P. Orin Zack's Blog
P. Orin Zack
- Location
- Renton, Washington, US
- Birthday
- June 22
- Bio
- Ever since I learned to speak binary on a DIGIAC 3080 training computer, I've been involved with tech in one way or another, but there was always another part of me off exploring ideas and writing about them. Halfway to a BS in Space Technology at Florida Institute of Technology during the Apollo years, I ditched out and walked into a data center job with Franklin National Bank a few years before it made history. Software contract houses, like the one I signed up with after the layoff, not only offered paid benefits, but kept paying you between contracts while they searched for your next gig. Of course, by then, I'd already been infected with the ideas of Edward de Bono, so my approach to problem solving, and therefore every part of my life, including writing, was tacking towards uncharted territory.
Since then, I've worked on a remote weather station for NOAA and on NASA/JPL's Deep Space Network, diddled with a huge database for a DOD competition at what used to be McDonnell-Douglas, subverted the design of the database driving one of the Air Force's aircraft test sets, wrote tech docs in the 'Dead Languages Group' at Microsoft, and even created the entire IT infrastructure for a manufacturing business I co-owned.
And all along the way, I wrote. So far, there's three novels, as well as lots of short stories and essays. Some of which you can read right here
MY RECENT POSTS
- Short Story: "Representation"
(4th of a series)
May 22, 2013 05:43PM - Short Story: "Scaling K2" (3rd
of a series)
December 23, 2012 05:26PM - Short Story: "Making it Count"
(2nd of a series)
October 04, 2012 11:29AM - Short Story: "Crossing the
Line" (Part 1 of a series)
September 25, 2012 11:56AM - Story-prep 4: Setting the
Stage
August 31, 2012 07:11PM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “Good to see you back
here, and happy new year to
you too! To
you and everyone
her…”
January 01, 2013 01:32AM - “The story continues in
"Making it
Count"...
http://open.salo
n.com/blog/p…”
October 07, 2012 10:17PM - “Thanks. Let's see what
some other folks have to say
while I
mull over where it
go…”
September 25, 2012 05:05PM - “Thanks, Nabina. And
thank you, too Olga, for
joining
the
party.
We've had
all of t…”
July 03, 2012 02:27PM - “"Your story leaves
questions and a picture in my
mind and the
idea that
ther…”
June 02, 2012 11:24AM
P. Orin Zack's Links
Short Story: "Representation" (4th of a series)
What have you meekly acquiesced to, and then regretted it? (This series began with "Crossing the Line".)
“Representation”
by P. Orin Zack
[4/8/2013]
“And finally,” Sue Winston said, scanning the agenda on her screen, “we have a request for a zoning change. Jones… Read full post »
Short Story: "Scaling K2" (3rd of a series)
What have you meekly acquiesced to, and then regretted it? (This series began with "Crossing the Line".)
“Scaling K2”
(Part 3 of a series)
by P. Orin Zack
[12/11/2012]
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Les said, holding a splayed hand up for respite. “You’ve made your po… Read full post »
Short Story: "Making it Count" (2nd of a series)
What does it take to spur you into action? (This series began with "Crossing the Line".)
“Making it Count”
(Part 2 of a series)
by P. Orin Zack
[9/30/2012]
“Holy crap,” 11-year-old Kendrik Knox whispered excitedly. As his dropped spoon hit the cereal bowl, he reached for the… Read full post »
Short Story: "Crossing the Line" (Part 1 of a series)
Are you confident enough to speak truth to power? [Note: I blogged the process of developing this story idea.]
“Crossing the Line”
by P. Orin Zack
[9/24/2012]
Central District City Councilwoman Sue Winston dropped her ever-present smile and nervously glanced around the shared offi… Read full post »
Story-prep 4: Setting the Stage
In my last three posts, (Confidence Vampires, Grounding a Vampire, and Death by Inches,) I transformed the idea presented in a recent academic paper -- that people become overconfident because social norms of politeness prevent others from giving negative social feedback -- into the basis for a sh… Read full post »
Story-prep 3: Death by Inches
If you've been following along, you know that the story idea that burrowed into my head a few days ago wants me to show a Confidence Vampire intent on preying upon an Occupy being thwarted. As metaphor, it exposes the internal struggle you'd have between stifling yourself and speaking… Read full post »
Story-prep 2: Grounding a Vampire
Discovering the idea that wants to bury itself in your next story is one thing. Figuring out how to grow that story around it is something else again. The question this time was how to show the internal conflict between feigning polite acquiescence to an act of… Read full post »
Story-prep 1: Confidence Vampires
Damn. They always seem so innocent at first, don't they? Playful, even. But we both know how insidious they can be, and how easily they can turn your world inside-out. It's not a pretty sight, either. And there's nowhere to hide. No matter what you do, no matter… Read full post »
Meta-level Show Don't Tell
Show. Don't tell. So much wisdom in so few words. And yet, there's still more than one way to understand them.
I'd accepted the offer to attend the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Conference last week for the synchronicity of it, not because I had a manuscript to pitch… Read full post »
Unexpected Conference
People blog for lots of reasons. Mine was to set my subversive short stories free so they could find whatever readers needed the ideas peeking out from behind those streams of words. It was a conscious decision. I could either tuck my stories away while pitching them, one… Read full post »
Short Story: "The Keeper's Tale"
In the mid-1970s, a friend of mine did something to my head that I will never forget. She was one of those very rare people who sometimes stepped aside and let another speak through her. Some call this 'channeling', and wrap the experience in mystery. For her,… Read full post »
Short Story: "Stage Fright"
“Stage Fright”
by P. Orin Zack
[5/21/2012]
“Pardon me for asking, Mr. Welch, but you’re not having stage fright, are you?”
Feeling very alone in the empty limo, Evers Welch gazed through the darkened window at the big display over the row of doors across the street. P… Read full post »
Short Story: "Hot Seat"
“Hot Seat”
by P. Orin Zack
Audrey Fine pulled her gaze back from the grime-filtered
lights of the city’s warehouse district beyond the
wire-veined window, and nervously checked her watch. One
twenty-eight AM. Another two minutes. “I hope
Rhiannon’s alright.&rd/… Read full post »
"The Shoals of Time" now available for Nook
One of the things I like about OpenSalon is that it not only welcomes people to blog their fiction, it also solicits stories through the OS Weekend Fiction Club. That's why I've blogged so many of my short stories here, including several that expand the world I created in my… Read full post »
"Burnout Fever" now available for Nook
Everyone gets job burnout at one time or another, but
what if you didn't recover from it? What if nobody did?
Freelance writer Melanie Stroub was happily trashing webevangelist Wilfred McQuarry’s weekly rant about angels when she got it, and ended up fixated on angels. It was like… Read full post »
"Deadly Attractor" now available for Nook
If government field agents had temporal intelligence
tech, how would pre-emptive ops be carried out? What would they
look like? Angela Pascoe may have found out. She’s a psychic
Healer from Australia, and she’s noticed a rash of unusual
accidents among patients referred to a… Read full post »
Short Story: "One Final Indignity" (2nd in a Series)
This is the story that several recent posts have been about. If you compare the sections I included there, you can see the sort of editing that I do before declaring a story finished. It is the second in what has become a series that began with… Read full post »
On Drug-Enhanced Soldiers
My writing owes a great deal to current events, because I frequently build them from an idea or a problem that’s brought out in the course of reporting on something in the news. But those ideas and problems return again and again, which is why blogging short stories… Read full post »
Genesis of a Story: Part 5
As an experiment in exposing my writing process to view, I've been posting my notes and prose here as I work on a sequel to my previous new short story, "Unspoken", which was instigated by the posts of an OpenSalon blogger from India. One thing that I… Read full post »
Genesis of a Story: Part 4
I've been using this space to show the process I go though when developing a new short story. If you came here first, you might want to backtrack a bit to catch up.
So far, I've sketched out the opening situation of a follow-up to my recent story… Read full post »
Genesis of a Story: Part 3
As an experiment, I've been posting my notes as I work towards writing my next short story. (There are over 100 of them posted here.) It's a follow-up to "Unspoken", the last new story I wrote and uploaded. In that story, a call-center worker named Rahila is… Read full post »
Genesis of a Story: Part 2
Continuing with this experiment, I'm posting notes about the development of a new story while I'm working on it.
Staging: At what point do we dip into the action? We want to give the reader some context at the start, so the attack could happen while a member of… Read full post »
Genesis of a Story: Part 1
I've decided to try something different, today. Instead of waiting until my next story is finished before posting it, I'd like to show you how it happens by exposing the creative process as I go through it. The last new story that I posted, "Unspoken", was inspired by… Read full post »
"Red Queen at Morning"
Red Queen at Morning
A 4-Part Metaphysical Adventure
By
P. Orin Zack
Part 1: Red Queen at Morning
People sometimes get so wrapped up in the need for their answers to be right that they lose sight of the need for them to be useful. The ancient system… Read full post »
Short Story: "Unspoken" (1st in a Series)
“Unspoken”
[1/20/2012]
by P. Orin Zack
“And that’s all there is to it?” the gravelly voice in Rahila’s earpiece chortled.
“That’s right, Mr. Preston. I’m glad I could help.”
“And I’m glad,” he said earnestly, “… Read full post »
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