Advent Ghosts 2011: "Incarnation"
Note: The following 100 word story is part of Loren Eaton's 2011 Advent Ghosts fiction contest. Please follow the link to check out the other wonderful snippets of fiction he's made available.
If my wife took another, I would understand.
The idea was promising, once. Reborn on silicon circuits into godless eternal life.
Waking on frosted metal, I didn’t shiver. Didn’t warm myself with my wife afterwards. Didn’t understand her fear of death.
She remained, aged, kissed my ever-young body, caused no pain or pleasure.
Phantom sensation arrived. Not pain—never pain—just a lack. Remembrance.
The media loved me. Would’ve laid down palms. Women, too, for a season.
Then only my family was left: loving, uncomprehending.
Incarnation’s a bitch. An ageless spirit, helpless as a babe on long winter nights.
posted by Chestertonian Rambler @ 2:31 PM
14 comments
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14 Comments:
Ah, we think we want to be ageless. Nice. I like this one, and I love how you describe the predicament! Beautiful descriptions, especially at the beginning.
I enjoyed the voice full of overtones of scifi & religion while capturing a sense of loneliness.
I ashamed to say that I actually counted the words twice because i couldn't believe that so much was said with so little. Sorry I doubted you, and Merry Christmas!
Beautiful, timeless sentiments here. The loss and love are so poignant.
I enjoyed this.
......dhole
You created a strong sense of isolation. Great job.
Yay! Another SF one!
This one reminds me of a line from a long-forgotten indie band. They write of "progress' regress," and this short perfectly captures the irony of transhumanism.
Great imagery, too.
re: book review request by award-winning author
Dear Winding Road to Roundabout:
I'm an award-winning author with a new book of fiction out last month.
Ugly To Start With is a series of thirteen interrelated stories about
adolescence published by West Virginia University Press.
All the stories in my collection have been previously published in
well-regarded print and online literary magazines such as The Iowa
Review, Passager, The Bitter Oleander, Confrontation, Salt River
Review, The Foliate Oak. and The Cortland Review.
Can I interest you in reviewing it?
If you write me back at johnmcummings@aol.com, I can email you a PDF of my book. If you require a bound copy, please ask, and I will forward your reply to my publisher. Or you can write directly to Abby Freeland at:
Abby.Freeland@mail.wvu.edu
My publisher, I should add, can also offer your readers a free excerpt of my book through a link from your blog to my publisher's website:
http://wvupressonline.com/cummings_ugly_to_start_with_9781935978084
Here’s what Jacob Appel, celebrated author of
Dyads and The Vermin Episode, says about my new collection: "In Ugly to Start With, set in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, Cummings tackles the challenges of boyhood adventure and family conflict in a taut, crystalline style that captures the triumphs and tribulations of small-town life. He has a gift for transcending the particular experiences to his characters to capture the universal truths of human affection and suffering--emotional truths that the members of his audience will recognize from their own experiences of childhood and adolescence.”
My short stories have appeared in more than seventy-five literary journals, including North American Review, The Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and The Chattahoochee Review. Twice I have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. My short story "The Scratchboard Project" received an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories 2007.
I am also the author of the nationally acclaimed coming-of-age novel The Night I Freed John Brown (Philomel Books, Penguin Group, 2009), winner of The Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers (Grades 7-12) and one of ten books recommended by USA TODAY.
For more information about me, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michael_Cummings
Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Kindly,
John Michael Cummings
https://sites.google.com/site/thebookclubonline/home
It's my book club's site. Don't worry, it's totally online, you can do it anywhere.But since I just launched it, NOBODY knows about it, and you can't have a one person book club! I am looking for at least two more followers to start, You will not need any catching up. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE join!!!!! The website, again is:
https://sites.google.com/site/thebookclubonline/home
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