 | A WRITER'S WIT |
On Alert Forever?
David Black March 30, 2015, Thomas Pierce, “This Is an Alert”: Some time in an almost dystopian future, a family’s road trip to visit grandma is disrupted by an alert from the skies overhead. ¶ I listened to the young author read his story from a podcast at the magazine’s Web site, as I followed the text onscreen. His rendition of the omniscient voice saying This is an alert is alarming, all right—sounding almost dead, four or five tones lower than his normal voice. Some time in our own future, we, too, may be hearing these four words. Though Pierce seems to be satirizing this warning—one, by the way, which Americans have been listening to since the 1950s—he could be issuing an updated one. If we don’t stop the fighting worldwide—then we may all be on alert for the war above us—drones are not going away—for the rest of our lives. Pierce’s latest book is a collection entitled Hall of Small Mammals.
Photographer, David Black.
NEXT TIME: My Book World
Photographer, David Black.
NEXT TIME: My Book World
BEHIND THE BOOK: My Long-Playing Records & Other Stories. In these posts I speak of the creative process I use to write each story. Buy a copy here!
Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"
Date of Original Post:
11/13/14 — Introduction to My Long-Playing Records
11/20/14 — "My Long-Playing Records" — The Story
11/27/14 — "A Certain Kind of Mischief"
12/04/14 — "Ghost Riders"
12/11/14 — "The Best Mud"
12/18/14 — "Handy to Some"
12/25/14 — "Blight"
01/01/15 — "A Gambler's Debt"
01/09/15 — "Tales of the Millerettes"
01/15/15 — "Men at Sea"
01/22/15 — "Basketball Is Not a Drug"
01/29/15 — "Engineer"
02/05/15 — "Snarked"
02/12/15 — "Killing Lorenzo"
02/19/15 — "The Age I Am Now"
02/26/15 — "Bathed in Pink"
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