The Gist of the Story

So I was looking over some of my old short stories and came across one I had nearly forgotten. A complete story, for if I had not completed it it would still be bouncing around in my head from time to time.

Shall I declare myself psychic, or rather a soothsayer, to be more precise?

Spoiler alert: one of my best short stories is about to be explained, played out in rough outline, the gist of the story revealed. You can skip the highlighted area if you don't want the story to be... spoiled.

The gist of the story is a law enforcement officer comes across a domestic disturbance and the initial responding officers are standing down... but it just doesn't feel right to him.

So something happens in the house. He hears screams, and the younger officers reluctantly follow him up to the door. He busts in the door and enters... alone.

The long and the short of it, he takes on severally heavily armed gang members, later to be discovered to be with terrorist intent, not to mention that the building was a known drug house.

He saves the damsel in distress and finds himself on death row for his actions.

Written six years ago you would have thought the story ridiculous.

How about now?

The title: "Beyond the Pale". As the officers actions are described by a judge; along with other phases of expressed horror and condemnation.

You can actually find the opening to that story in my June 15th, 2016 Blog post; of the same title linked above.

I hope I haven't ruined it for you.

I humbly must admit, most of my stories have a potential prophetic element to them. But do not call me George; as in George Orwell. I am fairly certain I have never been called George.

At one time, long ago I was searching various author oriented websites of a social media or self publishing, self help nature. One such site had a collection of short stories that people had written and posted. I found that many of them read more like detailed outlines than actually stories, let alone literature. More of a gist than a well spun yarn.

The sites I settled on, and I really need to start getting back to them, were Goodreads and Reedsy.

The question to be answered is: Are people as inspired by my writing as I am?

That may be the key to success. I have tried writing in several different voices, though I do not understand the concept completely. I think I may integrate more than one voice in some of my novels and I am not talking about the one in my head.

Reading these blog posts, it sounds to me that the definition of 'voice' has changed since I was in school. Young people....

But I think I did an impressive job with "Beyond the Pale" and though I still believe in "The Dauntless Recruits" and getting that out, I may put out a new book of short stories, integrating my first book of short stories and keeping the title "Struggles".

I have one work that is more of a novella; neither a short story, nor a novel. Shall I include that in the collection? Perhaps throw a poem in for good measure.

The least bit of feedback would be greatly appreciated, and just may drive me into a writing frenzy. Without such catalyst of creative crunch time I may not have anything out in the near future.

I have no potential dates of publication for any writings at the moment.

That said, thank you very much for reading.

Seriously, you are appreciated.