Stories — C. P. SHAFER

The Romantics Are Dead, Long Live The Romantics!

A true love story from my own life, complete with a Chagall, origami, and a real life “running through the airport” scene.

C.P. SHAFERMay 24, 2024

Poor Heartless Bastard, You

Excerpt: “It could be his heart, returning, only to shank him in the back and leave him bleeding on the sidewalk, if he was still capable of blood.”

C.P. SHAFERApril 29, 2024

Bag of Hammers

Excerpt: “The way the sun reflected off of the gun’s clean metal made it look like a star wrapped in a blanket. I wondered if I, too, had something inside my black soul as beautiful and dangerous.”

C.P. SHAFERMarch 12, 2024

The Last Valentine

Excerpt: “Love blossomed like a flower in the skull.”

C.P. SHAFERFebruary 7, 2024Valentine's Day, Valentine, love story, true story, memoir, biographical, cpshafer, love

The Hole In The Ceiling of The World

Excerpt: “Like all things, this begins with an ending.”

C.P. SHAFERJanuary 11, 2024short fiction, short story, fiction, nasa, keo, time capsule, funeral, writing, cpshafer, chris shafer

The Rooster of Bel Air

Excerpt: “Shade turned towards the sound and confirmed aloud what his face had already begun to, “ I am. I’m gonna kill the rooster of Bel Air.”

C.P. SHAFERDecember 18, 2023short story, short fiction, bel air, hollywood, rooster, kentucky, cpshafer, chris shafer

Schrödinger's Heart-Shaped Box

Excerpt: “How relationships reveal that everything contains magic.”

C.P. SHAFERAugust 22, 2023Breakups, Relationships, love, science, short story, literature, chris shafer, cpshafer, short fiction

World's Smallest Circus

Excerpt: “Would there be an end to this ever-deepening pigeonhole, or would it stretch on, always a little farther than his best reach? Perhaps not, perhaps it is only hand deep, and any anxious plunge would only snap his wrist.”