Upcoming Short Stories

2 short stories have been in development for quite some time. The horror story I've been working on takes place in a costume store. It might be released chapter by chapter on here. The next story will be 'The Ranger'. I think it will also be written chapter by chapter and released on this blog. I've also been listening to several great audio books as of late. One of these has been an anthology of short stories. I've enjoyed listening to this collection and it's inspired me to keep writing mine and submit them for publication to magazines.
The book I'm reading is simply called 'Horror Stories' by Jack Kilborn & J. Konrath. While they're not all great, there are more then several worthy of reading for the season.

The Neverending Story

I'm happy I grew up in the 80's and 90's. It was a great time to witness the original and inspired ideas of the 80's. I watched plenty of movies, some were kids movies, others were more adult and I probably shouldn't have been watching them.

One of my favorite movies that we had on tape was 'The Neverending Story'. It was such a great fantastic movie to watch. It totally inspired me, to write and to dream of making life, in general, an adventure. I mean, when I saw The Rock Biter, the racing snail, the bat and the amazing sets they built I was just blown away by it all. This was the age of Jim Henson and I was loving every minute of it!

I mean the scene where Atrau loses his horse in the Swamps of Sorrow, who can forget that?
The music was simply amazing as well. Every time a new bit of scenery is introduced a beautiful bit of music is unraveled. The scenes where Falgor is flying are great.
Nothing in the movie grabbed me more than Gnork, the wolf antagonist on the film. What a Jim Henson masterpiece. When he explained what Fantasia essentially was and about The Nothing, I was blown away. There's nothing worse you can do to a kids world then take away their imagination and creativeness. What a truly scary idea. When he discussed the possibility of growing into an adult and losing the ability to imagine and dream it really made me think about how many people lose that ability and embrace the horror of complacency of work, marriage and everything else life can bog us down with so we forget who we were when we started our lives out. Fantasia was the realm of human fantasy and The Nothing was people forgetting about their dreams, aspirations and worst of all their imagination.
The book takes that idea and really rolls with it and takes it further with another theme. The idea of losing yourself in fantasy so much that you forget about the people in your life that love and care about you. This theme served as a clever warning to us to not go to the other extreme and lose ourselves in fantasy so that we forget all our responsibilities and loved ones. I get the idea that we should strive to balance our lives with or creative imagination and out mundane day to day tasks and 'reality'. The other worlds/lands that the book delves into are unique and each has it's own story arc with characters coming from their own continuing stories. Each new land and adventure has a new thing for us to learn . Every time Bastian makes up a new adventure or land he gets more arrogant and mean, forgetting more memories from his life back home. There's this neat part where other people have entered Fantasia (in the book it's called Fantastica) and are just stuck spouting gibberish that over time can come out as every story ever written. They have completely forgetton who they were in 'real life' totally became characters in Fantasia and are now mindless zombies who can't escape. Wow, I have to give it to you Michael Ende, you know how to give a kid an existential crisis way too soon in their lives.

Books Read

I've been listening to many audio books as of late as well as reading a few too.

I've been listening to a few books on Quantum Theory. It's been fascinating to listen to the Multiple Worlds theories. It just opens our eyes to the endless possibilities that could be out there for us and for many story telling opportunities. I was fueled with the what-if's by Michio Kaku's book 'Parallel Worlds'.

I've seen him talk before about String Theory and many others. This book was very dense and explained the possibilities of time travel, worm holes, teleportation, multiple dimensions and parallel worlds identical to our own.

Some of these theories were created or spurned on by H.G. Wells and other sci-fi writers. I'm amazed to find that some of their theories hold water and are possible through the Laws of Relativity. Amazing! Just amazing.

4th Hour and Short Stories

I have finished a basic spell check of
4th Hour and am now over-looking each chapter and placing them in their proper spots within the book.

I have to rewrite a missing chapter that I left in storage in California. This has
Been frustrating since it's a key scene in the plot and one of the first ones I wrote when I started writing the story many years ago.

I have begun plotting a short story called 'The Ranger' (working
Title). It involves a man who used to be a pirate and finds himself stranded in a new land and has to defend himself and the local villagers from plunderers. Using his new skills as a Ranger he must utilize the land and its resources to turn the tide against them.

Still writing 4th but being inspired along the way

Been busy writing my novel 4th Hour that'll take probably one or two more rewrites before it's ready. Then I will publish it and do an audio book version of it. I also plan to write a couple of short stories in the near future. I'll revamp a couple screenplays as well. Moving to New York has inspired me to tell some stories using the beautiful scenery of Upstate and I am looking forward to telling several stories here on screen.

Halloween Madness

        Lately, I've been visiting a few Halloween stories and they remind me of a few episodes from Tales from the Darkside. They had a great episode where there's a stingy old man who won't open the door for trick or treaters. It was directed my George Romero. I loved the make-up and effects they did for it, the simple music was perfect for it as well. It inspired me to write a short story about working at a Halloween store and what happens when it closes.

        The story will probably be as long as The Frisbee Ghost, stay tuned. By the way, I realize some of these stories might be terrible, but I'm writing them for practice. Maybe I'll write a decent one along the way.

The Frisbee Ghost

The Frisbee Ghost 

by

Chris Calderon

         One day, a man named Joe was out on a bright summer day. He loved to play frisbee with Doug and their two friends. Sometimes he liked to throw from a far distance so he would back up to the road. 

He tripped while running backwards for the flying disc. 

         "Look out Joe!" His good friend Doug yelled, but it was too late. Joe was hit by a semi-truck. Joe died. 

The frisbee rested on his face. 

         "Wow, that must've hurt," said Joe looking down at his old body. He somehow didn't realize it was his. Joe was a ghost now "Oh well," said Joe as he picked up the frisbee from his old face.

         Doug watched in horror as the frisbee landed between his feet. People ran to Joe. The ambulance showed up.

                                                        *                      *                     *

           Some time passed. Joe kept watching people in the park, especially the people playing frisbee. Joe missed his friends and family and wanted to see them again. Suddenly, someone threw a frisbee over the road. He instinctively ran to get it. To the others amazement the frisbee appeared to stop in midflight. The disc launched high back into the air and was caught by one of the three players. They all looked at each other in disbelief.

                                               

                                                          *                      *                     *

            The next few days more and more players showed up to see 'Joe the Frisbee Ghost'. Everyone would throw their frisbees at nothing hoping they would stop in mid-air and fly back at them. Joe wondered why everyone was throwing their frisbees at him. He thought that everyone was picking on him so he stopped throwing them back and walked away. He left the park and wandered the streets of the city. He walked by the homes and buildings. The more he walked, the more he got lost. For some reason he seemed to be moving in circles, never being able to leave his town. He was sad that his friends hadn't talked to him. He felt very alone in a city full of life. Days went by and Joe seemed to forget frisbee the park.

                                                           *                      *                     *

           Days later, word had been out about Joe. Scientists, photographers, and hundreds of Joe's fans had shown up to see or not see Joe one more time. The word had spread about him.

           The crowd waited for hours and hours. Joe's old blue frisbee sat on the grass as everyone waited for him to pick it up.

                                                            *                      *                     *

           Joe yawned, he had drifted off and was lying on the thick branch of a tree. He heard a commotion in the distance. He heard mumbling, yelling, honking and clicking. "What's that all about?" Joe said to himself. He decided to get up and investigate. Hundreds of people gathered around throwing frisbees clicking pictures, talking and laughing

           Joe made it to back to the park where people were watching the frisbee.

                                                             *                      *                     *

           The frisbee started to move slightly. People shouted and gasped. Flashes went off. Doug looked to his two friends and they smiled. They knew it was Joe. The frisbee started to move again. It lifted straight up. More people gasped and even more flashes went off.

           "He wants someone to throw it too!" Said Doug as he stepped in front of the crowd.

           The frisbee moved around like a bee hovering for honey. It spun forward into Doug's hands. The crowd was yelling. A few girls screamed. Dan threw the frisbee back at Joe and it stopped in mid-air. One more time the frisbee was thrown, each time Doug threw if further and further back until Joe was by the edge of the park where he died. Suddenly a truck roared down the street. Joe stopped in front of the truck in a panic. The truck passed right threw him and frisbee flew down the street. Joe looked down at his hands and feet. They were still there or so he thought. He hadn't remembered looking at his body parts in quite a while. It was as if his body was flickering and not quite solid like in a dream. He wasn't sure if his body was quite real. He realized he had died that day with the truck. Joe felt really sad and cried to himself.

                                                               *                      *                     *

            The crowd was silent. Doug felt bad that he had thrown the frisbee too far again. He remembered that was how Joe died. He allowed it all to happen again. He went back into the crowd to be comforted by his friends. The crowd, as astonished as they were, started to go home. Soon it was just Doug and a couple of his friends. Doug stood out in the field of the park. "I'm sorry Joe. I'm so sorry."

            The frisbee began to hover above the street. It shot forward and hit Doug in the head. Surprised, he looked down at the frisbee, brushing his head. He looked back up to where Joe would be standing and smiled. He picked it up and threw it back. Again the flying plastic disc shot back at Doug, "Joe! Joe, 

I'm sorry!"

            Again Doug threw the disc and again it was returned.

            Joe was happy they were all together again. He knew that as long as they were together he would never be alone. He felt that eventually he would have to go, but not yet. He had a few more games in him.

                                                                          The End