Can you plan where you’ll land?

As you can see, the Nutcracker is leaping bravely into whatever’s next. And the music in his head goes like this:

We can only guess what would have become of this leap if the young Tchaikovsky hadn’t left his career as a public servant to pursue the uncertain craft of composer.

Anytime you create you take a leap. It’s probably fair to say that a story is a leap by its author in your direction, and reading it, you create it too: you leap from your mind into a place you haven’t visited yet. It’s an opportunity to try on a new world.

In fact, as you travel during the coming weeks or months, it might be wise to take a portable world along with you to try on, in case you find that the surrounding one just doesn’t measure up temporarily.

Latest news: I’ve finished some new scfi/fantasy stories, among them “Barbering the Tiger,” “Prints,” “A Murmur of Singing” and “Finding Chimera.” They could be included in the next story collection, entitled “Barbering the Tiger and Other Stories.” Although I’m not sure about that title — depends upon which stories are finally chosen. But I hope you’ll give your input about the cover design when the time comes.

It’s a great month for stories. Here’s the beginning of one:
IT WAS RAINING HARD when Neil Raymond pulled up to the diner. The water streamed in sheets down his windshield between slashes of the wiper blades. The place was closed and dark, but a streetlamp revealed what the darkened neon scribble in the window said: Andie’s Restaurant.

How could it be? He felt a little crazy. A small sign beside the door glared back in his headlights: Open 9 a.m to 9 p.m. He put his head forward on the old Chrysler’s steering wheel, and with fingers knotted by age and trembling with fatigue, carefully turned off the ignition just before he blacked out.

…This story, “Silver Alert,” comes from The Emperor’s Golden Carp and Other Stories. It’s a fantasy about a man who decides there’s a way to recover what he’s lost — and bravely goes after it. You can read the whole story by ordering the book on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/author/jkstephens

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