Jim Cherry's Blog, page 4
May 7, 2021
January 17, 2021
Judgement Night-Redemption
Here is the companion story to Judgement Night, Judgement Night - Redemption, the conclusion of Bedford Forrest's journey through eternity.
January 13, 2021
What Do You Know Better Than your Own Secrets
Hello Everybody!
I know it's been a long time since a post, BUT with knee surgery, and working on finishing "The Lion Communique" a book of short stories (will be ready to send to publishers March 1!) and you know the rest of what happened in 2020!
Here's one of the stories I finished, "Judgement Night". I know I may have posted this before but this is the totally finished version, I can't do anything else with it except move around some words and ideas. I hope you enjoy!
Judgement Night
“What do you know better than your own secrets.” Raymond Carver
Lurid, strobing images flickered in his mind illuminated by lightning flashes crashing off each other, in and out of focus in the swirl and fog of a fevered dream. Wet darkness, a young woman’s face washed out in the rain, a bus placard that says: Nashville, men’s ruddy faces, cruel masks of people, distorted, laughing, a whiskey bottle, a disembodied voice that echoes the words “guilty! I condemn you,” a bus sitting on a darkened road its lights stretching out into the night. It was steeped in in sepia and chiaroscuro, the color of memory. A scratching sound at the edge of consciousness. It doesn’t seem human, a chittering sound, that sounds far away but growing louder. As it gets closer the sound becomes coherent until he recognizes it as a voice speaking to him.
(To read the whole story please follow the link to Medium Judgement Night)
I know it's been a long time since a post, BUT with knee surgery, and working on finishing "The Lion Communique" a book of short stories (will be ready to send to publishers March 1!) and you know the rest of what happened in 2020!
Here's one of the stories I finished, "Judgement Night". I know I may have posted this before but this is the totally finished version, I can't do anything else with it except move around some words and ideas. I hope you enjoy!
Judgement Night
“What do you know better than your own secrets.” Raymond Carver
Lurid, strobing images flickered in his mind illuminated by lightning flashes crashing off each other, in and out of focus in the swirl and fog of a fevered dream. Wet darkness, a young woman’s face washed out in the rain, a bus placard that says: Nashville, men’s ruddy faces, cruel masks of people, distorted, laughing, a whiskey bottle, a disembodied voice that echoes the words “guilty! I condemn you,” a bus sitting on a darkened road its lights stretching out into the night. It was steeped in in sepia and chiaroscuro, the color of memory. A scratching sound at the edge of consciousness. It doesn’t seem human, a chittering sound, that sounds far away but growing louder. As it gets closer the sound becomes coherent until he recognizes it as a voice speaking to him.
(To read the whole story please follow the link to Medium Judgement Night)
March 22, 2020
Try Binge Reading!
Tired of binge-watching TV programs? Try Binge-reading! Some cool stories in The Lion Communique, and if you read 3 stories (tell me in a Message which 3 and I'll send you a link to read the 4th or more without have to join the site!).
November 5, 2019
Father's Son -The Story
The head of the charging bull elephant filled my vision. I’d angered it with my presence, I was too close to his harem, His head was down, his ears extended making himself as large as he could, tusks pointed forward. There was good reason the Indians had used them in war, and Alexander and his battle-hardened army had quaked in fear when they first saw them. A charging elephant is a massive, thundering, unstoppable creature capable of trampling any human and horse underfoot. Its thick skull, a battering ram, crashing into anything, up to and including a jeep. The ground thundered with each step of his charge, I could feel the vibrations through the earth with each foot fall, knowing the cause of those tremors were from a creature consciously aiming itself towards me, added to the tension. Elephants don’t know fear. They’re the largest land animals, lions may be, quote, the king of the beasts, end quote, but elephants truly are. Every other creature respects their strength and power, they hunt them only if they’re sick or wounded. But I’ve been out in the African bush country long enough to know that sooner or later every predator becomes prey.
I lifted my head from the rifle’s scope to clear my vision. The elephant was still three hundred yards away. I put my head back down to the sight and waited until he was close enough for the bullet to shatter the heavy bone of his skull, bringing the creature crashing to its knees, the momentum of its mass would send him skidding though the brush like a locomotive jumping off its rails until it came sliding to a halt in front of me. My eyes blurred, the enraged elephants head became my father’s face, it was as if my father’s spirit inhabited the elephant at the last moment, I shot every time.
Read the rest of story on Medium
I lifted my head from the rifle’s scope to clear my vision. The elephant was still three hundred yards away. I put my head back down to the sight and waited until he was close enough for the bullet to shatter the heavy bone of his skull, bringing the creature crashing to its knees, the momentum of its mass would send him skidding though the brush like a locomotive jumping off its rails until it came sliding to a halt in front of me. My eyes blurred, the enraged elephants head became my father’s face, it was as if my father’s spirit inhabited the elephant at the last moment, I shot every time.
Read the rest of story on Medium
July 9, 2019
Father's Son - Lion Communique
Father's Son - a story I'm working on for The Lion Communique it's taking me a long time to piece this story together but last night I think I made some kind of breakthrough in the dramatics of the story, it seemed like it was going to be more of a static point of view thing but last night opened it up with a different take on the end, makes it more dynamic, this story may be epic, if a short story of about 5000-6000 words can be epic.
April 27, 2019
Dawn's Hwy
Hello Everybody!
I just finished a very cool story Dawn's Hwy. I've been working steadily on it for about 2 months but it's from an idea I had years ago and had only intermittently worked on. I'm glad I finally finished the story it turned out much better than I had ever anticipated, I think it's one of the best things I've ever written!
Dawn's Hwy - In Jan. 1966 Jim Morrison, Phil O'leno, and Felix Venable went out into the desert. A few days later Jim and Felix return without Phil and they had cuts and bruises on their faces. They started telling a story about killing Phil and burying him out in the desert. No one is sure what happened between the three friends in the desert. You can read at Medium Dawn's Hwy
Dawn's Hwy is part of the book of short stories I'm working on, The Lion Communique I've finished 8 out of the 13 planned stories. I hope you enjoy Dawn's Hwy!
I just finished a very cool story Dawn's Hwy. I've been working steadily on it for about 2 months but it's from an idea I had years ago and had only intermittently worked on. I'm glad I finally finished the story it turned out much better than I had ever anticipated, I think it's one of the best things I've ever written!
Dawn's Hwy - In Jan. 1966 Jim Morrison, Phil O'leno, and Felix Venable went out into the desert. A few days later Jim and Felix return without Phil and they had cuts and bruises on their faces. They started telling a story about killing Phil and burying him out in the desert. No one is sure what happened between the three friends in the desert. You can read at Medium Dawn's Hwy
Dawn's Hwy is part of the book of short stories I'm working on, The Lion Communique I've finished 8 out of the 13 planned stories. I hope you enjoy Dawn's Hwy!
April 18, 2019
The Lion Communique/New Reviews
Buenos Morning!
Many of you may remember I'm working on writing a book of short stories as quickly as I can (since I got a head start last spring), I'm finishing up the 8th out of 13 stories! This story that I'm finishing up is titled "Dawn's Hwy". If you're a Doors fan you may recognize the title from the Doors song "Peace Frog". "Dawn's Hwy" is a story based on a true incident in Jim Morrison's life. The story takes place in Jan 1966 even before The Doors had their first shows at the London Fog. Morrison and two friends, Phil O'leno and Felix Venable took a road trip to Arizona or Mexico (accounts vary) ostensibly to get some peyote. A few days later Jim and Felix returned to L.A. without Phil, and they had cuts and bruises on their faces, and started telling a story of killing Phil and leaving him out in the desert. Phil showed up a few days later but No one is quite sure what happened out in the desert between the three. "Dawn's Hwy" is my take on the mystery. I'm hoping to have the story published on Medium by this Sunday, so I hope you'll stay tuned for it's publication.
I think I've hit on a great title of the book I'm going to call it "The Lion Communique" and I have a great pic in mind for the cover, if I can find it again!
New Reviews! A couple new reviews have been published for The Last Stage and Stranger Souls If you're looking for a good book to read I hope you'll take these reviews into consideration. Thank You Karen with a Kindle for taking the time to read and review my books.
One last word about "The Lion Communique". I think these stories are some of my best writing and I hope to interest a big(ger) publisher and hopefully be able to have "The Lion Communique" published by this time next year.
Jim
Many of you may remember I'm working on writing a book of short stories as quickly as I can (since I got a head start last spring), I'm finishing up the 8th out of 13 stories! This story that I'm finishing up is titled "Dawn's Hwy". If you're a Doors fan you may recognize the title from the Doors song "Peace Frog". "Dawn's Hwy" is a story based on a true incident in Jim Morrison's life. The story takes place in Jan 1966 even before The Doors had their first shows at the London Fog. Morrison and two friends, Phil O'leno and Felix Venable took a road trip to Arizona or Mexico (accounts vary) ostensibly to get some peyote. A few days later Jim and Felix returned to L.A. without Phil, and they had cuts and bruises on their faces, and started telling a story of killing Phil and leaving him out in the desert. Phil showed up a few days later but No one is quite sure what happened out in the desert between the three. "Dawn's Hwy" is my take on the mystery. I'm hoping to have the story published on Medium by this Sunday, so I hope you'll stay tuned for it's publication.
I think I've hit on a great title of the book I'm going to call it "The Lion Communique" and I have a great pic in mind for the cover, if I can find it again!
New Reviews! A couple new reviews have been published for The Last Stage and Stranger Souls If you're looking for a good book to read I hope you'll take these reviews into consideration. Thank You Karen with a Kindle for taking the time to read and review my books.
One last word about "The Lion Communique". I think these stories are some of my best writing and I hope to interest a big(ger) publisher and hopefully be able to have "The Lion Communique" published by this time next year.
Jim
February 23, 2019
Been Writing Short Stories
The quarterly question of where have I been? I've been working on a book of short stories. Last year I was writing short stories to make pick up some quick cash, and I wrote about 5-6 stories that I finished and I had a couple others that I wrote, and ideas for a couple more so I figured I could put together a book of short stories fairly quickly and hopefully get it published. I have about a hundred pages of finished stories so far and plan on revising a couple more to have about 120-130 manuscript pages with about 80-100 left to fill out a book.
I don't have a title for the collection at first I thought the collection would have a theme of war running through it because a lot of the stories had as a theme or were actually set in war zones. In growing the stories I came up with other stories that weren't about war so I'm searching for a theme in them or at least a common thread that a snappy title will pull together. Maybe I need to have more stories finished before that common theme reveals itself.
I've discovered in writing these stories that I've matured as a writer there seems to be more depth to what I've been writing, I hope that isn't self-delusion, I don't think it is I'm a pretty ruthless judge of my writing. I've published a few of them on Medium, here's a list of some of them and the links.
Judgement Night
As Good a Name as Any (a surprise ending that catches most readers by surprise)
The Seas Have No Stars
Arrival for Duty (needs a bit of touch-ups)
Judgement Night - Redemption
The Captured Dead
Those make up the first 100 pages. Here are a few others that are a work in progress.
Dawn's Highway
The Christmas Truce
The Games Children Play
I've been thinking about adding the short story of The Third Day to the collection, but since I'm planning on expanding it to a novel (of which I also have about a 100 pages written) if that would be redundant or would readers find it an interesting compare and contrast after the novel is published?
Jim
I don't have a title for the collection at first I thought the collection would have a theme of war running through it because a lot of the stories had as a theme or were actually set in war zones. In growing the stories I came up with other stories that weren't about war so I'm searching for a theme in them or at least a common thread that a snappy title will pull together. Maybe I need to have more stories finished before that common theme reveals itself.
I've discovered in writing these stories that I've matured as a writer there seems to be more depth to what I've been writing, I hope that isn't self-delusion, I don't think it is I'm a pretty ruthless judge of my writing. I've published a few of them on Medium, here's a list of some of them and the links.
Judgement Night
As Good a Name as Any (a surprise ending that catches most readers by surprise)
The Seas Have No Stars
Arrival for Duty (needs a bit of touch-ups)
Judgement Night - Redemption
The Captured Dead
Those make up the first 100 pages. Here are a few others that are a work in progress.
Dawn's Highway
The Christmas Truce
The Games Children Play
I've been thinking about adding the short story of The Third Day to the collection, but since I'm planning on expanding it to a novel (of which I also have about a 100 pages written) if that would be redundant or would readers find it an interesting compare and contrast after the novel is published?
Jim
Been Writing Short Stories
The quarterly question of where have I been? I've been working on a book of short stories. Last year I was writing short stories to make pick up some quick cash, and I wrote about 5-6 stories that I finished and I had a couple others that I wrote, and ideas for a couple more so I figured I could put together a book of short stories fairly quickly and hopefully get it published. I have about a hundred pages of finished stories so far and plan on revising a couple more to have about 120-130 manuscript pages with about 80-100 left to fill out a book.
I don't have a title for the collection at first I thought the collection would have a theme of war running through it because a lot of the stories had as a theme or were actually set in war zones. In growing the stories I came up with other stories that weren't about war so I'm searching for a theme in them or at least a common thread that a snappy title will pull together. Maybe I need to have more stories finished before that common theme reveals itself.
I've discovered in writing these stories that I've matured as a writer there seems to be more depth to what I've been writing, I hope that isn't self-delusion, I don't think it is I'm a pretty ruthless judge of my writing. I've published a few of them on Medium, here's a list of some of them and the links.
Judgement Night
As Good a Name as Any (a surprise ending that catches most readers by surprise)
The Seas Have No Stars
Arrival for Duty (needs a bit of touch-ups)
Judgement Night - Redemption
The Captured Dead
Those make up the first 100 pages. Here are a few others that are a work in progress.
Dawn's Highway
The Christmas Truce
The Games Children Play
I've been thinking about adding the short story of The Third Day to the collection, but since I'm planning on expanding it to a novel (of which I also have about a 100 pages written) if that would be redundant or would readers find it an interesting compare and contrast after the novel is published?
Jim
I don't have a title for the collection at first I thought the collection would have a theme of war running through it because a lot of the stories had as a theme or were actually set in war zones. In growing the stories I came up with other stories that weren't about war so I'm searching for a theme in them or at least a common thread that a snappy title will pull together. Maybe I need to have more stories finished before that common theme reveals itself.
I've discovered in writing these stories that I've matured as a writer there seems to be more depth to what I've been writing, I hope that isn't self-delusion, I don't think it is I'm a pretty ruthless judge of my writing. I've published a few of them on Medium, here's a list of some of them and the links.
Judgement Night
As Good a Name as Any (a surprise ending that catches most readers by surprise)
The Seas Have No Stars
Arrival for Duty (needs a bit of touch-ups)
Judgement Night - Redemption
The Captured Dead
Those make up the first 100 pages. Here are a few others that are a work in progress.
Dawn's Highway
The Christmas Truce
The Games Children Play
I've been thinking about adding the short story of The Third Day to the collection, but since I'm planning on expanding it to a novel (of which I also have about a 100 pages written) if that would be redundant or would readers find it an interesting compare and contrast after the novel is published?
Jim
