My story Jupiter’s Ascent has been published by The Page Gallery in their August Exhibit.
This is a pretty odd story. The initial idea came to me when I watched the episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia where Charlie goes to Ireland and has to drag his estranged father’s dead body up a hill to throw it in the sea. That scene had a perfect combination of actual drama and comedy that I wanted to incorporate into a story.
Without going too deep into my story, my goal was to capture the feeling of that scene from the show while adding a good bit of Appalachian folklore, a strange mix of comedy and horror, and a touch of real emotion. The title “Jupiter’s Ascent” derives from the mythology of Jupiter taking his father’s place, which is the essential theme of the story.
I’m not sure how well I managed to blend all the elements of the story together, but it’s certainly one of my personal favorites.
Caleb James K. 