This weekend, I am starting a new feature on my website, www.CitizenPoet.com. Tomorrow and continiuing on certain Sundays in the future, I will be publishing a short story. I love writing short stories, but unfortunately, I don’t always have the time that it takes to create, write and edit an excellent tale. And the market for commercial short stories these days is not the most lucrative.

I hope you enjoy these short stories and help me build an audience by telling all of your friends. There is a marketing model to all this. The stories are published for all to read for free, although there will be a Contribution Button for those who are inclined to support the effort financially. You may print out a personal copy to read at your leisure or on the train into work, but of course, I retain full ownership and all copyright and reprint rights.

In addition, from time to time I will share some of my short story ideas in my Poetry Blog. These are ideas that I think would make a great short story, but I haven’t had time to flesh them out. I get hundreds of ideas. Hardly a day passes when I don’t have one. So what I will do is share some of those ideas with you.

And yes, should you feel inclined to use the idea in a short story of your own, go ahead. I would love to see what you can do. No charge, no obligation. It’s just an idea not a compositon. All I ask is that if your story is a success, you give me a nod–a tip of the author’s beret, so to speak. And with this being said, here is my first short short idea:

A Small Piece of Rock

On the day that Jason Brown planned to commit suicide, he trekked up the narrow path that led to the ledge overlooking the bay and gazed out at the sea. It was the last thing he wanted to see. That and the frothing waves around the rocks below that reached out to him speckled white diamonds of eternal bliss, calling his name.

Which was why the sight of some bum on a boat rowing toward Jason’s own private hell was truly disturbing. What the hell right did anyone have to interrupt Jason’s last grand gesture?

This is a short story: about how a man, Jason, whose life has been a series of disappointments meets another old man searching for a place to bury his ashes. The searcher is an old man who only wants to buy a small piece of land overlooking the sea for an eternal monument. The search is coming back to a seaside cliff he used to see in this youth and shared with a young woman he loved and married.

Jason gets to know the old man and discovers a life with strange parallels to his own, only the old man made certain choices that perhaps Jason should have made, resulting in the outcomes that Jason really wanted but did not achieve.

Although Jason had planned to jump from the cliff, it turns out that there was one more choice Jason could have made but had not. What he learns from the old man about his choice affects Jason’s own life and future.

And yes, in the end, he sells the old man a small square of land, a piece of a rock as an eternal resting place for the old man’s urn of ashes.

And yet, in the end, there is still one question. Who finally is buried under the small piece of rock?