October is the perfect month to talk about stories with dark themes - be they light gray themes with a little silver lining or stories as black as sin (evil laughter!)
Dust and Bones is interesting in that I started with a cool sounding title first.. Back when Guns and Roses were at the height of their popularity they had a great song off their Use Your Illusion I album called Dust N' Bones. Both of the Use Your Illusion albums came out the year I graduated. Actually, nearly everything they made was great, but that's off the subject!
I have always loved the song and the title and eventually I became so enamored with the title that I wanted to build a short story around it, but a story never came. I've always had this idea about a guy in the desert, but that was it. So the title and this inchoate idea rattled around in my brain for years while I got on to other things. Oddly enough, last year I was watching some YouTube channels I'm subscribed to and a few of them centered on corrupt ministers. Specifically, two of them. A poster had uploaded videos of some sermons by these two preachers that showed in no uncertain terms what they were really about; raw, naked greed and absolute contempt for those who didn't tithe, those who were not wealthy like them. One of them even had the nerve to brag about buying his wife a $15,000 dog!
It was ugly and blazingly offensive and these YT videos exposed these charlatans for all the world to see! I was so mad after seeing that I didn't know what to do for a long time. Unfortunately, you can no longer watch these videos because, unsurprisingly, YT forced the poster to take them down. I'm certain it was at the behest of these ministers or their "people". Whatever. I will never forget those videos nor will I forget the names of those bad ministers. A lot of other people saw these videos too, so no matter what legal means they use to threaten those who expose them, people know what they are: hucksters!
Then it came to me: That's the story! Greedy, wealthy men playing a game hosted by a mysterious man for even MORE money! That's the story! I believe in the Almighty and I believe that men (and women) who cloak themselves in the Holy Bible for profit will have a reckoning before God one day. That became the story for Dust and Bones. After I had figured out what I wanted the story to be, it came rather easily. I loved writing Dust and Bones and I hope readers enjoy it. Dust and Bones is free.
Smashwords Link: http://www.smashwords.com/
Scribd link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/
Dust and Bones is free at Smashwords and Scribd.
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