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Flash Fiction: The Social Condition
Janine was in the bathroom when a guy sat down at the next table. The waitress took his order right away, but he was particular about his omelet and gave confusing instructions. It took a couple tries before the waitress got it right. When she left for the kitchen, the guy winked at me. He [...]
Continue reading...Cream & Sugar – Science Fiction
15. May 2012
Read installment #8 of the serialized novel, Cream & Sugar: a story of advertising, race, and one man’s midlife quest to rein in his unruly testicles. In Chapter 8, Elton Pierce discovers that today is the first day of the rest of his sorry-assed life–which is another way of saying it’s the first time after [...]
Continue reading...Flash Fiction: Alien Landscapes
11. May 2012
Richard woke from a flying dream. It wasn’t the flying that bothered him. It was the landscapes whizzing by beneath his wings. Instead of green forests and golden wheat fields, he zoomed over alien mountains that glistened pink and purple. With all the zooming, Richard gasped and it woke Ellie beside him. Dreaming again? she [...]
Continue reading...Cream & Sugar – Planet of the Apes
8. May 2012
Read installment #7 of the serialized novel, Cream & Sugar: a story of advertising, race, and one man’s midlife quest to rein in his unruly testicles. In Chapter Seven, Elton Pierce joins the environmental group that meets in the basement of St. George’s Anglican Church. He never makes it. At the construction site of a [...]
Continue reading...Story: The Cheetos Ten
4. May 2012
Ralph Meriwether led the tactical team that stormed the Cheetos factory. He had vowed never to move without proper intelligence, but after a hundred days, he knew little more than he did when the terrorists first seized the plant. There were ten of them. That much he did know. And they were well-armed and heavily [...]
Continue reading...Cream & Sugar – Midnight Blood
1. May 2012
Read installment #6 of the serialized novel, Cream & Sugar: a story of advertising, race, and one man’s midlife quest to rein in his unruly testicles. In Chapter Six, Elton Pierce arrives home to an angry wife. He’s forgotten their invitation to a niece’s birthday party. The family drives to a suburban enclave near the [...]
Continue reading...Story: The Baby Tree
27. April 2012
He ran over the baby in his driveway. It was dark and he had been on his way to the grocery store for some potato chips. He liked having something to munch on while he watched movies late at night. The grocery store closed at eleven and he got into his car at ten forty-five. [...]
Continue reading...Cream & Sugar: The Seeds of Charity
24. April 2012
Read installment #5 of the serialized novel, Cream & Sugar: a story of advertising, race, and one man’s midlife quest to rein in his unruly testicles. In Chapter Five, Elton Pierce quits his job. Outwardly, it looks like a selfless decision–his boss likes to grope the women on staff and Elton wants to distance himself [...]
Continue reading...Flash Fiction: It’s such a pain to suffer
20. April 2012
The man suffered. His suffering was average. His suffering wasn’t acute: no terminal brain tumour that left him writhing in agony and screaming for the sweet release of death. But his suffering wasn’t trivial either: no hangnails or gastro-intestinal discomfort. His was a modest suffering that allowed him to smile when he met his friends, [...]
Continue reading...Cream & Sugar – The Hollow World
17. April 2012
Installment #4 of the serialized novel, Cream & Sugar: a story of advertising, race, and one man’s midlife quest to rein in his unruly testicles. In Chapter Four, Elton Pierce rushes home from a day of photo shoots for a lifestyle condominium project, and from there, he rushes out to an evening lecture by David [...]
Continue reading...Flash Fiction: The Dragon Slayer
14. April 2012
For as long as I can remember, my parents told me stories of my uncle John, a knight errant who had slain a dragon. He was a man who ventured forth on noble quests to defend the honour of great ladies. On the morning of my sixteenth birthday, my mother summoned me to the door [...]
Continue reading...Cream & Sugar – Double Double
10. April 2012
Here’s the 3rd installment of the serialized novel, Cream & Sugar, a story of advertising, race, and one man’s midlife quest to rein in his unruly testicles. This week, we meet the three women who will harass, console, obsess, harangue & haunt Elton Pierce for the rest of the novel. There is Mona, the vice [...]
Continue reading...Flash Fiction: Lingua Franca
6. April 2012
The husband walked the dog. A power-walking woman overtook them. She glanced backward and paused. May I pet your dog? she asked with the breathy voice of a power-walker who has just paused. The husband said yes. The woman knelt before the dog and cooed and petted it. She looked up at the husband and, [...]
Continue reading...Cream & Sugar – St. George
3. April 2012
In the second installment of Cream & Sugar, Elton Pierce decides on a whim to go to church. It’s probably a mid-life whim. There, he meets his father, or (since his father is dead) the ghost of his father, or at least the spirit of a stern paternalism that questions his motivations, judges him, weaves [...]
Continue reading...Story: The Volume Knob
30. March 2012
This story is a parable. I wrote it as an explanation for my decision to stop using slacktivist web sites like leadnow.ca and avaaz.org. I fail to see how signing an online petition gives me, or anyone else, a voice. It ratchets up the volume of public discussion, but at the expense of quality. I’ve [...]
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18. May 2012
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