“Gilmore” is essentially the product of a good prompt gone bad. I was participating in the NYC Midnight 500-word micro-fiction challenge, and the prompt called for a comedy that involved a dozen eggs and washing a dog. I immediately thought of how washing my own dogs is a chore—for all of us—and how, at times, I could swear they time their shaking to get me the most soaked. As a writer who is most comfortable in the speculative world, the idea came to set the story in a post-apocalyptic world on a spaceship. The narrator’s voice flowed somewhat naturally in my head, and I saw him surrounded by all these animals with differing personalities and idiosyncrasies. And then I thought, “The animals MUST be in charge. Because, truly, we are doing a crap job taking care of this planet.” Over time, I expanded the story from its original 500-words but still saw it as a flash piece. I have ideas for additional short pieces about these characters and this world. Maybe even a novel down the road. Who knows? Here’s to Laika and her revenge!
Interesting! Thanks, Caitlin!
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1 comment:
As usual, you are the mistress of great dialogue. My dog, Alistair Axl Rose, both thank you for acknowledging the superiority of dogs.
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