False Starts, Roundabouts & Dead Ends:
A Writer's Clearinghouse
by Craig Lee Duckett
Seattle, Washington USA
www.control-z.com (Main Web)
craig(at)control-z.com (Main Email)
ATTENTION MOON DOGS & WEB SURFERS: I'm adding complete short stories here all the time—okay, maybe once a month—so check back occasionally. I'm retyping older stories from the 70s and 80s because they weren't saved digitally (paper copies only, no PC at the time) and these will appear, one by one, "as if by magic" whenever I get them finished and formatted. I'll also be adding 'newer' stories from the 90s and 00s as soon as I pull them off dozens of different discs and clean them up. As is befitting all the twists and turns of life: foreknowledge is forewarned. Pax et bonum, —Craig |
THE FINE PRINT: I've written numerous short stories over the years, and started—although never completed—a half dozen novels. For a litany of reasons, my writing was often interrupted by forces and events outside my creative control, and by the time I got back to it I'd discovered I'd developed new ideas and concepts that propelled me elsewhere. Although new novels were started, the old ones were left finished. Rather than allow these writings to languish anymore unread—and conspicuously unedited—I've decided to post them here if only to liberate myself of them, allowing me to start other projects with a sense of regeneration and renewal.
But be forewarned: these False Starts are all 'first drafts' and often suffer from a creative wordiness that has plagued me for decades (I always write "longwinded" knowing I'll trim and pare down later) and yet: scattered in the ordure an occassional gem or unexpected nugget sometimes catches the light just so and shines brilliantly. Where these can be found I am unable to say, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The excreta, on the other hand, is painfully apparent for all to see, so please, watch your step.
In addition to these False Starts, I've also included a representative sampling of completed stories I've written, and, for historical purposes only, selections from my various writer's notebooks and journals. Again, you are reminded to take each of these with a proverbial grain of salt, if not a heady shot of ardent spirits.
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