-PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR-
Kaalii Cargill
NEWS & EVENTS
Writing is a solitary activity, and some days it can seem as if not much is happening. Here are some of my short stories that have found their way into the world . . .
Global short stories competition
Winner December 2007​​​​​​​​​​​
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Rings Around The Moon - Kaalii Cargill​​​​​​​​​​​
When Lana looked out her kitchen window and saw her ex-husband’s body hanging from the oak
tree in the park, her first thought was that Mick was lucky he was already dead. She called the Police
and went to have her hair done.
“What’s up, Lana?” asked Jean-Paul, running his fingers through her wet hair.
“Mick finally killed himself,” said Lana, scanning a magazine.
"Oh, my God," said Jean-Paul, dropping her hair. "He never . . ."
"He did." Lana nodded at Jean-Paul’s reflection in the mirror.
"I'm so sorry," said Jean-Paul, fussing with his scissors and combs.
“Don’t be. At least he’s out of his misery. I just wish he’d done it somewhere else.”
“You found him?” Jean-Paul leaned forward, eyes wide.
“Sort of,” said Lana, shrugging. “I didn’t cut him down or anything.” She pointed to a hairstyle in the
magazine. “I want that one, but more colour.”
“You sure?” asked Jean-Paul. “I mean, won’t there be a funeral and all that?”
“Just do it, JP. I promise I won’t regret it.”
Jean-Paul raised his eyebrows eloquently and reached for his scissors.
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Stormy Weather​
Fantasy by Kaalii Cargill
Published in Reflections Edge http://reflectionsedge.com/
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The roaring, waterfall sound of the rain almost covered the cries of the dying men. Almost, but not quite.
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Myree McCoughlan sat on her bed listening to the screams of the sailors out on the reef. Their boat was breaking up, and there was nothing anyone could do. At least that’s what Father MacGuire said at evening prayers: “Once God has deserted a boat on this coast, there’s little man can do about it!”
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Myree McCoughlan wondered how he could be so sure that God had abandoned the sailors, but she kept that thought to herself. There were other thoughts she turned around and around in her own mind, never sharing them with anyone but the windswept sea and the gulls nesting on the cliffs.
She knew for certain that not all men were lost when a boat foundered. Her own father had come from the sea after a storm like the one howling and screaming outside, the only survivor of a ship run aground on Deadman’s Reef on a dark-moon night just like this one.
Myree had the story from her mother, Clare, and she knew it word for word. She knew it so well, she dreamed the story to herself, wanting a man of her own from the sea. Myree knew her uncles would tell her it was impossible, but she didn’t want to hear their dour voices mapping out her future like they planned the season’s fishing. She didn’t want to marry Callum McGuire and listen to his tuneless whistling all the days of her life.
Instead, she dreamed that it was she who found the dark-haired sailor the morning after the storm, she who found true love with him. She was sixteen, exactly the age Clare had been the morning she ran down to the beach to see what the sea had sent her . . .
Behold the Garrohoth
by Kaalii Cargill
Published in Bewildering Stories Issue 310
http://www.bewilderingstories.com
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Matthew was hunting for monsters. He braved the long, shadowy corridor, pushed open the heavy oak door, and stood alone in the library. He approached the floor-to-ceiling shelves that sagged with books and papers, collected by his ancestors over ten generations.
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As he had done since he was a small child, Matthew climbed onto the wooden ladder and propelled himself around the walls of books. He had long since learned that there was no order in the shelves, so he grabbed books randomly and dropped them to the floor. It had worked in the past.
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With a satisfying trail of books in his wake, Matthew climbed down and began to read. He discarded two accounts of European history, a philosophical treatise by an ancient Egyptian, a cookbook from the West Indies, and a crumbling parchment with writing like bird tracks.
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Then he found it: Professor Wallenstein’s Compendium of Curious Creatures: Beasts, Monsters And Other Things That Go Bump In The Night. It was an old book, but that was exactly what Matthew wanted. He was looking for an old monster.
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More short stories:
Read My Mind -- Chimeraworld # 5 at Chimericana Books​
Out of the Depths -- Three Forms of Love at Smink Works Books​​​
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Say My Name --Abacot Journal at Abacot Journal​
2009 Odyssey Writing Workshop
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I highly recommend this 6 week intensive writing workshop. It offers a recipe for writing success: take 16 selected writers, a brilliant teacher, some editors, agents, and published authors, mix them together, and wait for the book deals. It's demanding, enlightening, and a must for Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror writers.
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