Micro Story #4

This one is a bit more compicated. I didn't actually finish it until I posted it here, so, hope it doesn't suck too badly!

"And then what happened?" asked the little boy to his father, who was unprepared for this remark.

"Well, and then they had children, who grew up and had children and so on." The boy's eyes went wide in wonder.

"Forever and ever?" he asked.

The Father considered this. "Yes," he said finally. "I suppose they did."

The boy's face grew puzzled. "But what happened after that?"

The Father felt very put upon by this point. But it was then that he realized that the boy had no notion of Eternity. The word meant nothing to a child whose whole life is lived so quickly. Eiternity only matters once you see what the end of the line looks like. "Son," said the Father, "Forever is a really, really long time. It's the longest time you can possibly think of."

The boy thought for a moment. "So it's like waiting for the Dentist to finish cleaning my teeth?"

The Father chuckled, but agreed.

Emboldened by this the boy continued. "Or like when we're sitting in Church and the preist is saying the closing prayer and he won't say 'Amen'?"

The Father laughed loudly at this and nodded agreement.

Feeling daring, the boy pressed on. "Or like when you and Mommy are in your room and-"

"Son!" said the Father, cutting the child off at the pass. "There are somethings that are meant to take a long time. And some things that you should not repeat. Ever. To anyone. Especially people. Or me. Or Mommy. Ever." The father's blush began to subside slowly.

The boy looked thoughtful again. "You mean, forever?"

THE END

So what'd you think? Too much? Not enough? I don't know. And what I was trying to go for was that the child heard the parents arguing about something rather embarrassing but since children have no concept of embarrassment, the boy brings it up as a frame of reference. I leave the topic of that argument to you.

Oooh! Post creative ideas in the Comments Section! I like that plan!

-S.

Micro Story #3

So I'm not sure how frequently I'll be writing these things. Last week at work was ridiculous and after work was pretty busy as well. Between all that, I couldn't write as much as I would have liekd to and the couple of things I did manage to crank out weren't exactly what I was looking for. But oh well. Here's something from the past week. Enjoy!

As I went alking of an afternoon, I saw a woman with a curious hat. it was perched on head at a precisely fashionable angle and was riveted in place by no less than three silver pins. It was black silk, with a white dove stitched to the side of it. Around the brim a small garland of bright red roses seemed to be growing out of it even as I watched her read a book.

"Excuse me," I said as I passed her. "But that hat is quite remarkable."

She looked up from her book, stared me in the eye and said something unprepossessing in Portuguese. It was then that I realized that she was reading an English to Portuguese dictionary and that I had probably made myself look a great fool. In a flash of inspiration, I bowed to her and said the only Portuguese I knew.

And that is how I met your Mother.

It's not exactly what I set out to do, but at least I had fun describing the hat. Can you imagine what the outfit she must have been wearing looked like? What would be accentuated by a black silk hat with a white dove and red roses on it, fixed in place by silver pins? Is she from the late 19th century? It almost feels like that.

Oh well. Live and Learn, I suppose.

-S.

Micro Story #2

This one is a bit more like a story and a bit less like a prologue...Enjoy!

Once there was a land in which the Sun never set. This was a tragedy for the people of this land slept by day and feasted by night.

One day, a clever young man woke up and closed his eyes against the burning Sun. The young man woke his friends, who exclaimed the wonder of his discovery. However, the young man's Mother - who was not born yesterday, rolled over in her sleep and said to him, "Get back to bed, Son. For the Light will surely blind you in its terribly bright and blinding glory."

But the youth stood firm, for he knew his plan would work this time. "Momma," he said, "the light won't blind you if you close you're eyes to it and pretend it does not exist."

And so the people of the land of the Unsetting Sun became blind, for they shut their eyes and saw not that the sun had set and the feast could begin.

It's deep. Like Sicilian style pizza. I hadn't even intended it to be deep. I was hoping for dryly amusing.

-S.

Micro Story #1

Twice upon a time the Sun rose in the West.

Each time, it royally f&$^ed with the weather. All manner of human failings were blamed on the bizarre astronomical occurance. Key scientific instruments failed. Oceans rose when they ought have fallen. The Moon rotated ninety degrees to the right in the sky. Mountains fell, light poles snapped, brassieres twanged and cats & dogs leapt into the sky so far that when they came back down again they fell as hailstones to the earth.

Oh, and most of humanity was destroyed. Both times.

The End!

It's not very good, but cut me a little slack I wrote this on the back of a receipt at work in the space of about twenty minutes.

Story #1: Completed. Enjoy at your own risk!

-S.

Attention! Important News Update! !!!!!

Becuase everyone needs excessive exclamations marks. "Why," do you ask? Well, mostly because the more exclamation marks there are, the more important the news update is. EVERYONE knows THAT! ^_^

Anyways, it's actually not that terribly important, but I totally psyched you out there for sec, didn't I? Ha! Called it!

Back to the issue at hand. Or foot. No, hand. Well, hands really. I won't be doing NaNoWriMo this year. I know, I'm bummed out too. Last year's novel was a success -- meaning I just finished it on time -- but this year, without a computer to write on, there won't be time to write a full fledged novel.

Instead, I think that I will write a few micro stories to work on my arc technique for plot lines. They will be short, sweet and to the point and I already have two written. First one will be up shortly after this post right here, so pay attention to this space for further developments.

Perhaps they will be catalogued for later use by some strange story historian in the future when the intrwebz dies...

-S.

Why, oh why, oh why-o....

...Why did I never seriously consider Ohio?

Granted my weekend visit with the parentals and the brother is almost over and I'm heading back to NJ, but I won't lie here: I always speak the truth, even if I won't tell you what the truth is, I just won't say it. I'm seriously thinking about Ohio. Granted, it would suck at first. I'd move in with my parents into their basement and I'd live off of their kindness until I found a job and an apartment. But on the other hand, OSU is RIGHT THERE. See? I'm pointing to it. Right now. It's like, right over there! And that means the potential for night classes in some undetermined field of study for me to broaden my as yet fairly limited horizons. They have a graduate program for Theatre, which I could get into if I worked at it, hypothetically.

Cost of living is cheaper here than NJ - barring gas prices, I guess. There's a Single's ward I could hypothetically attend and enjoy. There's a city right over THERE for me to meander and explore. I could, conceivably, move here and figure my life out as well as myself and start actually living for real this time.

But what about my dream? (Whispers the nagging voice, reminiscent of a little boy who just got told that Santa isn't real) What about the stage and the Great White Way and the music and the laughter of the crowds who want me to brighten their day through text and verse? What about the kid who wanted to grow up to be Harrison Ford one day?

Hey, don't laugh: I didn't figure that out until I was a freshman in college!

Now you see where I am? See what I have to deal with? This sucks ass! Why can't I just have a simple decision to make?

The nagging voice returns: That's called growing up, Steve; get used to it. (This time it sounds like Nathan Lane as Max Biallystock...)

Grrr...I hate having to wait to make important decisions! It always makes me doubt myself!!

-S.