my short story, THE REPLACEMENT, is up at BookLoons' ThrillerChiller Theater. Please stop over and check it out. It's set in Dinkytown, a neighborhood of Minneapolis that borders the University of Minnesota. Neighborhoods in the Twin Cities have names like Tangletown and Frogtown. Dinkytown. Bob Dylan used to play music on the street corner seen in the first photo, and he lived in an apartment above the building -- Grey's Drugstore -- which is now the Loring Pasta Bar. (Dylan isn't in the photo.)
the second photo is of an herbal spell shop just a few doors down from the Loring, and the setting for most of my short story.
from the Dylan Written Word Data Base:
"Koerner and I were playing and singing a lot together as a duo, but we each did our own thing separately. As for myself, I played morning, noon and night. That's all I did, usually fell asleep with the guitar in my hands. I went through the entire summer this way. In the fall, I was sitting at the lunch counter at Gray's drugstore. Gray's drugstore was in the heart of Dinkytown. I had moved into a room right above it. School was back in session and university life was picking up again. My cousin Chucky and his buddies had all moved away from the fraternity house, and the fraternity members, or would-be fraternity members, soon reappeared. They asked me who I was and what I was doing there. Nothing, I wasn't doing anything there . . I was sleeping there. Of course I knew what was coming and quickly grabbed my bags and left. The room above Gray's drugstore cost thirty bucks a month. It was an okay place and I could easily afford it.
By this time, I was making three to five dollars every time I played at either one of the coffeehouses around or another place over in St. Paul called the Purple Onion pizza parlor. Above Gray's, the crash pad was no more than an empty storage room with a sink and a window looking into an alley. No closet or anything. Toilet down the hall. I put a mattress on the floor, bought a used dresser, plugged in a hot plate on top of that-used the outside window ledge as a refrigerator when it got cold."
THE REPLACEMENT
33 comments:
Clever and smooth. A great read.
I'm envious. ;)
thanks, emeraldcite. :) i've never written a short story other than flash. but i think this was close to flash length!
Anne.... you've never written a short story other than flash before? Wow. Do you think you'll do more now?
sandra, i don't know about doing more. i never thought i'd ever attempt a short story. it was just something that never interested me, but the flash fiction got me going.
Nice and creepy. Just the way I like it. Great story, Anne! :)
Nicely done.
Thanks for the link, the story and the Dylan history lesson. Both were enjoyable. Also, just wanted to say I just finished Play dead the other night and enjoyed it to say the least. I have Pale immortal,and "Before I wake" already but not "Sleep tight" or "Hush". Of the two(or even 4 for that matter) is there any order you recommend reading them in? I don't think, they contain the same characters, but I don't remember for sure from reading the jackets when I bought them. Just curious. Again, thanks for the short story.
BD
I'm going to read the story in a minute, but wanted to comment on the Dylan thing.
How much do we all complain about the publishing business? And how many of us are living in a storage room with only a sink and using a window sill as a refrigerator just so we can write day and night?
I'm certainly not. I'll think of that excerpt the next time I'm complaing about not having time to write.
BD, i'm so glad you enjoyed play dead and my dylan tribute. short stories are SO HARD. they really have to have punch. i couldn't come up with a hook or punch ending, so i went with just a fun little bit of writing. i keep thinking maybe the hook will finally come to me and i'll rework the story in the future.
as far as what books to read, it doesn't make a difference, but i do think pale immortal is quite a bit better than before i wake. before i wake is very internal and a little disjointed.
i appreciate the support, BD. :)
jaye, for the past 6 years i've felt every word i write goes to making my mortgage payment. i don't like thinking of writing that way, and i want to figure out a way to turn that structure around and see what it's like to write without that hanging over me. do you know where i can find a garret? :D
Loved the short story, Anne. It was (to me anyway) creepier than the bug story...but then I've always been a sucker for a good zombie story!
I loved it!! Wow, that was awesome. Love to read your shorts, Anne!
angie: thanks!! i love zombies!!!
kel: did you say that in a bart simpson voice?
read my shorts
heh
Darn! Fresh out of garrets. I have a nice cardboard box you can borrow.
Right after I read that I laughed. Thought I'd correct myself but nah! haha!
Loved the story Anne! You should try your hand at writing short stories more often!
jaye, no thanks. i'll just pitch a pup tent in your front yard. when you come out and ask what i'm doing there, i'll just say i'm writin'. :D
kelly, i'm glad you left it in there. so funny!
tami, thank you! i'm thinking i might expand that story at some point in the future. i really liked grant/zombie boy. :D
Very tight story, Anne. Well planted clues. Makes you want to read it twice!
Loved The Replacement, Anne. The idea of writing a short story scares the hell out of me. You nailed it!
wow, daniel. thanks so much! i really worried about the clues being too obvious or too vague.
helen, thanks! i never thought i'd even attempt a short story, but it's rewarding to complete a project in a few days rather than a year. that's a nice switch.
another bit of trivia:
dinkytown was also home to the replacements who owned a small dinkytown studio where most of their albums were recorded. vang is the name of the st. paul guy who killed the hunters two winters ago in wisconsin.
Anne,
I really dug that story. I don't there was a wasted word in the whole piece. Just a cool short story.
struggling -- thank you so much!! i'm not a very wordy person. that can be a problem for me sometimes where i need some words for pacing, but it's good to know it worked in this case!
Anne, the Dinkytown Replacements are the same as the Irish band that did the movie, are they?
No halloween post today Anne? :O
helen, no, not the same.
tami, sad, ain't it? haha! i'd planned to post about nosferatu, but then decided to leave up the old post instead. sorry!!!
but i did have blood drawn by a witch today. i told her the only thing better would have been a vampire. :D
Anne, I loved that story. Think you might expand on it? I'd love to read more of Grant and his uncle and their lives in Dinkytown.
aw, jaye. thank you! i would be extremely interested in expanding the story, but i probably wouldn't do it without a contract. i could see it being a book or part of an anthology. it would be so much fun to write!
Dang. I wish I had read your story already, but I haven't yet. However, I pass along the following: “In an interview two years ago on the Web site Suicide Girls, [Max, son of Mel] Brooks was asked, ‘Are you one of those guys that whenever you’re in a house and you see lots of glass windows, you think that would be a bad place to fight off zombies?’ His reply: “Oh yeah.” I love that. Happy All Saints Day.
And while you're wishing for a garret, I'm wishing for a garrote... I guess I haven't shaken off Halloween yet.
damn blogger!!
ahem. what i was saying....
hulles, thanks for the interview quote. I'll probably remember that next time i'm in a glassy place. and i'm thinking the garrett and garrote might work well together.
I love the new pic, Anne. The colors are great and you look simply smashing. :-)
thanks, shesawriter! smashing. love that word! it comes with its own accent.
The frat boy definitely deserved it.
I hope that kid's new body works out well for him.
Great story Anne! :D
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