THESE ARE STORIES These are stories I have written, grouped by the year. They are all dated, though probably not to the exact day; it is approximated. 2006 Late 2006 was the point when I first started taking writing as a hobby seriously. I had dabbled in it before, but now I began writing somewhat regularly. "Icy Crabs" was written following a Jules Verne reading spree. The awkward, somewhat verbose prose was my failed effort to reproduce his style. My interest in surrealism contributed to the story's imagery. Icy Crabs Are... So Incredibly Bizarre [Dec. 30, 2006 - surreal/dreamworld - 1980 words] 2007 2007 was fairly uninteresting, except towards the end when I began transitioning out of all the ugly prose. "Realistically Speaking" had me testing the waters of flash fiction, in a heavy-handed way. "Bird's Eye" was the advent of my interest in nature-themed stories. It shared the same pretentious style as "Icy Crabs," though perhaps slightly improved. Looking at it now it strikes me as clunky and contrived. "Ancient Chemical Substance" continues the nature theme. It was mainly fun with alliteration, though I now dislike it rather strongly. "Swamptime," on the other hand, remains one of my favourite stories I've written. It was a foray into surrealist automatic writing, and I still find it pretty amusing. Realistically Speaking [Feb. 06, 2007 - flash - 63 words] Bird's Eye [Mar. 22, 2007 - nature - 1206 words] Ancient Chemical Substance [Aug. 01, 2007 - nature - 700 words] Swamptime [Oct. 30, 2007 - surrealist automatic writing - 626 words] 2008 2008 was a year of experimentation. First up were three flash pieces. "Blue Steam" was unremarkable on the whole. "Butterknife" was the product of some odd need to write a bit about a butterknife. I don't know, either. "I Am Fire" was for a contest, and was a brief return to the nature theme. Then things get more interesting. "Crocodile Teeth" was a more fleshed-out short story. Its style was a little overblown, but in the middle section I think things pulled together. I like the dialogue in this one. Next I went back to flash fiction, writing "A Revelation," which I thought was clever, and "Fall Fade," another contest piece. It had to be exactly 100 words and have no repeating words. Tricky indeed. "What's On Television?" was a turning point. It was basically an experimental story, and it marked a return to surreal ideas. "Triad" used surreal ideas, similar to "Television," while using some of the stream-of-consciousness style from "Swamptime." It was heavily influenced by the Blue Jam radio programmes. I also played with its formatting a bit, though I didn't quite achieve what I was aiming for. Finishing up 2008 was "Food for Thought," a piece of dark, surreal humour. Blue Steam [Jan. 05, 2008 - flash - 779 words] Butterknife [Feb. 07, 2008 - flash - 650 words] I Am Fire [Feb. 22, 2008 - nature - 607 words] Crocodile Teeth [Mar. 23, 2008 - other - 2274 words] A Revelation [Apr. 16, 2008 - flash - 5 words] Fall Fade [Jul. 02, 2008 - flash - 100 words] What's On Television? [Jul. 26, 2008 - surreal - 1889 words] Triad [Nov. 22, 2008 - surreal - 1529 words] Food for Thought [Dec. 29, 2008 - surreal/dark humour - 1349 words] 2009 2009 began with a fun piece. "Tube of Terror" was light-hearted and pretty outrageous. It was also relatively realistic, especially compared with many of my previous pieces. It was not dark, surreal, or nature-themed, so it was quite different from most stories before it. The Tube of Terror! [May 18, 2009 - other - 3523 words] The Second Spectrum of Sanity |