Howefitz Blog

He looks down at his sleeping son. Although the boy is only six weeks old, the father feels like he didn’t know what life was before the child was born. Was there a time when this small angel didn’t exist? The father couldn’t imagine a life without his son. It seems he can’t remember what his life was before.

The father cherishes his son in that moment, trying to commit every detail to memory. Even the blemishes, even the flaky cradle cap, is precious to the father.

A flash.

Vertigo.

Although I do my best to participate in FatherHood Friday each week, it’s been a while since I posted a Fiction Friday post. Inspired by one of Kat’s sketches, I decided to do just that…

Wednesday night, my fifteen year old step-daughter presented a story that she had written for a science fiction class. The assignment was to write a 100 word story based on themes found in George Orwell‘s 1984. The class chose ‘fear’:

Blank

by Kat

     She finds herself walking down an endless hall. The only light is a few candles. Hears footsteps turning to see a girl. Her face like blank paper. Gripping a knife, running towards her. She runs, the walls narrow, enclosing her. Thick red liquid drips from the ceiling down the walls. Drenching her arms and dress.

I’ve been experiencing a bit of the old writer’s block lately. In search of ideas, I remembered a writing seminar I went to a couple of years ago that was hosted by Orson Scott Card. He said that his favorite response he’d heard from a writer when asked ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ was from Harlan Ellison, who would reply, ‘From you, that’s why you don’t have any!’

So, in that spirit, here are a few quotes that I’ve dug up about ideas and the aquiring of them:

As Saturday drew to a close, I remembered that I forgot my staple Friday feature, Fiction Friday. Oops. Well, what with the Thanksgiving holiday, my step daughter’s birthday on Wednesday, and Black Friday, I didn’t exactly have time to create a brand new story. So I’m digging back into the vault and dredging up a story that only a few eyeballs have seen. I had submitted it to Asimov’s, but was told it wasn’t the right fit at that time. Oh well, maybe it will get some exposure here and you will enjoy it.

Without any further ado, I give you…

In the spirit of this new blog, I’m not going to tie myself down to a set pattern, i.e. Manic Mondays, Two-fer Tuesdays, Whimsy Wednesdays, etc. However, with the release of the latest preview for J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie, (view it here) I think I will try to stick to one dedicated feature. Every Friday, I will post a piece of fiction from yours truly. Since I just decided to do this about ten minutes ago and didn’t have all week to prepare an original story, I’m posting my favorite Star Trek story that I entered into the Strange New Worlds short story contest. Needless to say, I didn’t win, but this story still reserves a soft spot in my heart. Deep Space Nine remains my all time favorite Star Trek series, and ‘Far Beyond the Stars’ is, for me, the quintessential Star Trek episode. So I decided to dig into that just a little deeper. Unfortunately, I forgot to include a tribble, so Dean Wesley Smith passed on publishing it.