Super Commute “Begone, dastardly Crabman!” “It is you, Captain Buffalo, who will soon be cooked.” I looked away from the superbeing duel causing a traffic jam on the bridge in front of me. —Gonna be late, I texted my boss. Bridge fight. —You took the bridge? You know that’s a magnet for epic showdowns. Take…
Muse on Monday – July 7, 2025
Recently, I visited an island with no cars or motorized vehicles at all. Everything was done with horse-drawn wagons and carriages. It was like stepping back into the 19th century (except, luckily, for the air conditioning). Still, it was charmingly anachronistic. An anachronism is anything that doesn’t fit in the current time period, either because…
The Murder House (Allegedly)
The Murder House (Allegedly) There goes another one, walking into the quaint Island Meats house. The problem is, people go in but no one comes out. I’ve been watching from the café across the street for the last four hours. Tally: 56 people entering, 0 exiting. Finally, I called 911. “. . . and I…
Muse on Monday – June 30, 2025
This week, I want to look at birds. Birds are pretty fascinating for a lot of reasons: the fact that many of them travel long distances every year, much more than land animals; they have a big range of sizes and diets and characteristics, from the hummingbird to the ostrich, and they live in every…
Best-Friend-Teddy
Best-Friend-Teddy I should probably just go ahead and die. But, somehow, I still feel like living. Most citizens died long ago in the Terrible Event. The survivors fled. Now it’s just me: bad-back-white-haired-half-blind me. Me, and Teddy: that missing-eye-singed-fur-depleted-stuffing bear I found while scavenging. Teddy sits across from me at dinner, and I tell him…
Muse on Monday – June 23, 2025
The novel Leviathan, by Scott Westerfield, takes place in World War I. The situation is the same as the history we know except that the British have living machines made through genetic engineering and the Germans have steampunk mechanical machines, like walking fortresses. This is what is known as alternate history, where we imagine history…
Writing Corner: The Noob
The Noob There are times in a story where you need to explain things to your readers. It all depends on the type of story you are writing. If you are writing a story about middle school students in daily life, you can assume that your reader will already understand most things in the story…
DailyArt
DailyArt I don’t remember when I got my DailyArt™. It’s an electronic picture frame with a subscription: every morning when I wake up, a never-before-seen picture greets me. They started out cheerful but soon the colors darkened, and the shapes hinted at tragic things. Then this morning I woke up to a single scrawled word….
Muse on Monday – June 16, 2025
Welcome to another week and another Muse on Monday! Today’s prompt is what I call a one-piece prompt, in that it gives you one piece of a story premise but leaves enough room for you to fill in the details about setting, genre and plot. Story Prompt: June 16, 2025 Write a story about a…
A Key Problem
A Key Problem “Why?” A shouted. “Nah, Y is up there,” said A’s neighbor, who was always a smart-S. The writer using the typewriter was writing a fantasy story. “Abracadabra!” they heard him murmur. A groaned as he got hit on the head five times in quick succession. “Quiet,” Z grumbled from just below. “I…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 