Short Story – The War For Christmas
Two weeks in a row! Go me!
This story started as I was thinking about The Last Jedi, which I really loved, and wondering about the people who really hated it. I mean, I understand not liking it but I think the hatred is pretty extreme. So I set about trying to create the worst movie imaginable. Then my thoughts naturally turned to the consequences of making such a movie.
So here we are. There are no heavy themes addressed here. It’s just a story about the catastrophic results of making a catastrophic movie. Also don’t worry – the picture of Jennifer Lawrence will make sense pretty quickly.
Short Story – The Last Tour
I haven’t been writing anything for a few weeks. Just kind of hit a wall.
Sometimes, though, you need to just do something. And writing is something I just needed to do.
This week, I have a short story that inhabits a world I’d really like to flesh out a little more. The idea here was to create a world beyond the edges of the story. A world that made you go “whoa – what’s going on?”
The basic concept was a 40’s or 50’s elevator operator at the Empire State Building and the woman who operated the souvenir stand on the observation platform. It grew from there.
If you’ve been reading my blog and have noticed I’ve been gone for a month – sorry about that. Sometimes we all need a break. I hope you enjoy!
Short Story – The Last Morning
I’ve been having trouble staying focused and getting my stories written so let’s say this is me trying to re-commit to my daily/weekly writing sessions.
This actually isn’t a short story. This is the first chapter of a longer story that is probably not novel length but we shall see. It is very much science fiction although there aren’t too many indications of what is going on in the first chapter. It is setting up a lot of things that will become a lot more clear as the story progresses
I had the idea as a sort of dystopian near future where the rich have gotten a lot richer and the options for the poor are a lot more dangerous and dire. I looked at the way we view immigrants in this country and imagined that things were going to get worse even as taboos around things like same sex relationships become less important to society as a whole.
I also decided to make my main character a person of color because I think diversity in storytelling is important. I admit I’m still wrestling with how much or how little the color of her skin will have to do with the arc moving forward.
Anyway, for those of you who have been asking for me to write some more, I’m sorry it took so long. For those of you would didn’t really miss it, you were probably fine anyway!
Short Story – Ambassador Krellnik
This week’s story is a more humorous piece that grew out of a character name. I came up with the name Ambassador Krellnik, which sounded vaguely alien. From there, I built a story about Krellnik, who, I presumed, was rather boring.
Most of my science fiction is strongly rooted in some hard science principles. Like the idea it takes a really long time to traverse interstellar distances. Here, I dropped all of that because science fiction can be exactly that – fiction. Laws of physics need not apply. And when I’m trying to write something that is more comic, I find breaking the laws of physics slightly more acceptable.
As always, if you enjoy what I’ve written, please feel free to share, comment, critique, or do nothing! It’s all good!
Short Story – Office Work
It’s been over a month since my last story. The holidays and vacation kind of got me a little bit behind on my writing. A New Year always provides a good opportunity for a reset button to be pressed and that means it’s time for my first short story of 2017!
The world I worked on here is pretty crazy and I can see myself finding opportunities to create other stories using the same basic conceptual landscape. There are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the way society ended up where they are as this story begins.
Going in deeper on this world will have to wait. For now, I just wrote a stand alone tale.
As always, please like, share, comment, or ignore!
Short Story – Mars Exploded on a Thursday
I banged this one out pretty quickly this afternoon. I’ve not posted a new short story in a few weeks and I decided I just needed to write and post something without worrying so much about how the final story turned out. I’m happy with the result, though.
The idea for this story began with the first sentence, “Mars exploded on a Thursday.” I like that opening. It provides a what the fuck kind of beginning. From there, the story gets pretty strange.
So for the few people who have been reading my stories, I’m sorry for the delay. I’ve had trouble getting off the horror theme I was working on in September and October. Thanks for bearing with me!
As always, feel free to share, comment, read, or ignore!
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 – 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!
Grail Diary 