Posts filed under ‘Walt Trizna's Stories’
ELMO’S INVENTION X
THE TINKERER GOES INTO THE FUTURE
Kingsley talked to Elmo on the phone and agreed to come over and view the time machine the next day. The following night at 6:00PM sharp Kingsley showed up at the kitchen door, punctual as usual. Mildred had a steaming mug of coffee ready for him.
“Hello, Kingsley. Elmo is so excited to talk to you about his time machine. I’ll be honest with you Kingsley; I think it really does work but what kind of disruption it will cause in our lives I can only imagine. I just want a nice quiet life here in New Mexico.”
Kinsley said, “I’ll do my best to keep the existence of the machine quiet until Elmo and I have thought through the ramifications it might pose.”
Elmo appeared at the top of the cellar stairs and said, “Kingsley come quick. I want to demonstrate my time machine.”
“All right, Elmo, I’m coming.” Kingsley looked back at Mildred and she just stood there shaking her head.
Elmo led Kingsley down to the iron lung. “Kingsley, I found a loose wire and after consulting my wiring diagrams, I reattached it. And what do you know; it now works as a time machine.”
“How can you be sure, Elmo?”
“Why, I tested it and journeyed into the future. Now I’d like you to see the future.”
This caught Kingsley by surprise. “I don’t know, Elmo. What happens if it’s only a one-way trip?”
“That won’t happen. And even if it did, I’m only sending you to tomorrow morning. Trust me, Kingsley.”
He respected Elmo’s enthusiasm and love for science. After thinking to prospect of traveling into the future, Kingsley said, “Okay, Elmo, send me to tomorrow morning, but make sure you bring me back.”
Elmo smiled and said, “Don’t worry. It’s foolproof.”
Kingsley stared at Elmo.
Elmo opened the lid to the iron lung and had Kingsley climb in. Before he closed the lid he said, “First the chamber will fill with a dense mist. That’s normal. When the mist clears, I’d like you to go upstairs, open the kitchen door and pick up the paper. Bring the paper along with you when you get back into the chamber. You’ll be gone for a total of fifteen minutes.” Elmo closed the chamber and initiated the process. Soon Kingsley was lost in a cloud of mist.
Within the chamber Kingsley could see only the dense white fog which soon dissipated. He climbed out of the chamber and found that Elmo was no longer there. The light coming through the high cellar windows appeared to be different. It was a morning light. He went up the stairs and entered the kitchen. There stood Mildred in her bathrobe making breakfast. She had her back to him and when she turned she dropped her spatula and gave a little shriek and said, “Kingsley where did you come from and what are you doing here?”
Elmo sat at the kitchen table waiting for breakfast with a wide grin on his face.
Kingsley sheepishly replied, “Getting the paper.” This made no sense at all to Mildred. He looked at Elmo who had gone from grinning madly to laughing hysterically. Picking up the paper, he headed down stairs leaving a mystified Mildred and an hysterical Elmo.
The thing he wanted to check when he returned to the time machine was the paper’s date. Sure enough it was tomorrow’s date. This presented Kingsley with an eerie feeling of possessing knowledge he should not have. Rather, it was today’s date and today was tomorrow. Opening the lid of the chamber, he climbed in and settled down ready to go back to today or rather yesterday.
The chamber began to fill with a thick mist which soon cleared and there stood Elmo. He helped Kinsley out of the machine and the paper opening it up with great anticipation. There it was, tomorrow’s date. He slapped Kingsley on the back and said, “It works. It really works.”
Kingsley was lost in wonder at what Kingsley had accomplished. He built a machine that, until now, only existed in the realms of science fiction. He said, “Elmo, I’d like to keep this paper. There’s some thinking I must do about your startling device.
“Sure, keep it.”
Kingsley suggested, “Let’s get together in a day or two and discuss the potential impact your machine may have on everyday life. I’m sure you and Mildred do not want any more protests.”
“Sure Kingsley, sure. I’ll see you in a couple days.”
The next morning Elmo absently minded went out the kitchen door to get the paper as Mildred said, “Elmo, you won’t believe it but Kingsley already picked up our paper and went into the cellar.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” said Elmo and smiled broadly.
ELMO’S INVENTION IX
ELMO’S TIME MACHINE
Not long after his last visit, he stopped by Brooker’s farm after work.
“How you doing, Elmo?” He shouted as he exited one of his coops.
“Not bad,” Elmo responded. “Not bad.”
Brooker said, “I guess you come for more chicks. Got to tell you, son, this deal is saving me money on feed and such. Hope we can keep it going for a long time.”
Elmo thought about all the effort he put into constructing his machine, and all the grief he endured to find its purpose, and it all came down to raising chickens. He tried to mask his feelings and said, “It’s a pretty good deal, Brooker. A pretty good deal.”
Elmo accepted six chicks and made his way home, his heart full of failure wondering what went wrong. He arrived home, still in a funk, and Mildred met him at the door. She was all smiles. “Elmo, it looks like we’ll be getting a free chicken soon.”
Elmo gave his wife a wistful smile and went downstairs to his cellar lab. He loaded the chicks into his machine, set the length of time of aging to one year and the duration for one minute, and then pushed the button that would start the process. He stepped back, expecting the chamber to fill with mist and eventually see mature chickens, but nothing happened.
“Now what?” Elmo shouted in disbelief.
Not only had his time machine been reduced to raising chickens, now it wouldn’t work. He removed the chicks and went to get his wiring diagrams. Unscrewing a steel plate to gain access to the workings of the machine, he carefully began to probe searching for a fault.
After a short period of time he muttered, “Aha.” He had found a disconnected wire and immediately knew that must be the problem.
Elmo referred to his wiring diagram, and then back to the wire. He saw where the connection should be made, but to his surprise, that connection had never been completed. The wire had been soldered to a place it should not have been. His mind raced. Could this be why the invention did not fulfill its purpose? Elmo made the repair, reattached the panel and retrieved the chicks.
Elmo’s thoughts went wild as he placed the chicks in the chamber; reset the length of time to one year and the duration to one minute.
He pushed the start button.
The chamber filled with mist, and the quickly dissipated. The chicks were gone. A short time later they reappeared with no apparent change in age.
Elmo jumped for joy, shouting, “It works! It works!”
He next shouted, “Mildred, come quick!”
Mildred heard his initial exclamation. After Elmo beckoned her, she started for the cellar with great apprehension. Sometimes things went terribly wrong down there. She flashed back to her mother’s tea cups, wondering where they were now and if they still existed. She never knew what to expect at all when she was summoned down to Elmo’s lab. But she love Elmo and wanted to give him all the support she could – within reason.
When entering the cellar, Mildred found Elmo peering into his iron lung device. He turned and said to her, “Doll, it works, I think. It finally, really works.”
It was the ‘I think, that bothered Mildred.
“Watch”, he said to Mildred and repeated the experiment. Once again the chicks disappeared in a cloud and then reappeared in another white haze.
Milder muttered, “At least the chicks returned, unlike my tea cups.”
Elmo then related to his wife about the loose wire, his reference to the wiring diagram and his mistake in constructing his machine.
Mildred asked, “Is that the end of our free chickens”
The question caused Elmo to chuckle realizing his wife’s priorities, so much different from his own.
“I’m afraid so, my dear. But this is more important than chickens.
“Your teacups were part of a different experiment. The reason I called you down is to see if my experiment worked, to see if the chicks actually traveled in time.”
“Well, Elmo, how are you going to do that?”
After removing the chicks from the chamber, Elmo pushed a small stepstool in front of the iron lung.
Mildred said, “You’re not going to do what I think you’re going to do.”
“There is only one way, Doll, that I can think of to know if it really works. A person must be transported into the future and return and report on the experience.’
“I need your help. All the parameters are set. All you need to do is push this button to initiate the process.’
Mildred knew there would be no living with Elmo if she didn’t help, and if she didn’t help he would just get someone else. She mumbled, “All right, Elmo, but it’s the return part I’m worried about.” She added, “Remember the tea cups. What happens if you don’t come back?”
Before he closed the lid to the chamber, Elmo said, “That was a totally different type of experiment. But remember that every experiment has an element of uncertainty. That’s why they are called experiments.
“I have to know if my machine works, and I’m almost positive that it does. I need to do this to confirm that it does.”
With that Elmo closed the lid and indicated to Mildred to push the button. The chamber filled with a heavy white mist, and when it cleared Elmo was gone. After five minutes it once again filled with the blanketing mist. Once the chambered cleared, and much to Mildred’s delight, there laid Elmo with a huge grin on his face. He pushed open the lid and shouted, “It works! It works!” After all the hard work, disappointment and failure, his time machine finally worked.
“Mildred, I was talking to you fifteen minutes into the future down here in the cellar.”
“How can you know it was in the future, Elmo?”
“Well, for one thing, you don’t remember me talking to you since I entered the chamber.”
“You’re talking to me now, Elmo.”
“Well yes, but something happened while we were talking that will confirm my knowledge of the future.” Elmo waited another few moments and said, “Your roast is burning.”
Seconds later the first odors of burning roast filtered down to the cellar.
“Elmo, why didn’t you tell me earlier? I could have saved the roast.”
“And I would have changed the future.”
Mildred hurried up stairs in a huff. Seconds later there came a crash from the kitchen.
He said quietly, “And you’re going to burn your fingers and drop the roast. I forgot to mention that part.”
Elmo was anxious to share the fact that his time machine finally worked with someone in the scientific community. He immediately thought of notifying the Tinkerers Club, but that idea did not last long. The last time he consulted the club it ended in disaster when someone leaked the events of the meeting. The only tinkerer he trusted was Kingsley Dasher, and that’s who he would contact.
POEMS @ FLEETING THOUGHTS
These are the thoughts of an old man as the world sees me. I feel I am younger than they think. Reality has not yet caught up to me.
NO GOING BACK
These are the thoughts of an old man as the world sees me. I feel I am younger than they think. Reality has not yet caught up to me. NO GOING BACK
I want to go back
To right my wrongs,
I want to go back
To enjoy the moments
The best moments
Of my life,
I want to go back
To appreciate the good
And try to obliterate
The bad,
I know this a dream Impossible,
But in dreams
My desires Are accomplished.
POEMS AND FLEETING THOUGHTS: THE WRITING CAREER
Writing is one of the most important endeavors a person can take up.
You may not obtain riches, which, in the end are useless.
But your thoughts; your words will live one.
ELMO’S SOJOURN, FINAL QUESTIONS
9. This would make a great series – have you considered writing the next adventure?
Glad you asked this one, it’s already written. Elmo’s Invention is a prequel to Elmo’s Sojourn. In Elmo’s Invention Elmo is working at Los Alamos and here sets out to build a time machine using an old iron lung, but things do not go as planned.
This novella is longer than Elmo’s Sojourn and still needs a lot of editing, and then out it goes. I’m sure there will be other stories fermenting in my brain, but they have yet come to the surface.
10. What are you working on now?
Currently, I’m doing a great deal of editing. I have two novels written but are in need of a rewrite.
The Beast Awaits is the most complete. It deals with a monster created through stem cell research. It escapes into the Everglades and its destruction leads to enhanced global warming. How’s that for ‘hot button’ issues?
Sweet Depression is a novel which is a cross between the work of James Patterson and Robin Cook, a very sinister thriller set in a pharmaceutical company.
11. In your point of view, what is the most difficult part of the writing life?
Imagining story ideas I find to be the easiest part. The writing can be difficult and the editing is, I find, even more difficult. But the part of writing I find the most difficult is trying to get the work published. I agonize over writing query letters.
12. Do you outline your stories before you sit down to write?
For short stories, I mull over the plot before I put pen to paper. I write all my first drafts by hand. So when I begin writing the story, it’s already fully formed in my mind.
For novels I use an outline but keep it fluid. In a steno pad, for each novel, I form an outline to include scenes and dialog when the characters start talking.
13. What plans do you have for your writing going into the future?
If I can publish Sweet Depression I have plans to write at least one sequel.
I’ve also published a short story, Martian Rebirth, which I want to develop into a novel.
And of course, my brain keeps on cranking out short story ideas.
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/elmossojourn.html
ELMO’S SOJOURN, MORE QUESTIONS
5. Your time machine seemed very well thought out – is it based on something in theoretical science.
The time machine is a product of my imagination.
While I was in college, there was a guy in the dorm who built a tesla coil. You could pull something like a quarter million volts to your finger, but since the amperage was low, you survived. I had to get that thing into a story.
6. How do you personally relate to your main character in your story?
I was a scientist for 34 years, but a biologist not a physicist. I love science and the opportunity it gives you to discover something new, when all the parts of a puzzle suddenly come together. I share the wonder Elmo has for science.
7. How challenging was it to build your alien landscapes and creatures?
I have a very active imagination so it was really quite easy. But the creatures changed along the way. The first creature that comes through Elmo’s machine was going to be the dominant creature on Roth, but of course that changed. Then Valmid was going to be a sinister being and that changed. Since I needed some conflict, Gylex came into being and I could just picture what it looked like.
8. What theme do you want to convey to your readers?
I think, as with most science fiction, I want to create adventure and the wonder of the unknown.
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/elmossojourn.html
ELMO’S SOJOURN QUESTIONS
A few weeks ago Jill Bisker was kind enough, through Melange Books, to ask me questions about my eBook, Elmo’s Sojourn.
I posted a link to those questions, but in case you missed them, I thought I’d post the questions directly to my blog.
I’m also posting the link to buy Elmo’s Sojourn with the hopes that this will cause my sales to skyrocket.
Yes, even at my advance age, I still dream.
1. Please tell me a little about yourself – Where you come from? What led you to writing?
I was born and raised in Newark, NJ, but since then lived in the Midwest, LA, Miami and now in Pennsylvania.
I’ve always been an avid reader, feel naked if there is not a book close by. I began writing poetry in college and pursued that for about thirty years while I pursued a career in science. About 14 years ago I began writing fiction.
2. What books and authors influenced your career?
I’ve read a great deal of science fiction by Arthur C. Clark, Asimov, Ray Bradbury among a host of others.
For horror I’ve read H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King and Algernon Blackwood.
3. Your story, Elmo’s Sojourn, is a space jumping sci-fi story. Do you write other genres?
I also write horror and the occasional poem.
4. How did you come up with the premise of your story?
I belong to a writers group, The Wordwrights, and one of the members writes children’s books. She told us she had to write a story beginning with someone yelling that they have a problem. Couple that with a Far Side cartoon where a wife is looking from a door down into a cellar. In the cellar is her husband with the head of a fly. She’s yelling, “Lunch. Are you still a fly?”
With that in mind I had intended to write a story, Cellar Science, but enjoyed the story so much that I continued and the result was the novella, Elmo’s Sojourn.
UPDATE: SECOND CHANCE PUBLISHED BY SEPARATE WORLDS
My short story, Second Chance, is now available in the November/December 2013 anthology published by Separate Worlds as an online publication.
Along with my story you get over 400 pages of horror, science fiction and fantasy along with nonfiction and poetry all for only five dollars. I hope you decide to buy a copy.
Here’s the link.
ELMO’S SOJOURN
My eBook, Elmo’s Sojourn will be published by Melange Books on February 10th.
Here’s the cover.
THE WONDERING MIND OF THE WRITER
Initially I was going to entitle this piece ‘The Wandering Mind of the Writer’. The reason being that very often story ideas come to me when I least expect them, when my thoughts have no specific purpose, when they are ‘free range’. However, I decided to change wandering to wondering. I’ll tell you why.
I can’t speak for my colleagues, but this writer’s mind uses two types of wonder to process the world around me. The first form of wonder is the amazement I see and record in my brain. The second type is when I wonder ‘what if’ when I contemplate a science fiction or horror story. Both types are filed away in my cerebral cortex until, sometimes quite unexpectedly; these thoughts come together in a story. Those are the fun moments. Then the real work begins, putting those thoughts into words.
The reason I want to share this is that my blog is a writer’s blog, yet sometimes the subject matter may seem ‘off topic’. But for a writer taking in the world of wonder surrounding him, is there really an ‘off topic’?
All that I see and experience is stored away in the depths of my mind. Then, when the time is right, make their way in odd combinations to the surface and from there to the tip of my pen.
I suppose when I cease wondering the writing will also cease.
Walttriznastories's Blog 