Story of the Week #10: The X of Doom

Here it is, Story of the Week Number Ten: “The X of Doom”.

Here’s what happened. I have a habit of adding the words “of Doom” to certain words (a habit which my wife says is “highly annoying”, but which I know is merely Jennifer-speak for “quite, quite charming”). Cat, for example, becomes “Cat… of DOOM!” The word “bunny” becomes “Bunny… of DOOM!” And so on.

I don’t know why I do this, save that it amuses me to do so.

One day, as we were driving around, I was observing cats of doom, trees of doom, dogs of doom, etc. My wife finally said, “Fine! I dare you to title your next Story of the Week, ‘The X of Doom’”. So I did. Though it’s not quite the way that Jennifer meant.

For this story I decided to see what would happen if John Irving and Stephen King got together with H. P. Lovecraft and wrote a story about pirates. And the character Nigel Livingstone has been floating around in my head for awhile, so he finally got to come out and claim his destiny (“of DOOM!”). This story is vaguely peripheral to The Solitude of the Tentacled Space Monster, as just about every single story I write is. I’m also posting it early, since tomorrow night and Saturday night I’ll be at the local con, From the Land Beyond. It’s going to be a blast.

I would greatly appreciate feedback on this story, especially since I deliberately wrote it in a style which is very different for me.

Anyway. Enjoy my little story… of DOOM!

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