JamesSavik

Meridian, MS Jefferson Elementary School Lillian Hollister was overseeing a test to her fourth grade math class when there was a knock on her door. She opened the door and the elderly Mrs. Barnett from across the hall whispered, “Come to the teacher’s lounge right away.” She turned to her class and said, “Keep working, guys. I’ll be right back.” She followed Mrs. Barnett, the fourth grade English teacher at Jefferson Elementary since Moses was a student, into the teacher

“Site K” Secret US Government Lab Nevada Desert “Dr. Cassidy, wake up!” The scientist woke up somewhat disoriented, “What? What’s the matter?” Cassidy made out Dr. Bernardi’s Italian features when he put on his glasses. “Somebody broke the story! Come down to the common room.” Cassidy threw on some clothes and joined the rest of the team in the common room. There was a good live image of the object and a pretty Australian reporter was interviewing an astronomer.

Big surprise: no answer.

Coolgardie, Western Australia Graves Estate Once again, Mr. Graves surprised Kelly and her cameraman. His lamb and rice stew was delicious. The three enjoyed dinner and a pint on the front porch as the shadows lengthened and the sun set. Kelly excused herself, tried her cell phone and got nothing. She went to the Range Rover and got the satellite phone and dialed her editor. True to form, he answered on the second ring: “Ian McAlister.” “Ian, its Kelly.” “Kelly! I

“Site K” Secret US Government Lab Nevada Desert Dr. Turner sat at the head of the conference table. The rest of the Bio-Sciences Team was all present and the odor of coffee was thick in the room. No one wanted to begin. The situation was just so bizarre. Turner began by saying, “We’re here to make a recommendation to the military in regard to how they should respond to the cloud. Does anyone else here feel like that’s the most ridiculous task they’ve ever been assigned?”

I miss programs like the Night Gallery and The Outer Limits. The format: an hour long play written by established or unknown authors. That would be bad assed but nobody is doing it anymore. It's cheaper and easier to shit those barf-worthy reality shows.

I drive a 2004 Toyota Tacoma x-tra cab. Car of my dreams: 1970 Mustang Fastback Boss 351 with the red & black trim package

There is such a thing as destructive criticism. Ummm... the story was about an addict living in a violent world. I don't do care-bears. Blow it off. Don't listen to it. Not all stories are for everybody. This kind of criticism is generated by pushing someones buttons- in this case drugs and violence set off the critic. Are drugs and violence any less socially relevant because the critic doesn't like it? Might it be useful to get some insight into how an addict might get entangled in drugs? Many readers get hung up. You hit their hot button and they get confused between a plot element and the writer's endorsement. Of course this is ridiculous but it has happened to me. I have never heard of someone writing a murder mystery accused of endorsing murder.

Coolgardie, Western Australia Graves Estate Kelly watched quietly as Graves worked. He might not be what was called a professional astronomer, but it was clear to her that he knew what he was doing. Graves had archived images of the sky for every night since the object had first appeared that he used to create a track as the object as it moved through the Southern Cross and into Centaurus. He did some calculations on a white board and ran a few programs in Mathmatica on one

Science Fiction is a lot more than aliens. Many people like to call it speculative fiction: what if? At its best it explores questions about man, technology and our place in the universe. At its worst... well there's Plan 9 from Outer Space and all of the bad sci-fi B movies made in the fifties. Sadly the SyFy network is simply making more of that trash with made for TV bullshit like Sharktopus (I shit you not) and Super-croc. How difficult would it be to buy a script from someone that wasn't a hack? How expensive would it be to do the same movie, same actors with a decent script? Writing makes all the difference in the world. As someone that has written a few things, it makes me sick to see the stupidity, laziness and cynicism that kind of work represents when we all know they could do so much better.

thank you for the feedback. My biology is quite dated and I was hitting wikipedia and biology sites hard as I was writing that. This will "get fixed" in the final version.

Meridian Naval Air Station Lt. Matt Hollister landed the C-2 Greyhound aircraft at the Meridian NAS field after a long flight home from the big carrier group that had assembled in the mid-Atlantic. He wished that he had been allowed to carry a camera. The assembly of hundreds of ships was really quite remarkable. They had reached across the horizon for a hundred miles in every direction. It wasn’t just the US Navy and its NATO allies. Russian and Ukrainian flagged ships were sailing si

Coolgardie, Western Australia The network affiliate in Coolgardie met Kelly Simmons at the airport. Her remote crew consisted of a tall, skinny young man named Jack in a shiny red Range Rover. At first, she was put off by Jack. He looked and dressed like a kid that should be surfing, but he was polite and accommodating. After programming the GPS, she was quite pleased to let him drive the hour and a half out to their destination. The Range Rover kicked up clouds of red dust as they dro

“Site K” Secret US Government Lab Nevada Desert Dr. Jerry Cassidy rubbed his eyes. He had been assigned to a team called the Biosciences Work Group and had been looking at the same data since he arrived at the lab called “Site K”. There simply weren’t enough pieces of the puzzle to come up with even a wild guess at what the cloud was that was rapidly approaching Earth. He stood up and walked the short distance down the hall to the break room. Dr. Hart of Tulane, a bioche

World News Network Pacific Bureau Sydney, Australia Kelly Simmons, the Pacific Bureau’s science correspondent, had five minutes’ notice that there would be a full staff meeting in the Bureau Chief’s conference room. Everyone who wasn’t in the field or on the air was supposed to be there. Something very odd was going on even in her little niche of the kingdom. Scientists loved to talk about their work. Many of them saw outreach and education as a vital part of their job. They

University of South Dakota Vermilion, SD “Throughout the fossil record, we can see that evolution proceeds in stops and starts. It does not and has not proceeded in a straight line.” Dr. Jerry Cassidy drew a timeline on his white board and put five tics on the graph. He knew that half his students were asleep, and the rest only cared because they needed a mid-level science elective to graduate. “The great extinction events have had a major effect on the biological world. Ever

Paranal Observatory, European Southern Observatory Cerro Paranal, Chile October 22, 2016 The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Array was focused deep in the blackness of intergalactic space examining galaxies that dated to within a few billion years of the Big Bang when Director Addler's phone began to ring. The first call came from Dr. Willoby at the Australian National Astronomical Observatory. Old Jack had found something strange, and he wanted co

The great observatories have detected an unknown object approaching earth from deep space. Governments prepare for the worst in secret as scientists look for answers.

After passing up the SyFy channel for the 10,000th time I started to wonder. Why did they go to crap. Then I used my mad hacker skills to get the mailing list for their board of directors. I sent this. I'll let you know if they answer

Calvin & Hobbs is brilliant! Oh the stuff that is currently running, I like Arlo & Janis

LMAO. Thar be creatures in the deep stranger and more fearsome than you can imagine. Last year the first ever giant squid was recovered in the South Pacific. The thing was enormous. Scary part is that something bigger than him made calamari out of him.

The best writers usually start out as prolific readers. Read a lot of stuff: sci-fi, mysteries, spy novels- doesn't matter what. The point is to get exposed to other writers and their style and voice. Try some of Comicfan's writing prompts. Don't feel like you have to do them all. Just pick the ones that fire your imagination.

I'd fuss at you if I hadn't called in sick when I got stuck on one of Comicaity's stories.

I have decided to suspend releasing the Cloud in my blog. I will release the story in its entirety this Halloween! ==================================================== The great observatories have detected an unknown object approaching earth from deep space. Governments prepare for the worst in secret as scientists look for answers. The Cloud is released in its entirety at: https://www.gayauthors.org/story/jamessavik/thecloud

I'm not thrilled with the way Chris Kluwe is going about his advocacy. Truthfully, he is coming off as a foul-mouthed punk.