Tag: Short Stories

Review – Gentrification

Gentrification is about an extremely controversial topic—abortion. When I wrote it, Roe v Wade was still fairly secure. I didn’t intend to write a prophecy.

Background

The story idea originally came to me because house flippers are a pretty large segment of the customers for the company where I work. And then the peeling away of the layers of ownership turned into something far different. But I did not intend to write about much. But it just … happened.

Plot

While peeling wallpaper from an old house’s walls, the narrator comes across a mural, painted in pastels. So, it’s clearly for a child.

She traces down the ownership of the house, finally finding one woman who was probably around when the mural was painted.

Yet Hazel Prentice Morse wasn’t just around. She was in the thick of it.

Characters in Gentrification

The characters are the unnamed narrative, a woman who is a retired lawyer. Also, Hazel Morse, the storyteller, who was twelve at the time of the events. In addition, Hazel’s Aunt Martha and Martha’s boyfriend, Chet. Also, Hazel’s parents and her grandparents.

Memorable Quotes

That woman, Hazel Prentice Morse, agreed to meet with me. We met at a café in her much nicer neighborhood, where she was reserved and somewhat skeptical, even after seeing numerous pictures. Then I drove her to the brownstone. The four flights we had to walk up weren’t too kind to our old knees.

When we were in the room and she saw the mural in the flesh as it were, she started to cry. I didn’t really have much of a place to sit during renovations, so I went downstairs to give her some privacy and find the one folding chair I always bring so I can have a place to eat my lunch.

I brought the chair up. She sat down as I leaned against the windowsill. “What is it?” I asked. “What do you remember, Mrs. Morse? Do you know who the artist was?” When I was still practicing law, I took a ton of depositions. I know how to gently get information out of frightened witnesses. You never forget how to do that.

“Yes, I know who it was.” She stared off into the distance.

“You don’t have to tell me anything.” She was no witness. I didn’t have to indulge my morbid curiosity.

“I do, actually. Woman to woman. It’s funny. But I’m the only person alive who remembers. I imagine the statute has run by now.”

“Statute?”

“The Statute of Limitations—you know—how long you can be charged with a crime.”

Rating

The story has a PG-13 rating. There are some rather upsetting parts of it, and I depict deaths but not in detail.

However, I tell about the deaths via the conceit of having a character relate them decades later. So, the reader is even further removed from them.

But they’re still not the kind of thing most people like to talk about, or ever think about.

Gentrification: the Upshot

I have workshopped this story more than once and I have submitted it for publication. So for a publisher with the cojones to take it on, I think it’s a story to tell. Particularly these days.

But I have been getting the feeling that publishers are just too afraid to rock the boat right now.

Gentrification, a story that we need to tell. #amwriting

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Review – Darkness into Light

One of the best parts of Darkness into Light is that it’s just a catch phrase. Hence, just like ‘good morning’ or ‘hello’, the characters say ‘darkness into light’ all the time. They repeat it continuously within the story.

So, I wanted ‘darkness into light’ to be almost like ‘Hello, Comrade’. I needed for it to take on a sinister tone.

And boy, did it ever.

Background for Darkness into Light

With a 1984/Brave New World vibe, the catchphrase turned evil very, very quickly.

The idea behind it was that in a future which might not be so far-fetched, the price of equality is a ton of sameness. And that sameness means going along with the majority in every possible way. Nothing matters but full unanimity.

So for this society, there can be no deviations, no exceptions, and no delays.

Because you’ve got to be equal. And not necessarily voluntarily.

Or else.

I wrote this story during February of 2017.

Plot

Minor government functionary Susan has but one job – to make sure that all of the babies born in the Smith Hospital are the exact same color.

But then she finds a pair of faces which don’t fit the approved color scheme. And that’s got to change, fast.

Or else.

Characters

The characters are Susan, a minor government functionary.

So there is also the young couple she needs to convert from the dark into the light. Whether they want that to happen, or not.

Because in this world, you are not truly equal unless you’re identical to everyone else.

Memorable Quotes

There were dozens of people in Smith County in Smith State who were all expecting children, and the projection on the wall told the tale. She glanced at the faces briefly. Nearly all of them were already the correct, uniform shade and shape, dimensions perfectly aligned and proportioned as per the law.

Rating

The story has a K rating. Well, kinda, sorta.

But it should still be quite disturbing. So, I do caution readers.

Takeaways – Darkness Into Light, Indeed

I really love how quickly and easily I was able to turn Susan into something utterly sinister. Beneath a cheerful, allegedly helpful and caring façade, there is a nasty drive to make every single person conform perfectly. Whether they like it or not.

I am so glad that this story found an audience. You can find it on the Corner Bar Magazine website. And this site also published Killing Us Softly.

Darkness into Light. If I’ve done my job right, this phrase should make you shudder. #amediting

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Short Stories

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

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Your Call is Very Important to Us – a Look at a Short Story

Your Call is Very Important to Us comes from a general concept of ‘the world turned upside-down’. I wrote this short story for the third volume of The Longest Night Watch. All of the proceeds will go to the Alzheimer’s Association. But I’m afraid that is, if we ever publish it.

Which isn’t looking so good these days. Damn.

I never name the narrator in ‘Your Call’. The reader just gets her husband’s name, Milo.

Background

The world has gone to hell in a handbasket, and we’ve dropped the bomb. And so has our unnamed other side. There’s devastation. No one and nothing will survive.

Enter our characters.

As the narrator says, her husband was a doomsday prepper. And while everyone thought he was nuts, they were okay even as the world came to an end.

So who’s sorry now?

But our narrator’s got one big problem. She’s bored out of her mind.

Plot for Your Call…

With nothing to do but read, eat, and fool around, the narrator and her husband are at the ends of their tethers. They are older people—there aren’t going to be any children. There is no chance at all to repopulate the earth.

Pretty soon, the one break to the monotony comes in the form of something you and I both hate – automated telemarketer calls. The people and the companies may be gone. But robocalls, apparently, are forever.

Of course, a ringing telephone in the middle of nuclear devastation is a cause for concern, wonder, hope, and fear. I will admit that a part of the idea came from Ray Bradbury’s classic Martian Chronicles story, The Silent Towns.

Characters in Your Call…

The only characters, apart from people the narrator talks to on the phone who may or may not still be alive, are the narrator and her husband, Milo. Milo never speaks and neither does the narrator. All the reader gets are her rambling, wacky thoughts, presumably in writing.

Memorable Quotes

When the bombs dropped, we were already ensconced in our shelter. Milo built it. Milo’s my husband. He was one of those doomsday preppers. People used to say he was crazy. But they’re not saying it now. Why not? Because they’re probably all dead. If the radiation and heat won’t get you, the germ warfare will, Milo says.

We live just outside of Henderson, Nevada. It’s near Las Vegas, or at least it was. I’m not so sure what’s up there anymore. It’s probably not much.

Rating

This story has a K+ rating. While the one sex scene takes place off screen (as it were), the backdrop is nuclear war, and of course that’s upsetting.

Upshot

So, one very big issue is that the volume has been delayed for what I believe is coming upon a good decade.

Yes, really. The story has been in limbo for way too long at this point.

So will it ever be published? Right now, I’ve got to say, I have my doubts. Big, big doubts. And that’s unfortunate, because I really love this story. And I love the charity and the group. But I suppose we’ve got … issues.

Your call is very important to us — even after the end of the world. #amwriting

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