The Door in the Sky

By Eric M Hunter

It's fiction writing in real-time and then edited down for your enjoyment.

Eric M Hunter's popular writing podcast #flashfiction takes you through the writing process from inspiration to narration. Now all of those stories and writing insights are bound in a single book with brand new author notes, amusing stories, and thoughts on the writing process edited for maximum enjoyment and education.

Come for the fun flash fiction stories and stay for a look behind the creative curtain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eric M Hunter
• Release date: Jan 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798986134505

Book preview

The Door in the Sky

Door W_Glow

Eric M Hunter

Copyright © 2022 by Eric M Hunter

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

First edition

To my eighth grade English teacher, Mrs. King.

Contents

Introduction

I. THE STORIES

1. The Mess You’ve Made

2. Spider-Man

3. The Football

4. It’s All Theatrics

5. Time Travelers Party

6. The Bag Man

7. It’s Adjusting to Your Being Not the Other Way Around

8. A E I O U

9. The Door in the Sky

10. Spring Break

II. THE MAKING OF . . .

11. the mess you’ve made

12. spider-man

13. the football

14. it’s all theatrics

15. the time travelers party

16. the bag man

17. it’s adjusting to your being, not the other way around

18. a e i o u

19. the door in the sky

20. spring break

About the Author

Also by Eric M Hunter

Introduction

In the middle of 2020, many of the creative spaces I floated through were hammering one message: use this lock down as a time to create something real and bring it into the world. That book you always wanted to write, that album you always wanted to record. This is your time. Use it.

I’m not one for needing motivation to get a project started, but I did I feel a sense to give back to my community. After realizing that I had a spare ten minutes at work in between my accounts (business-to-business sales), I downloaded the newest release of Anchor.FM podcasting software, and my podcast #flashfiction was born.

I went to Twitter to record my narration of fellow writers’ micro fiction and other stories written in 240 characters or less. I found hashtags to follow and reached out to help elevate other writers’ work. It was fun. I met some new people, read some great stories, and felt fulfilled.

Then it died.

I released a new episode almost every day for six months. Then the well went dry. No one responded when I reached out. I followed more writers, retweeted more, asked to read their stories, but nothing. They left me on read.

In the wake of silence, I decided I would try my hand at writing my own flash fiction using prompts for the popular Twitter hashtag #vss365. Every day, a new single word writing prompt would appear to provide a sort of brainwave to writing.

Even this grew tired. Here I was, a semi successful podcast with a growing fan base with no more content to add. What was I to do?

Enter Jonathan Mann and his podcast As it Happens: Song a Day.

Jonathan Mann is best known for creating and publishing a new song each day since January 2009. He holds the Guinness World Record, which I’m sure you could have guessed. His podcast As it Happens details his process of creating a song a day from beginning to end. He discusses how he gets started, the particular challenges he faces, and his general thoughts on music theory and influences.

I was truly inspired and did what any sensible person would do in a state of writer’s block: I took his idea for music and used it for writing. #flashfiction was born anew.

In each episode, I discussed something that inspired me to write. Whether that be a song, a children’s book, or some wacky thing I read on Reddit. I would talk about my initial thoughts on the subject, where the muse carried me, and started writing, all in real time. Then, I would do editing, and cut what I had to keep the story under 1,000 words to be flash fiction. I discussed the pressures many of us put on ourselves unnecessarily and how I overcome many of those roadblocks. Finally, the podcast ended with me giving a dramatic narration complete with subtle music and sound effects to create an inviting atmosphere.

I loved it. It mixed all the things that I enjoy doing: writing, podcasting, and transforming stories with dramatic audio.

I learned so much about writing and myself from doing the podcast. Along the way, I tried to give advice for things that I get stuck on.

Am I qualified to give such advice? Probably not, but everything I say is usually an interpretation of something I’ve heard or read from someone much smarter than me. That can’t be bad, right?

This book is #flashfiction in written form after much editing. I removed my ramblings, confusing phrasing, and awkward strains of thought from the podcast transcript into something legible. I’ve also added new insights and thoughts on many of the stories that I hadn’t when I was recording.

This book is best enjoyed by reading through all the stories first, then to how they were inspired. You get to see what a finished story reads while leaving the hard work it takes to get there for after. Be entertained first. The work is yet to come.

Those podcast episodes are still available to listen to for free wherever you listen to great podcasts. This book puts all of that information in a central location that allows you to use as a reference guide or support group for when you’re stuck.

What you hold in your hands is an experiment of sorts. A positive experience for me and my growth as a writer and if you pull just a little something from these pages, then I feel like I’ve done a job well done.

Until we met again in season two, never stop writing.

The Stories

The Mess You’ve Made

Detective Cain Pierce walked through the apartment door shortly after he got the call. It was late, but he’d been up, hoping this call wouldn’t come in.

The bedroom floor was dingy and full of cigarette burns. The body laid beside a small nightstand.

Cain surveyed the room and then down at the body. The victim was a young man, maybe 20, split from end to end. His organs laid beside him on a bedsheet. Cain knelt down and pulled a pen from his jacket pocket. There was a shuffle of feet behind him, as Marcus’s voice squeaked out.

Oh, Pierce. I didn’t see you come in. Have you spoken to—

Did you find his tongue? he asked. He used the pen to move the dead man’s head from side to side.

No. Who told you? he asked.

And the 911 call was silent when it came in? Cain asked. Marcus nodded. Cain already knew.

He stood up, placed his pen back in his pocket, and looked for anything out of the ordinary. His eyes stopped on a vanity mirror, just tall enough to cut the top of his head off, and there he was: the killer.

Cain’s reflection catapulted him back to when he was a child. He rushed home from school to find his twin brother in the kitchen, blood up to his elbows, cutting up the neighbor’s cat.

Cain saw the organs displayed neatly beside the carcass. He had just finished sawing the cat’s tongue off when Cain called his name.

His face was white, like he’d seen a ghost. They both stood there for a long moment, Cain’s eyes darting to the dead cat. They both jumped when the front porch door slammed.

Cain turned and stood in front of his brother. Their mother walked in, fresh from a ten-hour shift at the diner.

What the hell is going on here? she asked. Cain’s hands folded around his back. Well? she said, then her face turned to horror when she saw the kitchen sink.

Cain nudged his brother. He moved up against him and quickly wiped the blood from his hands on Cain’s. When he was through, Cain presented them to Mother. She stepped back. Her face went from shock to anger. She snapped the towel from the cabinet knob and began rubbing his hands.

Damn it, boy. Look at the mess you made, she cursed, Cain’s hands began to turn red and burn from his mother’s efforts. Her cleaning rubbed harder and harder. Cain could feel the skin on his hands give and pull against itself.

Detective Pierce? Marcus asked, pulling Cain out of his daydream. You alright? He wiped his eyes.

Yeah, just, he looked back at his reflection in the mirror. The reflection held still and then shifted in a motion that wasn’t Cain’s. Its lips moved repeatedly. Cain watched as the words the mess I made formed into his own. This was the mess he made. A mess he could have stopped years ago.

Spider-Man

Bryce stared down at the two bags of trash.

Come on. What if I get shit all over me? You know what that can do to my tips. Julian, the oldest, fattest cook who hasn’t realized you can’t retire from a pizza shop, poked his tooth pick at him.

Nah, I already did my share. It’s your turn.

Bryce sighed, picked up both trash bags, and made his way to the back of Roni’s Pizza.

He pushed the backdoor open and walked out into the alley. The door closed with a heavy thunk.

The dumpster was already covered with flies and what smelled like either last night’s parma