Meta
categories
Copyright
© Dr. F. A. Reed and Through Older Eyes, 2009-2011: Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
Category Archives: short stories
The Uncle Will Stories
On my other blog, Older Eyes, I’ve participated in a meme for over a year now. In a meme, a number of bloggers post on a particular subject, then visit each other’s blogs to compare notes. On October 26, 2010, the theme was Haunted Tuesday and we all posted our favorite spooky stories. Mine, Uncle Will, was a story about seeing a ghost the night my Uncle Will died, a story that was true except for one sinister detail. The story was a big hit and one blogger asked me to post another spooky story on Halloween. The result was the completely fictional story, Good Will Haunting. Both stories are posted below.
You can read Uncle Will, here.
You can read Good Will Haunting, here. Continue reading →
Yellow Stickies
Some years ago, I was at my sister’s house and went to use the bathroom. There was a Yellow Stickie … my nickname for a Post-It Note … on her medicine cabinet mirror, and although I don’t remember exactly what it said, it was something like I am Under the Care of the Goddess. As the evening progressed, I noticed that similar stickies were posted throughout the house, each carrying an affirmation. In case you’ve never been in the local bookstore self-help aisle, worked with a therapist or listened to Dr. Phil, an affirmation is a positive statement you say or read to yourself to improve your self-image … often something you are trying to believe apart yourself. For example, a woman without much self-confidence at work might use I am a strong and assertive woman. Affirmations are actually a useful tool in self-improvement but it’s my observation that men are much more sheepish about them than women are. I tried to imagine a fairly macho husband encountering these messages around the house, especially right before his even more macho younger brother was coming to visit. And thus was born Yellow Stickies, which I believe is the best short story I’ve written, a lighthearted elaboration on the theme. You can read it here. Continue reading →
Father and Son
In looking through my notebooks of stories and writing exercises, I recalled a period of time when I was doing a writing exercise nearly every day out of The 3 A.M. Epiphany – Uncommon Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction, by Brian Kitely. The book provides 200 short writing exercises that respond to how writers censor themselves, how we react to familiar patterns of behavior and how we fall into ruts. The exercises are interesting, imaginative, and very importantly, fun.
Exercise 92, Father and Son, asks the writer to develop a very short story about a father and son, placing them in an unusual activity together, one which draws on the vast experience of the father and the relative inexperience of the son. My very short story centered on a father and son about to attend the funeral of the son’s girlfriend. My story is either very moving or very contrived. Maybe both.
To read Father and Son, click here. Continue reading →
Posted in short stories
|
Tagged books on writing, fiction, short short stories, writing
|
Leave a comment
Cameos
In 1998, Story magazine held a contest that stipulated that entries must include a cameo appearance by a movie star, and Cameos was intended to be my entry. I was working on a certificate in creative writing at the time, and my instructor, Patricia McFall, had agreed to edit two pages per week of anything we chose. The class also provided a weekly critique group, so I had lots of help revising Cameos into its final form. Unfortunately, I misread the final submission date and Cameos was sitting on my desk when it passed.
At the time, I was a subscriber to the now defunct Byline Magazine, which was aimed primarily at beginning writers. The magazine held monthly contests with small cash prizes in various categories, including fiction and non-fiction. On the day I realized I missed the deadline for Story magazine, I noticed that Byline was having its annual short story contest, so I bundled up Cameos and sent it off. I didn’t win the contest, but I did receive a call from Marcia Preston, Byline’s editor, offering a small fee to publish Cameos. Naturally, I agreed.
The month after Cameos was published, Marcia called again to tell me that she’d received a number of letters who were so taken with the relationship between the neurosurgeon, Carole, and her mother, that they were convinced the author was a woman. You see, my given name is Francis and many people don’t notice the “i”. There are many areas of life where being mistaken for a woman might be embarrassing but as a writer, fooling Byline’s female readers was quite a compliment.
To read Cameos, click here. Continue reading →
