Short Fiction

Well, I have caught whatever bug is going around my “bill paying job.” I hope that this entry in to the Short Fiction blog makes sense.

I completed the rough draft of the short story “The Last Friend.” After an online discussion with one of my blog readers regarding nothing to do with the actual story, I had an idea. The discussion I had with the reader was a question if I could write a story from the woman’s point of view in first person. The question and discussion made me remember a story that I read by William Faulkner. In his novella “As I Lay Dying” he tells a tale of a family quest to bury the remains of one character. Each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view. With the discussion in mind and the memory of Faulkner’s tale, I decided to write “The Last Friend” following the same path.

If “The Last Friend” was a play, it would be a one act, one scene play. It takes place in an unnamed St. Louis Blues bar. The story is told from the first person point of view between Melody, a raising star in Rhythm and Blues and her boyfriend, AZ. Melody is singing one last time in the bar that gave birth to her coming career before she leaves St. Louis. AZ is there to listen to Melody one last time. He has never told her anything about his work, but this night would be different and he dreads telling her his secret. This night, his job is to bring an end to Melody.

I write this story with each scene told from the first person point of view of either Melody or AZ. I should have this story ready to send to a possible publisher by the end of December.

Meanwhile, I have started work on “Abraxas.” However, “Abraxas” is no longer the title of the story. I have changed it to “The Tower.” As I wrote in an earlier blog, with this story I leave the world of the supernatural and enter the universe of Science Fiction. It is the story of the last ruminant of mankind trying to survive on a hostile world that has to be terraformed if man is to continue to exist in the universe. I plan to have this story rough drafted by this time next week.

After I finish “The Tower,” I shall start work on a new crime drama that will deal with stem cell research and domestic terrorism.

Thank you for reading and please checkout www.davidalanlucas.com for more information.