At some point in the near future, mankind will land on Pluto – but what if we aren’t the first sentient visitors?
A mysterious spacecraft is discovered partially buried on the surface of Pluto in “An Eon-old, Icy Tomb” – my most recent science fiction piece to be published. Inspiration for this particular story came from photographs taken by the New Horizons probe. Pluto offers some absolutely breathtaking landscapes, shaped by both slowly unfolding geological events and violent outburst that can occur quiet suddenly.
The real backbone of the story concerns the primary characters attempting to flee from an erupting cryovolcano – no easy task. Most of the action occurs near the Wright Mons, which is the geological feature that drives the action. The origin of the ancient spacecraft owes to an eon-old curiosity of my own.
Can Sarah Chavous give the Earth a puncher’s chance in an interplanetary war?
I recently had a science fiction piece, “Larissa is Coming“, appear in Twister Sister Lit Mag. The story concerns Sarah Chavous, an astronaut sent beyond Mars on a dangerous mission. Extraterrestrials within Neptune have decided to destroy mankind and have launched one of Neptune’s smaller moons at the Earth. As the collision would devastate our planet, Sarah has been tasked with stopping the weaponized moon.
The “Neptunians” live within a massive ocean of liquid diamond that exists within Neptune. These extraterrestrials are something of a local “exterminator”. The Neptunians systemically destroy any rival intelligent life that develops elsewhere in our solar system.
Click on the image to be taken to Twisted Sister Lit Mag and find out if Sarah is able to save human civilization or if the Neptunians will cross another item off their “to destroy” list.
Fleeing to Mexico isn’t nearly as easy as you’d think, especially when you sleep at the Rum Cherry Motel.
“Sleeping at the Rum Cherry Motel” falls somewhere between The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt. Todd McHugh is on the run from the law in my recent piece appearing in Twister Sister Lig Mag‘s “Payback’s a Bitch” issue. Todd is hoping to slip away to Mexico after murdering his wife, and he’s stopped for a few hours of sleep at the Rum Cherry Motel. Click the image below to see if Todd evades justice and melts away into the Mexican backcountry.
Check out my horror piece that was recently published by Flash Fiction Magazine.
I was fortunate enough to have a short horror piece published by Flash Fiction Magazine last week. I wrote “You First” in August.
I grew up in a somewhat isolated farmhouse, where (much to my family’s chagrin) the power and telephone frequently went out for long periods. I remember that the mildest thunderstorm often was enough to knock out our utilities. The power and telephone companies rarely had an explanation and certainly took their time restoring service to us. I had been reflecting on those childhood experiences before I started to write this story. The setting for “You First” is essentially my parents’ house, with some elements of my grandparents’ house (which was an even larger, older farmhouse that had a seriously creepy vibe on certain nights). The setting could easily be located in rural Pennsylvania or West Virginia.
“You First” takes place on the remote Hetherington farm, where two local farmhands, James and Pat, are making a routine delivery of hay bales. Their early morning work is interrupted by bizarre sounds from the farmhouse. Concerned for the safety of the elderly Lawrence and Martha Hetherington, James and Pat investigate. The pair encounter a frazzled Martha, who shares that her family has been murdered by a devious entity that she has managed to trap in the basement. James suspects that the old woman has gone mad and murdered her loved ones, but Martha invites the two men to have a look in the basement for themselves.
“You First” is just under 1,000 words. The first draft ran close to 1,500 words. Editing out a third of the content was tricky, but I am satisfied with the result.
Clicking the picture below will take you to “You First” (the picture, by the way, is the actual basement door from my parents’ house). Let me know what you think!
I’ve been alive for about 11,016 days, and for 11,006 of those days I had no idea “Twitter fiction” existed.
A good friend of mine introduced me to the idea of “flash fiction” a few weeks ago. Writing a good story with thousands of words can be a real challenge. However, writing a good story with only hundreds of words is just as strenuous. I’ve tried my hand at writing a handful of flash fiction pieces over the last few weeks and have done my best to keep each story at less than 1,000 words. The difficulty in doing so becomes readily apparent once you realize that this paragraph alone has 100 words. That’s a tenth of the entire story!
The world of flash fiction inevitably brought me to “twitterature” – #twitterfiction. Twitter fiction is surprisingly complex, although this article does a relatively good job at effectively summarizing what a newcomer to the 140-character tale should know.
Quite a few of my #twitterfiction pieces involve the railroad.
I’ve posted some Twitter fiction to my Twitter over the last week to mostly positive results. My approach has been to crunch the central event or climax of the story down into a sentence or two. The imagination of the reader goes from there to create the beginning and ending of the story. I should note that this is not the universal approach to posting fictional writing on Twitter.
Writing Twitter fiction can be tedious. I find often that I’m just a few characters over the limit. That requires me to trim a letter or two (and occasionally an entire word), which is often a conflicting process.
My Twitter is @jojascully, but you can also see my work by simply searching Twitter for #twitterfiction. I’ve tried to post at least one Twitter fiction piece per day since August 9th. Searching Twitter for #twitterfiction will also allow you to view the work of other users. I usually write my Twitter fiction pieces while I’m at the gym or watching baseball. I stockpile the pieces as drafts and publish a few to Twitter each day. Generally speaking, my Twitter fiction tweets are not connected and each one stands alone. I’ve yet to try my hand at a “twovel” – a Twitter novel.
You’ll find examples of some of my #twitterfiction below. Please let me know if there is one that you especially appreciate.
The dunes seemed to roll toward the sun. As he wearily stretched an arm across the white sand, a raindrop struck his palm. #twitterfiction
When sparks fell from the bride’s eyes, the priest suddenly understood the need for this secret, nighttime ceremony. #twitterfiction
He twisted and kicked as long talons ripped into his back. Discovering a giant species of eagle had been a mixed blessing. #twitterfiction
A pepper quickly rolled across the counter. When a tomato sprouted arms and seized a fork, she decided not to make a salad. #twitterfiction
The crowd shrieked as he rounded third. These were not cheers. The catcher had convulsed into an unearthly creature. #twitterfiction
A Visit to the Idea Factory 