Sam Knight, Author

Holiday Post

Hi everyone!

It’s getting to be the holidays soon, so I hope everyone has someone they can spend their time with. As for me, my 4th book The Orange Bowl Lanes has had a great kickoff week so far and I look forward to continuing to carry the momentum forward!

I haven’t posted a flash fiction or short story in some time and the truth of the matter is that right now I’m dealing with some carpal tunnel issues in my right arm. I anticipate being healthy enough to write next weekend, but for now, I don’t have the stamina to get a lot of excess work done. Most of my energy has been focused on my long-term projects and so I’ve neglected the work here on my website. I’m sorry to let you down like that.

If you haven’t, head on over to Amazon and grab my newest book for 50% off. Please leave a review as well! It’s the best way to help a new writer gain credibility and really boosts my work to other people.

Keeping Your Chin Up

It has not been my week these past two weeks.

I sent my car to the shop last Monday and it’s been in said shop since then. My gaming computer had its hard drive AND memory fried last Friday. I have a major exam coming up on Tuesday on the heels of several homework assignments which I received grades of less than stellar due to aforementioned events. And today, I got loaned a car on Wednesday by a nice old man and this afternoon, on my way out to take it out to dinner, I saw it parked at a near 60 degree angle to the curb. Someone had come around the corner in my apartment complex and simply blasted it sideways, probably with a trailer. We had to drive out to the police department at 7pm and file a report. Problems keep coming up, one after the other.

What can you do in situations like this? Part of me grimly accepts the reality that, sometimes, you just get crapped on. Part of me frowns at the sky with my hands tossed up and thinks, “Really, asshole?” And still some other part of me wants to turn on some uplifting music and try to see the sunny side.

Needless optimism is a poor trait to have. It prevents you from seeing the reality of situations where there is no optimistic side. It’s important to understand negativity and confront and accept it, rather than ignore it, because in my mind, that’s where the best optimism comes from. You accept what isn’t changeable and try to see the good in what you have. Despite all the crap I’m handling this week, I’ve still got an apartment. I have money in savings, friends, a job, a place to sleep, and food in my fridge. Getting said fridge restocked is a little more of a nuisance, but it’s not an insurmountable wall. I live very close to plenty of amenities. I could even walk to work if I wanted to. I can take Lyft or Uber anywhere I want if I have to get there. I have a working laptop, still. I can shower and have things delivered right to my door. It’s these things that are keeping my chin up in times like this.

Some of these difficulties seem trivial upon inspection. Or, perhaps, first world problems. Why bother whining about not having a car or having your parked car get whacked while you’re at home and the person leaves no insurance or contact? Don’t you know people are dying of syphilis? I think these thoughts are pretty normal. You know we have it good here in my corner of the world but elsewhere things are grim. I don’t think, though, that just because someone else has it bad that it precludes you from acknowledging when you’re suffering as well. It may not be to the same degree as the other guy, thank God, but it’s still frustrating. And what can you do? Not acknowledge it?

These past two weeks have been downright sucky. None of my problems are unfixable, but compounded, they’ve had me in a pretty depressed mood. But I’m trying to keep my head up. I think in situations like these it’s about all you can do.

The Fate of a Telegraph Operator (Flash Fiction)

Boston – September 2, 1859

Frank Gooseland finished his dinner and donned a coat for the cool Boston night. The walk to his job at the telegraph office was liable to chill his narrow frame. Frank was halfway out the door when his neighbor, who was rushing into the house, knocked him flat on his backside.

Bright Was The Night (Flash Fiction)

Bright was the night I saw your bule hued dress swimming about your heels like a flock of fish about to swift swim their way through a painted pink reef all aglow with anemones. What dream was I thinking of just then? The painting on the wall stole my heart before I saw you on the other side of the gallery. I remember on the painting there was a brunette girl leaning on a rock over a grassy hill, Rome in the distance, perhaps Athens, and the telltale sunset beaming in the background. I was in love with that painting before I was in love with you.

A Victorian Debut (Flash Fiction)

William Bantock was a young, eligible gentleman from a highly esteemed family. His debut in Victorian society was second-to-none, and though nearly a disaster by virtue of his forgetting to don a handkerchief, William played off the absentmindedness of his manservant by expressing that he never had a runny nose in his life. It was a bold move, and it won him favor in his debut. He was dressed in a gold-buttoned coat of navy blue in the new style popular in London, along with striped pants and a gentleman’s top hat. The walking stick, a gift from his father, Sir Nathan Bantock, was spherical about the head and detailed with the likeness of a lion. The shaft was black—the boot, gold. Before the debut, his mother, Dame Louise Bantock, fussed greatly over his shoes, insisting they had not been adequately polished, yet conversely, she had been the one insisting that a man’s debut in society was less important than a lady’s debut. Having borne four sons, she was adamant on that fact.