Posts tagged ‘curious hearts’
ELMO’S SOJOURN
CHAPTER 1
CELLAR SCIENCE
“I have a problem! I have a big problem!” Elmo shouted from his cellar laboratory. Mildred shook her head, wiped her hands on her apron and headed for the basement door. After fifty years of marriage, Elmo never ceased to amaze her at the trouble he could get into.
“Could he garden like other men his age? Oh no, he has to do physics experiments,” Mildred muttered as she walked down the cellar stairs.
* * *
They had moved into this rural house in Upstate New York ten years ago, right after Elmo had retired from his job at Los Alamo Laboratory. He was a physicist at the laboratory, part of a think-tank that planned experiments. But Elmo enjoyed the lab work too. He had accumulated a lot of ideas and discarded equipment. Mildred gazed out the window of her country home. Nearby, tall electrical towers obstructed some of the bucolic scenery, but Mildred liked the house just fine. Elmo brought along the junk he had accumulated over the years, mostly discarded apparatus from failed experiments, equipment useless to everyone except Elmo. The items included large magnets and four six-foot-tall Tesla coils, specialized high voltage transformers three feet in diameter and wrapped with miles of thin copper wire. They resembled giant candles, coming to a point with electrical connections at the apex. Elmo transported all this equipment into the basement and fiddled with it for years. He then had a large Plexiglas chamber built, which set them back a bundle. He stood the Tesla coils in each corner, then mounted the magnets in the floor.
The next step in the construction of Elmo’s experiment Mildred found most undesirable. Elmo told Mildred, “I’ll need a great deal of power for my research. Soon I’ll need your help making the electrical connections for the project I’ve been working on.”
A few days ago, a truck had delivered a huge spool of heavy insulated wire, another great expense, and now Mildred was getting a bad feeling. Once it was dark, Elmo emerged from the basement wearing rubber boots and heavy rubber gloves. “Get your coat Mildred, we’re going out.” The spool of wire was in the bed of Elmo’s pickup. They drove to the base of the nearest electrical tower and parked.
“What are you going to do Elmo?” Mildred asked in a voice full of apprehension and a touch of impatience.
“I’m going to climb the tower and connect this wire which you’re going to feed out,” came his reply. Mildred shook her head and wished Elmo would act his age.
After that illegal task was accomplished, Elmo spent most of his time in the basement tinkering with his invention. He called it his Time – Space Chamber, and when Mildred asked just what he was doing Elmo explained, “I’ve always thought that if I could create an electrical field, then move those electrons in a magnetic field to approach the speed of light, I could create a wormhole to a distant time and place. I could aim at the wormhole and transport matter. The secret is the size of the magnetic field. It must be small, not like the giant cyclotrons they construct in the desert.
All Mildred could say was, “If it makes you happy dear.” It kept Elmo out of her hair for years.
March 28, 2025 at 2:33 pm
AN INTRODUCTION TO ELMO’S SOJOURN
If you read my novella, Elmo’s Invention, previously posted on my blog, you know that Elmo was a scientist working at Los Alamos and have come to be familiar with his quirky personality. Elmo’s Invention was written after Elmo’s Sojourn and as a prequel to that novella. In Elmo’s Invention while working at Los Alamos, his interest was in time travel. In Elmo’s Sojourn he is retired, and his interest is in space travel.
He has a theory that it is possible to travel through space with the use of wormholes. He builds a device, and it works! However, Elmo goes nowhere. But a creature appears in his cellar lab after his first use of the machine. Elmo being Elmo, decides to return with the creature to its home. Thus, an adventure for Elmo, in a strange world begins.
Elmo’s Sojourn has a long history. The novella was first published online by Bewildering Stories in 2006. Later, it was published by Mélange Books as an eBook and in a print anthology, Curious Hearts, in 2010. Then, purely by accident, I discovered the first two chapters of the novella were published in China in an English-language science fiction publication in 2008.
March 25, 2025 at 1:12 pm
UPDATE
My consistent readers,
I thought I’d touch base after some of disturbing medical update I’ve recently shared. For the most part, I’m back to normal. I’m feeling fine although I am one enough pills that I could open up my own pharmacy, but as time goes by the number should diminish.
As far as my writing is concerned, I’m working on a new short story and a novella featuring Elmo. Elmo has already appeared in a novella published by Melange Books in their anthology, Curious Hearts. I’ve also submitted two short stories for which I am still awaiting a reply and a host of poems which have all been rejected.
I’ll keep in touch. I hope you will too.
June 3, 2012 at 7:57 pm
My consistent readers,
Both of you, JUST KIDDING.
I’m posting a review of the anthology, Curious Hearts, submitted to GOODREADS.
Read from September 13 to 20, 2011
Anthologies are interesting. You get a wide range of stories and styles. Curious Hearts was no exception. Seven authors contributed to the collection, with a common theme of tough choices involving love. Within the pages were tales of time-travel, space travel, the draw toward old lovers, experimenting with new love, and a near-death experience.
Each story showcased the author’s unique voice. I particularly enjoyed that some of them didn’t end quite the way you’d expect. The choices that had to be made were gut-wrenching at times. There was also a good share of humor in several of these.
Some of the best unexpected twists and humor were found in Jane Carver’s “A-mazing Shift”, Walt Trizna’s “Elmo’s Sojourn”, and Jenny Twist’s “Doppelganger”. But, you’ll have to read it yourself if you want to pick your own favorites.
Because of some very explicit sexual content in the stories “Mission to Doom” and “Bi-Curious Wife”, I recommend this book for adults only
September 23, 2011 at 3:25 pm
My consistent readers,
Just wanted to let you know that Chester County Book & Music Company will be selling Curious Hearts, an anthology in which I have a novella, Elmo’s Sojourn.
Elmo is a retired scientist who putters around in his cellar, and accidently discovers how to time travel though wormholes. He journeys to a distant planet where he helps with a scourge that is plaguing the residents.
I also have had some positive results with my effort to publish my novel, The Beast Awaits. Nothing firm yet; I’ll keep you posted.
August 11, 2011 at 9:20 pm
My consistent readers,
The anthology, Curious Hearts, is now available from Melange Books as an eBook. You can also order a paper copy from LuLu through Melange.
I’ll let you know when it is available on amazon.com.
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/walttrizna/walttrizna.html
July 25, 2011 at 7:35 pm
My consistent readers,
Soon you will have the opportunity to read my novella, Elmo’s Sojourn, being published by Mélange Books in their anthology, Curious Hearts.
I’m sending you this promo as a sampler to see the contents of the publication.
I hope some of you find it worthy of a purchase. I’ll let you know when it is on sale.
Walt
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/anthologies/curioushearts.html
July 22, 2011 at 3:15 pm
My consistent readers,
I have a novella being published by Mélange Books in an anthology coming out on July 23.
In spite of the cover, which I have included, it is a work of science fiction, but I can see why they chose this story for the anthology. I hope you buy it and find it interesting.
June 30, 2011 at 6:59 pm
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My consistent readers,
