Archive for category Short Stories
Fortnightcap: What I Bought
Posted by DLThurston in Fortnightcaps, Short Stories on June 30, 2011
What I Bought
A Fortnightcap by DL Thurston
This weekend we went to the Northern Virginia Brew Fest, which has nothing to do with this story except that it’s where we were driving home from when we stopped at the antique store. It was a few miles off Route 7 in towards Old Town Herndon, an odd, narrow store that looked like a single town home divorced of its fellows, just a place that we found on a whim trying to find something else to do on a lazy Sunday. The inside of the store was the inside of an antique store. Old furniture topped with old tzotchkes, paintings of disappointed relatives that no one is actually related to, photos of Civil War generals. Mostly, I noted, Confederate generals. What can I say, northern Virginia is still Virginia.
It was among the photos that I saw it. I think I’ve written about the Thunderbird photo on this blog before. It’s the most famous photo that never, apparently, existed. I’ve seen it described various places as one person standing over the corpse of a massive bird, three people, four Civil War officers. People claim to have seen it in one book or another. I myself remembered seeing it in one of those old Time Life mysteries of the unknown series that I used to love reading as a kid. I remember it clearly, three men were on a small stage, they had the thunderbird at their feet, and had their rifles resting on their shoulders. That’s the photo I know I saw.
That’s how I recognized it immediately.
I called my wife over, and she couldn’t believe what we’d found. There it was, the Thunderbird photo just sitting in an antique store in Herndon, Virginia. I looked for a price, but couldn’t one. Only item in the store that didn’t have a price, and of course it’s the one I wanted. Not that there was really a wrong price to finally prove that the photo is real. So I took it up to the counter and asked what the owner wanted for it. She looked confused, didn’t recognize the photo, didn’t remember getting it, and said it should have a price already on it. She shrugged, and said ten bucks.
I tried not to look too excited putting down the twenty, getting my change, and walking out of the store. It wasn’t until I was sure that the front door closed that I ran to the car. There it was, in my hand, in my car, in my possession. It really was exciting. I put it on the back seat and headed home with plans of scanning it, potentially reselling it to someone who would recognize what it was.
When we got him, I reached to grab the bag, but it wasn’t there. Figuring it had slid off the seat, I dug around, but for the life of me I couldn’t find it. I’ve dug my car up three times now, careful as I put things aside, throw things away, but the little brown paper bag is gone. And the photo is gone with it. I’ve tried to find the antique store online, but they don’t have a website, and they’re not on Google maps. Maybe I’ll try going back there this weekend, see if they remember getting the photo. See if I left it there, though I know I didn’t.
The photo exists. I swear it exists.
And just as soon as I find it again, I’ll make sure to post it.
Fortnightcaps are biweekly experimentation into short form fiction. All Fortnightcaps are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. So if you like the story, please feel free to link people back here. And if you didn’t, maybe the one in two weeks will be better.
Scheduling
Posted by DLThurston in Capsule, Nickajack, Short Stories on June 28, 2011
Alright, that was fun yesterday, and I’ll probably do that again. Not on any real schedule, but every few weeks or so when inspiration strikes.
So then, this is a lot of week. I need a schedule.
Today: #5MinuteFiction (everyone come and play!), then getting my submission to Future Lovecraft finalized and sent out the door. Did the final editing pass yesterday, today is about finalizing format and getting the cover email assembled.
Tomorrow: #HumpDayChallenge (everyone come and play again!), Wednesday Writerly Words, then…gosh, it’s a weird hole in my week. Future Lovecraft will be out the door, my Memory Eater story will still be out for review with my fellow Cat Vacuumers, and my wife will probably be writing like crazy to get two stories out the door by week’s end. So it’ll probably be alternating between Wii Sports Resort and plot noodling on Nickajack.
Thursday: Fortnightcap (everyone come and…read!), hopefully people will indulge me as I go non-fictional this week, a story that I really want to tell but want to do it more narratively, hence doing it there. Then get critiques for Memory Eater.
Friday: State of the Writer, and then BALLGAME!
Three day weekend: Edits to Memory Eater with any eye to getting it out the door by Monday.
Then…Capsule. I know, it’s exciting.
The Barrel of a Shogun
Posted by DLThurston in Contests, Short Stories on June 20, 2011
For those of you who don’t know the story, “barrel of a shogun” was perhaps my single most infamous typos. In part because it was so persistent. It survived not just edits of the story that spawned it, but even the transition from a short story to a short teleplay. The word was meant to be shotgun, but because I am my own worst editor, and Word never thought to mark it with one of the red squiggly lines I overuse as a crutch, it just kept thriving.
I tell that story not to provide a cautionary tale about editing, or warning about reliance on spell checkers that can’t necessarily understand context, but more as a distraction to myself as I realize what phase my writing career is about to enter. It did so gradually, without me being aware of it, which is probably how it’s supposed to happen. I realized this weekend that I already have two stories out for consideration, two in progress that will go out between now and July 15, and another story that just got rejected and will likely head back out again soon.
Depending on response times for the three stories for anthologies with June 30th deadlines, I may soon have five stories simultaneously out for consideration. And all in the month when my first short story publication is supposed to drop.
Madness. Absolute madness. And yet, it’s a point where I needed to get to, that point where I get over the jitters of submitting and have a solid stable of stories ready to venture forth into the world. Most of them even have secondary or tertiary destinations if they miss their primary targets. But I will say with confidence: one of the five will hit. I’ve been told for years that as an author one shouldn’t set goals that are outside of one’s influence. Which is to say never set “publication” as a goal. But I’m feeling just that good about where I am now that I see limbs and I want to walk out on them. So that’s my limb. One story. 20% success rate. If it was a major league hitter he’d be sent down to the minors, but for a starting out writer it’s probably hoping for far too much.
But if it weren’t for optimism, I wouldn’t be sending out stories at all.
So out on the branch I go. Just watch out for me, cause if I miss and go zero for five, this branch is just high enough for a noose.
Fortnightcap: …And Taxes
Posted by DLThurston in Fortnightcaps, Short Stories on June 16, 2011
…And Taxes
A Fortnightcap by DL Thurston
The cameras were on her again.
The cameras were almost always on her anymore, and she still wasn’t sure how she felt about it. It was patronizing to be sure, but there was a certain honor in it as well. She’d become, at least she supposed, a bit of an international celebrity in the last few days. It wasn’t the way she ever wanted to be famous, but just one moment in the sun couldn’t be too bad.
Ah. A moment in the sun. That would be nice. Perhaps she would ask for that this afternoon. It was supposed to be nice out. Then again, it was always nice out now that weather was scheduled rather than forecast. And that was the part of it that made her uneasy, the part of it that made her wonder if she wasn’t getting out at just the right time. Technology had made so many of the inconveniences of life so much less inconvenient. Raw materials were now available at the flip of a switch. Weather could be controlled so that nice picturesque snowfalls happened only with two weeks advance notice. People didn’t have to work anymore to get the things they wanted, now they could devote more time to leisure.
Then they had gone after the certainties of life. Taxes were abolished two decades earlier when everything became essentially free. Was it any wonder they went after death next.
The nanobots were little miracle workers. That’s what she’d been told. By doctors, by the media, by her kids, by anyone who came in contact with them and suddenly lost any sign of cancer, of aging, of heart disease. Hell, the damn little things even kept everyone’s muscles toned according to user defined settings, allowing everyone to be as fit as they wanted with no work.
But they couldn’t fix everything. One by one they attempted to cure the other diseases, and they managed to cut many of them off at the path. But some people were just too far gone for the cures, for the nanobots. And in the end, a decision was made that they couldn’t save everyone.
She was cold. She was always cold anymore.
She’d heard she was the last one left. The last of the Uncurables. There’d been two, a lady named Margaret down in Texas had been holding on for awhile. It was a sort of rivalry, at least that’s the way they played it on the news. Sick bastards, treating her death like it was some sort of sport. Some sort of game. She knew there’d be celebrations when she went, and that’s the part she hated. That’s the part that kept her going, if just to spite them. Want to be excited that death was conquered? Well just pardon me while I keep going on living.
It would certainly be nice to go outside this afternoon. She’d have to remember to ask her orderly when he came around again.
And so, the last of the mortals settled in for her mid morning nap, satisfied that the party would be held off at least one more day.
Fortnightcaps are biweekly experimentation into short form fiction. All Fortnightcaps are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. So if you like the story, please feel free to link people back here. And if you didn’t, maybe the one in two weeks will be better.
If At First You Don’t Succeed
Posted by DLThurston in Short Stories on June 13, 2011
My wife is absolutely awesome. I say that because she put up with me yesterday as I went on an emotional roller coaster ride trying to get a short story started. Here was my rough schedule:
- 2pm: Start work on new short story.
- 3pm: Finish first draft, having written fewer than 900 words.
- 4pm: Decide that it’s utter crap and needs to be completely rewritten.
- 4:15pm: Try to figure out why every story I start recently has needed to be started over.
- 4:30pm: Decide I’m clearly the worst writer ever and give up.
- 4:45pm: Figure out what was wrong with the story and where to start over.
- 5pm: Start over.
- 5:30pm: Decide that those 200 words are also crap, just crap in a different direction. Give up on story.
- 7pm: Figure out why those 200 words were crap.
- 7:15pm: Restart story fixing that problem, though only writing first sentence to avoid ending with more frustration.
I know that I’m not the first writer in history to have that day, or that story. Where you just want to tell a story that’s running around in your head, but it just won’t tell itself right. It gets confused, jumbled, comes out all wrong. You start off with the wrong main character, the wrong voice, the wrong absolutely everything, and the only way forward is to go all the way back and begin again.
But there are two things that I’m happy about with yesterday. First: I saw and diagnosed the problem. Earlier in my writing, I might have been happy with the 900 word original, chalked it up to just being a short plot, and gone about editing it. Second: Ultimately I didn’t give up. In the end, I still might not be able to tell the exact story that I want to tell, but I didn’t just give up, tuck tail, and decide to completely scrap the concept. It was a rough day, but I saw it through to the end, and I think the third approach is going to make for a story worth actually telling.
So. Back at it tonight, and hopefully get things on the right track.
State of the Writer: June 2011
Posted by DLThurston in Home Brew, Short Stories, State of the Writer on June 1, 2011
I got an email last night from Hydra Publications, the house putting out the Steam Works anthology that’ll mark my first actual publication, asking for an Author Bio. There’s nothing I find more daunting to write, especially early in my career when I can’t easily pad it out with other publications. That also means that the anthology is still moving forward, and they are still looking for a July publication. As always, I will keep people in the loop with what I know right here.
So that was a positive note to end a rather positive month. The month also saw me get rejected from Mammoth Book of Steampunk, but turning the story right around and sending it back out the door. I got my story done and sent off for Bad-Ass Faeries 4. Both stories were sent off for June 30th deadline competitions, so there won’t be any news on them until, hopefully, sometime in July. Also with a June 30th deadline is Future Lovecraft, and I’m up to my elbows in that story. It’s not turning out to be the smoothest write, but I’m hoping to clean it up a lot, and quickly, in editing.
Had another anthology come across my desk after getting followed by its Twitter account. It’s called The Memory Eater, and I would pass along more details, but its website looks to be down this morning. Deadline is July 15th, I remember that much.
Successfully completed two Fortnightcaps, and entered #5MinuteFiction every week this month. Yay for keeping my brain rotating.
State of the Writer’s Beer: The first bottles of Mustache Cat went into the fridge, and the first has now come out again. It was a little more bitter than I expected, and the yeast is still in solution, yielding a slight bready flavor, but that’s also Vitamin B. Strawberry flavor is undeniable, and hopefully everything will mellow out some more with time. Sat in on a home brew panel at Balticon, and it’s great to see the overlap between brewing and writing. It’s all about creation, I guess.
Next batch is supposed to arrive at my door step today. It’s a Lemongrass Ginger Ale that I’ve taken to calling “Space Ale” as whenever I say the name out loud I’ve been saying “Ginger Space Ale” to distinguish it from a non-alcoholic ginger ale (which, yes, also has a space in it, but the point gets across).
Picking up a thrown gauntlet
Posted by DLThurston in Short Stories on May 23, 2011
What is it about me and writing challenges. Nanowrimo. #5MinuteFiction. And now this:
For those who don’t want to hand-copy bit.ly links, the link heads over here. The idea of the challenge is to follow in the literary footsteps of Ray Bradbury, who would write and submit one short story a week. If you’re looking for someone to emulate, Ray Bradbury is certainly a hell of a person to choose, if for no other reasons than offers like this Hugo nominated one. But also because he’s one of the most prolific writers in the history of the genre.
Now, in part he’s been so published because he’s damn good, but also because he pushed and tried to get published, and because he just made himself write.
There’s a clear problem with the challenge, and that’s the problem that I’ve clearly failed on it before. In 2009 I attempted a project based on Jonathan Coulton’s Thing a Week where I endeavored to write a new short story every week. I failed. It’s part of why for 2011 I chose to write a new short story every OTHER week. Clearly, at least at this point in my output, I’m not ready for writing something new every week.
What’s that? #5MinuteFiction? Okay, yes, I’ve taken up doing that, but for some reason I don’t tend to count that. Please don’t tell Leah Petersen. Why don’t I count that? To me that’s more of a writing exercise, some mental gymnastics, which is a lot of fun but triggers different parts of my brain than writing for publication.
Fortunately there’s a secondary challenge. A monthly challenge. So: challenge accepted. With the following rules imposed on myself:
- 5MinuteFiction does not count.
- Fortnightcaps do not count.
Basically, write one story intended for publication rather than a story intended for free distribution each month. And submit one story (or, ideally, two) each month.
Going to be tough starting mid-month as I am, but I’m not going to let that be an excuse. And if I can get to a point where I feel more prolific, maybe I’ll up the challenge to 2 of each a month, or even take on the weekly challenge again in 2012.
Damn you, Day.
Fortnightcap: An Announcement
Posted by DLThurston in Fortnightcaps, Short Stories on May 3, 2011
An Announcement
A Fortnightcap by DL Thurston
Scientists Announce Final Invention
At a press conference this afternoon, a team of scientists, engineers, and inventors announced they had invented the last item that will ever be invented. For centuries thought an impossibility, the moment has been anticipated by philosophologists for the past decade as it became very clear that there are only so many possibilities that can exist within the human imagination. The invention in question is a new musical instrument that converts thoughts into musical notes. There followed a brief demonstration by the inventor, Mary Forth, who chose to play Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto Number 3.
The announcement set off immediate reactions from people worldwide. When approached for this article, Harold Maude, a holovision technician from Hoboken, said, “Come on, there has to be something someone hasn’t invented. Like, I don’t know, some kind of combination hat rack and computer server.” Computer and sartorial engineer Lucas Freemont, when approached, responded that such a device had in fact been invented in 2117, but proved to be a financial failure.
“Anyway,” he continued, “we aren’t looking at notions of ‘what if we combined this and that’ but at the creation of new and completely novel devices. There will always be some room for improvement of existing products. There just won’t be anything completely new ever again. Which is something we’re all going to have to deal with.” Mr. Freemont was unable to comment further as he was finalizing his application for a job grilling soy patties at McDonalds.
There are still some holdouts within the scientific community who believe that there can’t possibly ever be an end of invention. However, this final invention has been foreseen for several years during a period of complete inventive sterility from the scientific and engineering communities. It was merely a matter of which enterprising person finally realized the concept and could reap the rewards. Mrs. Forth will receive a prize of $5,000,000 from the federal government, which can now get out of the business of rewarding inventors and get back to the serious work of declaring national weeks of recognition.
And what of all the inventors? All the hard working men and women who toil and sweat in the hopes of creating something new? Many are continuing on, unaffected by the news. Whether this proves to be a futile use of time and resources, or whether they may still prove the establishment wrong is yet to be seen. Jordan Lauerbeck, for one, is undeterred. “I was so close to finishing my own thought horn, and I really hope that I can use some of those concepts to, perhaps, create a new form of dentifrice.”
To Mr. Lauerbeck and the other plucky inventors still struggling on, all we can say is good luck.
Fortnightcaps are biweekly experimentation into short form fiction. All Fortnightcaps are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. So if you like the story, please feel free to link people back here. And if you didn’t, maybe the one in two weeks will be better. Picture of Kepler’s Supernova courtesy of NASA, released to public domain.
State of the Author: May addendum
Posted by DLThurston in Short Stories on May 3, 2011
Posted yesterday on the Hydra Publications blog:
Steam Works will also be out in early July. We are going over edits for it right now but we have decided that all of the pieces are in good shape we are just going over them with a fine eye to see if there are any typos.
We have some cover samples coming in for Steam Works but we still haven’t found the right look as of yet.
Always nice to get the occasional update that it’s still in progress. Can’t wait to see the cover, I’ll post when I see it. Fortnightcap coming at you in another 1-3 hours.
Fortnightcap: They Came
Posted by DLThurston in Fortnightcaps, Short Stories on April 5, 2011
They Came
A Fortnightcap by DL Thurston
They came. Their ships slipped out of space, moving sideways through slits in reality no one had ever noticed. Horrid things with slender necks and small heads, ringed with writhing tentacles. They spoke in a language that broke microphones, hurt ears, caused interference to air traffic control radars. They slipped through the world not caring for such things as geometry or physics. They had evolved far beyond either and cared only for dark malevolence.
We always hoped that the aliens would be friendly, that they would teach us and bring us out of darkness into a new enlightenment. These things taught us, but only new depths of pain and madness. Mankind has become subservient to these things, this fungus that has spread to Earth and left it a place of rot and decay. There is no release. They made us immortal out of some hideous spite. There is no worse fate, as it destroys all others, leaving us with only unending horror.
Our nations crumbled into anarchy as even our best and brightest proved no match for the forces that held us down. Resistance was fomented but would fall apart just as quickly. The last time I can even remember a harsh word being spoken against our new overlords was a century ago. Resistance requires spirit, and our spirit as a race has been so far broken, few can even remember the concept.
They came not from trillions of miles away, but from our own solar system. From a planet that we never knew existed, never even know could exist. While our attentions were upon Pluto, there was far beyond a frozen rock that birthed creatures hardened to such extremes that we could not handle what they had become. For while we could deny Pluto, we could not deny Yuggoth.
Fortnightcaps are biweekly experimentation into short form fiction. All Fortnightcaps are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. So if you like the story, please feel free to link people back here. And if you didn’t, maybe the one in two weeks will be better.
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