http://podcasting.isfullofcrap.com/2011/11/27/weekly-challenge-292-pick-two/
A Christmas Wish/Compulsion
By Chris Munroe
I made a Christmas wish, for peace on earth.
And there was peace.
So the next day I made another wish, for good will to all.
This too was granted. That’s when my problems began.
I wished every day after that. I couldn’t stop, helpless against the power of my wishes.
The least among us? Cared for.
Equality among all? Achieved.
The world became paradise, but I was in hell, trapped in endless wishing.
Finally, the next Christmas, I wished myself freedom from wishing, and for the previous year to’ve never happened.
So yeah. Sorry, world. Couldn’t handle the compulsion.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Traps
I don’t remember why I booby-trapped the house, but I’m sure I had a reason.
I mean, nobody’d booby-trap their home without one.
However, what the reason is has since escaped me.
I’m also unhappy to admit I can’t remember precisely where I put each individual trap.
When that first one blew up in my face, knocked me across the room and smashed my skull into the wall, I may have gotten a concussion. My memory’s fuzzy all around.
However: I do remember there are a LOT of traps. So be careful while you’re getting us out of here, okay?
I mean, nobody’d booby-trap their home without one.
However, what the reason is has since escaped me.
I’m also unhappy to admit I can’t remember precisely where I put each individual trap.
When that first one blew up in my face, knocked me across the room and smashed my skull into the wall, I may have gotten a concussion. My memory’s fuzzy all around.
However: I do remember there are a LOT of traps. So be careful while you’re getting us out of here, okay?
Monday, November 21, 2011
Weekly Prompt Story: Drums
http://podcasting.isfullofcrap.com/2011/11/20/weekly-challenge-291-drums/
Drums
By Christopher Munroe
For his ninth birthday, I bought him a drum kit.
When he opened the box his face lit up. I knew I’d chosen correctly.
As I set it up for him, I explained how much practice it’d take to learn to play really well.
He assured me he was willing to put in the effort.
When my coworkers heard I’d bought such a gift for a child, they thought I was insane. They said I’d never sleep again!
I wasn’t concerned.
He wasn’t my child, after all. He was yours.
So, tell me: Was stealing my parking space worth it?
Drums
By Christopher Munroe
For his ninth birthday, I bought him a drum kit.
When he opened the box his face lit up. I knew I’d chosen correctly.
As I set it up for him, I explained how much practice it’d take to learn to play really well.
He assured me he was willing to put in the effort.
When my coworkers heard I’d bought such a gift for a child, they thought I was insane. They said I’d never sleep again!
I wasn’t concerned.
He wasn’t my child, after all. He was yours.
So, tell me: Was stealing my parking space worth it?
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Making Love
I’m here at my forge, making love.
Hot sparks fly up into my protective mask as I bring the hammer down, again and again, onto the anvil, shaping my love into what I hope will be perfection. I won’t rest until my love is perfect.
You’re worth nothing less.
You’re waiting for me at home, and I imagine you miss me terribly. I miss you too. I’d dearly love to return to you, I’ve barely seen you in weeks.
But I can’t go home yet.
Not until I’ve made love that I know is worthy of one such as you...
Hot sparks fly up into my protective mask as I bring the hammer down, again and again, onto the anvil, shaping my love into what I hope will be perfection. I won’t rest until my love is perfect.
You’re worth nothing less.
You’re waiting for me at home, and I imagine you miss me terribly. I miss you too. I’d dearly love to return to you, I’ve barely seen you in weeks.
But I can’t go home yet.
Not until I’ve made love that I know is worthy of one such as you...
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Weekly prompt Story: The View from my Window
Hey! I got so caught up in Nanoing I completely forgot my Sunday prompt story until 8 minutes before it was due! Seven minutes now! I better get that posted, eh?
http://podcasting.isfullofcrap.com/2011/11/13/weekly-challenge-290-what-is-the-first-thing-you-see-out-your-window/
The View From My Window
By Christopher Munroe
There’s screaming outside my apartment.
And as I listen from my chair, I’d swear it sounds like my neighbor.
Idiot. He knows when the sun sets, we all do. It’s why we instituted the curfew.
If he’s gone outside, what’s happening is his own damn fault.
I know that. Everyone does.
Still, hearing him screaming I can’t help feeling guilty.
I wish he’d stop.
He will soon.
I know I ought to at least try to help, but I can’t bring myself to go to my window and take a look into the street.
For fear of what I’d see…
http://podcasting.isfullofcrap.com/2011/11/13/weekly-challenge-290-what-is-the-first-thing-you-see-out-your-window/
The View From My Window
By Christopher Munroe
There’s screaming outside my apartment.
And as I listen from my chair, I’d swear it sounds like my neighbor.
Idiot. He knows when the sun sets, we all do. It’s why we instituted the curfew.
If he’s gone outside, what’s happening is his own damn fault.
I know that. Everyone does.
Still, hearing him screaming I can’t help feeling guilty.
I wish he’d stop.
He will soon.
I know I ought to at least try to help, but I can’t bring myself to go to my window and take a look into the street.
For fear of what I’d see…
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Arts Funding
This week’s story isn’t very good. I’m aware of that.
That’s why I’ve applied for federal arts funding. Because I honestly do believe there’s a kernel of a good idea somewhere in here, and that I just need time to develop it further to find it.
So I applied for a grant, it was approved, and I’ll be spending the next several months taking this piece of flash fiction on a tour of small, northern towns through Alberta and British Columbia. I’ll be reading it in whatever performance venues are made available to me, and afterword there’ll be Q&A sessions where I deal with the issues brought up in the text.
In doing these Q&As, the hope is that I gain new insight into my story, which I can then use to edit or alter it such as is needed to allow my nugget of a good idea to blossom into a better realized tale.
It won’t be easy, I admit. But not everything needs to be easy, does it? Sometimes the fact that a task is daunting makes it that much more satisfying to embrace.
After all, if success always came easily why would we appreciate it?
And I honestly do believe in this piece.
So away I’ll go, to do what needs to be done and, one would hope, eventually return with the best damn flash fiction I can create.
I’ll keep you posted as to how it goes…
That’s why I’ve applied for federal arts funding. Because I honestly do believe there’s a kernel of a good idea somewhere in here, and that I just need time to develop it further to find it.
So I applied for a grant, it was approved, and I’ll be spending the next several months taking this piece of flash fiction on a tour of small, northern towns through Alberta and British Columbia. I’ll be reading it in whatever performance venues are made available to me, and afterword there’ll be Q&A sessions where I deal with the issues brought up in the text.
In doing these Q&As, the hope is that I gain new insight into my story, which I can then use to edit or alter it such as is needed to allow my nugget of a good idea to blossom into a better realized tale.
It won’t be easy, I admit. But not everything needs to be easy, does it? Sometimes the fact that a task is daunting makes it that much more satisfying to embrace.
After all, if success always came easily why would we appreciate it?
And I honestly do believe in this piece.
So away I’ll go, to do what needs to be done and, one would hope, eventually return with the best damn flash fiction I can create.
I’ll keep you posted as to how it goes…
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Weekly Prompt Story: Bubbles
http://podcasting.isfullofcrap.com/2011/11/06/weekly-challenge-289-bubbles/
Bubbles
By Chris Munroe
Bubbles rise to the surface, burst, and are gone. And as suddenly as that it’s all over.
He’d thought he could steal from me, thought I wouldn’t notice a few bucks “disappearing” here and there.
I make it my business to notice everything.
I could have alerted the authorities, but it’d been a while since I went hands on, so I solved the problem myself.
An invite to an afternoon on my boat, a bottle of wine and a willingness to wait for my opportunity.
And now, as I sail home, I can’t help but smile.
I’ve still got it.
Bubbles
By Chris Munroe
Bubbles rise to the surface, burst, and are gone. And as suddenly as that it’s all over.
He’d thought he could steal from me, thought I wouldn’t notice a few bucks “disappearing” here and there.
I make it my business to notice everything.
I could have alerted the authorities, but it’d been a while since I went hands on, so I solved the problem myself.
An invite to an afternoon on my boat, a bottle of wine and a willingness to wait for my opportunity.
And now, as I sail home, I can’t help but smile.
I’ve still got it.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
This is Not a Robbery
Everybody get down on the floor, hands behind your heads, and try your best to remain calm. This is not a robbery.
Maybe eighteen months ago, when I first lost my job at the firm, I’d have considered robbing a bank, but back then I thought a new job was just around the corner and that I’d be back on my feet in no time. And now that I realize what a joke those hopes were, it’s too late. The time has passed. It passed when my wife packed up the kids and moved back in with her parents.
They were my world. I tried to convince them things would get better, but after a year of waiting even I was beginning to doubt it. Once they were gone I felt like I had no reason to go on.
Didn’t even bother looking for a job after that. Didn’t see the point of it without a family to come home to afterward. I found it harder and harder to bring myself to care about anything at all. When the bank finally sent somebody around to kick me out of the house the only thing that surprised me was how little I cared.
Afterward, at a local shelter, my things in a trunk at the foot of my cot, I considered eating my gun. But that didn’t appeal to my sense of the dramatic. I’d always had a well-developed sense of drama, back when I was a man, and the idea that I die the way I wish I could have lived appealed to me.
So here I am. And no, this is not a robbery.
It’s a suicide attempt. And you’re presence is just an unfortunate side effect.
So try to remain calm as we wait together for the police to arrive.
Maybe eighteen months ago, when I first lost my job at the firm, I’d have considered robbing a bank, but back then I thought a new job was just around the corner and that I’d be back on my feet in no time. And now that I realize what a joke those hopes were, it’s too late. The time has passed. It passed when my wife packed up the kids and moved back in with her parents.
They were my world. I tried to convince them things would get better, but after a year of waiting even I was beginning to doubt it. Once they were gone I felt like I had no reason to go on.
Didn’t even bother looking for a job after that. Didn’t see the point of it without a family to come home to afterward. I found it harder and harder to bring myself to care about anything at all. When the bank finally sent somebody around to kick me out of the house the only thing that surprised me was how little I cared.
Afterward, at a local shelter, my things in a trunk at the foot of my cot, I considered eating my gun. But that didn’t appeal to my sense of the dramatic. I’d always had a well-developed sense of drama, back when I was a man, and the idea that I die the way I wish I could have lived appealed to me.
So here I am. And no, this is not a robbery.
It’s a suicide attempt. And you’re presence is just an unfortunate side effect.
So try to remain calm as we wait together for the police to arrive.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
For the record...
...this blog will continue to update during NaNoWriMo. I have #fridayflash stories, albeit extremely short ones, in the can so as to keep #fridayflash going, and prompt stories are 100 words so I'll be keeping up with them too. This won't take an enormous amount of my mental energy, obviously, since I'm expecting NaNoWriMo to take a lot out of me, BUT I do take this thing seriously too, so I'll find things to update it with even as I'm busy NaNo-ing.
Also, if you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, here's my information so you can keep me honest about the work I need to do...
http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/munsi
Also, if you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, here's my information so you can keep me honest about the work I need to do...
http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/munsi
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