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Rats in the Cellar - the first short story I ever wrote. I wrote this one night while working the midnight shift at a gas station in New Brunswick. It was November, 1989, and I had just broken up with a girl that I had been dating on and off for 2½ years. Suffice it to say, the story was a little autobiographical, and was a kind of glimpse into the future of our relationship.
The funny thing is, a year later we got married. We had two children, and later separated and divorced. If I had really believed what I had written in this story, I may never have married her at all. But I didn't believe it fully, and I have two beautiful children as a result. I also have an ex-wife.
Blood - actually the fourth short story I ever wrote. The second was a story called "The Debt" but I never transcribed it out of my composition notebook, which is long since gone. The third was called "Too Beautiful To Destroy," and was a very lame comic/sci-fi story that I hated. Regardless, it's also lost in the same composition notebook.
But Blood was a story I wrote one night when I was first separated from my ex-wife. It seems I did some of my best writing after breaking up with her. The premise of the story is centered on a plot that I had devised in 1989 whereby I would kill her and her boyfriend, and get away with it completely. Of course, that didn't happen. But when I separated from her in 1995, that plot resurfaced in my brain and I turned the creative energy toward writing this story.
Empty - My fifth short story, it's based on an event that happened to me when I was living in Vineland, NJ. On my way home from work I saw a girl hitch hiking, and I used to pick up hitchers a lot. Well, she turned out to be a prostitute, so I dropped her right off. But by the time I got home, the story had been formed in my head. I didn't write this one, though, until 1999, after I married my wife Erin. So you see, not all good stories come from breaking up with the Ex!
The Candidate (Coming Soon) - My first attempt at writing a novel, this story started life as a short story, but the more I wrote the more I realized that it was going to be a novel. It doesn't matter, because my short attention span gave up on me after I'd written about 35 pages. It's a shame, because now we'll never know who's behind the assassination attempts. Well, I know, but you never will.
Chapter 1 - My second attempt at writing a full novel. The story begins late on a Thanksgiving night, and opens with the murder of nine children and two adults. The gruesome nature of the murders is described in grisly detail, and I had a story behind all the coloring and shading I did with the first chapter, but after writing such a strong first chapter I petered out and never wrote any more of it. It was after this that I decided to stick with short stories. I wrote this one shortly before "Empty" above.
This year, I'm joining my wife in NaNoWriMo. It should be fun. I have no idea what I'm going to write about, but I'm sure that when the time comes, it'll just come out. And I'll be posting the results here. I'll also be giving regular updates on this page, so keep coming back during the month of November and see my progress first-hand.
If you're interested in this idea, you can check out the National Novel Writing Month website. Sign up and you'll be on your way to writing a novel. Who knows? Maybe you'll make the goal too!
Good luck to all my fellow WriMo's! (-: