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misfortune smiles too - excerpt...
The militant drones outside would have rendered me impotent. They would have bolted a mask over my face and left me to rot...unable to spread the word about the horrors I've witnessed directly. They would have treated me like a terrorist, when I was just trying to make my way in the world like everyone else.
No one deserved the hardships my family endured in this godless world. No one should have to watch their loved ones die, sad, poor and alone...and, then, watch their children piss their lives away preparing for a modest life that's become too rich for them...following in the footsteps of their parents, when it doesn't make sense anymore.
I saw the writing on the wall.
tillemans speaks...
In the fall of 2004, I started writing an ambitious story ("Uncle Alvin") about a family undergoing tremendous hardships on their isolated family farm. I told the tale of the youngest and only surviving member's coming-of-age, bonding with his deceased uncle on a road trip and finding himself. It boasted a story within the story (a story about a dead boy in the mirror) and flashbacks showing Alvin's horrible infancy.
The first draft picked up the title "Misfortune Smiles Too". I wrote it in the first-person and alternated between past and present tense to change the pace of the story, for impact. Though, on the advice of Richard Moore, I rewrote the story all in the past tense. It does flow better that way for whatever it lost.
It's the most difficult story I've ever tried to tell in so little space. It's seen more revisions than I now care to recount. I cut it down from 7k words to just under 3k words. Mike Philbin suggested I pull material from later in the story and open with it (the excerpt above). That added additional direction to the story that was missing before. Some stories spring from the pen with ease - not this one. Refining a story can become sheer agony. Though, with all the cuts I've made, the story does get right down to business without even so much as dinner and a movie. I split her right down the middle.
tillemans bio...
Nicholas Alan Tillemans resides in the Continental United States. He does not live on or near any coast nor in any state beginning with any of the letters 'F', 'U', 'C' or 'K'. He lives east of the Dakotas. He grew up in a major metropolitan area and routinely (for years on end) poured carcinogenic chemicals into the same river he and millions of others drink out of because the organization he worked for had no other method in place for disposing of said chemicals. This happens everywhere, all the time. He's jaded. Maybe that's why he writes this crap.
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back to Chimeraworld #3 editorial page
Chimericana Books.
Chimericana Books.
Chimericana Books.
Chimericana Books.
Chimericana Books.
Chimericana Books.
Hellbound Books, Spring 2006
Plus six other short novels (approx 40,000 words each) that I'm looking to publish in a special 6-pack.
