B. Morris Allen's Blog, page 3

Songspiration – House of Hope

SongArtistStoryHouse of HopeToni ChildsHouse of Hope

Sometimes, all I take from a song is a title. That’s the case with Toni Childs’ “House of Hope”. The song is about the chaos one generation leaves for another and how we’re running the planet down. My story is much more literal, telling a story from the point of view of what’s first a very modest house and ends up more of a fortress.

Songspiration – I Don’t Care About Clifton Clowers

SongArtistStoryWolverton MountainClaude KingI Don’t Care About Clifton Clowers

When I was young, we had a tape of Top Country Sing-a-Long. We’re not a musical family, so I don’t think there was any singing along, but I did like the songs. One, by Claude King, was “Wolverton Mountain” – a song by Merle Kilgore based on his own uncle. The song is a pretty straightforward story about a man willing to stand up to the dangerous Clifton Clowers in order to woo his daughter.

As I got older...

Songspiration – For This Rich Earth

SongArtistStoryIf I Were FreePeter, Paul, & MaryFor This Rich Earth

Another story inspired by Peter, Paul, & Mary, but this time from a misheard lyric. On their album, See What Tomorrow Brings, they covered a Travis Edmonson song, “If I Were Free”. In their version, the chorus is:
If I were free to speak my mind,
I’d tell a tale to all mankind
Of how the flowers do bloom and fade
Of how we’ve fought and how we’ve paid.
But I always misheard it as “Of how the flowers to Blue Man came...

Songspiration – Adjectives of Annihilation

SongArtistStoryAssassingMarillionAdjectives of Annihilation

In its early days, Marillion (first named ‘Silmarillion’) was a progressive rock band. You might know their song “Kayleigh”. In any case, their second album included the song “Assassing” a biting, satirical commentary on relationships and the rat race. It included the line, “Adjectives of annihilation bury the point beyond redemption”. I liked the first part of that, and used it to write a considerably more idealistic, less...

Songspiration – Loose Change and Nothing to Say

SongArtistStoryTelephone BoxGillan & GloverLoose Change and Nothing to Say

Roger Glover and Ian Gillan have been in the same bands for decades, but they’ve only once done an album together – a lighthearted soft blues rock venture. One of the songs, “Telephone Box”, has a line I liked – “you have loose change and nothing to say”. Their song is about the difficulty of being out of contact. My story is about alien prank callers.

Songspiration – He Don’t Love Nobody

He Don’t Love Nobody

SongArtistStoryShe Don’t Love NobodyNick LoweHe Don’t Love Nobody

Sometimes, just the title or rhythm of a song is enough to kick my story engine into gear. In this case, Nick Lowe’s “She Don’t Love Nobody” gave me all the direction I needed to write a story about an ex-revolutionary who betrayed his fellows to a repressive government, and why.

CoH review – Bibliopeeks

From @Bibliopeeks

Chambers of The Heart contains unique, out of the box stories that are richly written with poignant thought provoking matters of the heart. … These short stories are like a finely aged scotch, which is best when savored slowly, in order to fully enjoy the one of a kind experience.

Playing favorites

Chambers of the Heart

I have favorites among my own stories. Some, frankly, are just better than others — in my view. Other readers disagree strongly, and I sometimes find that the stories I thought were strongest aren’t the ones people fix on.

Recently, I needed to choose one of my stories to include in an anthology, and I thought that, along with my own preferences, I would include some empirical data.

My latest story collection, Chambers of the Heart, got very positive reviews from quite a fe...

Awards eligibility 2022

As a writer

After a breakneck pace last year (two stories), I’ve kept things simple this year, with just one story (but a nice one):

 

“Adjectives of Annihilation”
Cossmass Infinities
July 2022 ($)

My parents could never describe it. The ravages of an increasingly stratified world, of bitter philosophical division, of a climate run amok. The devastation of war. The nightmare of departure.
“Nothing survived,” said my poet father.
“Probably nothing survived,” amended my mother, who’d been a pa...

Awards eligibility 2021

As a writer

I published only two stories this year, but they’re good ones!

“Minstrel Boy Howling at the Moon”
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
March 2021 ($)

The red dirt of the plains was baked into his hands, making rivers of the creases in his palm, flowing off the low hills into the grasslands of his wrist. A summer of post-setting had left his hands as hard as brick and just as red.
“I’m gonna call you Gomda from now on,” Matt at the Lov’n’Stop had said, sarcastically, “’cause yo...