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Monthly Archives: December 2010

Ashtabula

I awakened to the artificial voice from the grille overhead saying, “Next stop Ashtabula. Connections to the Great Withern Line and the Ember River.” The light outside was orange and the sun was the color of raw beef as the train pulled into the station. Continue reading »

Categories: Fiction, Flash, Locale exercise, Writing | Leave a comment

Pity Me: The Rough Guide

         No one knows anything about Pity Me because anthropologists refuse to study it.  I mean, who wants to spend three years studying a bunch of whiners?  At grad schools across the country, Pity Me ranks even lower in popularity than its neighboring regions of Nobody Likes Me or Everybody Hates Me.  Budding … Continue reading »

Categories: Fiction, Flash, Locale exercise, Writing | Leave a comment

Flin Flon

The closest thing to the airstrip was the bar. It was named Bar. This far from civilization it was better not to pretend to own anything. Hercules knew Jordan, the owner, but he went in anyway. Continue reading »

Categories: Fiction, Flash, Locale exercise, Writing | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Ismailia

It’s been said that civilization is founded upon its causalities; that progress marches on – over a bridge of corpses. Civilized humanity was bred for obedience, but every breeding project has its rejects. Ismailia is the place where they all end up. It works like this: when a boy is to become a man and … Continue reading »

Categories: Fiction, Flash, Locale exercise, Writing | Leave a comment

Bad Kissingen

Bad Kissingen originated as a small German seaside resort town on the North Sea, where a tiny geothermal vent pressed up through the narrow crust, producing hot springs with a far higher than typical sulfur content. Hence the name–in the marginal dialect of Lower Middle Flendish, “kissen” means “to break wind.” (It is a little … Continue reading »

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Owner’s Manual

Congratulations on your purchase!  We, the entire staff here at Amalgamated Corporation, believe your new XP will deliver years of ecstasy, akin to continuous ingestion of the popular psychoactive drug “ecstasy.” We’re proud to offer the XP in PC-Compatible, Lemon-Lime, Tutti-Frutti, and, responding to popular demand, embedded inside an impenetrable Plexiglas cube.  Whichever version you … Continue reading »

Categories: Fiction, Writing | Leave a comment

“Good Ambiguity” and “Bad Ambiguity”

Christopher Nolan gave an interview in Wired where he touched on the issue of ambiguity in fiction (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/pl_inception_nolan/).  He said: “I’ve always believed that if you make a film with ambiguity, it needs to be based on a sincere interpretation. If it’s not, then it will contradict itself, or it will be somehow insubstantial and end … Continue reading »

Categories: Analysis and criticism, Non-Fiction, Writing | 3 Comments

The Tattoo Movie Review

If you’re like me and most people I know, the first question you ask when you hear about a new movie is, “Will there be any good tats in it?”  While classics like “Red Dragon” and “Reign of Fire” don’t come along every day, it is still possible to find good tattoos in movies on … Continue reading »

Categories: Fiction, Writing | 1 Comment