This week’s challenge story is a little early because I’m going to be on the road on the day I usually write them. No matter. I got up at 5 this morning and dove into this piece about a sentient gargoyle. It was inspired by a photo of Kim’s, which I ended up using for the cover. I wrote the story in about 3 hours and it came to about 3500 words. As usual, it’ll be free under the free button at the top, until I write the next story in the challenge.
The rest of the day, after I finished the story, Kim and I spent outside. We went to a botanical garden here in Tucson, and lounged by the pool later. We might go out to dinner tonight, then maybe a movie. In a few days we’ll be heading back to the Pacific Northwest. Will be quite a shock after the desert.
The first stories that really moved me when I was a kid were science fiction tales, those futuristic flights of fancy that came out of the pulp tradition. The stories were vivid, strange, and thrilling. They were filled with action and larger-than-life characters. The pulp days are long over, but the storytelling spirit they embodied lives on. For example, Nicholas Ahlhelm over at Pulp Empire has committed himself to bringing back some of the pulp excitement of those bygone years with his series of anthologies, the latest one of which is Heroes and Heretics. This book also happens to have a story of mine, “Weedhead.” But don’t buy it just for me. There are 18 other stories in this thrill-packed volume. Makes me nostalgic for those good old days just thinking about it.
When I was a math major, I enjoyed the paradoxes dealing with infinity. The ones where you can prove mathematically that Achilles can never catch up to that tortoise. Or the one that proved that motion was impossible. That sort of thing. I thought about some of those paradoxes as I was considering the writing of this week’s story. What I came up with was an infinite garden that got way out of hand for my hapless hero gardener. Throw in a healthy dose of arachnophobia and you get my little 4100 word short story, free on this site until I write the next story. Enjoy. Spider photo courtesy of Kim. Thanks, sweetheart!
Claypot Dreamstance first came to me almost six years ago when I was doing my Conditional Reality blog. Here’s a few samples of what he said to me then.
Since ending my old blog, Claypot’s voice kept coming back to me. He was a tough old guy who had been battered by life but not beaten. Gradually the details of his life came to me and I started a novel with Claypot as the hero. I finished it not too long ago and Green Snake Publishing published it today. Here’s the description from the back cover of the book:
Claypot Dreamstance has a beef with the universe. Once a well-liked artist with a charmed existence, Claypot’s life cracks wide open when his young daughter dies in a drowning accident. Crippled by depression and grief, reckless, belligerent, and anti-social, he splits with his wife and spends his days executing chalk trompe l’oeil drawings on the sidewalks of his native Portland, Oregon, reaching for some meaning and beauty from out of the earth. He shuns his former associates and moves into a tent in Forest Park. He mooches cigarettes and art supplies from hapless admirers of his exquisitely made pictures, and nothing assuages his anger at the universe for taking his daughter away from him. He spirals into a fantasy land of false hope in which he believes he can pull his daughter back from death through one of his life-like trompe l’oeils. Claypot lives on the verge of madness, savagely rebuking anyone who even suggests his quest may be futile. Then one couple takes up the challenge of showing Claypot the beauty still in the world. Will Claypot listen, or will he stubbornly deploy his considerable gifts in a self-destructive orchestration of his own oblivion?
It’s available for the kindle and the nook and will shortly be available at all the usual ebook stores. Print edition also now available.
This week’s story began with a picture that Kim took when we were at The Grotto in Portland, Oregon. While there, we saw a pair of beautiful marble angels on either side of a trail. Like a lot of marble sculpture, these angels had a luminous and life-like quality about them. The figures were bent down and they had their arms crossed in front of their chests. They both seemed to personify grace. Kim took some pictures and this morning, when I was ready to do my challenge story, I looked at that picture and wondered what would happen if one of those marble statues came to life. I tried to imagine what she might want. From there the story came out in about three hours writing time. It’s a little less than 3,000 words long and I hope you enjoy.
Most of us get bumps and bruises in our lives and most of us get over them and go on with living. But what if a trauma decides to lodge in your body and never leave? This week’s story concerns the effects of a kick on a young boy and what it does to the rest of his days.
I began the story this morning with a strong image of a boy getting beaned in the head with a stirrup. From that image the rest of the story flowed out in about two hours total time. The story comes to about 2600 words. To read it, click the “Free” tab above. Enjoy.
The March issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine is just out and it’s got a short story by me in it called “Property Lines” which concerns a couple of nice old ladies who find a way to hate each other over a dispute involving some fruit trees. No one is quite sure who owns them and their resolution to the issue is not pretty. This is my first appearance in AHHM and I’m pleased as punch to be a part of this venerable magazine.
Most likely no one will ever go to the stars, despite decades of science fiction stories that say we will. Also, we probably aren’t going to beat death. Immortality is a dream at best. And I don’t think we’ll ever have real working time machines. Just my opinion. And yet, there’s something fun and exciting about all those things. Even more fun to put them all together into one short story. That’s what I did with this week’s challenge story, “The Universe of Death.” And I packed all that fun into less than 3,000 words.
I started the story on Saturday morning and finished it a couple of hours later. I didn’t get a chance to publish until today, so here it is, my first challenge story of the new year. Enjoy.
Not much to say about this week’s story. I’ve always been interested in the last meals that condemned prisoners ask for. This story is about someone who makes one of those last meals.
Started the piece around 9 this morning. Wrote it in four sessions and finished it about 1:30. It came to a little over 4,000 words.
Most towns have people who live on the edge. They are poor, or have peculiar (to other people) ideas about how the world works, or are hermits, or don’t like most people, or, well, who knows. They’re just seen as different. For this week’s story I wanted to write about one such person. He thinks of himself as helping his town and his tribe, and so he does, even if it is in a way that most everyone else doesn’t understand.
As usual, I started the story when I woke up Sunday morning, which was about 8. I wrote it in three or four sessions with short breaks between and finished it about 2. Did some cleaning up and had Kim read it, then published it to the ebook sites. It came to about 5100 words. Enjoy!
