It is Time to Look at Quarrel

Right about now, Quarrel seems quaint, like a vestige of a time, not so long ago, when the differences between right and left in the United States were more like arguments than existential issues.

Oh, how innocent we all were then.

I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2021.

Background

The original prompt word was just the word that became the title. Of course, I needed a good Q word. And as Q words go, this prompt word is a rather good one.

And while this story is still more of a fragment than anything else, it is a far more complete fragment than works such as Verity and Quartz.

Why Quarrel with the Plot?

Almost ripped from the headlines, the plot is essentially of a MAGA true believer screaming at his Congresswoman and her aide. I took a lot of the plot from the very real news story of Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan being threatened by MAGA protesters.

Characters

The characters are Lucy, Rep Mansfield, and a nameless hunter.

Memorable Quarrel Quotes

“We elected you!” The man wore hunting clothes, including an orange vest and a red trucker’s cap that just said MAGA.

“Yes, you did. And my boss appreciates it very much.” Lucy pulled her mask more fully around her face.

“But you still ain’t gonna change nothing. And Rep Mansfield can speak for herself, I bet.”

Rep Mansfield adjusted her own mask, which perfectly matched her gray power suit. “Of course I can. Mr…?”

“Never mind that,” snapped the hunter. “First you locked us down. Then ya closed the schools. Then you made everyone wear masks like we was in I-rack or something. And now you wanna let my boss make me get a shot? And my kids gotta get one to go back to school?”

Genre and Overall Mood

The genre is contemporary fiction. The mood is tense and disturbing. Much the way real life was at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rating for Quarrel

The story has a K+ rating. While the language is exceedingly tame, the implications are that Rep Mansfield and Lucy and perhaps everyone in the building are in very real danger.

Takeaways

The real life incident with Governor Whitmer was disturbing enough. And then came January 6th, which made that almost seem pedestrian. And now, we have a lot more going on.

But if anyone thinks what Lucy does at the end is unrealistic, you have got another think coming.

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It is Time to Look at Verity

Verity means just about the same thing as honesty or truth. And I am certain that one of the reasons this story was written at all was that I needed a prompt starting with the letter V.

And that, as such, is not the greatest reason in the world for writing a story. Yet here we are, heh.

I wrote this story during the second quarter of 2021.

Background for Verity

The original prompt word was just the word that became the title. And given the brevity of this short story, I suspect it was a word I chose because it started with a difficult letter than for any other reason.

Which, just like with Quartz, tends to result in a fragment as opposed to an actual, full-blown short story.

Plot

There is very little plot in here. The narrator is really just talking about what happened recently. But who would they be speaking to, anyway? For, presumably, just about every single person on Earth would know what had been going on.

They would have all been rather personally and directly affected. Which means that I should most likely make it a lot clearer that this fragment of a story, really, is more like a recording for posterity than anything else.

Characters in Verity

The only character is the unnamed narrator.

Memorable Quotes from Verity

If the first casualty of war is always the truth, then the second is bravery.

Sure, we all talk a good game. And people may end up trying to do the right thing and show courage and all that. But they’re terrified. We’re all terrified.

The invading army seemed like a joke at first. They’re smaller than we are. And they’re invertebrates. How could what are essentially midget alien squid ever pose a threat to humans? Oh, but they could, and they did, and they still can and do.

Genre and Overall Mood in Verity

The genre is science fiction. The mood is grim.

Rating

The story has a K rating. Even with a grim and nasty scenario, everyone’s language is clean enough for a church picnic.

Takeaways for Verity

You know, for a story which was ostensibly about the truth, I am not so sure that I ever actually made it clear as to what was truthful or untruthful in this particular society.

Er, ewps?

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It is Time to Look at In the Direction of Prejudice

I think the idea behind In the Direction of Prejudice is a fairly decent one. But I am not so certain as to whether I executed it too terribly well.

I wrote this story during the second quarter of 2021.

Background

The original prompt was the word Easterling. And I am pretty sure that I have never actually said what the people of this society even look like. Because they are not necessarily human.

The idea behind this short story is that prejudice in real life can sometimes seem almost random. After all, humans may shun people who have darker skin tones than they do.

But at the same time, they may see similar people with tans and think—that is attractive. Or normal, or even beautiful.

And if you stop to think about that for more than a few seconds, you should come to realize: damn, that is nuts.

Here, the absurdity is nearly taken to the nth degree, where the direction of prejudice is essentially any way but east.

Plot for In the Direction of Prejudice

When a young girl living in a dictatorship does not spout the official party line as quickly as her teacher would prefer (and that their society requires), the girl is forced to explain why people like her are seen as being superior to others—even as she questions whether this is really the truth.

Characters

The characters are Elena, Ronald, Miss Maron, and the other students in the class. But it is just the first three who have any screen time or lines.

Memorable Quotes

“Why don’t you stand in front of the class and tell us all about Easterling Day?”

Elena was torn. Public speaking wasn’t exactly her strong suit. But everyone knew all about Easterling Day, anyway. The talk would require virtually no preparation whatsoever. She got up and stood in front of the blackboard. “Easterling Day…”

“I can’t hear you!” yelled a boy sitting in the back.

“Ronald, one more outburst out of you, and you’re going straight to the principal’s office,” said Miss Maron. “Go on, Elena.”

“Yes, well, Easterling Day is the world’s biggest and most important celebration. This isn’t even a true school day. Today’s only subject is Easterling Day, and then we get out at noon for the big parade and the pledge.”

“Right, yes. And what does Easterling Day commemorate?” asked the teacher.

“We defeated the Westerlings, the Northlings, and the Southlings.”

Genre and Overall Mood for In the Direction of Prejudice

The genre is science fiction dystopian with something of a youth fiction overlay. The mood is mixed, with a rather depressing start but a semi-hopeful ending.

Rating

The story has a K+ rating. Elena and Ronald live in a dictatorship, and that is none too pleasant, even though their language and actions are pretty tame.

Takeaways

I like the feeling and idea of this one, and it could stand to get some expansion. That might succeed in giving it a vibe similar to the far superior Darkness into Light.

For the direction of prejudice for these characters is very nearly completely, utterly random in nature.

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It is Time to Look at Zeugma

A zeugma is when you use a word in two different manners in the same sentence or paragraph. It is often intended to be funny and clever.

I wrote this story during the second quarter of 2021. I had never before heard of this term used in language. And the word and the story mainly exist because I needed a prompt word starting with the letter Z.

But unlike a lot of my other short stories from 2018 and 2021 where I had to fit in a prompt word somehow, some way, I think this one turned out fairly well.

Background

The original prompt word was just the word that became the title. And then, of course, I had to look it up.

In addition, this story has a language device which I have used before, and I love. That is, that alien names are tough for us, so the program gives us human-sounding (English or French or Hebrew, etc. as necessary) words instead. Hence, students have names like Arrow and Key.

I also used this idea in The New Kid.

A Zeugma of a Plot

There is very little plot here. The main thing that happens is that the teacher imparts wisdom to students who just so happen to not be human.

But the truth is, without the descriptions of the alien students, this lesson could have been taught in virtually any regular classroom from Boston to Brisbane.

Characters in Zeugma

The characters are Marta (the teacher), and aliens, including ones named Dahlia, Brownie, Arrow, and Key.

Memorable Quotes

“Class!” Marta called out. “Today, we’re going to learn about a rather odd part of human speech.”

The class clicked or squawked once they heard that. Alien communication organs—not always what anyone would refer to as a mouth—couldn’t always make sounds understood by humans. Translation devices were a common and necessary fact of life. But the vagaries of human syntax and expression were important. Marta’s job was to teach that.

“Teacher?” asked a mechanical voice associated with a feathered alien in the front row.

“Yes, Dahlia?” Alien names were hard for humans—as hard as human names often were for aliens. Translations and transliterations had to suffice.

“Is this part of human speech common?”

“That’s a very good question. And, in point of fact, it’s not. It’s not too far off from our unit on puns.”

“Oh, yeah,” said a mechanical voice on the right side of the room, belonging to a tall, thin insectoid alien. “Like when you said a human might refer to fourteen carats when they mean a diamond or other precious gem, but another human might take that to mean vegetables.”

“Precisely, Arrow. The zeugma is so strange that I suspect most humans don’t know what it’s called when they use it,” said Marta.

Genre and Overall Mood

The genre is science fiction/school story. The mood is educational and a bit playful. Or, to use a zeugma, it is a bunch of bits of writing and computer memory.

Rating for Zeugma

The story has a K rating.

Takeaways

I like the idea behind this one. I have covered these kinds of classrooms before, where a human teacher is trying to impart the subtleties of our society to a room full of aliens who may or may not ever get it.

I like the idea enough that I would probably do well to compile some of them and write something longer.

Hmm.

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Let’s Look at Quartz

I can immediately tell that Quartz got its name because I was hunting around for a prompt word that started with the letter Q. And the fact of the matter is that is generally not going to be the world’s most compelling reason to tell any sort of story.

Unfortunately, the piece suffers, due to this rather precise fact. But I am still going to report on it here in my blog, warts and all.

I wrote this story during the second quarter of 2021.

Background

The original prompt word was just the word that became the title.

Plot for Quartz

There’s barely a plot to this one. It’s really just an idea, and not a too terribly well executed idea, at that.

In fact, the excerpt below is something like three-quarters of the entire piece.

Characters

The sole character is just the narrator. And I never even gave them a name, anyway.

Memorable Quotes

Glass on spaceships is a terrible idea. Just think, meteors. And aluminum oxynitride is a great idea in theory, except it’s polluting as all get out. As in, threatening the lion population.

So, engineers had to come up with something or other that would be durable but also something you could see out of. Hence, they hit upon quartz. Which is lovely, but for one thing: it easily gets distorted.

Genre and Overall Mood

The genre is science fiction, with a very small amount of humor. Very small. The mood is mostly instructional beyond anything else. There is not really a lot of dramatic tension in this tiny piece.

Rating for Quartz

The story has a K rating. I had to fudge the ‘facts’ by making the alternative material horribly polluting. It was the only way to make this tiny piece work at all.

Takeaways

Could it be better? I kind of doubt that. In actuality, Quartz would normally just be a few throwaway lines in a longer piece.

Hey, they can’t all be gems. Still, I offer you what I’ve got, the good, the bad, the weird, and the grievously underdeveloped. Which is what this story most certainly is.

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If this story resonates with you, then I hope you will check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

Finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.

Let’s Look at The Hermit

While it is the title of this short story, the hermit isn’t the main character at all.

I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2018. In addition, I am quite sure that the title and the prompt are one and the same.

Background for The Hermit

As almost a side story to Aenor the Wanted, this story pulls from the other side of the same medieval village, in a way. But I apparently wrote this one earlier.

Plot of The Hermit

As the unwanted daughter of a villager in the tenth century, the unnamed narrator is blamed for every misfortune that befalls her family. Eventually, this leads to the entire village blaming her for bad crops and other disasters.

But she knows there’s a hermit living high on a nearby hill. When she can finally escape her abusive family, it’s the only place she can think of going.

Characters

The characters are the unnamed narrator, her terrible family, the miller’s family, the hermit, and a scout who is sent up the hill several years later.

Memorable Quotes

He was one of those people rarely if ever seen in the village. At least, that’s what I was told when I was a very young girl. And with the threat, that if I didn’t go to sleep when told or eat my supper, or if I otherwise misbehaved, that somehow, some way, he would come and get me.

And so, I was afraid of him in the early part of my life, as were many of the village children.

My parents didn’t want a girl. Girls are trouble; girls are expensive, they would say. And so, I was given the heel of the bread and the last of the meat. It was all saved up for their almighty son, my elder brother.

But curiously enough, after I was born, my mother could no longer have any children. Perhaps there were spirits punishing her and my father for being so cruel and neglectful. I don’t know. They blamed me for her infertility. They blamed me for everything.

Genre and Overall Mood

The genre is historical fiction. And while things start off grim for the narrator, they do turn themselves around.

Rating for The Hermit

The story has a K rating. While the reader knows the main character has a difficult life, and is suffering beatings, nothing like that is actually ‘on screen’.

Takeaways

With a much more realistic take on the Middle Ages than the far more optimistic Aenor the Wanted, this story presents a life for a girl which ends relatively happily. But there were any number of chances when it wouldn’t have.

And how many real girls of the tenth century would have lost their lives for no reason apart from being female and not dying when a brother did? We would most likely never know the details. But it was rather possible. The people of this time frame were very superstitious.

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If this story resonates with you, then I hope you will check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

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A Review of Blue Card

It’s time to look at Blue Card, another story where the government is a tyranny.

I wrote this story during the first or second quarter of 2018.

Background

Since for many people, it’s necessary to carry a kind of identity card, this idea sprang up relatively naturally and easily.

And now, given the current presidential administration, it could become a reality for even more people, heh. Not a pleasant thought, not one bit.

Plot for Blue Card

A blue identity card left in the street, a bit of litter, mars the otherwise ‘perfect’ world of a child of a couple who are members of an unnamed fascist party.

As the only deviation and ‘defect’ in her life, the girl fixates on this imperfection and obsesses over it until her curiosity gets the better of her.

Characters in Blue Card

The characters are the narrator, an unnamed girl in a distant, dystopian future, and the people of her society.

Memorable Quotes

There is a blue card in the street. It’s dirty and a bit folded. The writing is hard to decipher. The wrinkles in it make the printing hard to make out. But it’s there all right.

I stepped over it the first time I saw it, trying not to get my new shoes wet and dirty because it was right near a puddle. I was going to school for the first day of the autumn-winter term and I wanted to look my very best. That’s because we’re party members – or at least my parents are. And that means we need to set a good example. It would never do for me to look dirty.

The second time I saw it, it was a few weeks later. The puddles had frozen and it had been trapped in one of them, and that’s why it was obscured. There was a slight thaw and one corner of it was visible, peeking out of the side of the frozen puddle, as if it were a crocus.

Again, I avoided it; this time, I sidestepped it.

The winter came and went. The spring term began.

When the weather got warmer in earnest, I walked a different route so I did not see it. I walked through the town, showing off my clean coat and polished shoes, my fresh-scrubbed face and my two perfectly symmetrical braids. I knew I was being looked at. And I knew I was making a good example. Someone has to, after all.

Rating

The story has a T rating. There are a lot of not too pleasant things that go on in this one. You have been warned.

Takeaways from Blue Card

I had thought that this story was on Wattpad, but it turns out that it isn’t!

Although I believe I did make the rounds of querying it for a while there.

With a little expansion, I think this could become a rather good story. It’s a bit like The Resurrection of Ditte in a lot of ways. And, perhaps, the POV character will get a chance for atonement just like Edith does in Ditte.

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If this story resonates with you, then I hope you will check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

And finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.

Let’s Look at None of This is Real

Check out None of This is Real.

I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2018. Although it may have been earlier.

Background for None of This is Real

It is entirely possible that I was thinking about the old Star Trek: Voyager episode, Fair Haven when I wrote this piece.

But do keep in mind: I never actually saw that entire episode! I just know about it from the internet.

Plot

Everything in Laurie’s life has the ability to change as she wishes, as a part of her overall entertainment program. This even includes what’s to be seen outside the windows of the offices where she works.

When she hires a new Vice President of Marketing, sparks fly. And as the café where they have lunch changes, so do dozens if not thousands of other little details.

But what’s real? Why, nothing, of course, except for Laurie herself. It’s just like the title says.

Characters

The characters are Laurie and Jason. The story is told entirely from Laurie’s point of view. She is the CEO of an unnamed company. Jason is a new hire, the Vice President of Marketing.

Memorable Quotes

Laurie stared out the windows of her high rise office. The view of Boston was, as always, spectacular. She waved her hand over the scene in a very deliberate way – left to right, fingers splayed, at eye level, and the outdoor scene changed to Jakarta. Another wave and it was Pittsburgh. Another and the scene became Nairobi.

A cough behind her interrupted her reverie. She turned around. “Oh, Jason, you startled me.”

“Sorry,” he said. “I can see what the perks are of being the CEO. A variant window! I never thought I’d see one.” He fiddled with his tie.

“Yours is nice, too.”

“It’s just Liverpool. Which is fine. It’s good to see home and all. But it never becomes anywhere else. At least the picture moves.”

“Right. You could be stuck with one of the stationary ones in Sales.”

“Or just a regular old view of Mars, like in Clerical.”

“Why did you come here? Are you dissatisfied with your new job and your new office?”

“Oh no, not at all,” Jason said. “It’s more that I was wondering if I could ask you to lunch. Is that allowed?”

“Hell, we could call it business, and it would all be deductible,” Laurie said, smiling.

“I, well,” he played with his tie some more, threatening to wrinkle the expensive green Chinese silk creation from the best-known Italian fashion house.

“Hmm?”

“I was kind of hoping it wouldn’t have to be business.” He paused and then face palmed. “I mean all business. I’d rather it wasn’t strictly, 100% business, if that’s okay with you.”

Genre and Overall Mood

The genre is hard science fiction. And so far as the overall mood goes, it’s kind of dreamy and a bit romantic. On balance, it’s a positive story.

Rating

The story has a K rating.

Takeaways from None of This is Real

I really love the premise for this one, and I think it’s got the makings of something more. But not necessarily about Jason and Laurie, per se. I think it’s a lot more likely that the concept of variant windows would work well in a universe.

Since this story already takes place on Mars, there is virtually nothing stopping me from setting it in the Obolonk universe and calling it a day. Hell, I might even add something like this to the third trilogy.

Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?

If this story resonates with you, then I hope you will check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

And finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.