notapoet's fiction

By notapoet - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Fiction

Friday, November 27, 2009

Liar

He waited for the call that never came. He watched for the battered old white pickup that never pulled up. He wondered if something important had come up at the last minute and changed their plans so quickly they didn't have time to touch base. And he wondered if he'd just been forgotten. So he... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Dream a little dream

Richard found it more and more difficult to determine what part of his life was real and what was mere fantasy from his dreams. It had seemed so simple when he was a boy. The mostly humdrum waking hours were real life and his dreams, improbable fantasy or nightmare, were fiction like he read in... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Inspiration

He believed his best attempts at fiction were usually based on his own life experiences. Turning real life into fiction seemed to work much better than all of his pitiful attempts to write in his favorite reading genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. But now he was faced with the awesome... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, October 16, 2009

...a little like deja vu.

He sometimes wondered if Dad had felt terribly neglected and alone in his last few years. It was a thought that rarely occurred when Dad had been just an hour's drive away, a mere two hours round trip. Close enough that he could have easily popped over every other weekend, certainly at least once a... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Both sides of the coin, now

She done him wrong, and then she left him rather than the other way around. But that was only one side of the coin. On the other side he had to admit he probably deserved it. He had settled into a pattern where almost all of his energy was devoted to trying to keep them afloat. There had been little... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Simple pleasures

He missed the soothing rhythm of falling rain on a metal roof. It had been one of the few pleasures of the ramshackle old trailer he had lived in for so many years. “Mobile homes” they called them now, though they had evolved into structures so large and heavy that “mobile” was an obvious misnomer.... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

"The older I get..."

He looked at the full caption on the old T-shirt hanging in the closet. “The older I get, the better I was” it said Not strictly true, he thought. I've never been one prone to exaggerate my accomplishments. But I sure don't like looking at that stranger in the mirror. He walked back to the bathroom... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

The good old days

"Good game, Billy," the proud grandfather said. "You looked just like your Dad running the bases. That was your first base hit, wasn't it?" "Yeah, Poppa," the excited youngster replied, "and I scored a run that helped us win the game!" "That you did," the old man said. "You know, it was a little... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

I looked at the famous first line with more than a little amusement. In reality it was a gray, rainy day. But that was not the point. Getting started on the story without being trite or overly sensational was the point. A bland or hokey first line would probably stop any potential reader right there... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, March 30, 2009

A day of frustration, joy, horror and sadness

It sounds like the beginning of an interesting short story, perhaps even a novel, in which the conflicting elements of living in today’s world are represented by the events of a single day in one person’s life. It is the gamut of emotions I went through yesterday. My joy was twofold: Michigan State,... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

What if?

What if Momma had not let me go to live with Grandma and Grandpa? Or better yet, what if she had stood by Dad while he fought tuberculosis and I had been the oldest of a large brood of city kids? What if Grandpa had not retained a little wanderlust and uprooted us every few months to couple of... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Heaven is…

a warm place. Not hot. That, I think, would be the other place. Although I guess hell is, by definition, the place you would least like to be, under the circumstances you would most like to avoid. I don’t relish the thought of never ending and oppressive heat. But I hate being cold. Cold hands and... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Choices

“You don’t need me to remind you that times are tough, Son. And you certainly don’t need me to tell you what to do. I think you’ve already figured that out on your own. You’re looking for a new job, aren’t you.” “Yeah, Dad. I’ve been looking since early summer when they cut our hours back. But there... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Seek and you shall find.

There are a few short stories out there that, on first reading, made me wish I was capable of writing something capable of delivering a similar impact to all the readers I hoped to have some day. A couple of them, Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and Shirley Jackson’s “The... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The synthesis of fact with fiction

It’s a never ending challenge for those who wish to write entertaining fiction. Whenever I set myself to the task of fiction it often seems that I’m spending a great deal of time consciously downplaying elements of fact upon which I draw. This factual material usually pops up as research conducted... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Conspiracy Theory

For nearly a week his antique computer has frozen every time he got to the point of actually trying to post something on Blogit. He knew it was not really an insiduous conspiracy to keep him from being heard. He wasn’t not wacko enough to think he have anything important enough or significant enough... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Who is that tap, tap, tapping at my door?

The faint knocking sound roused me from my drowsy stupor. I checked my watch. A little after 9:15, and it’s still dark outside. So, it’s still the night of the thirty-first and not too late for someone to be knocking at the door. There! A faint tapping sound again. Or was it gusts of wind blowing... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Juggling Act

Jesse never had been any good at juggling. As a small boy Jesse was fascinated by the antics of old Mose, a master of the soft-shoe, drinking prodigious quantities of moonshine, and juggling three apples at once. Old Mose could drink half a gallon of shine and still do his little dance and juggle... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

"You are not a failure,"

The words caught my attention as much because of the source as because of their meaning. The source was one of those strange birds who wants to test his wings and fly, but can't because he cannot make himself release the death grip he has on Momma's apron strings. Yet somehow he was perceptive... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Not a flash in the pan…flash fiction

Flash fiction is one of the many contemporary terms for what we used to call short short stories. I was going to present a list of many of the new names for this venerable old form, but got sidetracked by a combination of computer problems, personal problems, and family problems. The computer... Sign in to see full entry.

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