Monkey, Monster or Spaceman? Week 52
Category: ALL!

Editorial Note: For the final week of MMS, I put a call out to some of my more creatively-oriented friends to submit 100-word (or so) short pieces, making the last week more of an anthology, with myself at the editorial helm. (Actually, I didn’t really so much edit as compile.) So … enjoy! And yes, there are some pieces that I wrote, too — I didn’t take the week completely off. 

 THE LAST STORIES:
A Monkey, Monster or Spaceman Anthology

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Okay, don’t worry, tomorrow the final MMS piece(s) should be up right on schedule. But before that, an unexpected bonus! My friend Ryan, of various cool web-based projects including his own fiction blog, decided that as part (yes, only part!) of his contribution to my final, glorious week, I really needed a Monkey, Monster or Spaceman theme song!

So he wrote one! Click here to listen and marvel at its wonder!

Pretty swanky, huh? Full lyrics are beneath the cut, if you wanna check them out. Thanks, buddy!

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Sorry, what with a generally bad week at work and bad luck computer-wise at home, I’m a little bit behind (I actually meant to be posting the final MMS today, but I suppose it’s more fitting if I do that tomorrow regardless) — but I do have that Very Special Announcement to make:

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… there’s bad news, and then there’s good news.

Bad news is I’m having some annoying computer problems that, while they shouldn’t keep me from posting the final thing(s) in time for Friday, will definitely make it more difficult. We are working on the issue, don’t worry. (Rolls dice, sacrifices chicken, prays to gnomes.)

Good news is … well, technically to be announced tomorrow, I think but go here and you can get a sneak preview.

And here we are, at Week 52; I feel like I should be singing “My Way” and weeping into my scotch. (Actually, I can’t drink scotch, which is a whole other story altogether …) It is an emotional moment, though — it’s hard to believe I’ve really just about done it.

Actually, I have done it, though you won’t see until later in the week. My part of what I’m bringing you for Week 52 is written. But more about that when we get there; don’t want to let the cat completely out of the bag …

And speaking of cats and bags, I’ll stop in here a bit later this week to drop the Big Announcement I’ve been hinting around about. Until then, have a good Monday (hey, up here it’s a holiday!) and rest of the week …

Monkey, Monster or Spaceman? Week 51
Category: Monkey

Animal Crackers
by D.J. Sylvis

It was just about midnight, and the club was so loud that even back in the closet-sized dressing room, it was impossible to hear yourself say anything. Margaret had to practically put her mouth against Billy’s ear and shout to ask a question – and it wasn’t just that he might take the gesture wrongly (they’d been a thing back in school in Peterborough, when he asked her to join the band); he had a major ear wax problem which was completely disgusting. Still, she leaned in and hollered: “Who are these assholes, anyway?”

He turned halfway around, the neck of his guitar swinging out and almost clocking Don in the head. Don was crouched on a broken preamp on the floor, all his attention on the vibration of the metal strings beneath his fingertips, and didn’t even notice.

Billy nodded in the direction of the stage and shouted back to her: “Stompin’ Stomp Stompers. They’re a Newfie band.”

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So, Week #51 is apparently a Monkey week, thanks to you fine folks who voted in the final poll! (Note again: it is the final poll because Week #52 is going to be completely at my whim.) So I’ll try to cook something decent up by Friday … meanwhile, I expect to have some pretty exciting things to announce soon!

Oh, and if you’re in the Toronto area, we’re going to have a little gathering at Commensal on May 21st to celebrate, among other things, the end of my year of MMS! If you’re interested in stopping by, the full details are on Facebook — so take a look!

Monkey, Monster or Spaceman? Week 50
Category: Monster

He Thrusts His Fists Against the Posts
by D.J. Sylvis

He lived alone with his grandmother, and it couldn’t be said that either of them was fully in their right mind. But where he was gentle, and slow, and agreed to anything he was told, she was harsh and too quick by half, and any opinion you held she’d have a reason you were going to Hades for having it. Not that she had much of anyone to argue with; I was their only neighbour for miles, and I avoided that old woman like the idea of work.

Now Stevie, the boy … being an old man who loves to talk, I purely enjoyed having him about. Our houses face each other across a dirt road, and at least once a day I’d look up from a paperback science-fiction novel – I’ve got all the time in the world to read now, I have them shipped in cases from a bookstore in the city – I’d look up and see him loping across the yard in my direction, all furtive and looking over his shoulder, heading in my direction, and I’d know his grandma must be taking her afternoon nap, and we could have a decent chat. You have to say that for the woman; she was bitter as black coffee, but she never skimped on her sleep. (I’m mentioning that because it turns out to be important to the story, so pay attention.)

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First off, Week #50 (which is where we currently are, and who’d a thunk it) is going to be a Monster week. And I’m already a good couple of pages into the story! And speaking of stories, you should read last week’s and let me know what you thought …

That said, you’ll notice that the poll for Week #51, which is live now, states that it will be the last poll. What about Week #52, you might ask? Well, hopefully I’m gonna do something a little bit special for that, so no poll will be necessary …

Monkey, Monster or Spaceman? Week 49
Category: Monster

Danny Vs. the Floating Eye
by D.J. Sylvis

Danny had been waiting for his tenth birthday
for, well, ten years. His parents promised that
when he was ten, he could stay up late enough to watch
THE MONSTER MOVIE shown every Friday
on late-night cable. (THE MONSTER MOVIE
was the name of the program.) For, well, again ten years,
he’d had to sit through tantalizing advertisements for
Teenage Spacemen and deep-sea Creatures and 3-D Devil Skulls,
only to be sent off to bed during the haunting strains
of the opening organ music. It was frustrating on a level
only approached by when you were sick on a Saturday.

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