RSSKosmo’s Favorite Fiction Stories
July 10, 2010
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Today is the 600th article in the history of The Soap Boxers. Recently, in preparation for the launch of The Victimless Crime and Other Stories, I’ve been looking back at some of my older stories. I’ve featured 70 fiction stories on The Soap Boxers. Today, I look back at some of my favorites.
The one that started it all – Although Tina was technically written earlier (years ago), Release Point was the first story written specifically for you, the audience of The Soap Boxers. It features Jerome Franklin, a baseball prospect who is on the last of his nine lives in baseball and needs to have a breakthrough year.
The one that made a social statement – Most of my stories are simply pieces of fiction with no attempt to make any sort of statement. The characters may advance their own agendas, but the author is not attempting to make a statement. Warm Feet is the exception, as it puts a positive spin on the topic of gay marriage. In spite of the fact that I have no openly gay friends, this issue has become a hot topic for me in recent years. I expected this to be somewhat controversial, but nobody really had any comments for or against the story.
The freakiest one – A lot of people were freaked out by Tale of the Wolf, but I don’t consider it the freakiest story I’ve written. That honor goes to Friends for Thanksgiving. Oh, and I apologize for the second part of Tale of the Wolf – it’s quite weak.
Perseverance against the odds – Heidi and the Shark features a woman battling against a fearsome beast to save her life. I hammered this out in about 20 minutes after an offhand comment someone made about looking for sharks on their next trip to the beach,
Favorite animal stories – This was a real toss-up. I’ve written a few stories about animals. Perhaps my favorite is What Really Killed the Dinosaurs, which puts that silly meteorite theory to rest. I had a lot of fun with this story. You’ll note that there is a base at Tulowitz. The name is derived from that of Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. Toronso is a twist of Toronto. Look closely at other names and you might see where they came from. I also had a lot of fun with The Attack, which tells the tale of a family of wolves launching an attack on a henhouse.
Favorite sports story– I’ve written quite a few stories about sports. I’ve covered basketball, football, bull riding, track, and auto racing. Most of the sports stories are written about baseball. Additionally, baseball pops up in the background of many stories where it is not the primary focus. This is, of course, due to the fact that I’m a huge fan. My favorite baseball story? The Rookie.
O. Henry – In recent months, I’ve been working on the technique of putting a surprising twist at the end of stories, in the manner of the great author O. Henry. My favorite of these stories is the dramatic Second Chances and the humorous The Champion.
Of course, you can peruse all of the stories and pick your favorites. Or you can purchase PDF versions at the Hyrax Publications store. Not only do the PDFs provide a more user-friendly interface to the stories, but they’ve been given a second round of proofreading. Quite a few items are on sale right now.
Long time readers – which of the stories was your favorite?