Author: SJ Shoemaker

February 7, 2022 2 Comments

Hadestown: The Tragedy That Changed My Life

Hadestown is a Musical with music and lyrics by Anaïs Mitchell and directed by Rachel Chavkin. It debuted Off-Broadway in 2016. Additional productions followed in Edmonton and London before finally premiering on Broadway in 2019, the very same month the world began to shut down over a virus.
January 9, 2022 0 Comments

Title Withheld

I shiver ceaselessly. When did the heat dissipate? What drove it from the mountain and forbade its return? There, the air itself was enough to blister the skin. I remember the waves of heat which warned against my approach with every step. Warnings I pushed aside with every fiber of fortitude I possessed. Until my departure home. The flames licked at the back of my neck, and my lungs rejoiced at the ease with which they filled with cool, unrestrictive air. But now, in this nowhere between origin and destination.
October 18, 2021 0 Comments

Word Count Signifies Importance

the mental camera in your head. How your imaginary lens sweeps across your thought-made landscape or zooms into your protagonist’s face as they discover the truth long-since hidden from them.
October 4, 2021 0 Comments

Book Review – The Other Side of the Sky

The Other Side of the Sky is written by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner and published last year. They describe it on their personal websites as:

in the sky falls into a goddess’s ancient land ruled by magicians and prophecy.
September 29, 2021 0 Comments

Merrow Sorrow

A: It speaks, you say?
B: Aye.
A: Then open. I will have words.
(BEAT)
A: Give me no such look! The charges will be read and it will be shot like the animal it is. But it will first answer for the men murdered by its own hand.
B: And teeth.
A: Open!
September 13, 2021 0 Comments

Brown Hair Description Challenge

Her hair poured from her hat in streams of coffee which splashed across her shoulders in search of a tall cup. “Pull up a chair,” it seemed to say, “and enjoy a conversation with a friendly face.”
July 29, 2021 0 Comments

The Oarsman

Hungry waves lapped against the creaking hull. A soft wind carried a heat and odor that denied Wim the relief he hoped it would bring. Hand to head, he struggled to seat himself upright, his temples beating in time with the methodical slap of an oar behind him. First to the left, then the right. Each row like the beat of a drum, emphasizing a rippling moment as it stretched across the stream of time. Ever forward.
June 29, 2021 0 Comments

Super Hero Therapy: Session 1

W: Doc, good you’re here.
D: I must confess, William, when I said my door was always open that was a slight exaggeration. While I am always happy to take walk-ups, I cannot have people barging into my office unannounced. What if another client had been here?
W: I don’t have time to wait, I need pills. Sleeping pills.
D: Sit, please. Let’s chat.
W: Can’t we just skip that and—
D: I am not in the habit of writing prescriptions without due cause.
October 12, 2020 0 Comments

The Butler Did It!

The butler did it. If you care only for the conclusion to this mystery–the content of tomorrow’s headlines–you have your answer. Please leave me as quickly as you came. But I know better than to hope for such abatement of my pain. What good is a headline without details to fill your columns? Your papers need sensational facts, clues of the case laid out in an easy-to-digest timeline filled with wild but always accurate speculations. I care not for your papers or the idle gossip they promote and spread farther and quicker than any known contagion.
July 28, 2020 0 Comments

Port Of Call (WT) Episode 1

Thank you. I promise you can get back to your—uh—chit chat and all that momentarily. I know I wasn’t the—uh—winner of the charisma lottery in my—our family [pause for laughter that does not come] [clears throat] Anyway, uh—it would be remiss of me not to thank—uh—the patron—you, our patrons—for your—uh—donatio—investments. I really think, you’ll find here in—uh—just a moment that we—your money has been put to good use. Thank you again.

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