The Story Behind the Story: Something Fishy

This month's story comes courtesy of the 2014 NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge. In Round 2 of the challenge, I was assigned the following prompt:

Genre: Science Fiction
Subject: Sushi
Character: Dentist

My task? In two days, write a 2,000-word story based on the prompt.

My NYC Midnight stori always begin with panic--minutes, hours, or days of "WTF am I going to do with that?" This was no exception.

I pretty quickly came up with the equation sci fi + sushi = alien fish. But where to go from there?

Then I remembered reading a novel called Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov. If I remember correctly, it's the first book of his Robot series. What I remembered is that Caves is essentially a mystery story in a science fiction setting. I decided to take the same approach in my story.

From there, the words flowed quickly. It was like transcribing a movie that played out in front of me.

As I began winding down the story, bringing Jonah closer to whodunit and why, I checked the word count: 1,998.

I had two words left, and I still hadn't solved the mystery. Oops.

I gave the Delete button a work-out and quickly tied up the loose ends.

The result is the story posted here. It's not perfect, but it is a fun little romp. One of my writers' group compatriots said the light tone reminded her of stories by Connie Willis, who wrote two of my favorite books: To Say Nothing of the Dog and The Doomsday Book. (Thanks, Heidi!)

Someday, I might revise the story, fix the flaws pointed out by the NYC Midnight judges and my writers' group, but for now, I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Click here to read "Something Fishy."

The Story Behind the Story: Getting There

Some years back, I watched a news report about a couple who almost drove into Lake Michigan because their GPS told them to take a wrong turn. More than one, I'd imagine, to get that close to the water. I laughed, because the whole situation seemed ludicrous. I mean, how could you NOT notice you're about to drive into one of the Great Lakes?

The news story was one of many I encountered about the fallible nature of GPS systems. Every one reaffirmed my belief in the power of the paper map--and planted another seed of a story.

That story was "Getting There."

Click here to read "Getting There."

The Story Behind the Story: The River

This story is all Aroon Chaddha's fault.

Aroon was one of the first people I met, one of the first friends I made, when I moved to Illinois ten years ago. He was a member of the Writers' Support Group, the first writers' group I ever joined. He read dramatic stories about his family history in India, riotous accounts of his adventures as a husband and grandfather, and passionate essays about politics, animal rights, spirituality, and the environment.

I left the Writer's Support Group when my work schedule prohibited me from attending regularly. The group disbanded a little while later and Aroon (with a couple of other WSG members) started a new writer's group, the Schaumburg Scribes. I reconnected with Aroon when my schedule freed up and I joined the Scribes.

Flash forward to the Scribes' 2012 holiday party. Aroon approached me and asked me to partner with him on a project. I agreed. We met a few weeks later and discussed the form the project would take. We decided we would each write one 1,000-word piece a month for the next year. Each month's piece would be based on/inspired by a photograph. At the end of the year, we would combine our writings in a chapbook-like publication.

The project lasted one month. We decided on a photo of the Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick's Day. The more I studied the photo, the louder I heard the voice of the little boy who narrates the story, a little boy who had never seen blue water or blue sky. I fought telling his story because I hate fictional stories with obvious, heavy-handed moralizing, but he was an insistent little bugger. I caved and "The River" was born.

Aroon and his wife are preparing to leave Illinois now for the warmer climes of Florida. I don't know if, or how well, we'll keep in touch or if we'll ever get back to our joint project. I do know that every time I look at or think about this story, I'll be thinking about Aroon.

Click here to read "The River."

The Story Behind the Story: A Success!

Please indulge me in this extra Story Behind the Story:

If you follow me on this blog or on Twitter, then you've heard me mention a group called NYC Midnight. They run writing contests throughout the year: screenwriting, flash fiction, short stories. A couple of the stories over on Fiction First were born as entries in NYC Midnight's 2013 Flash Fiction Challenge.

Last year, I entered my first NYC Midnight contest: their 2013 Short Story Challenge. I earned an Honorable Mention in Round 1--enough for me to feel great about the effort, but not enough for me to move on to Round 2.

This February, I entered their 2014 Short Story Challenge. I had one week to write a 2,500 word ghost story about racism that also featured a street performer. I came up with the premise of my story rather quickly. I spent 7 days struggling to write the actual words. By 5:30 pm the night before the story was due, I had a total of 800 words. Not good.

At that moment, I decided to start all over again. Same premise. New point of view. Only 24 hours to complete it. Cue the panic.

The story was due by 10:59 pm Saturday night. At 7:30 pm, I was still writing. Around 8-ish, I finished--and was 120 words over the contest limit.  I took a deep breath and short break and completed the fastest editing pass in my entire life. At little after 9 pm, I had a 2,500 word story. I uploaded the story to NYC Midnight's site, let out a sigh of relief, and let go. I still liked the premise of my story but had serious doubts about its execution, given the circumstances under which it was written. I figured my 2014 Short Story Challenge would end with Round 1 and not so much as an Honorable Mention.

Fast forward to last week, when the Round 1 results were posted. To my utter shock and amazement, the judges liked my story. They liked it so much they rated it #1 in my group. Holy crap.

My reward for such an awesome finish? Round 2! I got to do it all over again, only this time I had even less time. I had one weekend--this weekend--to write a 2,000-word story: a science fiction tale about sushi and a dentist. This story went much more smoothly and quickly this time around. I submitted it a few hours ago.

Now I wait. And wait. And wait. In a few weeks, I'll find out if my story was good enough to move me on to Round 3.

In the meantime, HOLY CRAP!

The Story Behind the Story: The Portrait

I've never been much of a fan of Pablo Picasso's work. His cubist paintings, especially, sail right over my head. (The only exception to that is his mural Guernica, which I don't completely understand but I totally get the message.) So, when a friend invited me to go with her to the Picasso Exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago last year, I surprised myself when I accepted the invitation.

The idea was to meet up with a group of her writer friends, tour the exhibit, have lunch, and then write something inspired by the exhibit. Knowing how I felt about Picasso, I did not have high hopes for being inspired.

I was wrong.

The train ride from Chicago to my suburb takes a little less than an hour and 20 minutes. My friend's stop came first, about 45 minutes into the ride. I had another 30 minutes or so until my stop. That's when my Muse hit me with a bolt of lightning. By the time the train pulled into the station, I had my story.

That night, I played with it and polished it, but in essence, it was done. I had "The Portrait."

Which just goes to show: sometimes inspiration can come from the places you least expect.

Click here to read "The Portrait."