Author Archives: Jeff Xilon

A small, experiment of a post

Aside

So here’s a try at a different post format. Let’s see how it works…

I missed the deadline for this weeks #ThrusThreads flash competition but I had an idea for it and couldn’t help but right it anyway. I didn’t want to leave a story, no matter how small, unfinished and I’m counting it towards my story a day goal. It also gives me something to put on the blog today, I’m trying to get a post up everyday this week. I might be back with something later today about the newest title from monkeybrain comics but until then I give you:

Triumph

Phil stumbled through the gilded doors of the audience chamber and collapsed. Across the marble floor sat a white-haired, shriveled old man leaning on a gnarled staff. The Oracle.

The old man didn’t speak as Phil crawled, too exhausted to stand, toward him. When he had made it, his progress heralded by labored breathing and the rattle of the gear which hung off his pack, he let himself fall forward in a kind of bow. With the last of his strength he half-rose and knelt facing the awesome little man.

The Oracle only stared at him.

“I’ve braved your mountain. I’ve been stalked by yetis. I have not eaten for three days and my only water was snow I melted in my mouth. I think I may lose half my toes to frostbite. But I made it. Master I am here. I humbly claim my right to an answer,” Phil said.

The old man didn’t move, or blink, or speak for some seconds that felt like slices of eternity. Finally he gave an unsteady nod. “You know your choices?”

“Yes,” Phil said. “Tell me about my greatest triumph.”

“That is your wish?”

Phil nodded. “I need to know what lies in my future. I need hope.”

The old man just shook his head in sad, side-to-side arcs. “Your greatest triumph began at the foot of my mountain. You faced yetis, hunger and thirst…”

 

Useful Links: Podcast Edition

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Since I started serious writing and blogging I’ve become hooked on podcasts. I love podcasts because they help me to multitask. I can listen to podcasts while cleaning, cooking, doing laundry (ok pretty much any household chore). I can listen to them while playing with my son. I can load them onto my iPhone and listen while shopping, walking to work or during breaks at work. So yeah – multitasking. I started my love affair with podcasts with news and politics shows. I’m a big politics junkie. The Rachel Maddow show and the various Sunday morning news talk shows are my preferred hits.

Soon though I discovered Mur Lafferty’s (@mightymur) “I Should Be Writing” (previously blogged about here) and that led me to discover other interesting shows. I’d like to highlight 3 of them for you.

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Flash Fiction: Time Travel Challenge

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So the current terribleminds flash fiction challenge was a call to embrace time travel and give it a prominent place in a story of 1000 words or less. This one proved pretty hard for me. I love time travel stories (huge Doctor Who fan) as a reader or viewer – but I found I really hated trying to write one. I’m really big on maintaining internal logic with my stories. Magic, super science, monsters and other crazy things are all fair game as long as they are consistent with the rules of the story-world you’ve created. Time Travel has a way of always smashing internal logic. Still, that was the challenge and I’ve done my best to answer it. I give you:

Saving the Future

“So you want to know where you come from, eh?”

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A Victory On The Flash Fiction Circuit

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So last week I made a post about winning an honorable mention in week 30 of the  #ThursThreads flash fiction challenge. Well, a couple of days later I entered the competition again for week 31 and this time I was declared the overall winner. Very cool.

You can read all the stories entered in the competition here. Pay particular attention to the entries from Robin Abess (@Angelique_Rider),  Cameron Lawton (@CameronLawton) and Rebekah Postupak (@postupak). They were the honorable mentions last week.

This was my entry:

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Some Thoughts About monkeybrain comics

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So as I mentioned in my post last night I love stories and all the many ways people tell stories. That includes comics. I’ve always been a comic fan, though for most of my life I didn’t have the finances or time to really get into them.

There was a time when I was younger (The beginning of the ’90s) that I remember I collected some series: The New Warriors, Sleepwalker, Deathlok. Not exactly A list (or even B list) titles those. There was a reason for that though – I always felt daunted by the sheer size of Marvel and DCs universe. So many titles and many of them rolling into issue numbers in the triple digits. Or at least high doubles.

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When Did You Know You Wanted To Be A Writer?

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So here’s the thing: I haven’t always wanted to be a writer. I haven’t been writing as long as I can remember. I bring this up because I often hear writers asked some variation of: “When did you know you wanted to be a writer.”

Yeah – that question, or something similar, always seems to come up in interviews of authors and the answer often goes along the lines of “Always.” This makes me feel weird, because that wouldn’t be my answer. I wasn’t even sure what my answer would be.

This post was going to be a set of mini-reviews about the new line of comic titles from Monkeybrain comics, but a funny thing happened. When I started writing that post I suddenly discovered my answer to this ubiquitous question. I hope you’ll forgive the hippie navel-gazing sound of this (and everything that follows) but here it is. My answer:

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