B. Morris Allen's Blog, page 10

Beginnings 055 – Payback

The shop is empty, floor dusty, windows shuttered. A trail in the dust marks a path to the back wall, where the proprietor stands with her only trade goods – herself.
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“Payback”
Published 27-Feb-2015

About the story: A shop that sells revenge.

Beginnings 054 – Contrast

“It can’t be stolen.” The big man shook his head, and swallowed the last of his juice. He pointed at the empty cup, and from beside the table a service Hand extended a pitcher. Its soft blue long-arm was steady, a short-arm ready with towels in case of any spill.
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“Contrast”

About the story: One sibling can’t be missed. The other can barely be seen.

Beginnings 053 – Blackthorn

There is a black thorn bush up on the hill, where the slope is too steep to farm, and too bare for deer. The branches of the bush are splintered and thin, its core twisted and rough. The bush crouches in a rocky clearing at the edge of the forest, naked to the wind and sun, its roots clinging to cold stone and the little soil it has gathered. The bush has been cut, burned, buried in filth, but it clings to life, such as it is. The locals call it Winter’s Bush, and revile it for having made S...

Beginnings 052 – Crivăț and the Snow Curse

Once upon a time, winter was cold. Not cold like it is now, but really cold. So cold that your breath would freeze as soon as it left your mouth, making a cloud of shiny little icicles that fell to the ground with a faint tinkling sound. It was pretty, but it made a slippery layer of ice over everything.
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“Crivăț and the Snow Curse”

About the story: Based on a traditional Moldovan story about spring.

Beginnings 051 – The Path from l’Ome

There is only one way into paradise. It enters a valley that is wide and high, ringed about by cliffs and ridges and, at the western end, sky blue glacier creeping slowly down to the fields. The soil is deep, the product of millennial cycles of ice and melt, cracking and crushing the mountain rock, occasionally killing the hardy trees that attempt the slopes. It’s all washed into the valley’s deep bowl to mix and rot and transform into rich, dark loam. Somewhere down below, there are angles,...

Beginnings 050 – The Coping Saw

Commuters trickled slowly into the subway station across the street, the detritus of industry’s great machine as it patiently wore away life to leave behind the smooth outline of success. Dust motes were vacuumed away to suburbia, to be recycled overnight into grit for the commercial polisher. Mixed metaphors, she thought. Dust is too soft to use as grit. Some of the bits got stuck in the cracks to gum up the machinery. Gum made of dust and grit. Tasty! She took another bite of her sandwich....

Beginnings 049 – Autumn Mist

The dragon was old. Old and tired, and a little bitter. Oh, it was well enough for a young dragon to talk about ‘later’, when it was something far away. A young dragon had his work, his companions, maybe a little of the fancy stuff; he had a long life ahead. Time enough to worry about anything else later.
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“Autumn Mist”

About the story: What happens to Puff after Jackie Powers leaves?

Beginnings 048 – For this Rich Earth

Gather around, children, and I’ll tell you a tale of beginnings, and of ends, and means. This is a story of the early days, when the world was quiet, a story of the time before men. In fact, it is the story of the first man. Come sit by me, and I’ll tell you of how the flowers to blue man came, of how he fought, and how he failed.
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“For this Rich Earth”

About the story: An expedition finds a paradise planet. But do humans deserve it?
Based on a mishearing of a folk song.

Beginnings 047 – Start with Stones

Down by the creek, a dark figure moved in the mist. From the door of her drystone cottage, the crofter watched it curiously. A long day’s work called softly on the wind that brought leaves rustling down from hard, dry fields above. The crofter sighed as she thought of fieldstone walls still unbuilt, their rocky parts still buried in their native soil. She gathered her tools, humming softly.
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“Start with Stones”
Start with Stones: collected stories, Overcast
Published 22-Jun-2013

About the...

Beginnings 046 – The Stone in the Sword

Deep in the woods, where the trees broke into a clearing, a man and a badger sat having a picnic. The man sat with his back to a small, weathered boulder, smooth but for a narrow and strangely regular crevice in its top. He was middle-aged, but his eyes held a dark wisdom. His face was lined and weathered, as if it had seen centuries of use. The badger’s gray head was striped with white, even at the tips of his ears.
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“The Stone in the Sword”
Start with Stones: collected stories
Published...