A few weeks ago while walking on the Upper West Side in New York City, I stopped by a used book store to look for a children’s book from my younger days. I couldn’t find it but I came across an old used copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks and purchased it.
I read a few chapters but since the book spans over 1000 pages it is not one of those books one reads from front to back. One night I came across the section in his notebooks titled “Prophecies” and was stunned by what he had written. Of course much is open to interpretation which naturally makes plenty of room for incorporating research into ... read more »
Tagged fiction, stories
No. 20 in the series Tuesday’s Torrent.
Maybe because it should be 20 stories to make it an even number; I had 19 before this one on here.
Maybe it really is true that stories come to you and you just have to write them. I don’t know all the reasons but I was unable to work on my current work-in-progress manuscript due to this story. I couldn’t find a photo that went with it so this Tuesday’s story is without one.
When feeling stuck on a bigger creative project, you have to find other creative outlets to make room for the bigger piece to flow.
I am “lucky” that I was able to “split” ... read more »
Tagged choices, fiction, stories
No. 19 in the series Tuesday’s Torrent.
I wrote last week’s story from Budapest, set in Budapest, and said I must take a break from these until January so as to finish my current writing project, the main manuscript. And yet. Here we are. Again. This story just came together. What was I to do? So, here it is. Here is hoping, after this, I switch from ‘story’ mode to a much longer story, ‘novel,’ mode. The two require a very different mindset.
The Persian and Urdu languages refer to the liver in figurative speech to indicate courage and strong feelings. The term jan e ... read more »
Tagged fiction, stories
No. 18 in the series Tuesday’s Torrent.
This story will serve as a pause in the “Tuesday’s Torrent” series.
Dedicated to the woman behind the glass ticket booth at Szechenyi Baths in Pest, Budapest, Hungry.
Arpad was neither a devout churchgoer nor a committed atheist. He devoted his Sunday mornings to a shot of espresso, one cigarette, then another shot of espresso, and then another cigarette. After the second round Arpad would take a short break and look out the smudgy cafe windows until the waitress—Kaitln, the only one of the three who worked at Cafe V willing to serve him, given he would ... read more »
Tagged fiction, stories
No. 17 in the series Tuesday’s Torrent.
I wrote this story without any access to internet research. First for me. It was written on the Delta flight from JFK to Prague. There was no wifi connection on this particular Delta flight. I had a choice to not write—good excuse—or see where the mind goes when you have minimal information in front of you. I did have access to the New York Times and the Duty Free magazine.
Initial research from an article titled “Kansai Confidential” by Deborah Caulfield Rybak.
Dedicated to Sixto from Ecuador.
I liked Nara when she told me her very first story. Her English wasn’t perfect but I ... read more »
Tagged fiction, stories
