First Time Listener, discover a scary podcast!

Welcome to Frighteningtales.com

If you've just discovered the show, you've stumbled into a scary podcast for curious listeners.

Every week, I bring you a dark piece of fiction from an author somewhere in the world. Some stories are paranormal horror. Some are supernatural. Some are strange, unsettling, or simply difficult to explain. That's why it's called Frightening Tales & Other Weird Stories. They all vary in how scary they actually are. They are all weird and they all include a spark of whimsy. Something paranormal in them. 

What Kind of Podcast is this? 

This is a bit of an oxymoron.

It is the safest unsettling place you'll hope to find.

By that, I mean this place is built with empathy and accessibility in mind. The stories, however, are specifically designed to unhinge you.

I cater to lovers of spooky campfire ghost stories and those who were fans of The Twilight Zone. The stories are strange. Some are spooky. Some are downright mind-bending. But all of them are original works by authors of varying skill, brought to life by your host... Wilhelm.

What kind of stories will I hear?

You will hear fiction. That's the simplest answer.

Each story is just that: a story. A little bit of whimsy, darkness, imagination or strange thinking created by a writer and brought to you in audio.

I explicitly ask that hate and racism stay out of Frightening Tales, and anything overly sexualized is also off the table. The goal is to create stories that can be unsettling without becoming needlessly uncomfortable.

I like to imagine a family heading to the cottage, putting on a story for the drive. Everyone in the car is listening, so the story shouldn't make anyone wish they'd brought headphones. Now, that's assuming everyone in the car is at least 16. 😈

Where should I start?

I recommend that new listeners first visit the homepage, pick an episode and give it a listen. You'll know fairly quickly whether Frightening Tales is your sort of thing.

If you like what you hear, decide how you'd prefer to listen. Spotify? Apple Podcasts? Amazon Music? YouTube? The show is available in all of those places.

One note about YouTube: not every season is currently available there. There is considerably more content available in audio-only formats. That's a direct reflection of the work involved in producing each episode. Creating the YouTube versions takes considerably more time, so I've had to be selective about which seasons make the jump to video.

And there's something else that makes Frightening Tales easy to jump into:

You don't have to start at the beginning.

Every episode is a standalone work. There's no overarching story you need to follow from week to week, and it's not a serial. I built the show this way deliberately, so you can drop in anywhere, pick a story that catches your attention, and simply enjoy it. The one exception. My Daniel Damned Stories. That is a serial, and each part is a continuation of his journey.

You may also notice that I've learned a few things along the way. The branding and format of some older episodes are a little different from what you see today. That's because I was still finding my groove.

And honestly, I'm okay with that.

The show has evolved. You get to hear that evolution as you work your way through the archive.

Who writes these stories?

The world does.

Authors from wherever this audio reaches me have found the show and been inspired to share a story of their own. Last time I counted, submissions and listeners had reached 50 countries. It's a little like passing the stick around a campfire. One person finishes their story, then hands it to the next person.

It's become one of the great joys of doing this show.

So much so that this season, I began each episode by telling you where the author is from. Sometimes language becomes a barrier, and a story doesn't always translate as beautifully as it was written. But I make every effort to be inclusive. I've had such an incredible diversity of writers contribute. And what's wonderful is that if I didn't tell you where many of these authors were from, you'd probably never be the wiser.

Which is one way of saying we're not so different after all. Perhaps that's my inner Canadian coming out.

Want to submit a story? Submit a Story

I curate every story that appears on Frightening Tales and make sure it belongs within the family of stories I've collected here. That way, when you come back each week, you can have some expectation of what you're going to find.

There's another part of this that I'm particularly proud of.

Sometimes a submitted story isn't quite there yet. Maybe the idea is strong but the execution needs work. When I believe there's something worth developing, I'll offer constructive criticism and, where the author wants it, work with them to help get the story there.

I never want to be the reason someone stops writing.

My philosophy is simple: when we help writers become better, everybody wins. The writer gets a stronger story. I get a better story to share. And the genre gets another voice worth hearing.

I think there's a responsibility in that, too. If we're going to love this strange little corner of storytelling, we should help nurture the people who will carry it forward.

That's something I'm happy to be part of.

How often are stories released?

For now, every Friday. Or Frightday, as I've come to call it.

I set the schedule up this way because it makes the show manageable. Each season runs from May through Halloween, giving me roughly 26 stories to bring you each year.

And I deliberately chose a season rather than trying to produce something new every week of the year. Making these episodes is a considerable amount of work, but it's also a tremendous point of joy for me. I love creating them.

I'd also love to find a way for Frightening Tales to eventually support my family and me. That's the dream.

For a long time, I've been quite firm about keeping sponsors and advertising out of the show. I'm reconsidering that as I look at what it would take to make this something I could do full-time.

There is one promise I intend to keep: I will never interrupt a story for an advertisement.

If the show eventually has sponsors, they'll appear before a story or between stories when there's more than one in an episode. They won't suddenly appear in the middle of a scene just as something horrible is about to happen. Breaking the momentum of a story to hear someone tell you about mattresses would rather defeat the purpose. 

If I'm ever fortunate enough to make Frightening Tales my full-time work, I'll also look at expanding the release schedule and potentially extending the season.

For now, though...

Friday is Frightday.

And there's a new story waiting for you.

Where can I listen?

Pretty much anywhere a streaming service is offered.

Wilhelm Presents: Frightening Tales & Other Weird Stories can be found wherever you listen to podcasts. Just search for "Wilhelm Presents" and I should pop up.

To expand the audience, I've also been adding the more recent seasons to YouTube each week.

Shout out to all my subscribers! 👻

Can I submit my own story?

You can probably guess by now that YES, you can submit your own ORIGINAL story.

I would, however, implore you not to simply have AI barf out a bunch of text and send it my way.

I read every story myself, and I've gotten pretty good at recognizing AI-generated writing. More importantly, I want Frightening Tales to be a place where writers are actually telling stories.

So please don't treat the submission process as a challenge to see if you can sneak an AI-generated story past me. If one does somehow make it onto the show and I later discover that it was substantially AI-generated, I'll pull it.

I'm perfectly happy with AI being used as a tool. Using it to help with grammar, spelling, brainstorming or other aspects of the writing process is one thing. But the story itself needs to substantially come from a human being, in some way, shape or form.

And if you're wondering whether I can tell the difference...

Well, I've been doing this long enough to have a pretty good idea.

I also keep a few stories of my own on hand specifically so that I can fill a week if necessary. My audience will never be left without a story simply because I didn't receive enough submissions.

For full submission details, including what I look for and what I don't accept, visit the submission page: Submit a Story.

Is your site just AI slop?

Simply put, no. It's not.

Do I use AI in building this place? Yes. But I use it as a tool, and I try to use it ethically.

The biggest criticism of AI is that it steals from artists, and that anything built on that foundation is therefore built on theft. I understand that concern. It's one of the reasons I've been very deliberate about how I use it.

The artwork on this site starts with my artwork.

I spent years in post-secondary school learning to draw. I still draw manually, pencil to paper. I had dreams of working for Pixar and Disney, but I'm in Canada and wasn't willing to leave my entire family behind to chase them.

I'm good at what I do. AI simply lets me use those skills differently.

The AI I use for the artwork runs locally on my own machine. My artwork doesn't get uploaded to an online service to train someone else's model. I create original illustrations myself and use those as the foundation for the artwork you see throughout this site. It allows me to create in a fraction of the time it would take to draw every illustration by hand.

Without that help, I'd probably be producing one episode a month rather than one every week.

And there are boundaries.

AI does not write the stories. Those come from human authors.

I do use AI to help find typos, check whether the copy on the site makes sense, and occasionally help me work through my own very fast-and-furious thoughts. I also use it to help create the episode artwork.

Using my own illustrations as the source also gives the site a consistent visual language and keeps the artwork on brand.

I'm not pretending AI isn't part of the process. It is.

I'm simply being transparent about where it fits.

And if there's enough interest, I may put together a walkthrough showing exactly how I build the illustrations for this site.