One of my favorite things to read are short stories...they're perfectly encapsulated bits of narrative, as beginning, middle, and end, all wrapped up, something you can both sink your teeth into and finish in a single setting.
However, when the stories are good, I always find myself wondering about them...where the writer got the idea, what the story means to him or her, whether or not there was a particular reason they wrote it or something specific they were trying to get across; or if they were just having fun.
With that in mind I created this place for people to come and perhaps get a little insight on my stories, or, like I so often wish to, just spend a little more time with a story that meant something to them.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Wisdom Of The Ocean
Synopsis: A prostitute must make a difficult decision.
Notes: This is one my favorite endings that I've written, ever, and in fact, the ending was the first part that I wrote, I just had this image in my mind I couldn't get rid of, so I put it on paper. Once it was written down and out of my head I could really examine it, and I liked it so much I had to know how this woman got to where it was I'd left her, and I couldn't be happier with the results.
Notes: This is one my favorite endings that I've written, ever, and in fact, the ending was the first part that I wrote, I just had this image in my mind I couldn't get rid of, so I put it on paper. Once it was written down and out of my head I could really examine it, and I liked it so much I had to know how this woman got to where it was I'd left her, and I couldn't be happier with the results.
The Yard
Synopsis: A group of war-time soldiers agree to take part in a small clinical trial, after which, they will be able to return safely to their homes and loved ones. At least, this is what they were told...
Notes: This story started out as a dream...in my dream I was within those walls, and in the middle of one of the raids described I woke up, heart pounding, just drenched in sweat, shaking with adrenaline. I remember it was just after three in the morning because my wife asked me why I was getting up and getting dressed...the answer of course, was that I wanted to write. The rest of the story followed.
Notes: This story started out as a dream...in my dream I was within those walls, and in the middle of one of the raids described I woke up, heart pounding, just drenched in sweat, shaking with adrenaline. I remember it was just after three in the morning because my wife asked me why I was getting up and getting dressed...the answer of course, was that I wanted to write. The rest of the story followed.
Penance
Synopsis: Harry learns the consequences of infidelity.
Notes: I wrote this as an exploration of guilt and the afterlife. I don't know if this is what happens, but at least I know it won't happen to me.
Notes: I wrote this as an exploration of guilt and the afterlife. I don't know if this is what happens, but at least I know it won't happen to me.
Joseph's Hill
Notes: This is a more literary piece, a character study and an exercise in despair. The only monster is Joseph's father, and I think far too many of us have had this same type of monster lurching through our childhood, through those formative years when you will expose yourself to make-believe horrors to forget about the ones at home.
God's Trigger Finger
Synopsis: A button-man is called in to correct a past mistake.
Notes: Another story from my youth, it makes me smile that I tried so hard to justify a man who murdered people for money as being the good guy...but read it. Maybe he is.
Notes: Another story from my youth, it makes me smile that I tried so hard to justify a man who murdered people for money as being the good guy...but read it. Maybe he is.
A Last Gasp Of Humanity
Synopsis: This is what happens, after the war...
Notes: I love a good apocalypse story more than just about anything else, but most of them, in fact I think all the ones I've read end with hope, or at least the chance for hope, and I don't think hope is what an apocalypse is all about.
Notes: I love a good apocalypse story more than just about anything else, but most of them, in fact I think all the ones I've read end with hope, or at least the chance for hope, and I don't think hope is what an apocalypse is all about.
Dante's Schilling
Notes: Of all my stories, this is a favorite, because it's based on a favorite. This is a bastardized modern-day homage to the story of Faust, who makes a deal with the devil. The literary devices that are present are clumsy weapons, but I hope I wield them well...in truth I fought myself long and hard about going back and rewriting a big portion of this. It's a young man's story, and though not too much time has past, the thirty-three year old husband and father of two writing this doesn't have much in common with the nineteen year old narcotics enthusiast that wrote this, and as Uncle Stevie said, paraphrased of course, is that to rewrite that nineteen year old boy's story would be to deny him, and I just can't do that, because he got me where I am today.
Two Minutes With The County Coroner
Synopsis: Well, this one is just like it says...it's about two minutes inside the head of a county coroner.
Notes: Years ago, in doing research for a book, I had occassion to interview a county coroner. I sat across his desk and spoke with him for over an hour. In that hour, he never looked me in the eye, not even once. At the end of that hour he gave me a tour of the facility which culminated with him opening up a body-bag and showing me what was left of a vagrant that had been hit by a train after sitting down on the tracks. I've never forgotten that sight, and don't worry, I won't describe it to you here, or in the story, for that matter.
I'll never completely leave that day behind me, I suppose, not because of what was inside that body bag (OK, a hint; picture a hundred and fifty pounds of raw hamburger with some bones and hair sticking out of it, and you'll have an idea of what I saw)but because he never looked me in the eye. I am all but certain as soon as I left the building he locked the door and found a corpse to bang, THAT is the sincere, actual vibe he gave off.
I know all coroner's aren't like that...since that day I've sought out several more, and with the exception of that first one, they've all been nice, polite, normal, eye-contact making people. Their sense of humor tends to be on the darker side of course, but one can hardly fault them for that.
I wrote this story about the good, hardworking, and important people coroners really are, partly as a reminder, partly in hopes that it should garner me some kind of karma that will keep me from ever coming in contact with the other kind again...because where there is one, there have to be more. right?
Notes: Years ago, in doing research for a book, I had occassion to interview a county coroner. I sat across his desk and spoke with him for over an hour. In that hour, he never looked me in the eye, not even once. At the end of that hour he gave me a tour of the facility which culminated with him opening up a body-bag and showing me what was left of a vagrant that had been hit by a train after sitting down on the tracks. I've never forgotten that sight, and don't worry, I won't describe it to you here, or in the story, for that matter.
I'll never completely leave that day behind me, I suppose, not because of what was inside that body bag (OK, a hint; picture a hundred and fifty pounds of raw hamburger with some bones and hair sticking out of it, and you'll have an idea of what I saw)but because he never looked me in the eye. I am all but certain as soon as I left the building he locked the door and found a corpse to bang, THAT is the sincere, actual vibe he gave off.
I know all coroner's aren't like that...since that day I've sought out several more, and with the exception of that first one, they've all been nice, polite, normal, eye-contact making people. Their sense of humor tends to be on the darker side of course, but one can hardly fault them for that.
I wrote this story about the good, hardworking, and important people coroners really are, partly as a reminder, partly in hopes that it should garner me some kind of karma that will keep me from ever coming in contact with the other kind again...because where there is one, there have to be more. right?
Just A Regular Guy
Synopsis: An inside look at the life of a celebrity screenwriter.
Notes: I wrote this because there are so many other horrors in the world; all the made up stuff like vampires and cars that come to life or aliens that lay eggs in our chest to the real life stuff, which is even worse; war, bigotry, famine, politics...I think sometimes we forget to examine the horrors inside ourselves; in our hearts and minds and in the small cruel things every one of us has done.
This is an examination of those things.
Notes: I wrote this because there are so many other horrors in the world; all the made up stuff like vampires and cars that come to life or aliens that lay eggs in our chest to the real life stuff, which is even worse; war, bigotry, famine, politics...I think sometimes we forget to examine the horrors inside ourselves; in our hearts and minds and in the small cruel things every one of us has done.
This is an examination of those things.
The Unfortunate Charlie Tides
Synopsis: Charlie has never been lucky, but his worst day will soon look like a day of paradise compared to the day he falls into the swamp on the edge of his property.
Notes: One of the absolutely most unsettling dreams I've ever had lead to this story. I don't want to give anything away here to those who have yet to read it, but...yeah, still gives me the creeps.
Notes: One of the absolutely most unsettling dreams I've ever had lead to this story. I don't want to give anything away here to those who have yet to read it, but...yeah, still gives me the creeps.
The Cabbie
Synopsis: A married couple's visit to New York City soon descends into a literal ride of terror.
Notes: All our lives, from the time we are children, we are cautioned over and over never to get into a car with a stranger, because doing so tantamount to death, or worse. Yet as adults we call strangers on the phone, tell them where we live, and pay them to come and pick us up.
Have you ever stopped to think how blindly trusting that really is? It could be anyone driving that cab, and once the wheels are turning and the doors are locked, you really are at the mercy of the driver...
Notes: All our lives, from the time we are children, we are cautioned over and over never to get into a car with a stranger, because doing so tantamount to death, or worse. Yet as adults we call strangers on the phone, tell them where we live, and pay them to come and pick us up.
Have you ever stopped to think how blindly trusting that really is? It could be anyone driving that cab, and once the wheels are turning and the doors are locked, you really are at the mercy of the driver...
Starfish
Synopsis: A small-town mechanic finds a relic of the sea out in the middle of his desert town, where it has no place being, and becomes fixated on it, to the woe of many people.
Notes: Like several of the stories in this collection, this started out as a dream...a nightmare, really, wherein I was personally undergoing some of the horrible changes the main character experiences. Luckily I woke up and remembered it. When I started writing it I also crafted it in part as an homage to the old horror movies I loved so much as a kid, many of them starring Lon Chaney, most of them in black and white. Even as a child I was fascinated and horrified by stories of people turning into someone--or something--else, or of finding something from another world, and the dire consequences that were sure to follow.
As is my nature I made this a little bloodier than those old classics, but only because blood is a scary thing in it's own right...whether it's your own, or you come home to an empty house that should be full of life and laughter, and find a pool of it slowly spreading across the kitchen floor...
Notes: Like several of the stories in this collection, this started out as a dream...a nightmare, really, wherein I was personally undergoing some of the horrible changes the main character experiences. Luckily I woke up and remembered it. When I started writing it I also crafted it in part as an homage to the old horror movies I loved so much as a kid, many of them starring Lon Chaney, most of them in black and white. Even as a child I was fascinated and horrified by stories of people turning into someone--or something--else, or of finding something from another world, and the dire consequences that were sure to follow.
As is my nature I made this a little bloodier than those old classics, but only because blood is a scary thing in it's own right...whether it's your own, or you come home to an empty house that should be full of life and laughter, and find a pool of it slowly spreading across the kitchen floor...
Last Shot
Synopsis: A young writer prepares to leave his addiction behind and welcome his newfound success while ruminating over his life with heroin.
Notes: This is one of the first short stories I wrote that I really, really liked. The part with Krelbo (If you've read the story, you know what I'm talking about) was borne of an acid trip and more of a description of that hallucinated conversation than it is actual fiction, right down to the wandering, blood colored eye...
Notes: This is one of the first short stories I wrote that I really, really liked. The part with Krelbo (If you've read the story, you know what I'm talking about) was borne of an acid trip and more of a description of that hallucinated conversation than it is actual fiction, right down to the wandering, blood colored eye...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)