SHORT STORIES

I’m going to step away from the posts containing excerpts from my book for just a bit to give you a breather. Think of it as a palate cleanser. I’ll continue the Blog now with some short stories that I’ve previously written.

The first story, ALONE, was written in my senior year of high school. It is a bit rusty in spots, but one can easily see how I began to form my writing style. My use of song lyrics in order to convey the emotion of a scene began with this story, and has since become a common thread in all of my writing. The fusion of music and vision is an idea I first experienced watching MIAMI VICE in the eighties, and it has heavily influenced everything I have done since.

The second, even shorter story, MARCUS GOES SWIMMING, was written in approximately three minutes in September of 2011 as an entry in Esquire magazine’s short story contest. Although I didn’t win, the challenge in this story was to write a complete narrative in seventy-eight words only. No more, no less. This was done in celebration of the magazine’s 78th Anniversary.

The remaining six stories were all created in June of 2012, in the span of about twenty minutes, again for Esquire magazine’s short story contest. That year they allowed one more word, to celebrate their 79th Anniversary. So CANCER, KARMA, JEALOUSY, MORNING BEER, ROUTINE CALL and LIFE IN THE PROJECTS are all stories told in seventy-nine words total. (Only one entry per person was allowed, but most of these stories were ideas that I had that were not quite good enough to enter but too good to throw away.) LIFE IN THE PROJECTS became my official entry in that year’s contest, however, it did not make the final cut. I still think of it, along with MARCUS GOES SWIMMING, as my best yet, despite the losses.

Read on for my Short Stories and enjoy.

INVESTIGATION CONTINUING…