The Devil Missed His Connecting Flight to Georgia Harry was taking a walk when a morose imp approached him. “Hey,” it said listlessly. “You want to have a competition? If I win, I get your soul.” “What if I win?” Harry asked. “You get this aluminum kazoo. It’s a kazoo competition.” “Shouldn’t it at least…
Muse on Monday – March 20, 2023
It’s kind of amazing that if you have a full-time job you spend a lot of life doing that. At the same time, unless your friends or family happen to be in the same field or the same office, they know very little about what your actual day to day life is like. Work can…
Molly’s Cut
Molly’s Cut It took years to find the hidden alley where Molly’s shop lurked. She leered at me. “I sell one thing: time. One amount: forever.” I swallowed. “How much?” “Pay in kind, boy.” Her sapphire gaze wormed into mine. “Twenty years.” I coughed. She scoffed. “Fool! It’s water from an infinite well. I deserve…
Muse on Monday – March 13, 2023
In stories there are a lot of possible sources of conflict, from external sources like an enemy, a rival company, a personal rival, etc. or from internal sources, like doubt, past trauma, addiction and so on. For this prompt, let’s look only at physical danger, where possibly your life or someone else’s could be in…
The Origins of Brownyz
The Origins of Brownyz
Muse on Monday – February 27, 2023
I have always been fascinated with other worlds and the idea of being able to go to them, and a lot of my writing over the years has had that idea in it. You see this kind of story a lot in fiction as well, from the Chronicles of Narnia, to Alice in Wonderland, and…
The Sum of All Games
The Sum of All Games The field below is an undulating Rorschach test, ten thousand overlapping players forming ever-shifting patterns of dramatic wins and crushing defeats. Death has freed me from the shackles of linear time but by concentrating, I can distill individual events. The Champion’s memorial is nearest, the crowd standing silently for their…
Muse on Monday – February 20, 2023
There are a lot of stories written about money, usually either trying to get a lot of it, such as in a bank robbery story, or not having enough of it. The lack of money, specifically, is a very common source of conflict. Money can’t solve all problems, but it can solve a lot of…
Nowoman’s Land
Nowoman’s Land Her arthritic fingers ached as she laid kindling in the fireplace, checking for moisture. The surrounding bomb-blasted houses provided plenty of wood, but most was wet, which made smoke. Smoke spotted from her chimney would mean certain death. She was boiling water when she heard a crash. She crouched, peering out. Below, three…
Muse on Monday – February 13, 2023
Story Prompt: February 13, 2023 Write a story based on the picture below: This is a picture I made with my niece. It has kind of a creepy feeling, but that doesn’t mean you need to write a creepy story if you don’t want to. A lot of the fun of fiction is subverting expectations….
The Green-Walled Treehouse 