{"id":293,"date":"2017-07-18T21:57:38","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T02:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/?p=293"},"modified":"2017-07-19T19:36:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T00:36:10","slug":"a-zombie-walks-into-a-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/a-zombie-walks-into-a-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"A Zombie Walks Into a Bar…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yeah, I don’t really have a follow-up on that title. I’m the zombie, but I’m not walking into a bar. I’m crawling into bed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This past weekend I participated in a weekend flash fiction competition that required me to write a 1000-word horror story that takes place in a prison. It wiped me out more than I expected, and the last two days of work have turned me into a walking zombie, so for this week’s 99-word story, I’m just gonna drop it here. It actually stems from some of my prison research. <\/span><\/p>\n

EDITED TO ADD ON JULY 18: As I delve into a new writing project, I am exploring characters that I do not understand or have much sympathy for. How do I present them in a way that readers can\/will connect to them? In order to help me hone the skills I will need to create these characters, I decided to try to step into others’ shoes to see how they react to situations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One such issue for me is how abuse survivors defend their abusers after the relationship is broken (i.e., the survivors are no longer controlled in the here and now [although in their minds they likely still feel controlled]). I’ve read deeply on this subject. I’ve completed training to help survivors of abuse…well, survive, but no matter much I cognitively understand the logic and rationale behind defending their abusers, emotionally I just don’t get it. So this week, I attempted to understand it. [end edit]<\/span><\/p>\n

This week’s Carrot Ranch prompt<\/a>:\u00a0In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about an unexpected landing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Torment<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We were together six months, so tight from day one. I knew we\u2019d be together forever.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Then a million knives struck my heart\u2014both our hearts. We mourned our daughter.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When his fist landed in my chest, he was still hurting. I couldn\u2019t breathe. He\u2019d kill me, he said, then himself.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The cops asked how it started, what I did. I wanted to explain, make them understand. He was in pain. But they just wanted facts.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I needed him gone. But now his life\u2019s ruined. What have I done?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I love him. I just wish I\u2019d never met him.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yeah, I don’t really have a follow-up on that title. I’m the zombie, but I’m not walking into a bar. I’m crawling into bed.   This past weekend I participated in a weekend flash fiction competition that required me to write a 1000-word horror story that takes place in a prison. It wiped me out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A Zombie Walks Into a Bar...\r\n#amwriting #flashfiction","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[15,16,6,20],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-carrot-ranch","tag-flash-fiction","tag-writing-2","tag-writing-challenge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/postcard-writing.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4WVQN-4J","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cjaiferry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}