Short Story Question

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blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
I'm all over the map with authors (and most everything else) so it could have been anyone. I could have heard it on the radio (it's possible).

Whoever it was, it was awhile ago (90' maybe?) not last year. If it was last year, I would really be worried.

Thanks for thinking about this with me, it's been tapping on my brain since last night.
Before long I'm gonna be interested enough in the story to hafta read it myself, and then there'll be two of us desperate to know the title! :(
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
:) Oh come on now Frank, you were having a joke, we were having a joke... it was all light hearted nothingness.

So back to topic... I really do hope we get to find out what this story is, it sounds interesting. :)
I am pretty sure that it is "Gramma" and I just scanned through the whole story (you can download it as a PDF) - he does make a phone call near the end.
 
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Out of Order

Sign of the Times
Feb 9, 2011
29,007
162,154
New Hampster
I am pretty sure that it is "Gramma" and I just scanned through the whole story (you can download it as a PDF) - he does make a phone call near the end.

Unlikely that it is Gramma. That story takes place in warm weather as some of the plot points out. There is no mention of towns being cancelled by a radio announcer and the boy is home alone not because of his mother having to work.
 
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HollyGolightly

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2013
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Heart of the South
This I still driving me crazy. I have searched all sorts of things trying to come up with an answer and asked all my friends if it sounded familiar (no) to no avail.

I think I will have to medicate myself over this!
Oy! Every time I see this thread resurrected I think: hallelujah! someone's figured it out. Did you hallucinate a short story addieprey? or dream it maybe? too bad there's not something like IMDB for books & stories (or is there?).
 
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Walter Oobleck

keeps coming back...or going, and going, and going
Mar 6, 2013
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This I still driving me crazy. I have searched all sorts of things trying to come up with an answer and asked all my friends if it sounded familiar (no) to no avail.

I think I will have to medicate myself over this!

Have you tried other social sites?...Goodreads?. Seems like there's a group...possibly more than one...where one can post a question such as was posted here. Perhaps the reader base is larger there and one could find an answer?
 

Rrty

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2007
1,394
4,588
What a thread. It's kind of spooky, isn't it? What is this story? In fact, this could almost be a short story in itself...told in posts (would that type of narrative engine still be considered epistolary?).

Here's the best solution I can think of: if you can, think of any unique phrase from that story, and search it either with quotes or not (quotes would be better, but in case you miss a word or get a word wrong, it might need to not have quotes...full disclosure: I am not an expert at the science of Googling, but I think I got this method right).

Also: are you absolutely sure this isn't an idea you may have had in your head? A phantom memory? You could maybe write this if that is the case, but then again, I don't want to recommend that in case this story really does exist.

My best guess is that perhaps this was a short story in a genre fiction magazine, but I really don't know.

I do know this though: I love this idea (as well as the idea about writing a story about a fiction forum discussing a story that may or may not exist). I also love what GNTLGNT wrote. He wrote:

" ...I was gonna answer but my town got cance................."

Now, I assume GNTLGNT meant "cancelled." However, at first, I read it as "cancer." That's an intriguing -- and a quite disturbing, scary -- phrase: my town got cancer. I suppose an entire town getting cancer would be a cancellation of sorts.

This would have been a great Stephen King story. Or a great Joe Hill story; I thought of him because if memory serves, although I haven't read it, he wrote a story composed of Twitter statements. He could probably do a story composed of forum posts about a mysterious story that may or may not exist (and what happens if the forum can't figure it out?) the justice it deserves.

Anyway, please let us know if you figure it out. Add me to the list of people who want to read this.
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
This I still driving me crazy. I have searched all sorts of things trying to come up with an answer and asked all my friends if it sounded familiar (no) to no avail.

I think I will have to medicate myself over this!
This is driving me crazy! I feel like I've read it, too. I went through all of Gaiman's short stories (that I'm aware of), Campbell's, Joe Hill's... nada.