A Case of Telepathy

Well, everyone, the autumn here in Sydney is starting to cool off, and I for one am looking forward to the cold weather of winter. For the moment though, let me tell you why I wrote the thirty-third story in Aberrant Selected, entitled, A Happy Bachelorhood. For those of you who have been following me here on this blog, A Happy Bachelorhood is yet another tale involving my one true love, Elizabeth Bell. But the point of the tale was to show something very weird in my, still continuing, chasing of her.
    Basically, around twenty years ago, I was in the locked ward of Rozelle Psychiatric Hospital, and I had just awoken in the early morning, not long before the nurses came round to wake us. I had awoken with a start, having dreamed I was with Elizabeth, and I awoke with an address in my head, 12 Milthorpe Avenue, Strathfield (about twenty minutes by train from the Sydney CBD.) When I awoke I was absolutely convinced that I had finally found Elizabeth, after parting from here so stressfully. There was another patient awake also, in the bed across from mine, and I told him about the dream, but not the address I had received.. Shortly after telling him the dream he said,
     '12 Milthorpe Avenue.' I did not confirm that this was the address I had received in my dream, fearing that doing so would lead to telepathy in the homo sapien species.
     Anyway, when I was eventually discharged from the hospital, I caught a taxi to 12 Milthorpe Avenue, Strathfield. No such address. Nothing even remotely like it. So how then did my fellow patient receive this Milthorpe address, without being told? Not only that, it was impossible for anyone to tell him such in any form as the address did not exist. Except in my fevered imagination.
     To this day I am still chasing Elizabeth, and Facebook Messenger helps. As to how that fellow patient read my mind, who knows?

Curing Writer's Block

G'day again, everyone, from a Sydney sweltering in an unusually warm autumn. It's still so warm that I sometimes still get around in my shorts, which I usually never do at this time of year. Our thirty-second story from Aberrant Selected is also unusual. It is entitled Likewise Hearing. This tale is completely the result of writer's block. Let me explain.
     When this story was written I was at the start of an episode of writer's block, quickly deciding to check the Wikipedia entry for information on the condition. I did so, and the article suggested one just keep writing, even if it's automatic writing, or doggerel. The important thing is to continue physically writing and then the creative juices should flow again eventually.
     So, taking this advice, I took a quote from a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, The Marble Faun, and used this as a prompt: it caused an action, then a reaction, then another action, another reaction, etc. Within the hour I had a complete short story comprehensively outlined, and all beginning from a quote that I used as a prompt. I then wrote out the story using the outline as a guide.
     The method described above is now my go to cure for writer's block. I have had the block one other time after this initial episode, and my method of dealing with it, using a copyright free quote as a prompt, was completely successful. If only life were so manageable.