Short Story – Dinosaur Bones
For this week’s story, I decided I wanted to include a dinosaur. Not just any dinosaur, though, but one that was alive. And not just a dinosaur that was alive but one that was alive right now. Sort of like in Jurassic Park but not like that because Jurassic Park has been done already.
In the end, things didn’t happen exactly as I’d originally planned. But the idea of a dinosaur that was alive is still the driving centerpiece of the story.
As always, thanks for reading if you do. Thanks for sharing if you do. And thanks just for being you!
Short Story – The Summoning
This story is an attempt to balance a little bit of horror with a little bit of humor. There is definitely some dark stuff going on but within that framework, I was working to keep the tone a little more comical.
I mostly wrote this because I wanted to write a story that included a demon named Clarice. I just thought it was a good name for a demon.
Most of my stories have had women as protagonists lately. That’s been a conscious choice because I’ve kind of decided that if the gender of a character isn’t relevant, I might as well make her female. This particular story, however, featured characters that really needed to be women. Sorry men! You’ll just have to read and/or watch most of the other popular culture being produced!
As always, please read, comment, share, or do none of those things! Thanks!
Short Story – The Long Winter
I missed last week because I had some other deadlines. For that small number of folks who read my stories every week – sorry! I may miss the next two weeks as well because I’ll be on vacation. If I manage to write something, though, I’ll post it.
This week, I’m writing about a post-apocalyptic world. If you want to know what caused the apocalypse, I’m not going to tell you. Sometimes, I find placing a person in a terrible situation more interesting than the situation itself.
As always, please share, critique, enjoy, or ignore! And if you do read the story – thanks!
Short Story – Bloodlines
This week’s story was pieced together from two different inspirations.
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I probably wasn’t going to write too many stories about vampires because I didn’t much care for them. That meant I immediately started working on a story about vampires. Like you do.
The other inspiration was the police procedural. I tried to create something of a stereotypical buddy cop duo with a twist. That’s not really original since just about every buddy cop duo on TV these days has a twist.
This one is longer than most and it plays out like a pilot to a TV series, I guess. Funny thing is, I could see this one being made. Maybe it’s already been made. That wouldn’t surprise me at all.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read my stories (if you do). For me, it’s an important exercise. For you, it’s time out of your day you could spend doing something else.
Short Story – Acrophobia
This week’s short story is non-fiction. Well, mostly non-fiction. I actually write a fair number of non-fiction autobiographical stories but until now, everything I’ve been posting on my weekly blog has been fiction.
I did a live presentation of this story over the weekend. Rather, it was a version of this story. I’ve done a lot of tweaking since then.
As always, I hope you read, enjoy, comment, share, or go on about your day.
Short Story – Generations
This week, I found myself writing about time travel. I like time travel because it’s weird. You could spend the entire story just trying to deal with the paradoxes. I find it more interesting to ignore the paradoxes and just tell the story.
The idea for this one started with the first several paragraphs about alternate timelines. I wasn’t totally sure how everything worked. I just kind of allowed that to develop.
More than most of the stories I’ve written lately, this one feels a lot like the prologue to something a great deal longer. Maybe I’ll revisit it someday. But probably not…
As always, please comment with your thoughts, share, or ignore! Whatever works for you!
Short Story – Delicate Negotiations
This week, my story started with the opening line. I mean, it always starts with the opening line. In this case, though, it was the entire genesis of the idea. I just started with a President in the oval office needing to go to do something important.
From there, I just thought about what might make for a very unusual day in the life of the President of the United States. And then I asked myself what it would be like if it wasn’t that unusual at all.
The end result is a slightly silly story about what happens when two different worlds intersect.
As always, I’d love to hear any feedback you might have. Thanks for reading!
Short Story – The Race
This week, I started with the idea of writing about a race. I didn’t know what kind of race it was. I just used the concept of racing as the seed.
I’ve been doing some public readings as a part of the Not So Silent Planet series in the Twin Cities and because that is a speculative fiction series, my thoughts have gravitated towards that genre. So the race became one taking place in space.
Several of my recent stories have trended pretty dark. This one actually bucks that trend.
As always, read, comment, share. These stories may be at mostly an exercise for me but it’s still nice to hear what people think – good or bad.
Short Story – Black Magic Beans
This week’s story started with the phrase “there are worse things than being poor.”
Typically, I haven’t worked with established stories or characters but when I started thinking about this one, I gravitated to Jack and the Beanstalk. So I went with it.
Mind you, this story takes us into a much more dangerous world than one with giants and singing harps.
As always, these stories are all about exercising my writing muscle every week. Please read, comment, share, and let me know what should change.
Short Story – Ducks in Space
A short story a week is my goal and that is the best explanation as to why I wrote what I’m posting today.
A few weeks ago, I was at an improv show and a suggestion was made (by my son) for the performers to act out a horror movie about ducks in space.
For whatever reason, I used “Ducks in Space” as the inspiration for this story. It is literally nothing like the improv sketch that inspired the title, which is probably for the best.
Instead, it is a story about what would most likely happen were ducks to pilot spacecraft.
Grail Diary 