“Hear me, oh muse,” the teller began.
“Oh for crud’s sake, Ishmael, get on with it!” cried a voice from those huddled near the hearth.
“When April showers–”
“Does it have any action in it?”
“I’m bored! Let’s go watch a shadow-play instead.”
The crowd dispersed, leaving only the teller of tales and a single child near the fire. Pleading eyes stared at the teller of tales.
“Long ago in a far away land. . . .” the teller began.
Michael D. Turner writes and lives along the front range of the Rocky Mountains. His work has appeared in Turn the Other Chick (Baen), Ring of Fire (Baen), Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Bad Guy (Fantasist Enterprises), and in AlienSkin, Continuum SF, Aberrant Dreams, Tales of the Talisman and others.
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17 Responses to “TELLER OF TALES • by Michael D. Turner”
Comments
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September 5th, 2007 at 4:58 am
Very clever and rather cute.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:02 am
Thank goodness there’ll always be that small, eager audience for the teller of tales! What a beautiful piece of work, Michael- very amusing and very poignant.
Oonah
September 5th, 2007 at 5:20 am
We loved this piece because it pokes fun at video games and TV, but also at markets like EDF.
BTW, Michael is both the storyteller and the small child with the pleading eyes.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:05 am
Tell a complete story in 100 words or less, excellent work.
September 5th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Cute. Surprisingly good for such a short piece.
Good Job!
September 5th, 2007 at 9:54 am
I love to see so much compressed into such a small space. And light and funny too…
September 5th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Made me smile.
Very nice.
September 5th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Short and Sweet. Love it.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Michael, Michael, he’s our man!
Rah, rah, sis-boom-bah!
September 5th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
It’s unusual for such a short piece to be so complete and also say something beyond just the plot. Very well done.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Very nice! Great writing, and it says something too. I really enjoyed this piece.
September 8th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Congrats to Michael on the first “micro-fiction” at EDF - and congrats to the Teller of Tales who won’t quit!
Lyn from ResAliens
September 23rd, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Mike, this was a great short-short and I enjoyed it immensely. (And if I’d have realized this forum were here, I’d have been the first comment. 0:-))
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:05 pm
I’m glad to have recieved such a warm responce to this little story. It is one of my favorites of my “flash” length and the first micro-length piece I’ve ever done.
Mike
September 30th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
[...] Teller of Tales [...]
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Michael, as a fellow teller of tales,I enjoyed this little piece immensely, enough so to forward it on to some of my writer-friends.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:18 am
Nicholas,
You are too kind. Thank you.
Mike