There Goes the Neighborhood; Earthly Fantasy/Science Fiction Short Stories
Copyright 2013 Gary J. Davies
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These stories are works of fiction created by the author and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are a production of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to my wife Susan, who puts up with my time consuming hobbies, and to my favorite author James P. Blaylock for his enchanting early elf-laced fantasy novels. Also I thank William Shatner for his writing efforts; I figured that if he could do it, so could anyone, including me. Special thanks to my artist-brother Robert Davies for creating the cover.
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Contents
Introduction
1. There Goes the Neighborhood (An odd neighbor and house materialize overnight.)
2. Perchance To Dream (Cryogenic dreams.)
3. The Shrinking Nuts Case (A private detective confronts ultimate shrinkage.)
4. Critters (A father confronts critters and ghosts.)
5. Cube (An alien artifact confounds its human guardians.)
6. The Cursing of the Bikes (A Demon Hunter looking for pie encounters a demon biker.)
7. A Quiet Retirement (A retiree with elfin niece encounters the supernatural.)
8. Turtle Talk (Turtles respond to ecological holocaust.)
9. The Walking Man (An unscrupulous businessman encounters a curse.)
10. Dragon Dreams (A psychic detective confronts a murderous demon.)
11. Solution to an Employment Problem (A scientist makes use of another universe.)
12 The Myth Makers (Off-Earth humans cope with their past and future.)
13. In His Image (Technology displaces humanity.)
14. Izzy’s Last Thoughts (A space-alien crashes to Earth.)
15. Perfect Shower Day (A naive man discovers what’s behind his perfect showers.)
16. Farsight (Psychic human confronts people-hunting alien.)
17. Virtual John (Man becomes virtual.)
18. If Einstein Could Fly (Future Earth alternative to technology.)
19. Ageless (Immortality both accepted and avoided.)
20. Raising Baby (The dragon of story #1 attracts danger.)
About the Author and Pending Novels
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Introduction
The short fantasy/science fiction stories of this collection mostly take place on contemporary Earth, or on some slightly futuristic or altered Earth where a technology, ghost, dragon, demon, curse, or space-alien intrudes. Only two of the stories include off-Earth action. Vampires and zombies are steadfastly avoided. When these stories are made into movies PG rating levels for some will perhaps be appropriate, since a few of the characters and their language are appropriately crude. Sex and violence occurs in some of the stories, for such is life, but these are not explicitly presented, as such detail is not germane to plot. The stories are in no particular order except for the first story and its sequel the last story, which influenced the title chosen for the collection and provided inspiration for the dragon cover art.
Short stories are a wonderful format for both author and readers. For the author, it is very satisfying to take a story idea and bring it to first-draft fruition in a short time: a story concept that inexplicably pops into the writer’s head can result in a full first draft within days. Short stories also provide value to the author because they sometimes inspire or otherwise provide useful material for novels. Characters, settings, plots, and even entire short stories of this collection have been reused by this author in novels.
The interesting challenge for the author of the short story is to craft in a relatively few pages a complete and pleasing enough story to be worthy of the attention of both the writer and readers. To accomplish this, the author has the advantage of much greater flexibility than is practical with novels. Because of much smaller size and complexity, significant short-story re-writes are relatively easy, including changes in plot, characters, or voice.
Novels present the ultimate challenge for the story author. Novels more completely create an alternative reality and experiences which for an extended time can be shared with readers. The accomplishment is great but the price is very high. Novels can take years to write, requiring a huge commitment of time and effort that is lost if the effort falters. For example midway through writing a novel, somewhere perhaps between page 100 and 200, ‘writer’s block’ can happen: the dreaded mid-story crisis. When writing a short story writer’s block is much rarer and far less consequential.
From the reader’s perspective, there are similar short story advantages. Since the entire story is conveniently compact, reading it requires only a few minutes or hours, after which normal life can resume for the reader. This contrasts favorably with novels, which may cost the reader several precious days and nights of committed reading time to consume. Midway through reading a novel, there is risk that a mid-story reading crisis may develop wherein the reader simply wants the story to be over with. More annoying still, a story plot may require several novel-length volumes to come to a satisfactory conclusion, greatly increasing the required reader resource commitment. Reading a short story is inherently a short-duration, low risk activity. To top it off, these particular short stories are offered free in their e-book published format, whereas nominal fees will be charged for acquisition of the author’s subsequent novels, some of which owe their genesis to these short stories.