Very Short Stories

From Wired:

We'll be brief: Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work. So we asked sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games to take a shot themselves.

Dozens of our favorite auteurs put their words to paper, and five master graphic designers took them to the drawing board. Sure, Arthur C. Clarke refused to trim his ("God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' The universe ceased to exist."), but the rest are concise masterpieces.


I'm not going to reprint all of them, just a selection that pertain or will have interest to our group.

• Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket. - William Shatner

• Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so. - Joss Whedon

• Automobile warranty expires. So does engine. - Stan Lee

• Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time. - Alan Moore

• From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings. - Gregory Maguire
  

• With bloody hands, I say good-bye. - Frank Miller
  

• It cost too much, staying human. - Bruce Sterling
  

• 1940: Young Hitler! Such a cantor! - Michael Moorcock
  

• I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ? - Neil Gaiman

• Easy. Just touch the match to - Ursula K. Le Guin
  

• Bush told the truth. Hell froze. - William Gibson
  

And a Dark Forces Special:

• We crossed the border; they killed us. - Howard Waldrop

• H-bombs dropped; we all died. - Howard Waldrop

• Your house is mine: soft revolution. - Howard Waldrop

• Warskiing; log; prop in face. - Howard Waldrop

• The Axis in WWII: haiku! Gesundheit. - Howard Waldrop

• Salinger story: three koans in fountain. - Howard Waldrop

• Rained, rained, rained, and never stopped. - Howard Waldrop
  

"Green Brother"

For those of you who own (or in Paul Miles' case are in) Weird Business, be sure to check out the John Lucas-illustrated adaptation of "Green Brother" from Howard Who?

A little side note about Messrs. Miles and Lucas, in the 90s they produced (Miles wrote, Lucas drew) a serialized strip for the XLent, the weekly produced by The Austin-American Statesman. For the life of me, I can't remember the strip's name but it ran 8-10 weeks. I seem to recall it being a full page strip. I'm sure Paul could fill in the info gaps.

Rick

This is cool!

Of course, when the blog gets set up (thanks Rick and Erik!) I got *nothing*, absolutely nothing.

Following the Howard Waldrop theme, I remember the one time I did Turkey City (years and years ago). I'd written a story set in the 30s just over the border at a rogue clear channel radio station. I was worried that the subject would be too obscure and non "science-fictionny" for the group, but not only did Waldrop get it (get, not necessarily liked) but he had some cool reference stuff on miracle cures, essence of goat or something like that, which I had touched on in the story. I suspect you could toss any retro subject out at him and he'd have at least some knowledge of it.

My copy of Howard Who?

My copy of Howard Who? (1986) is actually part of Strange Things In Close Up, a collection of Waldrop's first two anthologies . The second being All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past (1987). Oddly, this UK collection from Legend shows no pub date but it must be sometime before 1990 since after his inscription Waldrop wrote October 13, 1990. I presume that was ArmadilloCon that year. Before the mid-90s, Armadillocon always happened on Texas-OU weekend when the hotels were cheapest. I can't recall the reasoning for pushing it back to August. We all know how everyone loves to visit Austin in sweltering August as opposed to beautiful, cool October.

Rick

Let's get the party started.. again!

After some phenagling, Erik and I determined that this would actually work better for our group. So here's a repost of the first message.

Even though this was Miles' idea, I'll make the first post because who knows when he'll get here. Initially the plan is to help facilitate discussion pre-meeting about whatever books we are discussing. I'd also like to use this forum to discuss possible forthcoming titles.



Here's the schedule for the next three months:

• August 8: Howard Who? by Howard Waldrop
• September 12: Pantheon High Volume 1 by Paul Benjamin and Steven Cummings
• October 10: Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

Rick