This week’s 101-word tale is a silly yarn that was originally created two years ago. Since that time, my writing’s improved a bit (at least I hope it has). When I looked at the original version, I liked the concept but not the execution, so I opened up the hood, did quite a bit of tinkering, and came up with something I think works much better. Well, as you’ll see, it’s all a matter of taste.

Thanks to anonymous donor, SSC, who generously provided the prompt used to inspire the tale. I hope she doesn’t mind me only identifying her by her initials, right Mrs. Corn?

Without further delay, here’s the Story of the Week.

        Meat the New Faith

In the heart of Vegas (a town not known for its churches) a new religion appeared. Its followers practiced “Baconian Theology.” They worshipped bacon. Naturally, their leaders were friars.

Since the Baconite religion was new, their sanctuary (The Church of the Sizzling Strip) often led to embarrassing misunderstandings. Tourists waving dollar bills stomped off, severely disappointed by not finding even a single stripper pole, although they often said no other church ever smelled this delicious.

The Baconites were even tolerant of non-believers, such as vegetarians who begrudgingly respected the carnivores.

As Baconite prophet Abra-ham wrote, “Everyone’s on the side of bacon.”

Prompt: Bacon shaming

Novel News & Notes: Questionable Characters, the little novel that could (I hope), continues to chug along.

First, a mea culpa moment. Nobody (other than me) probably even knows that I had set a deadline for myself. I wanted to have my second draft finished by August 26th—of this year! That didn’t happen. Not even close. Instead of having a completed draft, I have zero pages of the next draft, but what I do have (I hope), is a very solid and detailed outline that will make writing the next draft not only easier, but structurally very sound. My upcoming editor meeting in a few weeks will determine that.

One of my recent happy discoveries was deciding to do everything I can to lean into an ever-increasing amount of tension in the third act. I know—that’s not a novel idea (pardon the pun), but the a-ha moment came when I decided to modify my use of chapters in the final scenes. Instead of keeping each chapter approximately the same size as they’ve been throughout the book, when it gets to the finale, I’m going to shrink each chapter down to a page or two, and each one will alternate between my protagonist and his partner. I have them in separate locations, each one discovering key pieces of evidence that lead to solving the case. Naturally, things are going to get more than a bit dicey as the runaway train hurtles toward a resolution neither one sees coming. Hopefully, the reader won’t either.

We’ll see.

Next week, I’ll fill you in on what’s in store as I get ready for the next part of the journey.

As always, thanks for listening.

Scotty out