Patience

This week's story is called: Patience (2015 words)

This is the fourth in my Death series (conversations between the Grim Reaper and a person about to die), following on from Higher Ground, A Moment's Peace & In Convalescence. 

Again it's short, just a character study really. I found this one quite difficult- I had the idea that firstly not everyone is going to be going to heaven, some people will be bad people, and also that some people might not appreciate Death analyzing them no matter how familiar he appears. I decided to go with a gangster type but then found it hard to make it sound realistic, or believable.

I initially wanted to go with an American gangster but knew I would struggle to pull it off and worried that it would sound too pulpy. Having said that, even after I started I realised I was writing him like he was American and had to go back through and change the dialogue. I took Brighton Rock as my main influence, mixed with a bit of Kray lore (courtesy of Wikipedia of course!) and knocked it out in a couple of days.

As I was writing it I realised there were similarities between this and The Wolf Of Whitechapel which is unintentional- I think i'm just getting a bit creatively drained...

Give it a read if you've got any free time and drop me a line about what you think!

B A Jones 29/06/2014 

In Convalescence

This week's story is: In Convalescence (2005 words)

This is the third part of my series of stories featuring conversations with Death. I thought it would be interesting to look at situations where it would be hard for Death to visit because the person either remains alone or is only ever visited by people they know.

Eve thought I should write a female character which I didn't want to do because I don't like writing anything I can't identify with but I thought the challenge would be good for me so this ones got two!

As with the last two, I wrote this in an afternoon during down time from the novel, its only short so give it a try and see what you think!

B A Jones 23/06/2014

A Moment's Peace

Today's story is called: A Moment's Peace (2008 words)

This is a continuation of the project I started and sent out last week, hence the 'two' on the cover.

The concept, which I'm confident enough to reveal now, is about the Grim Reaper. 

I'll freely admit I got the idea watching American Horror Story (I won't say how in case it's a spoiler!) but I thought it might be interesting if Death were to visit everyone shortly before they died to 'evaluate' them. I imagined he/she to be sort-of a psychiatrist who makes evaluations that are then forwarded to the next stage for consideration- be that Jesus, St. Michael, Budda or whoever. So the 'judge' makes the final decision as to heaven, hell or purgatory but they use Deaths evaluation as a recommendation.

So what would those conversations be like? He would need to get a good picture of their morality, regrets, fears, etc. He couldn't pass judgement or make recommendations to the person, and if it were a suicide he'd have to be careful not to talk them out of it. He'd need to gain their trust quickly so I thought it would make sense that he would always appear as a familiar face of a similar age- If Death is always a middle-aged woman not everyone is going to be comfortable talking about their feelings with her! 

For myself as the writer I decided to set some rules- it could only be 2000ish words, that way I could get more work done as I would be writing to a plan, but also it would be a challenge to have someone give a picture of their psychological make up in so short a piece. I also wanted to remain quite ambiguous regarding the judgement- present unusual or conflicted characters and leave it to the reader to judge whether they're blessed or cursed.

The interesting part for me was the choice of story- Death can come to anyone from any age, I didn't want to get bogged down with the Santa Clause paradox (he needs to be everywhere at once) but I thought it might be hard for him to visit certain people who either don't meet anyone new or are in difficult situations that don't lend themselves to meaningful chats-

This weeks one concerns a Private during the Normandy landings, a very tough time for Death to get a chance to talk.

Hope you enjoy, the next few weeks stories will be more of these cases and now you know the real concept it might change the way you read them, help you understand the stakes for the subject!

B A Jones 16/06/2014

Higher Ground

Today's story is called: Higher Ground [2010 words]

So I'm going to be a bit cagey about this one, depending on how things pan out I might come back and re-edit this post and give more detail but for now I'm just going to keep the details pretty basic (it's not my novel by the way, nothing like it!).

I wrote this in a day, on Saturday, and came up with the idea only two days before. I was just going to sleep and it hit me so I got up and scribbled it down in my notebook. The idea was about a series (the 'One' on the image should clue you in) but this specific story I didn't really think about until I was actually sat at my laptop yesterday bashing it out. It's not a plot I'm generally comfortable with (no action) but when I'm in the right mood I quite like having a platform for more philosophical musings- as long as they aren't meaningless! 

It's got a certain anti-corporate element that I'll admit is personal but I guess that kind of thing is inevitable- and maybe helps my writing if it's something that I have strong feelings for anyway...

See what you think and give me some feedback,

B A Jones 10/06/2014

The Wolf of Whitechapel

This weeks story is called: The Wolf of Whitechapel (10,887 words)                                        

I began writing this story about three weeks ago.
The werewolf is an interesting gothic character because, although strongly associated with the genre, there is no real definitive werewolf story from the nineteenth century. Universal's 1941 monster movie The Wolf Man made a huge impact on popular culture, so much so that people came to strongly identify Larry Talbot as being as iconic a character as Vlad Dracula and Victor Frankenstein. But the story (much like Universal's 1932 The Mummy) was written by Hollywood screenwriter Curt Siodmak purely from his own imagination. Even the famous 'legend',

"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright." 

was a fabrication of Siodmak's. So there's room for a great Victorian werewolf story...
For my sins I bought the much derided 2010 remake of The Wolfman (on Blu-Ray as well!) and I'll be honest with you- it's not as bad as I remembered. The sets are incredible and the plot works well enough, it's just the look of the wolves that's a problem but if you know its coming you can ignore it and appreciate everything else. Anyway, I was watching it whilst writing A Study in Blood and I started coming up with my own Victorian werewolf idea- Eve and I used to know this guy who went through these, essentially bipolar, cycles of temperament, from warm, open friendliness that lasted a week at most to unbearably aggressive dislike and distrust that would last upwards of three months! I thought that would make an interesting alternative take on the idea of transformation- what if a man slowly became more aggressive and wild in appearance, unshaven, unwashed, long hair and nails etc. but then after a psychological break would clean himself up (shave, wash, buy new clothes). if you were to meet this man the day he was 'wild' and then the morning after when he had cleaned himself up you would think he'd completely transformed- like a werewolf!
I decided to write it from the point of view of a doctor's case study to make it sound more authentic, since I was going for a realistic approach.

I'll be honest- I'm not too happy with this one. I had a lot of high hopes and conceptual ideas but couldn't reconcile them to a short story- it would work better two or three times longer (and it's already too long for a short story) and I made it end too abruptly to compensate for this. I could see it being a series, either stretching out the werewolf case or featuring other clients by the same doctor, but as a stand alone it's just not good enough for the subject matter. I also think I was too tame about the supernatural element- wouldn't it have been great if he was a real werewolf? I threw in a vague allusion to a Gypsy curse at the last minute to try to add a bit more of a supernatural flavour...
Maybe one day I'll rewrite it or recycle the idea into something much more important, but for now here it is- hope you enjoy!

B A Jones 30/05/2014