Seven years ago, in a failed bid to generate a little income, I ran a small website called Five-Dollar Fiction. The premise was this: For $5, I would write a bespoke piece of microfiction just for you based on any prompt given. The story would be no more than 1,024 words in length.
One of the few people who took me up on this venture was Justin McElroy of My Brother, My Brother and Me fame. The prompt he gave me was “Justin McElroy: Hero To All”. I wrote the story and sent it to Justin. He seemed to dig it.
Earlier this year I spoke about the story on Twitter as part of a story about who Justin is to me, and the lessons he has taught me outside of just listening to his creative output. You can read the thread here. That got people interested in reading the story itself, and so with Justin’s permission, I published the story, unedited, to my Tumblr. Typos and all.
Now, a month later, I am reposting it here. Why? Because earlier this week I put out a call to try and raise a little money, and in return for hitting my goal I would write and publish a follow-up. I hit my goal, and so the follow-up will be posted here too. It’s in the hands of a couple of beta readers, but once they’ve given it a onceover it’ll be going here, live.
For now, though, here’s part one of the story. Continue reading