A Tiger on the Roof

Yesterday I had a chance to speak with high school students and I talked about how I spin a yarn by using examples from my graphic novelettes and short stories. I described how I think up with characters – like my protagonist in my upcoming novel “Blood Interrogator”—and I told them how I often write when I have no ideas at all. I wrote “The Radio” in about a half hour because I was sitting close next to a 1950s radio as I waited for a symposium to start. Since I had a half an hour to kill, I went full throttle with my writing hand.

During my brief talk with the students, I said that even an absurd sentence can become a story. It doesn’t matter if it’s meaningless, because you can give it meaning when you craft the tale. Saying something out loud can jolt your mind and give you something to write about. So, I this out loud: “There’s a tiger on the roof.”

Now I have to put my story where my mouth is. Saturday I’m publishing this brief work.