Justin Pyfrom's Blog, page 13

42nd Short Story Released

It’s a father’s dream to walk his daughter down the aisle and now that day has finally arrived. But there is trouble brewing in the hearts of the two of them. Will they be able to handle it before she says, “I do.”?

It is available for Amazon Kindle.

A Cautionary Tale Towards A Certain Way of Parenting

“When I was with my mother, I sometimes thought of myself of a trophy—something to be flaunted before friends. When out of public view, I sat on the shelf ignored and forgotten.”
― Joan Frances Casey, The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality

The duality of narcissistic mothers

This post will talk about two short stories that actually take place right after each other. It was a decision I made only after I got done writing the first one. See, I wrote My Perfect Son after listening to the nonsense of a, particularly toxic parenting style. You know what I’m talking about. The type of parenting where a child is forced to do activities that the parents want so they can brag about it to other people. Worse yet, if the child fights back, they are disciplined for “not respecting them”. So, I wanted to explore that.

Oddly enough, or sadly enough depending on how you look, it wasn’t that hard to write the story as I had a lot of real-world inspiration to work with. All I had to do was listen to altercations between a teenager and their parents while taking mental notes of it all. Despite it being a common practice of mine, I admit it was a bit…intrusive for the most part. Nevertheless, I feel that it help make the story that much more real and terrifying. But, at this point, it’s pretty obvious that I couldn’t stop there. Haha!

I decided to take a page out of my favorite childhood anthology series, Goosebumps. Specifically, the episode called “The Perfect School”, where kids were forced into a school where they are trained to be perfect for their parents. Spoiler alert! The book is hella darker than the TV Show. It’s actually one of my favorite episodes of the series and I do plan on showing that to my students.

Anyway, I knew I wanted to add some science fiction element to the story so I decided to add something like that to the story. I’m not going to talk too much about it because it will go into spoiler territory but I will say it will bring about some heartbreaking endings for everybody in the two stories. However, I don’t fully go into it until Isn’t My Life, Isn’t It?, the second half of the two.

Let me just say. The second half was the darker of the two for me. I mean…both of them are pretty dark but I feel that the second one is much darker. Why? Because, with the right sequence of events, this future can become a reality and it scares me. I actually had to take a moment to myself to mentally recharge because, after writing it, I came to realize that I’ve made the vilest mother to date in my career. Trust me! I can outdo myself and I plan to in the near future.

Tell me which of the two short stories you like. I highly doubt this is going to be a favorite among a certain ethnicity of people but I hope it reaches the hearts and minds of many. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here and here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here and here.

Revisiting The Grandmother Trope

“Like my grandmother always said, “Your opinions are valid and important. Unless it’s some stupid bullshit you’re being shitty about, in which case you can just go fuck yourself.”
― Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

The duality of the grandmother’s role

Now, I’ve already done a story where I used my grandma for inspiration. The first story was The Family That Preys (click here to see) and my grandma loved it. She thought it was a nice story about the lengths grandmothers will go to maintain harmony in the family. However, she thought it was a bit over the top and I had to remind her that my writing is always dialed up to an eleven. Now! That particular conversation gave me a spark of inspiration and the motivation to write another “grandma” story: Child of Lovebirds.

Everything about this story I made sure was the complete opposite of My Family That Preys. I didn’t want to shine on the evil on my cousins. Instead, I wanted to showcase generational narcissism as I am a biracial man. Every day of my youth has always been being looked upon has people looking down at me because of my biracial ethnicity. It’s either I’m not “black enough” or I’m still a n****r. Actually, I punched a man for calling me that and slapped his wife for following suit. My grandma was not too pleased about that.

Anyway, I took the opportunity to make the story focus on the protagonist’s parents and how it’s the grandmother’s job to “keep the light in the family going through dark times”. Yes, I did use part of life as a plot device but in the way that you think. Instead, I did what I always do: dial it up to eleven. However, this time around, I made sure that it was just as realistic as its processor. Contemporary fiction seems to be growing on me.

I love both stories but the consensus is that this story is more satisfying than the previous one because of its grounded storyline. It makes sense, I suppose. Either, I can’t wait to hear what you think about the stories. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.

41st Short Story Released

The last conversation between a loving father and devoted daughter has been recently recorded. However, for some reason, it hasn’t been documented, yet. Maybe they want the memories to last?

It is available for Amazon Kindle.

40th Short Story Released

Taking place after the events of “My Perfect Son”, the tragic son finally gets a chance to tell his side of the story. Unfortunately, he’s not the one who gets to tell his story to the public.

It is available for Amazon Kindle.

39th Short Story Released

An overbearing mother made the worst mistake for her son and now to do live with the consequences. It’s a cautionary tale to entitled narcissistic mothers…if they actually read it.

It is available for Amazon Kindle.

38th Short Story Released

A soon-to-be mother goes on a journey to the States to get closure and maternal advice, much like her mother before her. However, there is one key difference between the two very spirited women.

It is available for Amazon Kindle.

A Dark Delight of Mine

“I bet it gets pretty lonely with only your ego for company.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

The duality of a narcissistic collapse

Like many many writers, I can find inspiration for stories in almost any source. Movies, TV shows, environments, conversations, memories, altercations, other literary works, and even the feelings from all of those sources. It’s a very common superpower for artists. Now! On occasion, I find music to be a great source of inspiration for story writing. For example, I used “It’s Quiet Uptown” from the musical, Hamilton as the basis for my 27th short story, The Burden of Parenthood (click here). But, before that, I had a song stuck in my head for the longest time.

Back in the mid-2010s, I was going through a bit of a P!nk surge. I was listening to all of your songs and watching all of your music videos on my phone for a better part of a month. P!nk has always been one of my favorite female artists because she is unapologetically authentic. She was never going to change herself to please anybody and her song “Raise Your Glass” (click here to view) has been one of many anthems in my life growing up. This time around, though, I had “Please Don’t Leave Me” stuck in my mind. Even as I write this, I have it queued up on YouTube. It’s a fantastic song.

Go ahead…click here and give it a listen/view.

So, anyway, as I watching the music video, I was beginning to notice all of the references to  Stephen King’s work, specifically Misery and The Shining. I don’t know if she’s a fan of his work or if the director is but I adored it either way. In fact, I loved it so much that I ended up watching that video over 1000 times throughout the month. Yeah, I’m not exaggerating; my friend had to put a ban on the song because he was getting tired of hearing me and his daughter singing it.

Later on in life (last year), I began to do research on Narcissistic Personality Disorder as a side hobby of mine. I’ve been doing that for a few short stories but I ended up really enjoying the research so I kept up with it. It’s really engaging and Dr. Ramani is a wonderful teacher of the subject so I recommend checking out her YouTube Channel (click here) to learn from her. Anyway, I was doing some reading while listening to the song and, suddenly…something clicked in me.

Every villain ends up collapsing in the end – either physically or mentally. More often than not, mentally. And, for narcissists, it may be a slow hit, but it is a devastatingly hard hit. Now, I must confess I’ve never seen the “collapse of a narcissist” but I couldn’t help but think about it.

How would it look? What would they be going through? Who would they have left to blame? What further harm could they possibly do? What happens when all of their narcissistic supply is stripped from them and they can’t get any new source? I think you can gather where this is heading and you would be right but in the traditional sense. But I’m not going to tell you. You’re just going to have to read it for yourself. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.

A Little Light Love

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu

The duality of soul mates and family obligation

Light To Right Love is one of my favorite short stories for many reasons. One of the main ones is because I got to use another of my galactic races/creations which I plan to use for another project. It’s something I especially like to do since, as I’ve stated before, all LGBTQ+ youths feel like aliens at one point in their life. Another reason for this short being one of my favorites is because of the openness and reality of the storyline. It’s also the first time that I use my twist ending for something good. But, alas, I’m getting ahead of myself because I haven’t told you the main reason why this story is one of my favorites.

Like every writer before me and every writer that will come after me, I can find story ideas in almost anything. As a science fiction writer, I’m always looking at something, accepting what happened, and then asking “What if…”. I always have to ask that question because it allows me to see the endless possibilities. Like a multiverse of thoughts. So, when I finally got the chance to watch Crazy Rich Asians, I got to ask one simple question: “What if I replaced Henry Golding with an equally handsome alien?” I knew which alien race I wanted to use and the story just…came together from that. But the LGBTQ+ themes didn’t come until later.

See, I was writing this during the timeframe of COVID-19 lockdown was lightening up in Chongqing. I was finally able to fully explore the city and actually get lost in it. No, seriously, I really got lost and had to spend around 50 RMB to get a taxi home. However, I wasn’t mad at myself. Quite the opposite, actually. I was enthralled by the scenery of my new surroundings. Because of the beauty that I was seeing, I decided to make Chongqing the setting of the story.  It just made sense at the time…and it worked.

I’m not going to tell you the galactic race as it would be leaning towards spoilers. However, I will tell you that, like all my galactic races/creations, they have a very open mind about sex, and they never really bat their eyes at it. Instead, it’s like an everyday thing to them all. It’s a dream future of mine, you know? For my community to be looked at fondly as a fixture to the world. It’s a dream future for all of us.

So, despite Light To Right Love being the 36th short story being released in my Short Story Project, it’s actually the first photoshoot that was completed.  I sat down with Martin, Ahmed, and, later, Katie, and we went over everything that we would need for this photoshoot and he walked me through every step of his process while I walked him through every step of mine. Honestly, it was the only photoshoot that went perfectly smooth. I wish I could say the same for the other ones. Well…there were some smooth photoshoots but not a lot. Nevertheless, it was an incredible experience and it was thanks to this little love story. And, with that, I hope you enjoy the story.

You can buy the book on Amazon. The link is here.

You can also learn about it on Goodreads. The link for it is here.

37th Short Story Released

The mental stability of a couple is explored after an intense long-overdue fight erupted between the two. However, it stands to reason that one of them is doing better than the other.

It is available for Amazon Kindle.