Desert wasteland with post-apocalyptic settlement

Snippet from “Collateral Damage” (WeWriWa #1)

Welcome to my first post for Weekend Writing Warriors! Yes, I’m joining yet another blog hop. If this keeps up, I’m going to have to find a support group for people addicted to blog hops. Anyhoo, I’m especially excited about WeWriWa, because it involves sharing snippets of writing, published or unpublished, and since my search for an agent is about as successful as New Coke (if you’re under 40, ask your parents), these posts might be the only time anyone outside my critique group gets to read my work.

For my first post, here are the first 10 sentences of my postapocalyptic short story, “Collateral Damage.” This story won first prize in the short story division of the Arizona Authors Association annual literary contest and is published in the association’s 2021 annual literary magazine.

Here we go. It’s June 21, 2044, 07:10 AM.

Walt picked up the Smith & Wesson Model 17 from his nightstand and slipped it into the cracked leather holster clipped to the waistband of his threadbare jeans. Walt owned many weapons, strategically hidden throughout the airplane hangar he called home, never more than a lunge away. His compound, well-stocked with food, fuel, and weapons, was a prime target. Intruders had been few and far between since the last die-off, so the .22 pistol, along with the Buck folding knife in his front pocket, would suffice for his morning perimeter walk. Neither weapon would be necessary—hadn’t been in months–but Walt didn’t take chances. He believed in insurance.

He paused a few feet outside the hangar doors, blinking in the bright sun of a late June morning, sipping water from the canteen clipped to his belt, and taking stock of the scene before him. It never changed much. Just rust-colored soil, rocks, and a few scrubby plants struggling to survive in the desert grit. Sometimes a lizard darted across his path, and this morning jackrabbit tracks crisscrossed the trail to the bunker.

If you’d like to read the rest, grab a copy (proceeds go to the association) or subscribe to my newsletter for a free copy.

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