NYCMMM Short Story Contest 2010 - Round 1
Once again I entered the NYCMMM Short Story Contest. It was trickier this time; I checked my prompt, and found this:
Heat 18
Genre: Mystery
Subject: An Astronaut
...yeah.
I got one idea first, just an image of an astronaut waking up to find himself alone on a spaceship with no sign of his crew. That quickly morphed into a Mars landing gone awry, with a CIA base and all sorts, but the writing never really went anywhere; there were too many plot holes.
Then it was going to be a number of mysterious disappearances at Kennedy Space Center, seen through the eyes of a KSC SWAT officer. I gave that up after half an hour, when it became apparent that it was a bollocks idea.
But then! At nine PM on Saturday, seven hours before the submission deadline, I had an idea. It didn't have to be a big mystery, did it? So I started thinking of small, mundane mysteries. Mysteries about little things that could flummox someone for a short while, like forgetting where they've put the car keys or finding a missing sock.
The result was this:
( Is there anything you'll miss during your stay on the ISS, Doctor Wishart? the lady from Fox News had asked me... )
Heat 18
Genre: Mystery
Subject: An Astronaut
...yeah.
I got one idea first, just an image of an astronaut waking up to find himself alone on a spaceship with no sign of his crew. That quickly morphed into a Mars landing gone awry, with a CIA base and all sorts, but the writing never really went anywhere; there were too many plot holes.
Then it was going to be a number of mysterious disappearances at Kennedy Space Center, seen through the eyes of a KSC SWAT officer. I gave that up after half an hour, when it became apparent that it was a bollocks idea.
But then! At nine PM on Saturday, seven hours before the submission deadline, I had an idea. It didn't have to be a big mystery, did it? So I started thinking of small, mundane mysteries. Mysteries about little things that could flummox someone for a short while, like forgetting where they've put the car keys or finding a missing sock.
The result was this:
STEAK
He'd had meals that were out of this world.
Now all he wanted was a steak.
He'd had meals that were out of this world.
Now all he wanted was a steak.
( Is there anything you'll miss during your stay on the ISS, Doctor Wishart? the lady from Fox News had asked me... )