short story – Modeling and Storytelling

Breather

If it got much colder, she was going to need to get serious about starting a fire. The problem was that fire meant smoke. Smoke meant attention and attention meant gunfire. Gunfire meant noise. Noise meant more attention, and so it went. As it was, she’d keep as warm as she could without it. TheContinue reading “Breather”

There Be Tigers

This is a dusty sort of story. It’s about a real place somewhere in Eastern Oregon. It’s true when it needs to be and that’s what matters, dear readers. It has holes in it. What of it? It’s a rendition, rambling and purposeless. It is not a warning. Too late for that. It’s a hypothesis,Continue reading “There Be Tigers”

Completed – Bones and Honey

The last of the villagers had abandoned the hamlet that afternoon. With them went the dogs and the livestock. The cats, however, always managed to be missing when it came time for the villagers to ride out of town, wagons stacked high with household goods. This, of course, was no accident. The cats bled intoContinue reading “Completed – Bones and Honey”

Go West, Young Man

“Go West, young man, go West. There is health in the country, and room away from our crowds of idlers and imbeciles.” “That,” I said, “is very frank advice, but it is medicine easier given than taken. It is a wide country, but I do not know just where to go.” “It is all roomContinue reading “Go West, Young Man”

Completed – Heavy Freight

The mud sucked at the wagon’s wheels, persistently clawing at its contents. Argument could be made that the mud had greatest right to the cart’s contents, having until recently laid claim to the bounty it now held. As dogged, though, was the coach’s driver. He of the lead and the lash. He coaxed the pairContinue reading “Completed – Heavy Freight”

Completed – The Dogan

The Dogan was a place of some sinister quality. Whatever purpose it had once served was lost to the men that occupied this time. Strange noises emanated from it on occasion, accompanied by strange smells of ozone and heat. It was a squat octagon of concrete that seemed to belie a larger warren. Like aContinue reading “Completed – The Dogan”

Completed – A Boy and His Dog

Father would have been proud. The hunt had gone exceptionally well this season. The slow muties had come out of the hills early this year. But so had spring, after all. Whatever warmth they derived from the deep holes and warrens they hibernated in had kept the muties quiet all winter. Now that the frostContinue reading “Completed – A Boy and His Dog”