Dark Part Of The Mind

Turns out I'm pretty good at predictions

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One of my favorite stories

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Go behind the scenes and learn the inspiration to each story.

This is an exclusive to the podcast, not in the book or published anywhere else. Found it digging around my email. Hope all three of you enjoy.

Yet another instance of writing something I have no experience in.

It's good to get back home. Or, is it?

Outside my usual space, kinda sci fi type story that explores what I would do if found in such a situation.

First one of the year, haven't recorded in a while (generic excuse)

This has some truthfull elements in it, some of those things described actually happened to me but, like the story says, do they matter?

This is obviously an extreme example but, tried tovshow the power of positive thinking with this story. Yet another one where I had the ending in my head before the rest of the story.

Another example of how most if my stories are, not inspired by anything in particular.

This story took me three years to write. I had the last sentence bouncing around for years before I could flesh out the rest.

My own personal thank you to anyone in America or anywhere else listening to the podcast.

I took mostly inspiration from Vietnam, but kept it vague enough it could be set in the future or applied to most any conflict.

Skip to 1:20 if you don't want to hear the intro.

No real feedback from someone eating on the other side of the fence, so, all these thoughts could be out of line.

This is another example of my taking actual experiences I had in the military and creating stories from them.

If you haven't noticed a theme, you will. Again, just off the top of my head.

No real inspiration for this one, just another idea I had.

Here are the thoughts and inspiration behind each story. TIME STAMPS: HELP 2:00. STOP ALREADY 4:10. I'M RIGHT HERE DAMNIT 5:35 SECRETS 9:17 CHOO CHOO! 10:20. I LIKE IT? 10:56. NEVER AGAIN 11:56. FIRST TIME 13:16. IT'S WHAT 14:35. THANK YOU___ 15:30. LOOK AWAY 16:30. KA-BOOM 17:02 CLEAN 17:50. I'M OUTTA HERE! 18:50. EM QUESTION MARK 19:27 UNFINISHED 20:25. WHAT IS IT? 21:02. HEARTBEAT 21:37. WASTED LIFE 22:35. BACK WHEN 23:50. ONLY 24:30. BESTEST DADDY 25:03. TOO LATE 26:01. NOT TODAY 27:16

This is an example of using some of my own personal experiences to build upon for my stories. For about a year I would wake up on all fours, scrambling in the sheets, not aware where I was at for a few seconds. Then, the simultaneous relief and dread.

This was the first story I wrote. It was in the midst of trying to write comedy, but this idea wouldn't go away. Finally, after 6 months, I gave in and wrote it.

This, was an idea that wouldn't go away. Kept rolling around in my head until I finally just wrote it down. Upon reading it for the first time, my wife commented "oh I feel so sorry for her". I'm like honey, she doesn't exist. It's literally a figment of my imagination.

Again. A common theme, but one of "if I were there" how I think I would feel and have felt coming home, trying to explain horror to innocence.

This was an early story, one of my earliest indications of my style.

This story took me three years to write. I had the ending in my head for three solid years before I was able to flesh out the rest of the story. My wife is an educator and said it's her favorite.

This was crazy enough written about a year or year and a half before I faced this exact situation, with my son. Same outcome of course.

One of the few autobiographical stories. If you're divorced you can relate. If not, hopefully this will prevent you being able to relate.

How I feel it would be to experience lost conversations. Again, if I haven't already stated it, never been to war or experienced combat, this is all my imagination.

Go listen to the story first, then come back to read the inspiration behind it. *******************************************This story was inspired by a neighbor pulling out of their driveway in the morning while my son was passing by on his tricycle. They pulled out fast, without looking, and had I been a few feet away, or not paying attention, I wouldn't have moved him out of the way in time. Came very close to being hit myself.

This was written in 20 minutes after I was leaving a nursing home with my father in it and saw an E.M.T. walking in. Thought to myself "I wonder what that's like"?

Not really inspired by anything in particular, aside from my outings to nursing homes as a kid for my relatives.

I feel like this is the story most people get to and truly make their decision on whether to continue interaction with me or not.

This was inspired by a dream I had. The part about running away from a girl and the explosion part.

Just my imagination as to what it would be like to be a crime scene photographer.

Another example of how I kinda took some of my personal experiences and added them to the overall fiction.

I always tell people that only a few stories in this book are autobiographical, and you'd have to really know me to know which ones. This is one.

I have had war veterans read this story and tell me it's exactly the feelings they had. One guy swore that I had been there but, as I've said, never been deployed.

This ironically was written before I had my son, and not 100% sure I could write it again today.

Man breaks into house. Man doesn't leave. Aftermath ensues.

This story is actually not in the book, and can only be found here. Exclusive, huh?

What can happen when your lifetime dream actually happens. Based on a story from when a train engineer came to visit us in high school drivers ed.

Took a little bit of history to include in this story, about the civil war soldiers.

This talks about what's it's like to experience a flashback. Specifically what I imagine combat flashbacks are like, but truthfully I draw from my own experiences having them. A certain perfume, walking into one room and "waking up" in another because a smell. Other experiences my dad had helped me craft this particular story.