Short Story – The Not-So-Silent Planet, Part 3
I’ve previously posted part 1 and part 2 of this story. It was presented as part of the 2016 Minnesota Fringe festival. This is the final installment of the story. Thanks for reading! Read More…
Short Story – A Windy Day
I’m working on some horror right now because I have a few Halloween shows coming up and while I have been writing some horror, I want to make sure I have the right tone for the shows I’ll be doing. Always good to have extra, you know?
This story started with the idea of taking a fairly benign object and making it dangerous. I also feel I sometimes use dialogue as a crutch so this story is dialogue free. There is some violence and child endangerment so if you are going to read, be warned.
It is strange to me that I have become a storyteller in the last year. It was not something I ever envisioned for myself. I’m not sure if I’m all that good at it but at the very least, I’m not awful.
As always, please feel free to share, comment, or ignore my writing. If you do take the time to read it, thanks! Read More…
Short Story – The Not-So-Silent Planet, Part 2
Short Story – The Not-so-Silent Planet, Part 1
As part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival this year, I was asked to write and present a short story entitled The Not-so-Silent Planet as part of a speculative storytelling show. The story and the presentation got a lot of accolades, which I really appreciated.
I was asked to write a science fiction story in three parts with something of a cliffhanger at the end of the first two sections.
Over the next three weeks, I’ll be posting all three parts of the story. Keep in mind it was written for dramatic presentation. I played the main character on stage and I had another actress playing the voice of the computer, Alice, offstage.
The story still works as just a story, I think. But the dramatic presentation did help to heighten the feeling of isolation that I was going for in the story.
A few folks asked if there would be anywhere they could read the story and I told them I’d be posting it. So here’s part 1!
Short Story – Red Tape
This week, I’ve written something that will most likely turn into a script for Big Fun Radio Funtime. I think we can all relate to a nearly endless pile of government forms so I decided to take that frustration to ridiculous extremes.
The story is mostly dialogue between two characters. A lot of my writing involves situations where nobody is really a villain. I mean, the government worker is clearly annoying but he is just trying to do his job as well as he possibly can. I find it more interesting when the situation is the villain and the characters must work in tandem to deal with the situation.
As always, please read, share, and comment. I enjoy getting feedback on my work. It does help me get better at this!
As an additional note, I’m going to be turning last week’s story into a one act play for production next year. I just need to figure out how to turn the ending into something that can be staged clearly. I’ll let readers know when I have that in the works!
Short Story – Lunch with Clara
After last week’s story, which was super dark, I decided I wanted to write something funny this week. I also noticed that I’ve been writing a lot of science fiction and horror but not a lot of fantasy.
So I started with thinking about some of the creatures from my old Monster Manual and things grew from there. I’m not entirely sure at what point I decided to turn my characters into teenagers but when I made that decision, it changed the entire direction of the story.
This one is a lot more dialogue driven. Go figure – I’m a playwright.
And I can’t tell you how much it amuses me that this story features a ghoul named “Eugene.” The name Eugene always makes me laugh. I’m sorry to anyone named Eugene. I can’t help it.
As always, I really enjoy feedback on these stories and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read them.
Short Story – Before the Darkness
This story requires a longer than usual preamble.
First, I’m going to offer a trigger warning because this story deals with rape (not graphic), imprisonment, and torture.
In my stories, I’ve shied away from the idea of women as victims because there is just so much fiction out there about the victimization of women. Part of this is because of the fact women are so frequently victims of violent crime in our society. But part of it is simply, I think, a failure of imagination.
There are so many more facets to women than how often they are victimized in our society. It seems unfair to focus on that one thing.
This story grew from asking myself what had happened to the monster before Frankensteien revived it. From there moved to a place that was very dark and explored the idea of a woman as a victim. I don’t know if I did it well but I do know that it felt right for the story.
But it is a story about women as victims. If that isn’t something you want to read, I totally understand.
Thanks, as always, to those of you who read my stories.
Read More…
Short Story – Icarus Air
This week, I started with the thought I was going to write a modern story about the mythological character of Icarus. And I sort of did. At least I did in the sense that the main character of the piece is named Icarus.
I kind of veered off course from there. Things got kind of post apocalyptic and a tiny bit steampunk-y.
As with all of my stories, I hope you read, comment, and share. This is an important exercise for me and it really helps to have people read and react. Thanks!
Short Story – The Endless Sea
This week’s story is very clearly the beginning of something longer. It didn’t start that way.
I was doing an improv set this past weekend and it involved the idea of a free floating fresh water island in the Pacific Ocean. It was pretty silly but got me thinking about a world where all of the islands floated.
Not realistic, perhaps, but fairly interesting to think about.
So I started writing a story and I quickly realized that the ending of the story is really just the end of Chapter 1. I might have to return to this one day and see where everything goes from here.
As always, please enjoy, comment, share, or go on with you day!
Short Story – The Cargo
This week’s short story is pretty dark again. I was thinking about a snowstorm at the top of a mountain and this is what came of that basic starting point.
There are times when I know exactly how a story begins but I don’t know how it ends. In this case, I had the end of the story long before I knew how it began. It is always interesting to work backwards and figure out where that ending came from.
As always, I definitely appreciate any comments, shares, or just people who take the time to read. If you don’t, that’s OK too!
Grail Diary 