personal shopping mall, stealing what he can, whenever he wants, and allowing the residents to think they lost it, or misplaced it, or had a memory lapse because of their many ailments.

Sadly, most of them are afraid of him, or afraid that he's right, perhaps they did forget, or are too old, too sick, too confused to remember. And sadder still, many have no family coming to see them, no regular visitors, no one to be checking up on them; a fact that Randolph uses to his full advantage.

I'll leave the note here, though I may have given away the premise a bit too much, it's still very much worth a read, if for no other reason than to see a leech like Randolph get what he deserves. I have added the link as there are still some copies left in Jack's store.

Splatterpunk Zine — Splatterpunk Zine #14