Chris Rothe's Blog

Happy Halloween

Ahoy! Been a while, been busy, thought I'd add a new post for the Halloween time celebrations.

I've recently formed a writing group with my friend Kathy Dell (http://katherinedell.com/) and it's been a great motivator. Ideally, I'll be able to share some writing from our group members here, as well and link to their content, so I shall add fun tidbits as time goes on. We've had one meeting so far and it was great to get to know local writers and listen to some excellent stories.

This ghostly sh...

What Did We Learn?

My friend Shiraz and I were chatting about story ideas the other day and he posed the following scenario: a new class hamster is becoming nervous as it watches one of the kids calmly sharpening a pair of safety scissors. We noodled the idea for a bit and I asked him if I could run with it and put a short thing together for the ol' website. And so, here is a first draft little thing about hamsters, sadness and adulthood:

What Did We Learn?

“Do you know why we’ve called you in here, son?”

Samuel...

A Failure of a Spider - Or - Location, Location, Location

Hugh – So, how did it go?

Jared – How did what go?

Hugh – The play. Hold on a sec, will ya? The coffee’s ready at the counter-thing.

Jared – (Nods once, casts eyes down, stews for no goddamn reason)

Hugh – I don’t know which is which. What did you get?

Jared – Just a black coffee.

Hugh – Huh. Well, they definitely didn’t give us one of those. I’ve got two frothy milk things. (Yells, over his shoulder) Hey man, yo? (Hugh holds both cups of coffee up in the air).

Barista – Sorry ma’am, just a moment....

The Gentlest Meteorite

Oh man, have I been ill.

There I was, big plans for some creepy Halloween stories, until after a short vacation, I was struck with a rather insidious lung infection. It’s only this week that I finally, more-or-less, feel back to normal, which is good, but I’ve not had the energy to be creatively productive, which is bad. Even now, my eyes are attempting to force themselves into an off position, and my brain is telling me to go back and re-read each of the sentences that are crawling out onto t...

They Will Find Us Eventually

So, it's October. I'm normally not one for overextending the stay of a holiday, but I thought it might be fun to post some eerie bits and bobs leading up to Halloween. Here then, is a bit of a mood setting, short, blog-type-thing to kick off the fun.

* * *

Two long shadows, aided by the sun, moved slowly through the forest, clutching to the underbrush and silent as ghosts. The two stopped suddenly, happening upon a figure laying motionless in the heat.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Was...

Tongue Depressor

Alright, say “Ahhhh”.

Good, good. Everything looks… oh, wait. Oh, wait, wait, wait… what have we here?

Can you turn to the left? Thank you.

Oh my. I’m afraid it’s just as I thought. Here, I’ll get the mirror.

I want you to look here – just toward the back. You see that? You can just nod, I know it’s hard to talk with all of these implements in your mouth. You see it? What you are looking at is very troubling. I can tell you right now, that this is something you’ll be glad we caught.

That thing...

Steven v. Margery

I’ve called this meeting because it’s become apparent that we are living with a double standard. Certain recent events have erased any doubt in my mind that there has been a bias against me that started some years ago, first as nothing more than some trifling differences between the treatment of myself and certain other people, but has grown into something so sinister it can no longer be abided.

You’ll notice there are a series of exhibits that I have presented as evidence. I’ll kindly ask t...

Interview on katherinedell.com

Kathy Dell has been kind enough to offer me the opportunity to be interviewed for her website.

Check it out on www.katherinedell.com.

While you’re there, check out some of her other work and posts about her journey to publication for her debut young adult novel Harmless.

The Biplane of Discomfort

A while ago, I was listening to an episode of This American Life that talked about dreams, specifically about how boring it is when a person is subjected to the recounting of another’s sleepy-time imaginings.

It reminded me of a dream I had that has stuck with me for years, and that I felt might possibly be worth sharing.

So, here’s my dumb dream that you hopefully don’t find boring:

* * *

A friend of mine has purchased a biplane. According to the logic of dreams, there was no preamble or lead-u...

Modern Monsters: The Auralist

Long ago, we used to scare our children into behaving, frighten them to keep them safe. Don’t go near the water or the Brook Horse will get you. Beware the witch that hunts the little ones lost in the woods. All over the world, people told tall tales to keep their kids in line.

Over time, the monsters faded away, relegated to the realm of folklore or some page of curiosities on Wikipedia. But there are still things our children do that could be put on ice with a little horrific whimsy.

Here t...