Category Archives: Creative Writing

A Christmas Crime Story by Andrew Klavan

Andrew Klavan has a short story on his blog, which can be obtained in print by ordering from the Mysterious Bookshop in New York. It begins:

A certain portion of my misspent youth was misspent in the profession of journalism. I’m not proud of it, but a man has to make a living and there it is. And, in fact, I learned a great many things working as a reporter. Most importantly, I learned how to be painstakingly honest and lie at the same time. That’s how the news business works. It’s not that anyone goes around making up facts or anything – not on a regular basis anyway. No, most of the time, newspeople simply learn how to pick and choose which facts to tell, which will heighten your sense that their gormless opinions are reality or at least delay your discovery that everything they believe is provably false. If ever you see a man put his fingers in his ears and whistle Dixie to keep from hearing the truth, you may assume he’s a fool, but if he puts his fingers in your ears and starts whistling, then you know you are dealing with a journalist.

To Say Goodbye, The Reason I Came

I’m going to stay away from the blog for the next several days, so be sure to tell all your online friends it will be safe to read Brandywine Books for a while. Start up a campaign, if you like. Send out the emails, saying, “Phil’s gone now, so go read his blog.” Of course, you can always say people should read Lars’ great blog, but now you have another reason to promote it.

Before I go, let me leave you with a snippet of fiction I wrote. I want to call it short short story, but it’s so brief it may not qualify even for that. Perhaps it’s a blog short. Anyway, have fun while I’m gone.

The Reason I Came

When they invited him to make himself at home, were they planning to treat him like the furniture? He wandered through rooms, receiving muttered acknowledgements from his hosts, who were busy paying bills, cleaning counters, and talking on phones. Maybe welcome was not their native tongue.

He found his nephew’s door ajar, inside the boy just waking up. He closed the door behind him and crossed the room to pick up a familiar book.

“Shall we read more about Robin Hood and his men?” he asked.

“Yeah,” the boy yawned, “I was just thinking about them.”

“That must be the reason I came,” he replied.

A Short Short Contest

Maxine points out a short short contest on a UK blog. I love this type of story. I remember Story magazine did this during it’s short life span. One about a boy wearing a wig at the breakfast table has stuck with me for years. I may enter this contest, but I don’t know how much time I have.

Christian Short Fiction

Dave has posted some of the stories submitted to Relief Journal‘s Daily Sacrament contest.

“The Stain” by Mary Grabar

“Four Feasts” by Susan Fish

“Dark House” by Renee Ronika Bhatti-Klug

“Smith and 9th” by Elizabeth Ann Osborn

What do you think?