Jeanpragot

Near home, at a turn off on the Black Woods Road dwells the spirit of a maiden killed by the logging truck she tried to flag down after a sorry incident with a boyfriend. Many have seen that ghost with some giving her a ride to her former domicile down the hill, they said. A professor at the local branch of the state's university even included the tale in a book about notable mysteries of the region. Later, when a French exchange student arrived at the campus a young friend of mine took a shine to the girl and offered to show her around with me to assist in translation and stand as the respectable chaperone. Of course our first destination after McDonald's was on the Black Woods Road and she was suitably impressed by the beauty of the site until I launched into discourse over the rumored presence of its otherworldly inhabitant. I may have been a bit theatrical in my presentation, I thought a touch of frisson could not hurt the budding relationship on the front seats, but she turned back with a near-scowl on her pretty face. "You are shitting me (my translation,) she said, they have the very same story in the village my family comes from." Here's an attempt at explanation.…

Jeanpragot

This tale is intended to be included in an anthology of short stories centered on the topic of artificial intelligence created by @Dram12. A.I. No One is his creation as is Ranger Common Howard. They both appear in Dram12's Just Common and The Book of Common. Common's language is of the Appalachian variety and is delightful to experience. More Babies Than Bullets touches on these works and, very lightly, on works by Brian Aldiss (Supertoys Last all Summer Long,) Steven Spielberg's AI, Philip K. Dicks (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,) and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Readers are invited to read and view, (or revisit, given the probable readership of these lines) these works as extraordinary inspirations for our creations. Meanwhile, I hope they enjoy my sophomoric contribution to the study of Artificial Intelligence. Believe me, A.I. is a piece of cake compared to Appalachian dialect...…

Jeanpragot

Dystopian drabble.…

Jeanpragot

A collection of dystopian stories…

Jeanpragot

Written as an assignment in a creative writing class, this story was distributed in the hallway just prior to the meeting. All students were reading it, not one of them laughed except for a Chinese exchange student there to polish her English. She was in stitches. I have thought that perhaps it was because of the regard Asian people have for the old and their ancestors. To her, Mr. Winterjeen was an old man with a twisted sense of humor doing his thing to get even. I agree. Readers, you be the judges, the star and comment bubble are on this screen :)…

Jeanpragot

Two millennia have passed after a catastrophic event that killed most of the population on earth. The survivors are rebuilding a society where, perhaps unsurprisingly, human relations feature the same prejudices and conflicts that are familiar to us. Fortunately, not everyone is of the same old mold. Betula and Liriodendron are nonconformists of the best kind, just like the many we are familiar with today. Let's hope their adventures will be entertaining enough for readers to suffer Contrails' dark episodes. Hey! Dystopia is seldom entertaining.…

Jeanpragot

Memories of wars and their sequels are often written by grizzled veterans or pontifying eggheads. This one is a rant, born in experiences of childhood carried into old age. Enjoy the ride and the view, always better from afar.…

Jeanpragot

Setting off alone in a 36-foot sailboat, the Spray, in 1895, Joshua Slocum was first on record to circle the world singlehandedly. Many others have followed with or without crew. They are a special breed for whom the challenge counts more than the accomplishment; Bernard Moitessier completed his nonstop circumnavigation in a 1968 race, but turned around in sight of the finish line in England to return to Tahiti. A Woman at Sea tells of a similarly minded person and her crew. Written in the memoir genre the story includes actual events, but most of it is fictional.…

Jeanpragot

An igloo, a family, an orphan who speaks the language of the wolves. Beyond the ice a world has died. Who will teach the children the old songs?…

Jeanpragot

Small time thief meets partner, wealth ensues, troubles begin.…

Jeanpragot

In the mid-latitudes the approaching winter has serious gardeners putting to bed their flower gardens. Often a shortage of space provokes the handing out of parts of well-loved treasures to other practitioners of the art. Some weirdness may surface in such encounters.…

Jeanpragot

The journey of a mysterious adventuress ? The revenge of a broken soul ? This could be you, at the end of your wits. Read, see how it can end.…

Jeanpragot

A plaintive melody's famous verses by the French king Francois 1st "Plaisir d'Amour Ne Dure Qu'un Instant / Chagrin d'Amour Dure Toute Une Vie" were written at the dawn of the Sixteenth Century AD. They have been well known ever since as a warning about the everlasting misery too shallow an affair can cause. Some three centuries previously, and surprisingly in an age not known for its sentimentality, Andreas Capellanus had written a poetry book about the power of a love that can last a lifetime. BONDS is a fictional attempt to recreate such an event.…

Jeanpragot

A Valentine Day tale with uncommon, but not unknown events in a story of love on a dead end road…

Jeanpragot

How many years does it take for a child's hatred to subside? I am not considering here circumstances of abuse or indoctrination, simply a wartime theft of a family's dessert.…

Jeanpragot

A tongue-in-cheek history of struggles…