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Old 04-03-2005, 09:39 PM   #1
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shabi
A Spit of a Town...short beginning

I have this story idea but I'm having a hard time both with starting it and deciding what tone to use in it. I initially decided to have it be a serious horror type thing, but then I couldn't help throwing in some...I don't what the word is. Not exactly humor but...snarkiness. I'm not sure it works mixed like this. I also don't know if this is a good way to start or not...let me know, k?

******

The town was unremarkable in most ways; it was small, it was plain, it was cold and northern. There was a general store and a bar, a shoe store and a gun shop, all overshadowed by a great looming beacon of a furrier store jutting out like a church steeple. The church itself didn’t have a steeple; it had fallen down in a time outside the memories of the citizens and was never put back up. The streets were unpaved and full of holes from the rain and snow, but this was of little consequence to the inhabitants, who used only their feet for transportation. The people were unremarkable as well; they were hunters, mostly, or carpenters. Some of them were children and some of them weren’t.

The town was only extraordinary because of what fed on it.

There was a massive bulge of a hill to the south that swelled up from the flat land of the town like a tumor, which some of the residents called the most lively part of town. It was covered from stem to stern in small grey markers and crosses, and, from older times, when the people had bothered to carve out such things, large angelic statues with wind-blasted faces.

It was on this hill where a large part of the people were gathered on the day the shaman came. The priest was leading a prayer as the two coffins of a husband and a wife, containing what was left of them, were lowered into the ground, and the gathered bowed their heads in attention.

“I’m sure they thought it was very cute, the whole ‘I can’t live without you so I’ll die with you’ thing, like Romeo and Juliet. Well, we might have had only one life taken yesterday if it weren’t for Mary’s great show of foolishness, so let’s all pray that she got some sense knocked into her, so she doesn’t offend God’s intelligence in heaven. And take this as a lesson: don’t go around throwing yourself right in the damn paths of the fuckers in order to give your philandering husband three more seconds of life. Amen.”

“Amen.” The crowd began to disperse, when suddenly a womanly scream exploded in the air like a meteorite over Siberia.

“Demon! Demon!”

The crowd gasped in unison. Some of it spilled over the other side of the hill towards the town, while some remained, petrified, in place. The watchmen ran to the top of the hill and aimed their rifles at the approaching figure.

They gave pause, however, for the thing was not so tall as the beasts were, moved unlike them, and was simply walking towards them with the air of someone on an early morning stroll.

As it got closer, they could see that although the thing wore the head of one of the beasts, its body was different. It was monstrous, but at the same time it was human.

“I’m not so sure that is a demon, Joe,” said Lazarus, the first watchman.

“Why don’t you shoot it and find out,” said the second watchman.

Lazarus squinted at the approaching thing and a gleam of sunlight, bouncing off of something the figure carried, hit his eyes. He looked more closely, and saw that it looked like some kind of rod or shaft…

His eyes widened. He had thought the shaman would never come to such a little spit of a town as this. But here she was.

Their savior had come.

***********
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Old 04-03-2005, 09:52 PM   #2
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while I could wish you left out all the hunting and trapping...ughh...I thought you painted a wonderful scene with this work, and there was definately some thrill near the middle. Ending could use some more work...I want to see more horror, but thats just me. nice work overall.
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Canadian Lynx are beautiful sensitive creatures which are very good mothers and they make a wide variety of sounds such as meows, purrs, cough-barks, growls, and screams like a woman. She is the next mammal to become extinct in North America largely because we waste so much paper. Please reduce, reuse, and recycle. Cheers, Horrorcrafter
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Old 04-03-2005, 10:00 PM   #3
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shabi
Lol, thanks, there really was a lot of that hunting and trapping crap wasn't there? I took most of it out. Doesn't really make a difference at this point, because this is just the first shot, but I don't want to repulse people who might otherwise read it.
Anyway, there will be more dying and eating people and stuff later in the story... If I ever get there I hope you won't be disappointed about that too much.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting
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Old 04-03-2005, 11:37 PM   #4
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A good start.

You could maybe sharpen up the middle a bit. the graveyard scene was a little vague. I liked the description of the town, it gave a nice drab backround to paint on. You might want to add how they feel about religion.

Nice try on the aliteration,

" Like comet over Siberia" but it seemed out of place when describing a womens scream.

Thanks
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Old 04-04-2005, 12:40 AM   #5
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Shabi:

I disagree with the post that said it dragged a little in the middle; at no point did I feel draggage. I think that no matter what tone you wanted, this tone is working well for you. I like how you compare the land to negative things like:
Quote:
There was a massive bulge of a hill to the south that swelled up from the flat land of the town like a tumor, which some of the residents called the most lively part of town.
It's a really clever way to liven up your description and set the mood.

One thing I did wonder about. You separate the line "The town was extrordinary only because of what fed on it" from the first paragraph. I love the line, but as a reader, I felt a little bit like I was being beaten on the head with it, like it was a big "dum dum dum." I think maybe it should be attached to the first paragraph to make a quieter, more subtle "dum dum dum" I'm not sure about the last line of the section either--it seems a little overdramatic maybe for the semi-comic descriptions and dialogue that began the passage.

Axi
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Old 04-05-2005, 12:08 PM   #6
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kittyanne68
the sermon was hilarious in a wonderfully sick way--in fact the whole piece reeks of wonderfully sick, dark humor. kudos. i'd end the 1st para w/ the 'what fed on the town' line...it could be a nice subtle 'what the ?' moment for the reader there. the descriptions of the town are fantastic. seems you're going for a certain bleak tone here, so i say keep in the hunting and trapping and bloody, nasty living off the land stuff...it seems appropriate.
i agree that the last line just seems too melodramatic. of course, that depends on what immediately follows. it could also set up another moment of wonderfully sick, dark humor!
i really liked reading this. good stuff.
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Old 04-05-2005, 05:01 PM   #7
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shabi
lol, that's me, sick and dark...
Thanks everybody for reading and responding Y'all are right about the melodrama, it's too much. Thanks for pointing it out...
I'm going to work on this and if I ever get it done...or a significant amount done...I'll stick it up again.
Many thanks again!
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