Wednesday, September 15: Tune It Or Die!
BEAUTIFUL DAY
by Rob Lopresti
Walked into the kitchen and stepped in something one of the cats had apparently coughed up last night. No problem. There’s lots more socks where that one came from.
Opened the fridge. No yogurt left for breakfast. Okay, toast will be a nice change.
I look out the window at a gray, overcast morning. It’s a beautiful day.
After breakfast I kiss my wife and get on my bike. Two minutes down the road and the sky springs a leak. It’s pouring buckets and I’m getting soaked. You gotta laugh. That’s the way it goes sometimes.
Halfway to work I reach the big hill. I see a bus coming my way and hop off to flag it, but the bike rack on front is already full. Good to see public transportation being used! Guess I can use the exercise, and I can’t get much wetter than I already am. So step on those pedals.
In my office I dry off as best I can and start to deal with the wonders of techology. Someone left a very important message on my phone, reciting their ten digit phone number only once, fast as a bunny. I have to listen to their long message three times to get it down. Ah well. Patience is a virtue worth cultivating.
Turn on the computer and check my email. Well, look at that! Someone just plunked a new three-hour meeting into the middle of my week. I’ll have to rearrange everything else around it. Not to worry. It will all work out somehow.
Where’s the report I was working on yesterday? Hmm. Seems like the latest version didn’t get saved. Oh well. I can probably improve with a fresh start.
Look at the time! Got to rush off to my first meeting of the day. In the hall I look out at the cats-and-dogs still pouring down, making little rivers in the street. It’s a beautiful day.
I pass my friend Paul. “What’s new?” he asks.
“Not much,” I say. “Oh, I just sold a short story.”
The answers, my friend . . .
. . . are right here. To last week’s quiz, I mean.
1. What do these words have in common?
abuse combat convict desert house produce rebel subject wind
They are pronounced differently, depending on whether they are verbs or nouns.
2. What do THESE words have in common, besides being the names of animals?
bear cow crow dog dove fish fox hawk parrot
They are also verbs.
3. Find the partner.
Each of the words in the left column has the same relationship with a word in the right column. I have reorganized them so the pairs are next to each other.
dark heavy flat blunt in safe less fewer left wrong long tall soft easy spring rise wet sweet won found young new
Each pair of words has the same antonym. I.E.The opposite of wet is dry which (in wine) is the opposite of sweet.
If anyone is puzzling over the addition to category 3 added by my clever, clever friend Zeke in the comments… The antonym to both unite and separate is cleave.
Congratulations on selling your story. I love how the good news colored your glasses a nice rosy tint.
Rob,
Great news. There is nothing like actually getting paid for your writing.
Whew, Rob. For a moment I thought you’d gone all Candide on us.
Cleave is brilliant.
The answer to my little quizzy bit for your section 3 puzzle was:
join — {desert} — Eden
Great article! I kept wondering, where is he going with this? Is he going to commit a murder at the end of the day? *laughing* Anyway, after I finished reading this, I became curious. . . .
1. Which city do you live in?
2. What line of work are you in?
3. Which publication did you sell your short story to, and when will it be published?
Did you keep these things intentionally vague in your article/story? Anyway, it worked. My curiousity has been piqued.
curiosity*
I kept it vague because it was about the experience of selling a story, not about a particular sale. In the same way this was not A Day In The Life, but Based On A True Story. Everything I describe has happened, but not all on one day, of course.
I live in Bellingham, WA, the City of Subdued Excitement. I am a librarian at a university there. And the story was inspired by a contract from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. It will be 17th story in AHMM, but it never gets old.
Based on past form, the story will probably come out the middle of next year.
I meant to add that you could consider this column a companion piece to my earlier Lost Weekend https://criminalbrief.com/?p=3288
I loved this piece . . . you use so few words to convey so much. I could see every scene and moment with perfect clarity, as it were. “Lost Weekend” was great, too–and I hope you didn’t take up butterfly collecting.
Oh, and congratulations. Looking forward to reading your story in AHMM!
Congratulations on the sale.
Congratulations as well on your ability to wear socks at night. I can’t during summer because they make me too hot. There is nothing quite like that special sensation as whatever the cat coughed up squeezes between your toes in the dark.