Reasons to Read Short Stories

Last month, I posted over at the IWSG anthologies' blog. I have five reasons why you should read short stories, so visit me over there.

A Little Creative Fun

Sometimes I feel less inspired than I would like.  For the last few days, I've had plenty of ideas that I'd love to put on paper, but nothing seems to be coming out right.  Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself.  Isn't that a common problem with writers?  We stress out about the words to the point where they flow like treacle.  It isn't always easy to snap ourselves out of it, either.

When I sat down to write this post, I wasn't feeling any more confident.  I wanted to say something profound about life and writing and the stories that we use to examine our shared humanity.  That sounds like a lot of pressure, so it shouldn't be surprising that doing this to myself did not help my creative output in the slightest.

Then I gave myself permission to have a little bit of fun with this.  Why not?  We all need a little fun and laughter from time to time, and when you're a writer, getting playful with words can also help unblock the pathways responsible for creative output.  Sounds like a win-win scenario, right?

That's why I wrote a little Mad Lib style story to share with you.  It was so much fun to write something silly, and all of you can have a good time filling in the blanks to create something uniquely amusing.  I've always enjoyed writing stories like this, and I'll highly recommend it to anyone who's feeling the creative strain.

Before going on to the story, write a list of these 12 things.  Feel free to be as zany with your responses as you want!

Texture

Beverage

Symptom of illness

Annoying song title

City

Country

Verb

Noun

Emotion

Job title

Color

Shape

Do you have your list ready?  Okay.  Going in order, insert each response into the blanks to create your very own story.  Have fun!

Launch Day

The day of the launch was not going _______.  In fact, an accurate description of events would include a few crude words.  One of the astronauts had too much ______ and was experiencing the fallout from that.  Dealing with ______ on launch day wasn’t exactly ideal.

Then there was the issue with the lead engineer Stan.  Some wires got mixed up, and now the spacecraft’s navigation system played _______ on repeat.  Without a proper navigation system in place, the ship could easily end up in _______ rather than in orbit.

No one had been able to reach Stan, either.  His answering machine said that he’d gone to _______ to _______.  It wouldn’t have been a problem if they had more time.  Delaying a mission was commonplace enough.  Except they had to launch today to save Earth from destruction via _______.

Sarah was determined, however, not to feel ______ about it.  She had a job to do.  She hadn’t been appointed ______ for nothing!  It was only a few wires, right?  How complicated could that be?

She looked up at the enormous _______ ________ of a spacecraft and steeled her nerves.  She had a job to do.  Today she could end up being a hero.  Or she could doom humanity to extinction.  No pressure.

*     *     *

How did your version of the story turn out?  How do you think it ends for our hero, and for humanity as whole?

O = Other Worlds

Do you love alternate realities or other worlds?

As a young reader, I couldn't get enough of them, although they looked something like this:

And now they look more like this:

Source

In The Mirror People (my contribution to the Parallels anthology), my other world looks like this:

The concept started out as an idea: What if it was someone's job to mimic their reflection? I sat down to write and these words glared back from the computer screen:

Every day I stare into the eyes of a cold-blooded murderer.

Well THAT wasn't a direction I'd considered going. Regardless, I had to see who this narrator was and what was going to happen to him. Jak appeared on the page and I have to say, he's one of the best characters I've ever had the privilege of transcribing. (I say transcribing because our journey together didn't feel like writing. He told me his story, no reservations.) What if two dimensions were actually dependent on one another, but only one side was aware of the relationship?

Yeah, bend your brain around that one, eh?

Do you have a favorite dual reality story?

(Remember, comment and be entered to win one of 10 copies of Parallels.)

M=Memories

The idea of memories making us who we are has been featured a lot in science fiction.  The film Dark City features characters who have new memories implanted night after night, and their alien overlords watch them to see how they behave.  Memories are occasionally blocked by trauma or by mysterious agents that want to keep crucial information contained.

Memories are powerful.  We learn from past experiences.  We’re informed by them in the decisions we make.  When memories are altered or blocked, what kind of impact does it have on who we are?  Can you ever truly control someone by controlling their memories?

My short story “Felix Was Here” deals a lot with memories. Resurfacing memories are the catalyst for all that happens.  And, as it turns out, she’s not the only person who’s struggled with this.

The following excerpt from the story finds Betty speaking to someone who understands her plight.

*     *     *

Image courtesy of endiku at morguefile.com.

“What happened that night?” Betty persisted.

Simon sighed. “It was bad. The man didn’t just have an episode. He broke down entirely. No matter how much Verity and I tried to talk him down, it seemed as though he didn’t hear us. He kept talking over us both. He went on and on about his brother Tommy, even though there’s no evidence he ever had a brother at all. He kept saying ‘They sent him to war! They sent him to die in a war we’re not supposed to know about! They used tricks and drugs to make me forget. To make us all forget.’ It sounded ludicrous at the time.”

She drew in a sharp breath. “At the time?”

*     *     *

Don’t forget!

Every comment gives you a chance to win one of ten copies of Parallels: Felix Was Here!

G = Gore

G IS FOR PRESIDENT AL GORE

The alternate history affecting the story, Ever-Ton, in the IWSG Anthology Parallels: Felix Was Here, was the election of Al Gore for President in the year 2000.

The setting is the year 2050. The world has changed and the inhabitants are leaving. 

Photo Copyright

Ever-Ton

Yolanda RenÉe

Excerpt:

The line seemed to stretch on forever but moved fast. Several people in wheelchairs, children with disabilities, and worried parents talked in hushed tones as the line moved forward. A lovely woman in a wheelchair pointed to the picture of former President Al Gore on the wall behind the counter. "I wonder if he knows how many people he saved."

I smiled, and said, "I believe he does. I really do."

She nodded. "I do, too."

In the 1970s, scientists had warned of the dangers of global warming, but nothing happened until the year 2000. President Al Gore couldn't get the legislation passed that would curb the dangers caused by fossil fuel, but he found the funding for the New World Aeronautical Organization - NWAO. They began the search for a New Earth.

Terrifying storms, devastating droughts, and unimaginable diseases took the earth to the levels of an apocalypse that no one foresaw, not even President Gore. The building of survival units in the highest mountains became a top priority.

Now, in 2050, the world's atmosphere had grown toxic. The city of Ever-Ton, meaning Everlasting Mountain, sat high in the Himalayas. We were the largest and last community of survivors trying to leave earth.

***

REMEMBER

EVERY COMMENT 

PUTS YOUR NAME 

IN A HAT FOR THE

PARALLELS: FELIX WAS HERE

10 BOOK

GIVE-A-WAY!

C = Cheese

Okay, okay, what does cheese have to do with speculative fiction, you ask. Bear with me for a moment.

C is also for Crystal. (A word I'm particularly fond of.)

In Napoleon Dynamite, the crystals are a mystical element that will power a time travel device. They're a symbol of magic. (Hey, does that mean I'm a symbol of magic? Score!)

Life is full of symbolism.

What is the first thing you think of when someone says, "Cheese!"?

Source

That's pretty much it for me too. Actually, my picture is more like this:

Cheese is a symbol (like crystals). For me, it means something so much more than food or smiles. It represents the true essence of happiness. This last picture is my special needs brother, the happiest, most loving person I've ever known. And yes, he was obsessed with cheese. It's because of him I insist that:

Cheese is the best food on the planet. Cheese=happiness. Cheese makes the world go round.

Symbols are all around us in life and thus all throughout literature. They're a subtext that conveys greater meaning in everyday life. In THE MIRROR PEOPLE, the mirror is a symbol, an element meant to make us question the inner demons we face. Symbolically, are we like Jak, trapped by his twin identity, or are we the type of people who define our own worlds--like my brother?

Due to symbolism, cheese is my happy place.

What's your cheese?

(Remember, every comment is a chance to win a copy of Parallels.)

B=Betty

Though the story is named for Felix, Betty is the main character of “Felix Was Here.”  We spend the most time with her.  We see how something as simple as hearing the name Felix turns her life upside down.  She is a regular person trying to make her way through the world.  Her goals in life are simple in the beginning.  Betty wants a good life with her husband Bill.  She doesn’t want them to struggle for anything.  She wants comfort, which is something I think most people can relate to on some level.

Many characters in fiction experience a jarring shift in worldview like this.  We often find ourselves peering at the world through the eyes of someone who was once content with their world, but something happens to dramatically change that.  We first see them when they’re still in their element, and we go along on the journey with them as they discover that all is not as it seems.

I’d like to share an excerpt from “Felix Was Here” with all of you.  In this excerpt, Betty find herself in a quiet moment, and inside everything is chaotic.  That is, after all, what one would expect to feel when their entire world is shifting in mysterious ways.

*     *     *

Photo courtesy of Againstar at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Moonlight intermittently chased away the deep shadows of the bedroom as a soft breeze fluttered the curtain. Betty held the quilt firmly in place just below her chin as she tried to sink into sleep. Slumber, however, remained elusive as Bill lay beside her, the soft sounds of his breathing filling the room. After an hour or two, that sound began to crawl under her skin and fester.

Inhale.

Felix.

Exhale.

Felix.

That pattern repeated on a loop until nothing else in all the world remained. Susan’s sweet voice recited the name as if it were barely even worth mentioning. As if it meant nothing. Yet it did. It meant everything, but why?

Finally, the rhythmic nature of the breathing and the repetition of the name lured her into sleep.

*     *     *

Don’t forget!

Every comment gives you a chance to win one of ten copies of Parallels: Felix Was Here!

A = Anthology

A is for Anthology

Mid 17th century: via French or medieval Latin from Greek anthologia, from anthos 'flower' + -logia 'collection' (from legein 'gather'). In Greek, the word originally denoted a collection of the ‘flowers’ of verse, i.e. small choice poems or epigrams, by various authors.

Parallels: Felix Was Here is a collection of short stories of the genre 
speculative fiction. L. G. Keltner did a beautiful job of explaining 
speculative fiction HERE!

Today we're sharing titles, taglines, and a little about each story (if you click the links) but each day of the challenge one of the authors will share a bit more!

L. G. Keltner

FelixWas Here

Utopia isn’t meant for everyone.

**

Crystal Collier

TheMirror People

We think no one is watching, but what if they are?

Meet the Mirror People.

**

Hart Johnson

TheSeventeen

In a world of unregulated drug trials, sometimes the side-effects are viral.

**

Cherie Reich

Foldsin Life and Death

In 2001, the Curse of Tippecanoe strikes again.

**

Sandra Cox

Rainers

Save his world or save her own.

**

Yolanda Renée

Ever-Ton

Salvation awaits in the New World but only if you meet the requirements.

**

Melanie Schulz

TheHaunted

     Sometimes the best things in life are the things you never had.

**

Sylvia Ney

WIN

The connection is everything.

**

Michael Abayomi

GroundZero

     The ruins of New York City might not be as deserted as they seem.

**

Tamara Narayan

Scryingthe Plane

     A teen experiences thrills and chills in a virtual reality internet.

**

To learn more about the author click the name.

To learn more about the author's story click the title!

ALSO

ANNOUNCING

A 

GIVE-A-WAY

10 COPIES

OF

PARALLELS: FELIX WAS HERE

AT THE END OF THE

A TO Z CHALLENGE

EVERY COMMENT MEANS

ONE ENTRY!

Science Fiction Challenge

You've read our commentary on speculative fiction, and seen the blurbs for the stories in our anthology. Now it's your turn.

Below are five writing prompts to jump start your imagination. Can you create an amazing story using one or more? How about in 100 words or less? Give it a try and share in the comments section below. We'll offer our feedback on any shared before next Wednesday. Good luck - we look forward to reading your creation!

1) You discover you're the result of a DNA experiment.

2) You wake to discover you have no memory of the last five years, during which time you have been a missing person, and now you have a special ability.

3) Investigating colonization prospects in other galaxies, you discover the unexpected.

4) In Victorian England your new inventions change society.

5) Dream walking.