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Thursday 28 June 2012

My First Short Story


I wanted to share with you the short story I wrote for university back in December. The task was to translate a quote from a famous Adorno and Horkheimer quote into a creative piece. The quote was about everything being cyclical in the entertainment industry. It only appears to change because the details are interchangeable.

I hope you enjoy! 


“Monotonous!” He tossed the script to one side and took another from the stack that had grown larger and wider every day since his first movie was a box office smash. No further than a few lines in the script was dropped to the unwanted pile of talentless hopefuls. “It’s been done already.”
       “You have to read them properly Michael.”
       His hand hovered above the next script, his eyes devouring the silhouette of long lean limbs. Candice, the swimwear model and heiress of channel 6 who’d attached herself to him on the day he arrived in Hollywood, prowled cat like towards him. Not that Michael usually minded her possessive nature. She had curves in all the right places and looked pretty darn good dangling on his arm at all the parties he had to attend.
       “They’re all the same” Michael dismissed “it’s like I’m reading covers of Unchained Melody, Puppy Love and American Pie here.” He lunged for the stack of disregarded scripts and one by one began tossing them towards the orange blaze of the open fire. “Take out the twenty-first century gadgets and gizmos and you’ve got yourself the same stories from ten, twenty, thirty, fifty years ago.”
       “You don’t know that when you haven’t even read them, they could be originals.”
       “Nothing’s original anymore”
       “Michael, that’s someone’s blood, sweat and tears” Candice stared at him “It used to be your blood, sweat and tears. Where’s your compassion for these people?” Her big brown eyes pleaded with him “I don’t know who you are anymore but you’re not the man I fell in love with”
       Michael picked up the next script. “You know where the door is.” He opened the script, listening to the sound of her heels clicks against the marble floor as she walked away.
       He continued to flick through the scripts, tossing each one towards their fiery grave. Candice didn’t know what she was talking about. He was the Oscar winning director. He was the one who’d made fifteen box office smashes. He could open any one of these scripts anywhere and find the plot predictable and boring. Proving his point, Michael selected a random script from the centre of the pile and opened it a third of the way. Within moments, he found himself absorbed in the plot and flicking back to the beginning. This was a film he was going to direct. It was another potential Oscar nominee.
       “Sir” He hadn’t heard anyone enter the room “there are two police detectives here to see you.”
       Michael put the script down and stood up as the house keeper showed the officers through to the lounge. “Detectives, how can I help you?”
       “Sir, you’re under arrest for suspicion of embezzlement and tax evasion.”
       They would freeze his assets, his bank accounts. He would have nothing and no one to rely on. That dirty rotten scoundrel he’d had doing his accounts since he started freelancing. Michael felt the cold metal of handcuffs tighten around his wrists and stared at Candice carrying a suitcase down the stairs. She’d warned him the toad was cooking the books and Michael was going to take the fall. He was going to lose her because he hadn’t listened to her.
       “You were right about my accountant, about so many things, Candice, and I was wrong.” He murmured “I’ll understand if you leave me now.”
       “It’s a good job I still love you” She sighed, rolled her eyes as she shook her golden curls.
       Michael smiled back as the officers led him away. He was a fool.
       “And ‘Cut’!” A voice boomed over the crowd “That’s a wrap people!”  


Yes, every cliche known to man was deliberate. LOL!

  Erin

Posts you may have missed:

Novel Extract - Tainted Love 

Book Review - The Long Lost - By Patti Larsen 

Power Struggles in Fiction - 50 Shades of Grey Areas  


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The Legal Bit

All characters have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation to anyone baring the same name. They are not inspired by an individual known or unknown by the author and all incidents are pure invention.

The articles, excerpts, and other written work published under the pseudonym Erin Cawood are copyright protected by the author. Guest articles are published by arrangement and also copyright protected by the guest author.

Images of Erin Cawood are provided by Paul Miguel Photography.


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