14 Goin' On Dead

George Stinney, was only 14 when he was sentenced to death
by electrocution for a crime he did not commit. In 1944, he was
accused of killing two white girls. Cops said he confessed
to the crime, there were no witnesses, no evidence,
no written confession signed by George himself.
In 2014, a judge exonerated him posthumously. 

If I was fourteen

And not marked for death,  I'll be destined

To hold in my palm, the whim

To achieve greater works than these.

If I was fourteen,

I'll live free,

I'll have a dream like Dr. King

And Be A King.

I'll live for justice

Like Gorman than be at just ease.

If I was fourteen

I'll be a real OG,

Original, genius cause I was born to breathe.

I'll chair over the electric

Boogie, woogie, get you apoplectic.

If I was fourteen

And won a scholarship,

I'll go real hard on hardship

And be the cap'n of my ship.

If I was fourteen,

I'll be on the dream team

Black and educated with skills

The most dangerous weapon indeed.

If I was fourteen

I'll bring injustice to its knees

I'll knock the love of power till it keens

And rock the power of love so it keels

Over and shatters every hate that kills.

But y'all can't be fourteen

Not if the law wants you dead

Cause your butt ain't whitened.

'Nough said.

Akpan

IntShoWriMo 2014: Day 7

Day 7: Hard Drive

Today’s Prompt: “Checking Hard Drive… File Corrupt.” With a deadline looming, my heart stopped.

— Courtesy: Writing.Com

Word Count: 1,723

‘CHECKING HARD DRIVE…’

Koko stared at the screen of her inbuilt computer, the sense of urgency charged the air. The street was alive with people but Koko knew better to be wary cause this was 2057 where people had ceased to be just people. Computers ruled the age and people had become Files. Night had covered the world with deceptive ease while she buried herself in work.

‘CHECKING HARD DRIVE…’

            “Shit, this is going to be a long night,” she said aloud to no one in particular. “Can’t you just figure out who is real and which ones are ghosts of their former selves?” she asked the artificial intelligence installed in her Jeep. Just when she decided to spin her wheels, she probably had nothing to fear, her computer shattered her hasty conclusion with a ‘BONG!’

In 2057, that sound had become the next thing to the Final Trumpet Sound. Sitting in her Jeep, alone in the dark of night, the computerized female voice inserted terror in Koko.

‘CHECKING HARD DRIVE’ traded places with ‘virus detected’ and got traded for ‘file corrupt.’

Blue dots filled the computer screen. That signified one thing: she was in danger. She was stuck for alternative routes. Plus, beating the deadline seemed somewhere in the realm of impossible. The blue dots converged cued by an invisible, diabolic director. Then they began to move in on her in slow measured tempo acting out their cemetery choreography. Read More Here: IntShoWriMo 2014


Eneh Akpan
June 7th, 2014

How It All Began

IntShoWriMo 2014 OFFICIAL BADGE (MODIFIED)

IntShoWriMo is not the brainchild of a deliberate and complex design nor is it product of a fickle fancy. It did, however, thrive by default. It just so happened that in December, 2010 I announced in this article—the last one I posted that year—that through 2011, I was going to be waist deep in short stories. No regular blogposts, only 2,000-word shorts and about thirty in all. A quick glance at the 2011 archives will reveal a total of thirteen posts and most of these happen to be poetry. So what happened? I couldn’t do it, that’s what happened. I had a hard time making up my mind on what to post: drafts or revised drafts? And that’s how I spent an entire year eating the dirt of my own indecision.

Steven Barnes, in one of several newsletters I received from the great writer, hinted on writing the short story over the novel for young fiction writers. “You may write a 100,000 word novel or fifty 2,000 word stories in a year. You’ll learn faster writing the short stories.” —Steven Barnes (rephrased). I was trying to walk that path when I got stuck in 2011 even though, I got the second story I wrote published in an online magazine I knew I had to make good on that promise.

IntShoWriMo (called NaShoWriMo in 2012) was my way of delivering on that commitment I made way back 2010. It was purely an accidental thing that somehow stuck. And the interesting fact is you can become a part of it. And you should.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

Time’s Ripe for a Short Story Month

OFFICIAL BADGE FOR IntShoWriMo 2014 (MODIFIED)

Isn’t it about time there was a Short Story Month? Why short stories, you ask. And at this late date? In the following paragraphs I’ll try to present valid whys and wherefores. You, Dear Reader, are free to accept or refute the idea; it would do little by way of changing my opinion, though.

IntShoWriMo was founded on the unpretentious principle that the short story cannot be allowed to go extinct. There has to be a new way to reinvent the craft, the art, and keep it fresh in the heart of the reader. Cast your minds back to a time you were much younger than you are; recall all those stories, fairy tales, you grew up with; Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Lil’ Red Riding Hood, and so forth. The stories we heard where animals assumed human qualities to teach us a moral lesson or two while we sat, innocent and rapt in awe, on Mama or Papa or even Granny’s bosom.

Many of those tales were spoken and (those we read in books) written in the short form of fiction. Our first taste of fiction came in the form of the short story; we can’t deny where we came from just as we must not deprive the next generation a stab at the treasures we inherited. For the short story is itself a peculiar variety of legacy. Facts through fantasy expressed in short, memorable lines of creative imagination which must not be conscripted to the paddy wagon of rut. That's the idea on which IntShoWriMo was created.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

2013: On One Canvas

Come April, I’d have been writing for the internet for five years. December would mark my fifth year running this blog you’re reading. I’ve had times I wanted to cut and run but I’m still here, though. And after all has been said and done that’s what really counts for anything.

At the beginning of 2013, I typed my three primary goals for that year on a sticky note pad and pasted it on the desktop of my computer where it would be readily available for daily review. Writing 30 poems in 30 days—NaPoWriMo—the first of the trio was simple enough; it was my pet genre. The second one up was a challenge I invented way back 2012—IntShoWriMo—to keep my story writing tools oiled and sharpened. I’d done a lot by way of raising awareness on social media but that didn’t make writing 30 short stories in 30 days a walkover. Although come the month of June, I churned out a word count of over 49,000 words.

I’ve had NaNoWriMo in my sights the past three years. It appears 2013 was my year. Cause by the time November blew out the back door, I had a 52,000 word manuscript smack down on my desk. Ain’t that a treat? 2013 apparently, was cut out to be a year to remember.

For 2014, these three are still my primary objectives for the year plus I gatto get my rough drafts polished up and sent out for publication.

Well folks, that’s 2013 on one canvas. And there’s the canvas at the top of this post. It’s a succinct interpretation of my luxuriant writing the past year in a frame.

Have a happy New Year and an intellectually productive 2014!

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan