Category: Writing

Let’s Look at Handle

The fun part about Handle is that, unless you were alive in the 1970s in the United States, the idea that this was so important will seem kind of weird. So, what am I talking about?

Why, CB radios, of course!

I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2021.

Handle This Background with Care

I was a kid/teenager in the 1970s, and I did not turn eighteen until late in 1980. In 1973, when the first of the oil shocks happened, long haul truckers started to really use CB radios as a means of warning each other of speed traps or the like.

At my age at the time, it seemed like a truly nifty idea. Of course now, it’s just quaint. But then? The idea of being able to be in touch without being tethered to a place? It was irresistible.

And so, you’ve got to figure that this is a part of why cellphones caught on so quickly, and so ubiquitously.

Plot

With no real plot to speak of, this one is much more of a slice of life than anything else. If you were around the United States during that time in history, it may feel somewhat nostalgic. Otherwise, you may be wondering what, exactly, was the point.

Characters in Handle

The characters are Sandcastle and Fast Eddie.

Memorable Quotes

“Break, break, this is Sandcastle your front door, over.”

“Four, this is Fast Eddie, your back door here. Got a Smokey in the rearview in a gumball machine, over.”

“Copy that. Bear in the air by exit twelve, over.”

“Big bear party looks like. They got a customer, a Buster Brown. Best bet is to leave the slab at exit eleven and head straight for the balcony, over.”

“Copy that. Look out for baby bears on bikes, over.”

“Bikes? Your tax dollars at work, boys and girls, over.”

And now that same conversation, but in English this time:

“Hello, this is Sandcastle, driver of the leading vehicle in a group that watches for police officers approaching from the front or for speed traps on the side of the road.”

“Understood, this is Fast Eddie, the rearmost vehicle driver in the group. Got a police officer behind me with his lights flashing.”

“Understood. There’s a police helicopter in the air by exit twelve.”

“Looks like there’s lots of police. They’ve pulled over a UPS truck. Your best bet to avoid them is to get off the highway at exit eleven and drive on the service road instead.”

“Understood. Look out for rookie officers on bikes.”

“Bikes? Your tax dollars at work, everyone.”

Rating

The story has a K rating.

Takeaways for Handle

There really isn’t a lot to take away from this one. And it is not even short enough to just trim off a bit and call it a drabble! So, ewps on that, I suppose.

But one thing I do like is that I used the name Fast Eddie, which denotes not only fast driving, but also the fictional character Fast Eddie Felson. Felson is from The Hustler and The Color of Money.

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A Review of That’s Alien Entertainment!

I love the title for That’s Alien Entertainment! But I have written similar stories, including Miss Milky Way, which is a longer and more complete tale. Another such story is A Show for the Galaxy which is short, but still more complete than this one.

I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2021. The prompt word was understanding.

Alien Entertainment: Some Background

Given the prompt word, my idea was about a number of misunderstandings. At the same time, I wanted a story about entertaining aliens for some reason or another. I had already written Miss Milky Way, but I wanted this one to be a lot more hopeful.

Since I don’t go into the stakes, it’s possible that this show is simply for the sake of entertaining aliens, versus trying to save our species and our planet.

Plot

An enormous, multilingual and multicultural film shoot is threatened by a translator not working. As the director scrambles to make up for lost time—and not lose too much more money—they have to rely on everyone’s intuition and common sense.

And both of those are in short supply.

Characters

The characters are the director (the narrator) and the sweeping multilingual, multicultural cast for an unnamed production..

Memorable Quotes

Iceland is gorgeous. There’s no wonder why everyone wanted to film here, myself included.

Even with no working translator, we are still doing pretty well. Romance is, after all, romance. Kisses, moonlight, flowers—all of that.

This shoot is the weirdest, wackiest one I have ever been on. If it were but two languages, then someone could be found to act as a go-between. Or maybe a few people. I know Spanish, you know Spanish and Dutch, your Dutch pal knows Arabic or whatever.

But instead, we have people from every single country on Earth. A romance was chosen by popular acclaim. After all, horror would not get the right point across. And science fiction might offend our alien audience.

Rating for That’s Alien Entertainment!

The story has a K rating. While the narrator refers to giving a difficult diva a rather earthy gesture, I never mention it by name or show it. But grownup readers will know exactly what I mean.

And, let’s face it, so will just about any kids reading this piece.

Takeaways

There are definitely places where I could improve this one. But my main question is, as always, is it really worth it?

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Let’s Look at Glad All Over the Galaxy

The title for Glad All Over the Galaxy comes from the old Dave Clark Five hit: Glad All Over.

I wrote this story during the third quarter of 2021. The prompt word was jollity.

Background for Glad All Over the Galaxy

Because I was writing every single day in 2021, sometimes the stories (such as they are) are kind of thin. This is definitely one of those.

The essential premise is looking a kind of alien gift horse in the mouth, as it were.

Plot

A narrator who has probably suffered from clinical depression for most if not all of their life is suddenly happy. There’s just ‘something in the air’. That’s it. There is no other explanation.

But there is a hint of menace behind the narrator’s sudden change of heart. And when they refer to lights in the sky, it becomes abundantly clear: whatever is making them giddy was put there deliberately by actors from outside the earth.

Are they bad actors? I never actually say. As a result, the reader can use their imagination.

Characters

The characters are the unnamed narrator and certain people he or she refers to, including an ex with male pronouns.

Memorable Quotes

I’ve never been happy.

I’ve been… okay.

But never giddy, never pleased, and never contented.

Until now.

It’s the wackiest thing.

And it’s all due to the stuff in the air.

I don’t know who put it there, but I don’t care about that.

Nothing matters but this feeling.

Rating

The story has a K rating.

Takeaways for Glad All Over the Galaxy

Somewhat like with the far superior Killing Us Softly, I wanted to give an invasion a weird angle, and kind of turn it on its head. What if an alien species started to, quite literally, kill us with kindness?

So, I love the premise here, and I will most likely find some other place for it. I feel it’s just too good an idea to just let it sink into obscurity.

Or I could do my best to clip off eighteen words, and query it as a drabble. I don’t know just yet.

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Let’s Look at Art Has All Sorts of Effects

The idea behind Art Has All Sorts of Effects was exceptionally random. And it probably can’t really happen in real life.

But I really love the idea that aliens are truly different from us. And from that, the idea that something utterly unexpected would get people high just devolved naturally.

I wrote this story during the second quarter of 2021. The prompt word was freaking.

Background

This story came about from an odd thought experiment. What if the act of painting (and perhaps art in general) could be a means for aliens to get high?

This strange idea led me to thinking about aliens in a human high school.

Plot for Art Has All Sorts of Effects

Bird knows it’s forbidden. Their parents are going to be furious! But they’re going ahead anyway. They are going to make art and see how it affects them.

Characters

The characters are Bird Ruzanti, Mrs. Mariel Graf, and Mr. Burke. Graf and Burke are teachers at Bird’s school. Just like in Alien Allies and The New Kid, Bird’s name is something which the translation program assigns.

Memorable Quotes from Art Has All Sorts of Effects

I started freaking when I was fourteen years old in human years. It’s really weird, and nobody knows why us Ruzanti get it. Humans sure as hell don’t.

Of course, my four parents were disappointed and upset. They contacted the school, demanding to know what the principal was going to do about it.

In particular, they wanted her to pressure the superintendent to just out and out cancel every single art class in the district.

But she told them—Look, I have no idea how this happened, but you can’t blame the school without proof of a closer and firmer connection than just some feeling or another.

So, my parents backed off.

And I would sneak out when I could. Forbidden fruit, you know?

Rating

The story has a K rating.

Takeaways

I think this is one that has a decent idea, but it suffers from somewhat poor execution. Of course, I could change this, and perhaps I should.

But I don’t show how Bird gets high or how they know they are. And I also never actually describe the Ruzanti!

So, as a result, I think I can file this one under Swing and a miss.

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Let’s Look at A Hot Time in the Alien Town

A Hot Time in the Alien Town works (I believe) because it’s just short and sweet and goes directly to the point. Would it be possible to expand it? I suppose.

Would that break it? Probably.

I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2021. The prompt word was North.

Background for A Hot Time in the Alien Town

If we ever end up with alien partners who aren’t mammals, their internal temperature regulation may not be as good as our own. How would we cope?

Plot for a Hot Time in the Alien Town

When your alien partners are reptiles, even mild spring weather is an occasion for them to break out the parkas. Teacher Maria Clark adjusts to the ridiculously high thermostats in her life by constantly wearing shorts, and consuming entertainment that had anything to do with the cold.

Can a lesson about Santa Claus and the North Pole be far behind?

Characters in A Hot Time in the Alien Town

The characters are teacher Maria Clark, an alien teacher named Green Scale, and a few students. But the only student who I name (and who has a few lines) is an alien named Claw.

Sharp-eyed readers may notice that the aliens are probably getting names from a naming convention similar to the one in Alien Allies and The New Kid. That is, the program will use a randomish word in place of words that have no equivalent on earth. The program also uses its own words to represent alien names.

But in this case, the names are fairly rational. So, maybe they don’t use the same program.

So, why don’t I know this? You would think that I would, eh?

Shrug. Characters do whatever the hell they want. I just work here, folks.

Memorable Quotes

“Now, children, since it’s December on Earth, I’d like to talk to you about a human folklore figure.”

Human and alien children sat or squatted together. The classroom was beastly hot, always, so Maria had taken to immersing herself in any entertainment that featured snow.

This had nearly immediately led her down the Christmas music and movies rabbit hole. The older stuff in particular had been comforting.

She’d watched or listened to everything dozens of times. She could recite nearly all of It’s a Wonderful Life, with a passable imitation of many of the characters. And she was just this close to writing a dissertation comparing the relative merits of Wham’s Last Christmas and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You.

But the boiling classroom was a necessity for their alien partners, who were reptiles.

Rating

The story has a K rating. It’s just a sweet little story.

Takeaways for A Hot Time in the Alien Town

Since this is more like a vignette or a scenario, versus a real story, there really isn’t a lot to say about it. In all honesty, it’s a lot more like a little bit of an idea that I could see myself cannibalizing in the future. Maybe.

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Let’s Look at Nuremberg Redux

As you may very well imagine, Nuremberg Redux brings in something all too familiar, yet gives it an alien twist.

I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2021.

Background

For this post-prison story, the prompt word was victims.

Plot

After spending time in a Ziranqui prison, the narrator starts to draw the enemy. Recognizing their talent, the Ziranqui warden starts to provide materials, perhaps to sell the narrator’s creations. But the warden herself never wants to be drawn.

When the war ends, much like at the end of the Earth’s Second World War, the Ziranqui are sought for punishment for their war crimes. The narrator offers their drawings as a means of identifying the warden and ultimately bringing her to justice.

Characters in Nuremberg Redux

The characters are the narrator, who mentions the warden, various Ziranqui guards and their families, and a future tribunal with legal counsel. Oh, and the narrator mentions their dead son.

Memorable Quotes

I’m an architect. My survival was far from guaranteed. But being a design person has its perks, for I can draw.

When we were all in prison, I drew one of the guards in the dust on the floor. I had nothing better to do. Every living human was either lost, fighting or, like me, cooling their heels in a Ziranqui prison.

The guard must have thought it amusing, for he brought over what at the time I thought was just a front-line supervisor. Instead, it was the warden for the entire building. I was given the equivalent of pencils, paper, erasers, and an easel, and pushed to draw anyone who came by.

There were female Ziranqui—wives, I suspect. Sometimes there were young ones who were, I’m quite sure, children of guards and cell block captains and the warden herself. She never let me draw her. I have no idea why.

When our liberators came, the Ziranqui fled. But there were no records. They seemed to have been utterly thorough in their concealment and destruction of any records of war crimes.

And so, I have come here, to get justice for victims like my lost son. Here’s my sketchbook—and I can draw more from memory. Do with that what you will.

Rating

The story has a T rating. When the narrator describes one of the things that happened to humans as a means of identifying them, it’s even worse than the Nazis tattooing numbers on people. If you’re squeamish, consider yourself warned.

FYI, I also use this particular bit of nastiness in Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan.

Takeaways from Nuremberg Redux

As a modernized version of the conditions and liberation of Auschwitz and Belsen and far too many other places, I think this story works relatively well.

Amidst what are clearly horrific conditions, ordinary people rise to the occasion and do whatever they can, whether it’s fighting back or bearing witness.

And perhaps the harshest part of it is that there’s a very real possibility that such horrors would be forgotten, downplayed, and gaslit. You know, just like Holocaust deniers try to do today.

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Let’s Look at Caring for Carole

This story, Caring for Carole, benefited quite a bit from me setting it aside for a good three and a half years. I started this story during the third quarter of 2021. But I did not finish it until 2025. The prompt word was village.

Background

When I first started this story, my mother-in-law had passed away fairly recently (my father-in-law was already gone some seven years by that time). My mother was still alive.

My dad was okay. In addition, my folks were still living relatively independently in Huntington Station, New York. I believe they may have still been driving, but not for terribly long distances.

But by the time I wrote this story, my mother had been deceased for two years. My father lived in essentially assisted living/memory care.

And so, Caring for Carole ended up becoming pretty personal to me. But having the huge break led to a radical change in my perspective. And I feel that change truly helps with the plot and its execution.

And yes, I am well aware that some of the bigger characters are A, B, C, and D. That much is by design.

Plot of Caring for Carole

While his father spends time in a rehab facility to recover from the effects of two strokes, and his mother slips further into dementia, Dean Ellis prices care facilities while his marriage falls apart and he sees enormous, insurmountable bills in his future.

At the same time, the nearby Lenape Square Theatre is trying to keep from going under. Dean’s mother Carole had been a dancer. Could Dean put these two issues together and help make something greater than the sum of its parts?

Characters

The characters are Carole Ellis, her son Dean, her husband Abe, Olivia Metzger, Frank Hernandez, Joey Hernandez (and his wife or girlfriend, although I don’t name her), Macy (the home health aide), Zoning Board chair Erika Baily, Tawanda Leland and her son Danny.

There are also four named partners at the law firm where Dean works as a paralegal.

Memorable Quotes from Caring for Carole

It takes a village to care for a person with dementia.

Carole had been a housewife and a dancer. She had always said, if she hadn’t met Abe, she would have become a Rockette.

Dean had no idea if any of what his mother had said was true. Was it idle braggadocio? Or was it an underlying, below the surface resentment at having been relegated to a provincial life just outside of Wilmington, Delaware, in a town called Claymont?

Or was it even a resentment of his own birth? Dean tried to think about other things, anything other than that, for his mother was locked in an ever-shrinking world.

With his father in rehab after his second stroke, Dean was on his own. Beth had checked out of every aspect of their marriage already. This was no different.

So, it was just Dean. And, maybe, a community if he could find one.

Rating

The story has a K+ rating, as there is some foul language. But the real issue, which is unfortunately nonfiction, is that elderly folks in America have so few choices.

Takeaways for Caring for Carole

I kinda like how it comes together at time end, a bit like a show. At the same time, though, it’s a bit too on the nose, and feels a little like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in those old Andy Hardy pictures, where they solve their problems by putting on a show.

Then again, that does fit in with Carole’s past. You make the call, Broadway show fans.

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Let’s Look at Babel 2.0

If the earth is ever horribly threatened, there could very well come a time when a small, disparate group of survivors would have to huddle together. If they don’t all speak the same language, then it’s practically inevitable that what’s left (and who’s left) will end up with a mish-mash of languages. Hence, Babel 2.0.

I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2021. The original prompt word was xenophobia.

Background

The Xolana from The Real Hub of the Universe are a pretty great villain alien species, if I do say so myself. But I didn’t use them enough in that trilogy. And so, I got the idea to bring them to the present day and have them attack, of all places, Revere Beach.

Babel 2.0 Plot

It starts off as a typical day at Revere Beach, about thirty miles northeast of Boston. But when Joanie and Lenny witness an alien species pull a small child into the water and drown her, it’s the start of an attack on the entire planet.

And when people start to realize that aliens are redistributing the Earth’s water, one thing is for certain. The aliens are playing for keeps, and they want our planet. We’re just in the way.

The only solution is to flee and get out of the water—which means mountaintops. Since Joanie can fix helicopters, she ends up in the Himalayas, where a stew of languages starts to turn into Babel 2.0.

Characters

The characters are Joanie Menotti and her brother Lenny, with Joanie being the main character. She refers to other survivors, like a guy named Dawa from Tibet. But they don’t get any screen time.

It’s Joanie’s perspective all the way, and the way she’s speaking, it seems as if she’s explaining for the historical record.

Memorable Quotes from Babel 2.0

When I first saw one, it was at Revere Beach. Lenny and I were sunbathing and drinking beers. Typical summer weekend. Then one of them rose up out of the water and it grabbed a kid—pail and shovel and all. Of course, her mother started screaming.

Lifeguards ran over, but it wasn’t exactly something they had trained for. The thing got two of the lifeguards before the others fled.

They were yelling at everyone to get back. That was when Lenny and I and everyone else snapped out of it. We all ran to the parking lot or the T. I thank God we took the MBTA that day, for we could fairly easily get outta Dodge. The next day, amidst the stories about the monster, the kid, and the two would-be heroes, there were reports of numerous crackups. It’s not like anyone was thinking of normal parking lot courtesy when all they wanted to do was drive away from that hellscape.

Then things got weirder. We started to see even more global warming reports than usual. Lowlands were getting flooded, that sort of thing. Indonesia sank, and so did big chunks of India and the Philippines.

Here, the mayor and the governor paid out the nose for every seawall to be shored up. Construction kicked into overdrive in Worcester and Springfield. If you could carry a shovel, you were brought on board, no questions asked.

Rating for Babel 2.0

The story has a K+ rating. While Joanie does describe some pretty horrible things, you don’t really see them on screen. Much.

Takeaways

I like to think (and hope!) that we can all set aside our differences if such a calamity were ever to befall our world.

With people and countries on a more or less equal footing, the only real way to communicate could very well be to toss everything into a linguistic blender and hit frappé.

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A Review of Jared’s World Turned Upside Down

Let’s take a look at Jared’s World Turned Upside Down.

I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2021. The original prompt word was wheel.

Background

Probably one of the most difficult and fraught decisions that the parent of a profoundly disabled child has to make, is what to do after they’ve passed away.

Who takes care of the child, who by this time is probably an adult, and may even be a senior citizen? And, what does the parent do if they have no one to take up the mantle, or if their choice of successor caregiver has already shuffled off the mortal coil?

Plot for Jared’s World Turned Upside Down

Jared Bailey is developmentally disabled and nonverbal. His mother has been his caregiver and sole companion for decades.

But she’s all out of money. Rosemary knows that the state will separate them once the bills really start to pile up and the town goes after her for the back taxes.

Her only solution is to drive them on twisty, wet roads; unbuckle their seat belts; and crash the car. It’s all in the hope that they will both die quickly and relatively painlessly. But her plans only work on one of them—herself.

When he comes to, Jared has been thrown clear. The car is upside down. Rosemary isn’t moving. There are sirens, and they are getting closer. But Jared doesn’t even know what a siren is, let alone what the people behind it may be able to do for him.

All alone for the first time in his life, Jared can’t even tell the cops or the emergency medical technicians what’s happened. He can’t even say who the dead woman is, and what she is to him.

Characters

The characters are Jared, his mother Rosemary, the clerk at the library, the teenager at the library, EMTs Chet and Emma, and Dr. Darren Parker.

Memorable Quotes

One February day, she drove to the library to return a stack of books. But this time, things were different.

“Mrs. Bailey,” said the clerk, “aren’t you going to borrow some more books?”

“Oh, I don’t think so. Time for a clean slate.”

“Well, I imagine you’ve read our entire adult section, or just about, ma’am.” The clerk paused. “Looks like this one is a little overdue. Shall I put it on your debit card on file?”

“Yes, please.”

“Twenty-six cents. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but pennies keep the library going.” The clerk frowned. “Looks like your card was denied. Do you have another one we could try? Far as I can tell, the one on file hasn’t expired. I’m thinking it’s just, well, empty.”

“I don’t have another card. Let me see what I have on me. Jared, don’t touch that, dear.” Rosemary dumped about half of the contents of her purse out, hunting for change. There was lint, and there were tissues and an ancient lipstick. But not enough in coins. “I’m afraid all I’ve got is eleven cents.”

The entire transaction had taken long enough that there was a teenaged boy behind them, waiting. “Hang on, I’ve got a quarter,” he said, producing it.

“There. All paid up,” said the clerk, handing a nickel and five pennies back to Rosemary.

“Young man, here’s ten cents toward what I owe you.”

“Nah, it’s okay, ma’am.”

Rating for Jared’s World Turned Upside Down

The story has a K+ rating. Rosemary’s plans are brutal, but she doesn’t completely get what she wants.

Takeaways

I’m not so sure I like the ending for this one. Jared is all alone, and there’s no real closure. But then again, anyone in his position would live a rather precarious life. Maybe not giving him closure is more realistic. I am open to criticism and suggestions, as always.

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Let’s Look at Guilty of Imperfection

I started to write Guilty of Imperfection during the third quarter of 2021. But I did not finish it until the first quarter of 2025.

Background

With the word guard as the original prompt, it had to be a prison story. But rather than writing about an escape, I decided I would rather write about a set of prisoners who would have to endure a number of indignities.

Originally, the section called Standards was its own very short story. But then I decided to subsume it into this, the longer tale. I also swapped some names, so the main character became Jennifer Wesley rather than Rose Emerson.

Plot

The successor to the USO still sends out entertainers, even hundreds of years later. But during the Ziranqui war, chorine Jennifer Wesley is captured.

Over the course of at least a year and a half, she works to gather intelligence, keep the guards off balance, and maintain her dignity, even in the face of torture.

And when more prisoners are added to the mix, her job becomes clearer: the Ziranqui want them to breed slaves.

Characters

The human characters are Jennifer Wesley, Levi Crowley, Rose Emerson, Dana, Lena, Andrew Logan, Rick, Anjali Singh, Charlie Logan, Jaya Crowley, and Ines Rodrigues.

There are also Ziranqui characters, but I don’t really name them. They’re essentially just a couple of guards and the monarch.

Memorable Quotes from Guilty of Imperfection

The same guard came closer to her cell and threw something made of cloth at her. At least it was soft.

“What the hell?” she sputtered.

“Just put it on.”

“Why?”

“I don’t recall you getting inquiry privileges.”

Okay, here’s some nice, juicy bait for you. “Then you obviously don’t know. Heh, sorry about the higher ups not trusting you.” She shrugged.

“They trust me just fine.”

“But you don’t know.” Jennifer tossed her hair and gripped the cloth. It was the color of the insides of an avocado.

“I know plenty.” The guard’s voice took on an edge of frustration.

That’s it. There’s the spot. Oh, I didn’t torture my little brother for nothing. Sibling rivalry for the win, ‘cause some skills just never leave you. “Oh, really? Like what?”

“Just put the garment on and stop asking questions.”

“Can I get a little privacy here?”

“No.”

“Oh, does my naked body turn you on, or something?”

“Hardly. The bodies of vermin hold no appeal.”

I bet this is something else I could leverage. “You sure about that?”

The guard rushed out of there.

Worked like a charm.

Jennifer put on what was almost like a Greek-style gown, although it was ridiculously short. Short enough for everyone to see the last time I waxed.

Rating for Guilty of Imperfection

The story has a K+ rating. The Ziranqui are far from nice, but at least most of the really bad stuff doesn’t happen on screen.

Takeaways

I think this one gives some more depth and menace to what is becoming my go-to villain alien species. And as for Jennifer, she gets more to her than would appear on the surface.

Who knew a future chorus girl could withstand torture?

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