Well, spring is finally here and as I promised, "Best Of" has returned. Today's selection was from the good old Tribe days. Tribe is an author out of Ohio and he used to have crime flash fiction site that was the precursor to Powder Burn Flash.
It was just like Powder Burn in that you had fine crime fiction and undiscovered writers, and we are very fortunate that Aldo Calcagno decided to pick upcarry that torch and carry it onward. Still, I'd like to thank Tribe for providing the first true venue where every writer was on equal footing and he or she could stand on their own merit.
The odd thing about this story's title was I asked a German native/American citizen coworker how he was doing and instead of the standard, "another day, another sixty-two cents after taxes," or "same sh*t, different day" that had become standard at my job, he responded with the phrase that would become this story's title. As a matter of fact, I had to disguise the lightbulb that went off over my head, because I knew right then and there that I had to build a story around this right away. When lunch came around, I jotted some notes on a paper towel.
In wake of the current financial scandals, "Same Circus" has taken on a different light and some of the narrator's words ring truer than ever. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "Same Circus, Different Town."
10 comments:
"I’d feign something about his mistress giving me a yet-to-be-discovered STD" I can't tell you how many times this very same subject came up with my dad. It's uncanny!
Doc
Doc,
I'm glad that I wrote something that resonates with my audience
; )
Great tale. whatever happened to Mr Tribe?
Paulie Decibels,
I have no idea. He kept a good blog, but he rarely updated it and now it is a dead link.
I liked that--very quick, very terse. And the little info at the end, about the son's money making prowess, reminded me of the line from Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd":
"Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen."
He's still around. You can find him on facebook. He just got busier with work. And I remember this story, Cormac. We should all put ours on our blogs one day in tribute to Tribe.
Great stuff!
Bubs,
Thanks and, Tribe had a 500 word limit, I believe. Woody, Pete Seger and Arlo, the Three Wise Men.
Patti,
The way that all of us are trying to raise the profiles of our work and selves as writers (Crimespace, blogs, etc...), I took it for granted that he just stopped writing. I'm glad to hear that he is still around and I'd love to do a tribute to him, he is a true iconoclast.
Sky Dad,
Thanks.
Disa,
Sp*mmers s*ck.
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