Ah, I see you’ve found my corner of whimsy. Welcome to my fiction page.
I write fictional short stories on Medium, though, I’m slowly weaving out a fictional globetrotting autobiography. How exactly does a fictional autobiography work? Well, you’ll just have to read the first few chapters of Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor on my Medium page to find out.
In addition to the fictional autobiography, I’m sharing some more current stories about my time here at this café called “Stories From the Lost Café”. (Pretty creative title, right?). In this series, each story is a meeting, an exchange, with the denizens who wander in to the bar from all parts of the globe. Did I mention my café is…well, it’s kind of magic, maybe extra dimensional. I don’t really know how it works. But, I don’t want to give too much away, so read the first installment here.
Finally, you’ll find my “Cocktail Recipes” here as well. I like to think of each fiction story I write as a specially crafted cocktail, each with their own flavors and inspiration. “Cocktail Recipes” are my behind the scenes thoughts where I share with you guys my inside jokes, inspiration, and little of the personal stuff that goes into each colorful drink.
The Complete Fiction Collection
The Spice of Life
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor part XXII It never ceases to amaze me, reader, how many options a person has in what kind of life to live. No, let me rephrase that. Options isn’t a good word. It implies that we have the control to choose what happens in our lives, which as you can clearly…
Thanks For the Memories
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part XXI You know what the sign of bad travel writing is, reader? When the author keeps describing different places in the same way over and over again. When every forest is green with a lushness that radiated warmth and life and every city they visit is described as a bustling…
New Horizons
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part XX Reader, do you ever find yourself working towards one goal, only to realize–after you’re nearly done–that the work was in vain? It can be hard to accept at first. So hard, in fact, that some people will fight and argue and look for other ways to justify their work–to…
I’ve Got Friends with Known Faces
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part XIX Osaka “But, they’re just heads with giant feet,” I shook my head. “They’re supposed to represent…” Elise crouched down to look at the plaque in front of the statues, “…the four people groups of the world?” I stood there on the sidewalk with my to-go box of takoyaki–a sort…
Just Can’t Contain Yourself
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part XVIII If you take a cargo ship, reader, and slowly start replacing the legitimate cargo with illicit goods one container at a time, at what point does it stop being a cargo ship and start being a criminal outfit? When does a cargo ship become a smuggling ship? With the…
Once You See It
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor: Part XVII “We have to go save him.” Elise was fighting down her panic, holding it just under the surface like a looming sea creature. You could see it’s shadow, but the outline was blurry, the full immensity of it unrealized as it lurked below the waterline and circled the delicate…
Brave New Worlds
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor: Part XVI Perspective and perception are strange concepts, reader. We’ve talked before about how big the world is–how each person you see or pass by has their own lifetime full of stories. Entire sagas of joy and sadness and heroes and villains that you might not ever realize. We’ve discussed how…
Shikata Ga Nai, Que Sera Sera, C’est La Vie, Insert Romantic Excuses Here
Ok, disclaimer. The story you’re about to read is not the next chapter of Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor. I know I promised to do a chapter every two weeks. And that lasted all of…10 weeks. Unfortunately, as the title states, Shikata ga nai. It’s Japanese for “it cannot be helped” or, in more prosaic terms,…
Continue reading → Shikata Ga Nai, Que Sera Sera, C’est La Vie, Insert Romantic Excuses Here
Fight (and) Flight Response
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part XV What are you doing with your life, reader? Wait, that doesn’t read well…comes off a little harsh. Let me rephrase it. Why do you bother to get up in the morn– No, that’s even worse. Bear with me. How about I just explain it this way: When I was…
Training For the Future
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part XIV “We’ll go out the back!” Laurents yelled over his shoulder as he darted down the hallway and up a flight of stairs. I was unconsciously rubbing the feeling back into my wrists after being tied up, but my short relief at freedom was violently replaced with a fleeting cacophony…
Popping Balloons
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part XIII Reader. What the heck? We all know by now how this normally starts. I ask you a question that helps you relate to what’s about to happen in my story. We have a fun, interesting dialogue about some big idea or feeling or something going on in the world. Some observation…
Captiv…ated
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part XII Have you ever felt threatened by the entire world around you, reader? I’m not talking about a specific, short term threat to your life—like being chased by a lion through the African Savannah. No, I mean in a more general, foreboding sense. The lurching feeling in your stomach that…
Think Big, Feel Small
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part XI “Wooshikwai!” “Uhm…I…wooshi?” “Dway! Wooshikwai!” The man’s face twisted in frustration and impatience. “I’m sorry..Uh, dway…boo…chi,” I muttered, struggling to form the desperate few Mandarin words I had learned over the past few weeks, “I don’t know, yes—er…Dway. ‘Wuxi’ is where I’m trying to go. You know the city? Wuxi?”…
Textbook Takeoff
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part X We stood there, the three of us, in front of the fully inflated hot air balloon. The name Candlewind wrapped around the lower edge of the light fabric. In the pre-dawn light, you could only really see its beauty when the burner roared to life, giving the balloon a…
Conflicted
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part IX I have to warn you, reader. This is the chapter where it starts. You know. It. The final thing that makes a story a story. Characters? Check. Setting? Got it. Plot? Conflict? That’s what I’m about to tell you now. And as any good reader knows, the plot and…
Sonder
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part VIII Identity is an interesting concept, reader. The idea that we can use one word or phrase to describe an entire human being’s existence, the whole of their experiences, wants, desires, interests, personality, what makes a person a person—is more than just silly. And yet, we do it every day…
Snide Character
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part VII “Hi, are you a librarian?” I queried the woman focused on a book behind the desk. “No, I’m only pretending to be one because I’m casing the joint for a heist. Libraries are renowned in the criminal world for their vaults of cash,” she replied without looking up from…
Check’s in the Mail, Pizza’s on the Mind
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part VI What do you think of the phrase silence is golden, reader? Feel free to disagree with me, but I think the only people who believe that phrase are the ones who have never enjoyed an engaging conversation over a late night pizza in a bustling neighborhood. There’s nothing quite…
The Lisbon Paradox
A Travel Fiction on Authenticity “In the vast ocean of humanity, there are a few ports where all walks of life can find safe harbo— ” “Vast ocean of humanity?” His friend and travel partner interrupted, “You sound like a nature show narrator, man. That’s not you.” He closed his notebook and sighed. This was…
Your Life’s Work…In One Sentence or Less
You’re on vacation, but it’s a downpour of rain outside. Just your luck. What was supposed to be a relaxing morning enjoying the outdoors is now a…well, what now? Your fellow vacationers are content to stay in, but you didn’t spend the past year of financial discipline saving up your trip fund just to sit…
New Message
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor Part V “Brazilian?” “Nope, man. Try again.” “Hey Moog, why haven’t you asked the big guy about becoming manager of this place?” It was a slower night, only a few diners at the bar. One guy who had become a regular no longer asked me for specific drinks but instead just…
The Two Teachers
The professor walked into the café, ordered a drink, and sat down at the window bar with a huff, oblivious to the lone man next to him who was lazily enjoying his drink and watching the passersby on the street in silence. The lone man looked curiously as the professor (at least, his balding head,…
Death in the Morning
A shallow story on thinking deeply He sat by the dew covered window. The fiery summer sun was rising up in glorious fashion, but he paid it no mind. He was oblivious to the majesty of the nature waking up just outside his door. It was mere background setting. His focus instead was on the…
Sleepless Outside Seattle
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor pt IV “Dang man, that’s wild. You think you’ll ever see Alice or your bike again?” Moog asked me. “I doubt it, I have no idea how I would get ahold of her. Hey, can you show me again how to slice this salmon roll?” I was in a sushi restaurant,…
The Clever Painter’s Dreams
“It’s exactly what you think it is,” she tells you with a quick smile, “You’re just not thinking wide enough.” You furrow your brows, concentrating hard on the small painting in front of you. It’s a sardine sticking out of a container with a confusing label on it — and you’re hopelessly lost on what…
100 Years in 1,000 Words
15 July, 1920 Hello. Is that how you start a diar- a journal? This is dumb. This is the worst birthday gift. I am seven years old I should have gotten a baseball mitt like Joe did. Pops got me this journal instead. I think this is a sissy thing. But Pops says that if I…
Spider Storm Soliloquy
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor part III Reader, have you ever felt like you’ve lost all sense of control over your life? As though you were tumbling helplessly forward—a rock thrown off a cliff with nothing solid to grab onto, nothing to arrest your fall? A slave to natural laws who, in their merciless reign, turn…
Cocktail Recipes 2: The Traveller’s Prayer
I wrote the original version of this poem so many years ago that I nearly forgot about it, but could never forget the context surrounding it. This was long before I ever imagined I’d be making money as a ghostwriter or writing fictional short stories for others to read. I was spending a summer abroad…
Continue reading → Cocktail Recipes 2: The Traveller’s Prayer
The Traveler’s Prayer
If I fell from the sky from a thousand long milesThen would you be right there so to catch me? If I wandered the forests and lost my own path,Then would you be right there so to find me? If I sailed far away to a strange foreign land,Then would you be right there to…
The Cursed Constellations
“Be brave, and don’t hunt the goats…” The campfire roared and crackled as the three kids huddled around. They stared with wide, excited eyes, wondering at the magic of the dancing flames. “Alright, listen up, runtmuffins,” Uncle Eli clapped his hands together and sat down on a large stump. The old, burly mountain man commanded the…
The Physics of Interstellar Loneliness
Seven billion specks of lightScattered o’er a thousand nightscomplex order, intertwineddance to rules beyond our minds Seven billion sky bound beingsFloat, ephemerous, at seaDaunting, though, the distance seems ‘tween each soul, the darkness breathes Seven billion, clockwork neatSpheres that move in perfect syncStars and planets, galaxiesPeople, friends, and family Follow laws that none can see…
The Invincibility Spell
Coming of age at .2 Mach (Drink pairing: Vodka Redbull) He did it. It took a whole year of saving pennies — moonlighting in restaurants, food trucks, anyone willing to pay him a few bucks between his bustling university class schedule, but he did it. He was the happiest 20 year old in the world.…
Fly It Like You Stole It
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor pt II: Impact (Read Part I: Wonder, here) First things first. I have a confession to make. Earlier, I told you that I had chartered a hot air balloon to start my search. Well, that’s not 100% accurate. I know, I know, we’re one chapter into my story and I’ve already…
Cocktail Recipes 1: Making of “Death in the Morning”
(I like to think of each fiction story I write as a custom cocktail with each their own flavors and inspiration. “Cocktail Recipes” posts are my behind the scenes thoughts where I can share with you guys my inside jokes, inspiration, and little of the personal stuff that goes into each colorful drink.) Haven’t read…
Continue reading → Cocktail Recipes 1: Making of “Death in the Morning”
Maybe True, Mostly Metaphor
Chapter I: Wonder Close your eyes and imagine your younger self. How young? That age where you believed anything was possible. When you wanted to be an astronaut-veterinarian-singer moonlighting as mad scientist when you grew up (and don’t you pretend like you never believed something like that). Ok, you there yet? Good. Now, open your…
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