...continued from MTO Jack Marr. Sam approached the scene on the sidewalk warily, not quite believing his eyes. A bizarre metallic craft hovered a few inches over the ground. Lucy sniffed it, licked her chops, and drooled. Tiny green people barely bigger than his pinky were having an argument. One of them wasn't green and …
Category: fiction
MTO Jack Marr
The chore of walking Lucy often fell to Jack, the oldest of the Marr kids. He was the only one who could keep a hold of the leash when Lucy used that bionic strength in her Shepherd hind legs to make a mad dash toward a squirrel or a dog or even certain car models. …
MTO Pat Kubec
Credit: Wolfgang Amri Ride horses long enough and you learn to trust them, so when Lord Byron, raised his head and snorted, Pat reined him to a stop. The bridle trail clutched the banks of the Rocky River but occasionally veered into the thickly wooded areas where sunlight could barely slice through the canopy. Pat …
MTO Ginny Thompson
2:47 AM. Ginny woke to her daughter's vice-like grip on her shoulders and powerful shake. A jar of peanut butter slipped from her hand and dropped on Diane's toe, yanking a howl from her. "Mom, you're sleepwalking again." Diane stutter stepped to the nearest stool and rubbed her sore toe. The next night Ginny got …
MTO Shawn Washburn
A suburban playground outside Columbus, 1983. Sunset, the time Shawn and his buddy were supposed to be home for supper. The sun had the audacity to set when the shuffleboard game was tied, so by mutual agreement the boys shrugged off curfew (and likely dinner) to play a tiebreaker frame. Bad idea. Everyone knows terrible …
MTO Heather
Heather was terrified. Her filbert brush was poised over the nepeta green. Then she hovered it over the fern/forest mixture she'd just prepared. Nepeta? Fern/forest? Nepeta? It was an excruciating decision: which green? What if she chose wrong? Sure, she could blend it away, but Heather was a little superstitious. The first colors to touch …
Finding my Way into a Story: Plot
Check out Episode 4 of Exhuming the Bones podcast with my co-hosts, Mary Leoson and David Williams. To prepare for recording, I sketched my thoughts and wrote a brief summary of my co-hosts' points. Each of us approaches plot differently. Mary finds her way into a story through the setting. She places herself in time …
MTO Magarisa
With a bag of groceries in each arm, Magarisa managed to unlock her front door and push it open with her foot. As was his practice, Fury wended his way between Magarisa's feet, trying as hard as he could to be stepped on or to trip her. His excited meows morphed into purrs as he …
MTO Nitin Lalit
A taxi took Nitin as far as the banana grove. The next leg of his trip was fit only for bicycles and pedestrians and ended at the pale yellow house set into the island's highest peak. The dwelling was battered and filed by the elements and in a surprising state of overwhelm from an invasive …
MTO Philip Tanmay
I opened my lunch sack and smiled at the note Mom wrote on the plastic sandwich bag: I love you, Philip - Mom xoxo. She put smiley faces in the o's. And...hooray! Roast beef. There'd be horseradish and butter slathered on those thick, soft slices of Italian bread. My class was last to eat lunch, …
KL Griffiths 