Short Stories by Steven Long

St. Patrick Nora BaTeb Fall Five Endgame Of Equatorial Prophecy Overkill Cruelty TAI1 A Casual Meeting Webcam Girl The Centurion's Dream Absolute Value Tale of Tim Tale of Hal Tale of Ann Cow Defender

St. Patrick and his various exploits in: html or pdf Partners at my law firm were off in the Bahamas on St. Patricks day. My coworker Chad and I tried to figure out the link between these things. This was what came out of that. A fictionalized account of St. Patrick's life in times, relying heavily on the wikipedia entry for St. Patrick. The style is a throwback to my older stuff. Less high minded. More immature. Hopefully funny. Writing started on St. Patrick's Day 2008, concluded on July 6th, 2008.

Nora in: html or pdf. Peter is a bit crazy. He's tethered to the ground by his wife Nora, but when Nora steps out reality becomes a bit surreal. This is my whack at love. My own Oz-esque, Looking Glass story. It's big and it might be more readable if you click on the pdf and print it, then curl up with it on some floor or couch. Writing foolishly started during bar review during the summer of 2007. The story was a bit inspired by the Val Emmich song 'At the Risk of Sounding.' This story, at least at the time of writing, was a culmination of many 'fragile reality' stories I've written. It also has some roots in my frustration with a Tom Robbins book (Villa Incognito).

BaTeb in: html I thought of the classic monsters and I wanted to make a unique one. I thought of vampires, zombies, mummies, werewolves and this story was me discovering a different one. Again I found inspiration from the Alaskan natives, the Tlingits. I used a few of their words, I probably butchered their pluralization and at least one word is tough to read and may trip up readers. I feel good about this story. It was slippery and evasive to capture as the writer. The story is delivered differently than any of my other stories. More of this story may be on its way, but this story can stand alone. Writing started during the Jessup International Moot Court Competition while in Lexington, VA in February of 2007.

Fall Five in: html, pdf. I started writing this in my classroom at the University of Cape Town. I didn't know where it was going. Frequently, when I was writing about Deep my mind would drift to the exploits of ChinJo. I'd think up twists and obstacles, I'd eagerly throw them in front of him, and he'd bat them down. He was clever, and kept up with me pretty well. Writing probably started about June 25th, 2006. Story completed September 7th, 2006.

Endgame: start (in html, pdf), requiem (html, pdf), finale (html, pdf). There are times where I take my writing seriously. Endgame was the product of that seriousness. After writing a dozen or so Cow Defenders, I wanted to show to myself that I could write darker. Well, I decided to spin that off. I first wrote a 'dark' Cow Defender story, but that was lost in a computer crash. Two Endgame stories were lost in that crash, as well. Synopsis: darkness descends, a guy bonds with the darkness, constrains the darkness. The darkness needs the guy gone. He looks like evil incarnate. The tale of a pariah. Writing probably started about 1998. Story completed 2005, maybe?

Of Equatorial Prophecy: here I wrote this while I was at KU. I remember having a professor who didn't seem much older than me. Krueger, I think. We'd talk about writing. He told me about Towing Jehovah, which I now recommend often. I started writing this, and imagined submitting it to be published somewhere. I was poor then, and it appeared that I'd have to pay 'application fees' to potentially get my story published. I did not pursue. Synopsis: crazy guy writes a newspaper that starts coming true years later. Some conform to the predictions. Writing happened back in 2000.

Overkill: entry one, entry two I was brainstorming about a superhero world that had a different origin story. Overall I favor Marvel's 'mutant' idea over DC's 'whatever' idea. My mind raced all around, and came up with this. Admittedly, Overkill is similar in tone to Endgame. Overkill is one of the only (if not the only story that someone random from the internet emailed me about wanting more.) Synopsis: Another tormented hero. He blogged about his problems. I really don't remember when any of this was written, but the second story appears to have been completed 03/23/2004.

Cruelty: html The first line was me preparing to brainstorm. Then I just kept running. Short-short story. I did with it what I intended. Synopsis: Love letters turned bad. I really don't remember when any of this was written.

TAI1: pdf I heard enough people taking Terminator 2 as the inevitable future. They couldn't entertain another possibility. I took it upon myself to come up with an equally plausible direction AI could go. Synopsis: Robots don't have to be evil. I probably wrote this my Sophomore year at KU.

A Casual Meeting: html I can't really remember what was going on in my head when I wrote this. It might have just been the typical for me, where I throw a couple of characters together and paint a world. They interact. Synopsis: A kid thinks he might have met his father, not happiness follows. I probably wrote this my Junior year at KU.

Webcam Girl: html, pdf It is hard to escape the presence of the 'webcam girls' if you spend much time on the Online. Martin Sargent used to host a show called 'Unscrewed,' which I watched. He'd have a bit where two 'cam whores' would have a showdown, competing for silly prizes. Winner stays to play another day. It got me thinking about how I reveal myself online, about how they reveal themselves online. I figured people could probably develop unhealthy bonds with internet personalities. Synopsis: An attractive girl lives her life in front of a webcam, someone gets more than a little enamored. I probably wrote this my Junior year at KU.

The Centurion's Dream: html Back in high school I had the same dream on many consecutive nights. Well, it was a continuation of a dream, not just the same dream. In classes I started having daydreams that were the continuation of the dream. It feels weird to put this as fiction as it came from a different part of my brain than the rest of my stories. Synopsis: A guy in a world far away. He has sacrificed an eternity for humanity, that sacrifice was not without reward. Dreamed in high school. Committed to writing in 2005.

Absolute Value: Rated R or Rated PG I was sitting in the library at UMKC: School of Law, and I started writing. I became alarmed as the content was atypical for me. I kept writing to see where it was going. It became clear, I was writing porn. I 'finished' the work and tried to think of what to make of it. I didn't want to put it 'as is' on the Online. I decided to write the story surrounding the incident. The things that came before and after. The things that could make the sex more interesting, pivotal. I wrote that, and put it up on the online. I still feel odd putting this graphic depiction of sex on the internet, some people might want the story without the sex. I decided to make a PG version of the story. I can censor me. Synopsis: Physical relations can have more consequences than expected. This was written during my 2L year of law school, 2005-2006.

Tale of Tim: html I was in Alaska. I saw some books and stories written by white folk as though they weren't white folk. I didn't know what to make of that. Then I heard a couple of stories told my Inuits. This was my second time in Alaska, and my father had been benignly threatened by some Inuits (if we dared to camp in their graveyard). It all sloshed in my head, along with Vonnegut (I'd bought a copy of Bagombo Snuff Box). I decided to write my own Alaskan tale. I really liked the result. Synopsis: Tim liked the eagles, he kept feeding them with his extra food. He was told not to feed those eagles. Wrote while I was in Alaska when I was 21, so probably July of 2002.

Tale of Hal: html A second in the 'tale of' series. I think I wrote this either while in Alaska, or shortly thereafter. Again, I'd ingested more Vonnegut, I'd absorbed more Alaskan culture. I wanted to write a bigger story with the mechanisms I'd created. I should here mention that I mean no slight to the native people of Alaska. I really admired their storytelling, and the storytellers and children found in these 'tales' do not reflect my opinion nor impression of those people. Synopsis: Hal wins the lottery and decides to make his beloved wife's life magic. Probably Summer of 2002.

Tale of Ann: html I'd long ago thought of this story. It took some time before I turned it into a story. I believe I had a dream which created the premise. The 'tale of' style went very well with the idea, and once I'd set my mind on it, the story came out easy. Synopsis: A woman wakes up with a halo, it changes her life. Conceived in 2002, words put down in early 2006, then posted to the online August 20, 2006.

Cow Defender at: my Cow Defender site, hardcover bookform, paperback. I started writing Cow Defender when I was bored in classes. Sometimes I'd use him as a study aid, where I'd work in things like ClIF H BrON (the diatomics). Sometimes I'd use him to write autobiographical accounts of my rather mundane life, with added fiction to attract readers. Sometimes he represents pure escapism. Through his journeys one could see me evolve as a writer. You could see me mature as a person. You can see what I might be seeing when the gears are turning in my head. I suppose I should give a brief discription of what it is, who he is. He's a guy who gets powers (?) in a far too complicated way, likes the rush of being a hero, tries to figure out what his purpose should be. He declares his purpose, then doesn't do much to advance it, but he does a fair deal of good along the way. Clearly he is me. Writing probably started in 1997. Story ongoing.