The Devil On Her Shoulder Chapter 5
I might be giving away the ending by mentioning that my wife said this was the saddest story I’ve yet written. She also said that somehow it was the most hopeful. It’s a strange feeling when you see someone crying over something you’ve written. I felt happy and guilty at the same time. If you’ve made someone cry with your writing then you’ve done something right. That is, you’ve done something right if it’s supposed to be sad. For my part, I have to say I haven’t been affected as much by anything else I’ve written—so far. I hope you enjoy, or at least find some value in the final chapter of “The Devil on Her Shoulder.”
The Devil On Her Shoulder Chapter 4
I mentioned at the start of the serial that it was based on a dream I had many years ago. While the story is different than the dream, the conclusion to this chapter is very close to its ending. Without giving away the end of this chapter, the dream concluded with me crawling into bed next to my future wife and murmuring the last words Isaac speaks in this chapter. The one difference is that in the dream the Christmas hymn “All is Well” started playing immediately after. Presumably because it was almost Christmas when I had the dream. Then I woke up. I have no idea what I did the day after. For some reason I think it was a Saturday. Other than that, I have no memory of it. Seventeen years later, give or take, I still remember the dream.
The Devil on Her Shoulder Chapter 3
Writing introductions for the chapters in this serial has been rather difficult. That was why for the previous chapter I just gave up, wrote something about foregoing a lengthy introduction, and skipped straight to the story. I was very tempted to copy/paste the introduction to the last installment and simply update “Chapter Two” to “Chapter Three.” I thought better of it and wrote these three blocks of text, which isn’t much better than the introduction to Chapter Two. Hope you enjoy Chapter Three of “The Devil on Her Shoulder.”
The Devil On Her Shoulder Ch. 2
I will forego a lengthy introduction to the next installment of “The Devil On Her Shoulder”. Please enjoy Chapter Two, wherein Isaac reluctantly returns to work.
The Devil on Her Shoulder
Rather than Rod Serling my way through another introduction, I thought I might provide a little bit of back story as to how this new serial came about. It’s based on a dream I had the winter after I graduated college. In the dream, my then girlfriend now wife, had decided to end her life through a government program. She was very casual about the whole thing. The rest of the dream was me trying to find a way out of the contract. It was a Kafka-esque (a pretentious but useful phrase) journey into bureaucratic hell. Everything in the dream felt like Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. It played in my mind’s eye like a movie filmed with fish-eye lenses, extreme closeups, and Dutch angles. The story became something very different from the dream. I originally intended it to be a single entry. As I was writing, it quickly became apparent that…
Kamensky’s Children Release
Hello friends, I am very pleased to announce that Kamensky’s Children is now available on Amazon.com in both Kindle and Paperback! If you enjoyed Kamensky’s Children as it was being released, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. While you’re at it, consider picking up a paper or electronic copy. There have been many updates and improvements to the story since it was originally posted. Happy Reading!
Legacy
Having an impact is a common aspiration in the world today. Many of us want to make a difference in some way or another. We want to leave something behind. Hopefully the impact will be positive. The truth is we have no real control over who we influence or how we influence them. Nonetheless, how we have affected people determines how we are remembered. We hope we will be remembered for our finer moments. Ultimately, we have no control over that either. It’s entirely possible we will be remembered for the times when we lost control or said something we regretted. Many of us will never know how much of an impact we have had on other people, for better or for worse. Others will know their legacy all too well.
The Great Migration
I’m sure we are all familiar with the phrase “May you live in interesting times.” Which according to the internet search I did in preparation for this intro, is not actually an ancient Chinese curse. Regardless of the source, we all understand the meaning of the phrase. We all understand that “interesting times” is meant ironically. We all know we’d rather not live in such times. Historic events tend to leave uncertainty in their wake. It is often the case that “interesting times” simply means that something very terrible could happen. It could be that nothing will happen. Perhaps I should say it might be that nothing else will happen. Lucky for us we get to live with the dread. Life of course goes on even in the midst of the uncertainty. Something terrible could happen today, but then again that’s true of every day. Perhaps interesting times are no…
On A Tuesday
I, like the protagonist of our story, don’t particularly care for Tuesdays. Tuesdays are work-week limbo. The rest of the week looms over us like a dark cloud. We can’t even look forward to close of business on a Tuesday because the next day is Wednesday, which is a so-so day. With Wednesday we can at least look forward to Thursday. On Thursday, we obviously look forward to Friday. Unless perhaps we are among the poor souls who have to work on the weekends. Our protagonist, and his co-workers, are about to have a bad Tuesday. Then again, Tuesdays almost always are.
Unmaking the Past
Every day we make decisions that put us on a specific course. They plot a trajectory for our lives. We make plans and imagine our future around them. But subsequent decisions can rob past choices of their meaning. Or alter them irrevocably. It is not uncommon for succeeding decisions and actions to slowly undo previous hopes and dreams. We might not even be aware in the moment of how we are undermining their fulfillment. Until it is too late. Until we no longer share the dreams of the past. Until we’ve either given up on it or we seek a different future. Choices inevitably affect everyone around us. Oftentimes in ways we’ll never know. In giving up on the dreams of the past we’re rarely the only ones to get hurt.