Allure of the Short Story

I haven’t written a short story in quite some time. My last efforts toward such resulted in the collection I am tentatively calling “She Knew She Could Fly” (perhaps to be published down the road). I intended to intertwine a dozen (or more as it turned out) short stories, all swirling around the theme of females who had something of the gift of flight. I tried to cover the gamut of genres, as well as styles. It was a very engaging experience, and stretched me as a writer.

But more recently, I had a more narrowly focused reason for producing a short story. I wanted to offer my readers, and visitors to my website, some tidbit of my work, gratis, as a thank you for giving me their attention for a few moments. And since the main thrust of this website is currently aimed at my novel series set in 1st Century Nabataea, ≈ Waters In the Desert ≈, I wanted the short story to fit the series.

Enter Iamboulos

I thought long about what the story might consist of, and was at a loss to come up with something. But in my continuing research of the Nabataeans, I happened upon an ancient story that mentioned a man named Jamboulos, or Iamboulos, probably a Nabataean name. Even a couple of millennia ago when this story first floated around, some thought it was a true account, while some said it was just a bucket of hogwash (or “fiction” as we writers like to refer to it!).

The ancient story consists of tales told by the man Iamboulos of his experiences and travels, in which he encounters some very strange things, that most people found very hard to believe at the time. As I read it myself today, while some of it does seem pretty outlandish, there are parts of it that may actually be believable. After all, how many things do we know to be true today, that people would have found hard to swallow in the 1st Century?

The Son Of…

I took the existing story of Iamboulos, let it rattle around in my brain for a few days, and then encouraged something new to flow out onto the page. In my own story, Iamboulos is not the protagonist, but rather, his “son”, Zabibe, who is a secondary character from my first Nabataean novel, The Stone Cutter. Iamboulos does appear in the short story, in a lesser role.

Zabibe is an old Nabataean sailor, sometimes pirate, with a philosophical bent. I often think of Zabibe as a man who seems to be a simple blue-collar kind of guy, but in certain moments demonstrates a depth of feeling and understanding far deeper than most. One of my reader/fans describes Zabibe as “a campfire marshmallow—crusty on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside.”

The foil for the storyteller Zabibe is a young man whose given name is “Nahor,” but who often goes by the handle of “Shamir.” Nahor is actually the protagonist in The Stone Cutter, but here he takes a minor role. Nahor happens to be a passenger on the ship wherein Zabibe is currently employed, and Nahor asks him about his experiences as a sailor. Zabibe is reluctant to answer, but he eventually spills the whole crazy tale.

Just because someone says (or writes) something, that doesn’t make it true (obviously). On the other hand, just because many might disbelieve what someone says, that doesn’t make it false. The main thrust of the story is that there are things that we may, in actual fact, experience, which others find very difficult to believe.

The poet Lord Byron coined the phrase “Truth is stranger than fiction…”, and Mark Twain, famously added “…but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” 

I’m happy to announce that the short story is now available as a free download to new subscribers to my updates!