Serialized My Craft

Jake Rutledge and the Guy With Bad Timing: Jake Rutledge and the Guy With Bad Timing – Part Eight

That’s when I recognized it. They dressed Dan in a pure white cloth suit covering up a series of tubes, wires, and circuits. He wasn’t my brother! He was just an android made to resemble him. “Why does he look like Dan?” I roared at the colonel. “He was a good as anyone,” Colonel Cox answered. “We needed a face of a person already dead. It didn’t matter who. Your brother popped up.” In fact,…

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My Craft Stories

The Highway to Sioux Falls

He was a big fish in this little pond of 6,000, the smallest television news market in America. When he went out, people swarmed and begged for an autograph.

Besides being known by the women of Glendive for his smile, wink, and perfectly combed hair, he was known by the men as the crazy dude who was always running around poking his nose into the reasons behind cattle stench, house fires, bar fights, and rodeo bareback events.

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My Craft Flash Fiction Stories

The Dead will Pile Up

“Ready,” the squad officer shouted out. I stood at the ready waiting for the order to shoot. Five rifles with laser sights pointed at the target dancing with my heartbeat. I took a short breath. The laser lights danced again. “Citizen, society demands control, which you have none of.” The words bounced in my rattled head. “You will learn to control your impulses. Or the dead will pile up.” Freedom or conformity. Transformation or tradition.…

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Serialized My Craft

Jake Rutledge and the Guy With Bad Timing: Jake Rutledge and the Guy with Bad Timing – Part Seven

Yes, the weatherman looked like a goner, but he rose from the bed and told me he wanted to capture the machine and stop the air force. He said all he had to do was get back to the base, sneak into the lab, and take it away. I presumed he meant to destroy it, but everything was happening so fast that I forgot to ask questions.

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Conversations My Craft

At Work

A Conversation “I’ve lost my cereal bowl. I had it Friday.” “Did you look in the refrigerator?” “You nailed it. I didn’t finish my soup.” “Those new extensions?” “Maybe.” “I don’t understand why you change color or length every week.” “It makes me more interesting.” “The water cooler took three minutes to give me hot water.” “It’s not sucking.” “Yeah, that’s what I meant.” “No. It’s not getting any air, so the water isn’t coming…

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My Craft Flash Fiction Stories

A Cold, Wet, Sticky Package

The remaining packages sat near the green door waiting for the next thief and all of them contained something messy and ugly. Our homeowner spied the woman’s face on his phone. Lovely. She likely won’t come back. Too bad she only took the small box. The biggest package contained the head of the last guy who tried to steal from him. A cold, wet, sticky, nasty, bloody head.

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My Craft On Writing Process

The Importance of Knowing Genre Before You Dive into NaNoWriMo

The mark of a professional writer, is they know the genre of their story and the arc it will take. At least that is what Shawn Coyne says in his book “The Story Grid.” Coyne probably knows something about this because as an editor he has looked at enough fiction to determine if it is a finished and publishable novel. He created the Story Grid to weed out the scenes that just didn’t meet the…

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