Short Story: On the Wing & Slip

  I missed a week because of business/laziness, so here in this post I will be revealing not one, but two sneak peeks. These are the last of the stories that will be represented in our short story collection, which we will be putting together into a nearly-final draft soon. Thank you to everyone who has helped, whether it be beta reading or other support and encouragement.
  This passage is from my "On the Wing."

  Griffin looked around the room again and tried to remember the last time his wife had even slept in their bed with him. She was a doctor at the hospital in the city and kept unusual hours, hours that clashed with Griffin's almost perfectly so that they were rarely at home together. She'd had the hours for nearly a year. Did he hate her for it? No; maybe; he couldn't remember. He was tired.
  Then there was a knock at the door.

  This story centers around Griffin and a night at home in which a party of people he didn't invite show up at his house one-by-one to ask for his help. Except, he doesn't help people for a living, and in fact has asked these people for help at various times himself. Throughout the evening they bring out different parts of his personality and eventually confront him about his darkest fears and secrets. This story is written in a more whimsical and fantastic style than some of the other stories, though some of the ideas are rather dark and gritty, as it is another story in which someone is pressed to the edges of what they can handle, and confronted with the morality of their decisions. The themes circle around guilt, love/hate in family relationships, the criminal mind, insanity, etc. Interesting fact about this story is: this is one of the few stories that has not changed much from its original version.

  This passage is from her "Slip."

  “Granddaughter?” He calls. No answer. Again he calls for her, but all he hears is silence. He feels a tightening in his chest, he fears for her.
  “Wen Chang!” He rushes to the door of their one room house and shouts her name. Why did he let her out of his sight? Where did he left her go? Why isn’t she safe? He racks his brain, trying to remember.
  Then as suddenly as she was gone, she is back. Her eyes confused, her pink lips and dirty hands stained and dripping with pomegranate.
  “Grandfather?”
  He breaths out with relief, “Where were you?”
  She smiles and twists the hem of her dress with her fingers, “I was down by the railroad.”

  This story follows the story of a grandfather and his granddaughter, and a single horrible event that changed their lives forever. This story deals with the themes of guilt, love, regret, trauma, and insanity. This is also a darker story as it deals with loss in a traumatic fashion and the lengths some people go to in order to function with their lives. Interesting fact about this story: the setting for this story is China -- one of three stories for this anthology that take place outside of America.
  Next week we will be discussing our next steps and also showing off cover images for the front of the anthology.

Short Story: The Bathtub

  Another week gone by, and it's time for another sneak peek. This is number six of eight. We're nearing the end of our short story collection, and we're getting very excited about it all. We're working on a cover design now as well as finishing up the final drafts of our stories. We'll most likely be sending it off to a professional writer/editor in the next week or two, and then we'll see about getting it professionally published. If that doesn't happen, you can all look for it on Amazon by end of November. We'll announce it when it happens, but for now, here's another peek at what we're working on. This passage is from a story my wife wrote called "The Bathtub":

  The siblings looked alike only in vague ways, they had the same color of dirty brown hair and brown eyes. But the shapes of their faces, though narrow, were different; it was hard to see the family resemblance. Only that there was something close about them. The girl was always looking out, trying to shield the boys, like a mother hen with large wings trying to cover all of her chicks. The boys followed her silently, looking lost.

  This is one of the darkest stories of the collection as it concerns suicide. The story follows three siblings who were heavily abused as children, and how they cannot get over the things their parents did to them. The themes are forgiveness, revenge, familial love and hate, and escape. If and when you read this story -- and all of the short stories in this collection -- don't just concentrate on the actions of the characters, or the rights and wrongs of the world they live in, but think about the pain, and the irony of what is going on. Life is not a beautiful thing for everyone after all.