Why 500 hundred words?

Why 500 hundred words? Why is that such a magic number?

If you look at it 500 words is a very good amount to convey a message, it doesn't matter what the message is. It gets you to the point of your message allowing it to be clearly articulated and presented, with some style.

For short stories, to be honest, that's a bit short, you can't really develop a character, can't develop a lot of scenery and setting, but you if you're efficient you can convey the message and get your idea across. It's not the perfect amount, for sure, but at it's most basic you can get that idea out there and it's a good starting point. You can use this starting point to expand further if you want. 

If you look at it from the perspective of a student, say a high school student, they encounter the 500 word mark on a regular basis. The teacher wants an essay on a topic and they say it needs to be 500 words. Most students grumble and try to put something together. If they're ambitious this suggested length can be blown out of the water, others struggle with it. But from a basic essay perspective this length allows you to introduce your topic, put in an argument and support it. Its just long enough to be meaningful without being verbose.

Finally from a business perspective, 500 words is huge! To put it into context that's a very long email and can you possibly imagine a PowerPoint presentation that long? But there are times you need to write longer form documents at work and it becomes important for things like proposals to get the idea across correctly.

So why 500 words? Well the premise behind the name of the site and the amount is: its enough to convey an idea, its a great starting point for a story. Its not really about the word count but the ability to convey an idea, your idea and make it good which is why we've also got the "Or so..." in the title.

Its NaNoWriMo!

What is NaNoWriMo and why is it up on this site you ask?

Well, November is the National Novel Writing Month and its a very cool concept, you take the month of November to write your novel. The site itself is run as a non-profit to help you track your progress.

At its core the concept is pretty simple if you write about 1,650 words per day you end up with about the length of a novel in a story. And if you're relatively quick about it and the idea flows then that goal isn't that much. But you aren't limited to writing a novel you can use this month to track pretty much any type of writing.

For example if you like to blog or are thinking about starting one up then the 50,000 or so words that typically make up a novel this would net you a whole lot of blog posts (500 one thousand word posts). That amount of writing would be enough to keep many a blog going for a very long time. But this site is meant for writing a novel.

Writing a novel, even one that never gets published is a huge accomplishment and one that many people would love to do this is one way to help encourage yourself to do it.

The idea is very cool, I highly encourage you to check it out.

New Approach for the Site

I want to revitalize this site and get it back up and running with a bit more info than a few odd stories. I was thinking of moving forward not only with short stories but also what I've learned writing including all kinds of writing. The difference between this site and other writing sits will be that we'll still post short stories.

Over the years I've realized being able to write and communicate through writing is incredibly important. Hopefully this site will help people express their thoughts and ideas through words. From stories to presentations to a well crafted emails. There is an art in words.

What can you expect?

A continuation of the writing I've already placed on here; that's what prompted me to revisit the site in the first place. Life is busy but crafting a good short story can be done at least every week or two along with some posts about writing and how I and others approach it.

Finally I also want to open the site up a bit and include stories and articles from others; if you have a story or post idea you'd like to share let me know and we can see about including it on the site. 

Revitalizing the site

UPDATE

I know that originally I posed a couple years back that I wanted to revitalize the site. Not much happened at the time but as you can see there are some changes slowly happening. I read through some of the writing and liked it; some of it definitely needs editing but at the core it was something I liked. I enjoyed the writing and the reading.

There will be some changes coming as well, not only fiction but other things will be coming because 500 words or so applies not only to creative writing but to everything!

updated: Oct 16, 2013

August 7th - Part IV

The day went by rather quickly after that which was rather nice since I was really looking forward to the evening. When you’re busy preparing for winter you don’t have the opportunity to just spend time with someone whenever you want. I really wish that was a possibility but even today, knowing I was going to be seeing Em I still had to work with my dad till almost 7 before I could just take off. Normally this wouldn’t have even happened simply because of all the regular routine tasks that have to be done every night and day just to be able to be as productive as possible during the daylight hours and I might add during the warm hours.

I digress, the day went quickly and I found I was taking my shower before I even knew it and I definitely needed one today. I’m glad my parents didn’t mind me using the extra water; the heater runs on electricity and you don’t want to be wasting that unnecessarily. I got dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a nice shirt, I don’t have many of those since most of my work is fairly physical so it was a bit of a treat, even if we’re only going to the pub.

I was ready, I got my shoes on and I was about to put on my jacket when my mom looked up from her papers, “Have fun Joseph, you’ve definitely earned it.”

“Thanks mom” I replied putting my jacket on then I walked over and gave her a kiss on the forehead, “I’ll try not to be out too late”

It was already getting dark out and it wasn’t even that late, maybe 8:30 when I closed the door to the house behind me. The walk to the bar was pretty quick since most of the buildings in what’s left of the town are clustered together. The building was fairly large in that it was two floors with the pub also being a local inn or hotel. There wasn’t a great deal of travel so keeping a full hotel up and running really didn’t make much sense. It also meant that whenever someone came to town everyone knew about it.

I opened the door to find the place about half full, people often came here to have a drink or just to socialize before heading home. There was also a bit of a buzz that was a bit louder than normal; maybe a traveler came into town. I saw Emily instantly sitting in our favorite booth in the back corner and headed over there right away.

She noticed me coming over and smiled warmly her eyes lighting up, “You’re late you know!” she quipped in my direction as I came to the booth.

“I wanted to look my best for you!” I jabbed back and leaned over giving her a kiss. Taking off my jacket I asked, “What’s with all the noise? Someone new in town?”

Continued from: August 7 - Part I
Story: The Longest Winter

August 7th - Part III

After finishing breakfast I grabbed my jacket and headed out the door, it was a beautiful morning the sun was shining and a few wisps of clouds were floating by though there was a bit of crispness to the air. Taking in a deep breath I started towards the storage that we used for building supplies. It was simply a warehouse that we used for storing building supplies, as did others, it’s much easier to keep one storage building insulated and standing through the winters than everyone having their own. It was a fairly big building being it was 3 floors high but I was also one of the ugliest buildings in town, it looked like a big box, no windows only a couple doors.

I could see the monstrosity just down the street, the town was pretty quiet today, only a handful of people milling around. Just then I heard a familiar voice behind me, “Joesph, wait up!” Stopping and turning around I saw Em and couldn’t help but smile; her face was bathed in the morning sun and she looked radiant even though she was carrying a large bundle, “Hey Em! I’d give you a hug but my arms aren’t quite that long, want a hand?”

She walked up and gave me a kiss, “Sure thing, you headed to the box?” She always called the warehouse the box and rightfully so.

“Actually I am, my Dad needs some supplies so I’m the lucky one to go” I answered as I took some of her bundle. Looking at the things I grabbed from Em I realized that I was holding summer blankets, “Breaking out the warmer sleeping gear?”

“Yeah, my mom was complaining about the cold this morning so before anything I was told to switch them up” Em replied, more of her was now visible that I was carrying half of her bundle, she was wearing a pair of jeans, a pink sweater and a black jacket, the effect was simple but very nice. It made her look a bit older than her seventeen years but that was ok, she always had the air of maturity and wisdom about her, it was one of the things I liked about her.
“So we’re still on for later today?” I asked a bit nervously, chores and tasks tended to delay things especially when it started to get colder.

We reached the warehouse door by this point so I grabbed the door handle and swung it open before I could get an answer and held the door for her. I got this coy smile as Em walked in with a slightly raised eyebrow not stopping she headed straight for their locker. Her brown hair hung just past her shoulders and bounced slightly as she walked a bit quicker than normal making sure to sway her hips a bit in the process. It was just enough to get my attention in the faded light inside the building.

I quickly let go of the door and quickly followed her inside, she turned the corner to their storage locker and I heard the lock being opened. Turning the corner there was Em, looking right at me with that same coy smile, “What do you think? If course we’re still on for tonight” She took the bundle from me throwing it inside then kissed me, “And that’s just a taste for later, now go before you distract me too much”

Continued from: August 7 - Part I
Story: The Longest Winter

August 7th - Part II

Coming back out of the bathroom the only thing that was different was that now there was an extra plate of food sitting on the table in the empty spot beside my dad, who was still rather absentmindedly looking towards the papers and only occasionally taking a piece of backing and eating it. I sat down looking at my plate, lots of bacon and two fried eggs with some potatoes. Much better than the bacon and porridge that I would be subjected to for most of the winter.

Looking over his glasses at me as I sat down my dad had a thoughtful look on his face. He was all business this morning, as he typically was about 10 minutes into breakfast. “Joeseph, I’m going to need you to go over to the storage and bring a couple cans of the resin we stored away earlier this summer and bring them to Nancy and Jim’s place after breakfast. Then go over to Juan’s to see how the chicken shed held up over night, be sure to check the whole building since I think it went below freezing last night.”

Just then my mother cut in as she sat down with a plate of food for herself, “Oh Mike, could you just let him eat his breakfast before you give him his tasks for the day.” She grabbed a piece then before she got to putting it in her mouth looked over at my dad, “I’m going to start work on the plans for the store house today, we really need to get that fixed up before it gets too cold.”

Putting the papers down, my dad nodded, “Probably a good idea, Nancy and Jim’s is going to take a week or so which should leave us more than enough time to finish the shed before we have to start patching up the town hall and the tunnel struts.”

They continued to talk about work while I was enjoying the bacon and eggs wondering what was in store for me after I did my two small tasks, probably helping out on Nancy and Jim’s would be my guess since Jeff one of our helping hands had to take off a bit early to help bring in the crops with his family. It would be a busy day I figured, but I would see my Em at the end of it so it would be worth it.

“Hey Mom,” I asked looking up suddenly, “How’s the water heater working? I wanted to take a shower before heading out to meet with Em today”

Looking over from the same piece of paper my father had been engrossed in she smiled, “Oh it’s working fine, the changes you made seem to be holding up quite nicely. So I guess you’ll be out late tonight at the pub?”

I couldn’t help but smile quirkily back at her, they liked Em which was a good thing since secrets are hard to keep in small communities, “Yeah probably.”

Continued from: August 7 - Part I
Story: The Longest Winter

August 7th - Part I

There was a chill in the room that I felt on my face as I heard my mother calling from the kitchen getting me to wake up for breakfast. I looked over at the clock sitting on the side table it read 9:30 and was ticking away happily as if nothing was any different than any other day in the past but the weather was colder and I was going to see Em today. I glared at the clock trying to teach it a lesson with my glare letting it know that today was going to be a good.

The warmth of the bed was tempting me with a few more minutes of sleep when another holler came from the kitchen, “Joseph, get up breakfast is ready!”

Reluctantly I scanned the room looking for some clothes that were handy, the floor was going to be cold and I knew it, my face was cold enough and I didn’t want to get out from under the covers. But breakfast was waiting and I would be that much closer to seeing Em, my sweet Emily. I noticed the jeans I had on yesterday lying close to the dresser, luck, I could get some socks on just after my pants and I had to have a clean shirt and sweater in the dresser.

I took the plunge and threw the covers off jumping out of bed racing for the dresser, the five feet seemed like it was a mile. I pretty much jumped into the jeans without doing them up before I dove for the dresser opening the sock drawer and the sweater drawer grabbing the first things I could before jumping back onto the somewhat warm bed to put my clothes on. The jeans were still cold against my legs as I sat down getting my feet off the cold floor.

The sweater and socks were very welcome but by the time I was in them I was already starting to get used to the woken up used to the cold feeling. It wasn’t really all that cold, my glass of water beside the happily ticking clock still had water in it and not ice so it was just my imagination.

“Joseph are you coming!?” came the yell from behind the door.

Opening the door the smell of breakfast reached me, bacon, that was definitely bacon I smelled. Looks like dad brought in some of the food from the freezer that we got in payment for patching up the Jones’ pig house last month. This was going to be a treat, at least today.

“Morning” I managed to mumble on my way to the bathroom. My father was sitting at the table eating his breakfast looking over a piece of paper that looked like a list of supplies for today’s job. The next house that we needed to fix up was the Bergman’s, they wanted to patch it up before it got cold and they were paying in cash which was a nice change since most of the people this summer had paid in barter or agreed barter for food during the winter months which would be upon us soon.

Story: The Longest Winter

Parents

So what else has changed? Well not nearly as much manufacturing goes on as it used to for rather obvious reasons. In the past there were huge factories that produced anything and everything under the sun, most of the items were useless luxiuries that are no longer neccessary and most of the time there weren’t even any people creating anything it was machines that did the work. Factories still exist, people specializing in creating specific things and then trading them for either money or bartering for things they need to survive like food and clothes. People learned to focus on their strengths, my parents were resourceful when they first got to Florida they knew about snow and took advantage of that helping people remove it and clear it away for money. That’s changed, now everyone knows about the snow and we’ve all gotten very efficient about removing it… we don’t remove it all now; that’s too much work. But I digress.

My parents, I’ve mentioned them a few times but not their names, Michael and Julia Smythe. My dad was in still in university studying mathematics and physics he had a bunch of odd jobs here and there that often relied on the fact that he was a pretty hand guy and resourceful. My mother on the other hand had just finished a college degree in computers, web design specifically. Between the two of them they were able to raise me and start a small business that provided enough money and often traded food that has kept us alive. Smythe House Construction and Insulation is the name of the company and I’ve been working with my family since I could be useful. The winters damage as much as they can kill, each winter houses collapse under the weight of the snow not to mention the ice that gets in and then there’s the matter of cold. So we’re kept pretty busy well into the first snowfalls.

It’s a very efficient operation when it comes to pretty much everything my mom and dad work together to plan everything out, they use my moms computer skills with my dad’s knowledge of math and physics to make sure everything is sound before we start building or fixing anything. I almost forgot, computers still exist, there isn’t many new ones being made but they still exist, it’s a completely different society than in the past but some technology has stayed if it hasn’t prospered in some unique and often limited way.

Frustration

The world has changed drastically since I was born; the first couple winters really brought the worst out in people. I still remember seeing two grown men get into a fist fight over a snow shovel they started scrapping in the middle of the road as I was looking out the window, I couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 at the time. It was a very clear sign of the frustration the changes had brought to people, I didn’t know what it meant at the time but I understand it now, thankfully we’ve had some extra time to adjust to the situation now when there is a dispute over who wants and needs what there is much more sharing.

Though there is also a resignation to the inevitable and that can be seen in the older people, those that have survived the past 20 or so years and remember the past, how it was the ease of life. Sadly now when these people hit this resignation is when many of them die, not because they’re trying to commit suicide or anything silly like that. They get careless when there isn’t a lot of room for error.

It creeps up on you this frustration; it happens in younger people as well I’ve seen some of my friends going through it though it’s never as bad as when it’s the people who remember the past. We only hear stories about it. I myself have never seen a plane fly though I’ve seen pictures and understand how it works. There aren’t many cars left, but they’re still around, I can see the fruits of past labors, I can see how life must have been in the past.

The frustration really creeps in when you realize that it never really needed to be this way, we had the ability to stop this but we chose not to. The companies of the past were greedy even though a great many of them had started taking care of the planet in their own small ways before things started. It was the ones from 50, 70, and 90 years ago that were the big problem they did things without considering the consequences. Not people consider what they do… mostly.

St. Augustine

The really sad thing is they lost touch with most of their friends and families. Tragedies were reported from all over the planet. Roofs collapsing under the weight of the snow, transportation routes cut off, people simply freezing to death in absolutely frigid temperatures. The winter finally broke in late April, but it took till the end of may for most of the snow to melt, some places it was June before the snow was gone and that’s around Jacksonville. The cities to the north weren’t as lucky, winter still broke but the summer that they had was what would have been deemed a summer in the arctic.

A couple of my parents friends managed to survive and headed south as soon as they could, knowing we were in Florida (I was already alive by the time they made it and found us). A lot of services were in taters across the globe; news didn’t travel as fast though many means of passing information along were still in use. The Internet was still functioning to some degree and passing information along. TV and radio still worked so everyone got the full-scale horror of what had happened. Countries like Canada and Russia were virtually non-existent, those that had survived were moving south by whatever means they could but there was very few of them. I learnt more about this over the years growing up.

That summer it turned out was a good one, at least for me; I was born, and I was a healthy baby boy. So I guess when I said I was Canadian it was only half true because I’m also American because of where I was born. It doesn’t really matter because there isn’t all that much of Canada left for me to go back and visit.

We moved out of Jacksonville shortly after I was born, coincidentally about the time my parents’ friends found us. We headed south, we weren’t intending to go far but we wanted to get out of the city; the breakdown of services was more pronounced in cities, the police were simply not able to deal with the crime and looting especially when people ran out of money and lost their jobs. We moved to a town called St. Augustine; that’s where I grew up and that’s where we’re still living. Close enough to a city to get its support and to help support it but far enough away that there’s some isolation and safety.

My name is Joseph Smythe

My name is Joseph Smythe and I’m a Canadian, I was born in the first winter and I turned 19 a few weeks ago. I live in one of these communities I just mentioned. My parents managed to survive the very first winter by sheer luck, they took a vacation in early December to the Dominican Republic. The winter had already been a hard one so they decided to go warm up for a week before Christmas. Their return flight to what was the city of Toronto never managed to get back. They boarded the plane and were told that there was a snowstorm but they had been cleared to take off. No one though anything of this because these types of things happen when you live in Canada.

I’ve heard my dad recount the story, after about an hour in the air the pilot came on the planes PA system and announced that they had been diverted to Miami because the storm around Toronto wasn’t letting up and a second one was coming in south of it. The pilot neglected to mention that Washington was already under three feet of snow and more was coming it was like the old movie The Day After Tomorrow but not quite as bad. By that I mean there was none of the flash freezing and gargantuan snow fall that they showed; it took time.

The plane landed in Jacksonville, Florida in the end because the Miami airport was full and they were expecting even more planes. That’s where we started that first winter, Jacksonville. States of Emergency were declared throughout Canada and most of the northern states, planes were refused permission to fly there and to land there so my parents did what they had to, with a temporary visa to stay in the US my dad did what he had done each winter as a kid, he shoveled snow. This is how they were able to scrape by. Even then this first winter was harsh, over 15 feet of snow ended up falling in Jacksonville that winter which kept my father and eventually mother quite busy and able to survive. But this was the beginning of the mess. They never left Florida and they count their blessings every day that they survived.

The Coming Winter

Dawn broke a very steely grey on August 9th, which matched the coolness of the air. Patches of frost could be seen in the open fields, it was obvious that it was getting colder as each day passed. The frost would be gone before noontime but it stuck in the mind, winter was coming and it would be worse than the winter before. The growing seasons had been bad in the local communities; ever since the war they had almost always been bad. There had been stories that in the olden times there were marvels beyond belief in this world but now it was a desolate place where winters killed almost as many people as the spring and summer brought into existence.

People used any means possible to survive now, at first it was roving bands of roughians but that had stopped almost 20 years ago, after the first winter. Sure there were still bands of thugs here and there but they were sparse and much more organized than before. The first winter taught them a very valuable lesson; at least for those that survived, there is strength in numbers and preparation.

Many people didn’t survive the first winter after the war, when it came it came with such a fury that none had seen in the past. It was as if Mother Nature had decided to repay humanity for the damage that had been done to her. The war itself crippled most countries, killing billions; leaving the rest to fend for them selves and to protect them selves. Where there had been strong nations now there were tatters and bands of mini states. Within the first couple years it became clear that the easiest way to survive initially was within communities. These cities weren’t large, they housed a few thousand each at most, and they were extremely efficient in how they worked. Everyone did their part to survive but still the winters got people. Some regions were harder hit than others, the northern areas were hardest hit, countries like Canada survived intact but it really didn’t matter because the winters came and nature took over. In the more northern countries of the world the first few winters killed all but a small group of the survivors and those that did survive very quickly started moving south.

All told the worlds population went from close to 9 billion before the war to about 250 million across the planet after the first war. Most of the technology that had been attained was lost, damaged or set aside in order to survive. After 20 years people had learnt to survive and now they were ready to start putting the pieces back together, it was the young generation those born in the first year or two after the war that wanted to reestablish some of what was in the past, to better survive the winters, to see what happened to the rest of humanity.

The New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! Regular story posts will resume this week on Friday!

In the Meantime (exerpt)

Krystal sank down deeper into the hot, sudsy water. She leaned her head back and took a sip of wine from the glass that rested on the bathtub ledge. This was the first chance she's had to relax in weeks. She wanted to enjoy the moment, but at the same time, could feel that familiar restlessness creep over her. She closed her eyes and breathed in the perfumed, steamy air, loving the feeling of the water on her skin. She took another sip of wine and focused on the candle that was sitting by the sink. Its flamed danced seductively. Somewhere in the background she could hear Samantha singing along to an old 80's tune that was playing on the radio.

It would be one year this weekend since she and Sam first came to Vegas. They had become friends in high school, due to a shared interest in music, and it wasn't long before they were putting on shows together with all of the local bands. After college, Vegas seemed like a logical choice - the girls were determined to become famous and both had stars in their eyes. Right off the bat, they got hired as singing waitresses at the Hollywood Diner. Not exactly dream jobs, but eventually it lead to bigger and better things. Now the two of them were part of a huge tribute show at the Hardrock Hotel - it had been running for 8 months now. Five shows a week - two on Sundays and Thursday was their night off. The job paid well enough for them to keep a modest, 2-bedroom apartment over looking The Strip, and kept their days free for other odd jobs, training at the gym, and rehearsals.

Hey, it was a living.

Vegas. You either hated it, or loved it. Fortunately, both girls preferred the latter. It was a city that was always growing and changing. People coming and going. Nothing ever stayed the same for long. That was the attraction. Plus, the lifestyle kept them really busy, which is why Krystal was having such a hard time getting out of the tub.

A sharp knock at the door brought her out of the trance.

"Come in.' She sighed.

Samantha peeked her head around the door, a huge grin on her face, "How much longer?" she asked.

Krystal crinkled her brow, "5 more minutes?" she questioned.

At that point, Sam burst in and perched herself on the edge of the tub, cigarette in hand. She picked up the wine glass and drained it, "It's getting late Cinderella - get out of the tub."

"Fine." Krys gave in and Sam jumped to her feet and left, tossing her friend a towel on the way out. Krystal stood, wrapped herself in the fluffy towel, and followed after.

"What are you going to wear?" She found Sam pawing through her closet.

"Well, " she turned, a mischievous look in her eye, "I'm going for 'Sexy Vixen' tonight, so you may want to consider that while you decide your ensemble - plus, if we don't show a little skin, we won't get in."

Krystal grinned, "We always get in." she mused, "We know the bouncers."

In the meantime (Exerpt)

The alarm clock read 6:59 then suddenly flicked to 7:00 and a loud piercing chime went off breaking the silence. The noise was hallow bouncing off the walls of the condominium and echoing slightly. A figure in the bed moved slightly and an arm shot out from under the covers and hit the alarm clock. A deep sigh could be heard as the piercing sound went dead.
A man got up from underneath the covers slowly and stood up, wearing only his boxers. Making his way to the bathroom a little down the hall, the door closed and silence fell on the condominium again. Only to be broken a couple seconds later with water pouring into the sink followed by some loud splashing. A moment’s silence followed again by the sound of water running but this time from the shower.
A couple minutes later the door to the bathroom opened causing a cloud of steam to emanate. The man followed shortly with a towel around his waist, he headed towards the bright living room.
Stopping right in front of the window, the world had greeted the man, a cold blustery day with a savage snow storm raging outside. "Shit" the man mumbled in a hoarse voice. Turning quickly he grabbed the remote and turned the TV on as he headed for the small kitchen adjacent to the living room. Dropping the remote on the kitchen table he grabbed the phone off the wall and punched in a phone number and headed towards the coffee maker.
"Yes, I'll hold"
He poured some fresh coffee grounds into the machine along with some water.
"I'm calling to find out about a flight" his voice clearing quite a bit as he woke up a bit more, "Flight 492 to Las Vegas, no it’s a private jet, yeah my name is Jack Fields."
"Its on time still? Even in this weather?... Thank you"
The second that he put down the receiver of the phone, its shrill ring sang out almost instantly. He quickly snatched it up while trying to balance the half brewed pot of coffee.
"Hello? Figured it’d be you"
"Yeah I’ve looked outside lately?"
Jack suppressed a grin as the panicked voice of his best friend filled his ear.
"Dillon, relax - we're still on. I called the airport. Just be ready for 8:30 - I'll see you there."
He hung up the phone and glanced around, poured himself a mug of coffee and took a sip. One of these days he'd really have to think about buying some furniture. He'd been living in the condo for over six months now but it looked like he just moved in yesterday.
Proceeding back to the bathroom to shave, he glanced in the mirror, his dark, tanned features looking back at him. He smiled. Being one of the best freelance writers in the business certainly did have its perks. Two days ago he was in sunny California doing a piece on an up and coming rock group for Thrash Magazine.
He ran a hand through his thick dark hair, his tired green eyes looking back at him. When the opportunity came up to do Vegas, he jumped at the chance. It was an exclusive interview with Heavyweight Champion Lance Jordan, before his highly publicized fight with Jake Tyler at the MGM Grand. Jordan's people had specifically requested that he personally do the interview. The gig would pay him well. After the job, he'd have a few days for a bit of R & R. Let's face it, work had been keeping him pretty busy since his split with Caitlin, but lately he's been feeling down, he needed a bit of a break. Luckily for him, Dillon was more than happy to accompany him on this quest. If there was anyone who could pull him out of this mood it was Dillon. Practically everything they did together turned into an adventure. Dillon had those good looks and charm that women found irresistible, unlike Jack, who, although he possessed the same good looks, his shyness around women usually caused him to fade into the background next to Dillon's charisma. The mini vacation would be a welcome one.
But taking a break wasn't the only reason that Vegas so appealing. Fact was, if Dillon knew the real reason why Jack was going in the first place, he would never have allowed him on the plane.

Chrismas Cheer - Part 3

Walking down the stark hallway that lead to the employee lounge mike couldn’t help but notice the wet footprints that Julie’s shoes were making in front of him. The cream color of the walls and floor had this sheen to them and making the wet slushy footprints stick out that much more on the floor. Looking up from Julie’s feet Mike noticed that she had a bit of a bounce to her step, like she was in a good mood all of a sudden. I guess you might as well be happy working on Christmas day, he’d taken the approach that he was better off here than at home, nothing to do at home and here you might be able to catch part of a movie if it was quiet enough which it was likely to be.

“Hey Jules, has John made up the pairings for today’s shift?” Mike asked coming to the end of the hall, turning and taking off his jacket. At the end of the hallway was an open closet that the employees hung up their jackets in the winter. Beside that was a very old style punch clock that helped the managers keep track of everyone’s hours.

“Not yet, I think he was waiting for everyone to show up. It’s been pretty dead so far, I think one couple came in about 15 minutes ago for that new James Bond flick. Have you seen that one yet?” Julie responded walking over to the table that sat in the middle of the lounge and sat down at one of the chairs.

Mike grabbed the punch card that had his name on it, put it into the slot of the machine and pulled the lever, “Not yet, last couple days before Christmas was pretty busy, I was hoping to catch pieces of if over the break. How about you?” Mike looked down at the card to inspect that everything was in order then put the card back into its slot. Then looked at who was working tonight, John was the manager, he usually was, then there was Julie, himself, Bobby, who was an overweight kid of maybe 15 who was completely lost when he was trying to do his job but he tried and was a decent enough kid. Then there was Michelle, a friend of Julie’s who took the job because of her and really didn’t care that much about it other than she got some extra coin to spend on clothes, finally there was Sue, the middle aged woman who ran the customer service desk, she was incredibly nice and always helped out the kids, “Not a lot of staff on today, “ Mike commented out loud though it was mostly an internal thought.

“Yeah, oh here comes John” Julie replied as she looked down the hall where a tall man in his early twenties was walking towards the open part of the lounge. He was wearing a black suit and a bright green and red Christmas tie.

Tags: cold,snow,Christmas,smoking,melancholy

Chrismas Cheer - Part 2

Standing there in the cold and rain, huddled underneath the street lamp beside the theatre the lone person stood smoking, the pale blue smoke had a slight orange tinge to it from the light above. The man’s jacket shone in the misty rain and the fact that one of his hands was in his pocket clearly indicated that he was cold. To his right was the parking lot for the movie theatre, there was a grand total of three cars in it at the moment but it was still early, only around 4:30 and the evening traffic hadn’t really started yet, though being Christmas it wasn’t likely to be very busy at all.

Suddenly side door to the theatre popped open, and a girl stuck her head out to look at the light, she was wearing black pants and a bright blue shirt with a nametag. Noticing the figure under the light she ran towards him, “Hey Mike, can I get a drag?”

Mike looked over at the sound of the door opening even though he had been in his own little world he had heard it. Julie didn’t smoke very often; she mostly just bummed a drag off someone or the odd smoke. She was seventeen had a decent family, did well in school, didn’t party too much and was generally a pretty nice person. She always went for smokes with Mike even though she had a boyfriend of a year or so, though he didn’t seem to care that she occasionally flirted with him. “Hey Jules, yeah sure” Mike replied as he handed her the smoke.

“Merry Christmas.” Mike said in a bit of a monotonous tone, “Had a good one so far?”

Julie took a drag of the smoke, and hugged herself with her arms, “It’s been alright” her tone clearly said it had been not quite alright, but Mike decided not to push it just yet, that might involve another smoke and if he was cold Julie must be freezing.

Taking another drag off the smoke and handing it back to Mike Julie asked, “So how’s your Christmas been?”

Mike looked at her and matter of factly responded, “I’ve had better”, and then took a drag and as he exhaled, “Lets get inside you’ve got to be freezing and I should probably punch in”. With that they entered through the door Julie had come out, leaving the parking lot that much emptier.

Tags: cold,snow,Christmas,smoking,melancholy

Chance Encounters (Short)

Frank sat and watched a red pickup drive past the window, a woman was driving it, it was a bright red color with the sun making it seem brighter still. The woman had looked into the store as she drove by, she was young in her early twenties, had auburn hair and was wearing sun glasses.

I wonder who she is? Frank though to himself, I wonder what she’s like, if she has a family, if she’s married. I wonder if I’d like to meet her? Frank had been pondering a question all day now and he had been sitting in the coffee shop all day thinking about it. He was wondering if it really made sense to meet new people and get to know them, especially women. If you get to know someone Frank argued with himself, you eventually get to know all the things about them you don’t like. Like his friend Tommy, well not really his friend. He started hanging out with him and it turned out that Tommy was talking about him behind his back to the guys at work. What a two faced son of a bitch.

Frank sighed, just then the door to the coffee shop opened and the bell on the door made a noise. Looking up Frank saw the woman from the pick up that had just passed. His eyebrow raised, did it make sense to get to know this person? All her secrets, good and bad. All her desires and goals for life, good and bad? All her thoughts?

Frank’s thought trailed and he started daydreaming. He daydreamt of getting up talking to this girl, getting her phone number, dating her, sleeping with her, getting married, kids, a house, a car, summers at the lake, then being betrayed by her adulterous ways and finally getting a divorce and sitting in this very coffee shop wondering if it was worth it. He was lost in thought when he heard a voice, “Excuse me?”

Startled Frank looked around to hear where the voice was coming from and it was the woman from the truck again, she was sitting in the pair of chairs opposite him. He looked back at her and tilted his head to one side and replied with a question, “yes?”

“I was just wondering what you were thinking about. When I sat down you were staring off into space smiling, then your expression changed to anger then to sadness and you were elsewhere the whole time”

“Well… “

“I hope I’m not intruding I was just curious, you don’t see that very often”

Frank studied her for a sec before answering, she was very attractive and her sunglasses were off her face and she had very beautiful blue eyes and she was smiling at him. “Well I was thinking about what the benefits of meeting a new person are, all the good and the bad, and I think I’ve come up with there is good but the risk is just not worth it… I don’t think”

Her expression changed from a smile to a more stern expression, “You should always want to meet new people, they provide you with insights and ideas you would never have come across yourself. Not to mention experiences that you could never have experienced yourself, those ideas and experiences will shape who you are and what you do, without them you could sit in this coffee shop wondering what ifs all day long every day of your life till you died.”

Frank thought about it, “That’s a very interesting point” He thought about his daydream for a sec and a different ending appeared, this one with a happy ending. “You know I think you might have a point at least its worth a try and I can see if it’s worth it later.” He got up and took his coffee and walked over to where the girl was sitting and stood beside her, “Hi, my name is Frank what’s yours?”

“Hi Frank, my name is Michelle. It never hurts to try something out, care to join me?” She looked up at him smiling and gesturing to the empty seat beside her. “You’ll always learn something new from someone new you meet.”

Technorati: meeting new people,ideas,chance encounters,meeting

Chrismas Cheer - Part 1

The streets glistened in the early evening light, everything was covered in a film of water from the rain that had been falling since noon. The streets were completely barren, it was almost depressing to be walking in them. Everyone was at home sitting by their TVs enjoying the day off, Christmas day, rarely a soul came outside. Today was one of those Christmas days that no one really enjoys, the temperature in the morning was a balmy 2 degrees and had hung that way all day long with a nice steady rain. But now it was snowing and pretty soon the snow would start to stick.

The weather people were calling for 30 centimeters over the next couple days. Though they’re wrong about as often as they’re right it seems that they might actually be correct this time. I’m not sure that they’ll be dead on the money, but we’re probably going to get a bunch of snow and blizzard like conditions. Should be a fun walk home.

A gust of wind burst around me as I walked between the buildings, who the hell works on Christmas day? Why would anyone be outside at all?

People would, though the weather might keep them inside today. The movie theatre always did good on Christmas day, for some reason people liked to get out of the house to see a movie. Maybe it was suspension of disbelief that they just spent way too much money buying gifts that weren’t all that great or not liked, or if liked, overpriced. This season brought out the best and the worst in people but over the years as I went from high school into university the trend seems to be towards the worst in people. Who cares about this holiday anyways.

Ah, the threatre, its start outside completely drenched and glistening in the light. It’ll be ice by the time I make it outside, Oh well nothing I can do about it. At least it’ll be nice and warm inside. Maybe I’ll be able to sneak in and watch part of a movie.

Might as well have a smoke before I get there, it’ll be disgusting later and I don’t want to have to ask for a break. None of the managers liked that, taking a bathroom break was one thing but taking one for a smoke, they didn’t like that at all, especially in the winter when you needed to get all bundled up. Pulling the pack out of my pocket I noticed it was rather light, I hope the convenience store will be open on the way home.

Of course it will dumbass, the Chinese guy that runs it is smart, he knows everything else will be closed, and people always run out of stuff last minute. Not to mention I don’t think it’s a holiday for him. Putting the smoke to my lips, lighting it with the trusty Zippo the wind whipped at my fingers, snow pelting my face and glasses. A couple minutes then warmth. Ah, nicotine, maybe I should quit one day, fuck it who cares. At least I’m getting paid to be out in this shit away from the stupidity of the season.

Fuck I hope they don’t make us wear those stupid elf hats again.

Technorati: cold,snow,Christmas,smoking,melancholy