Tag Archives: people

The Melancholy Robot and Curiosity

The robot approached a sign that said YMCA and curiosity got the better of it. Upon entering, its glass optical units fogged over and it was forced to wipe them with its robot hands. It had entered a dangerous area with one of its natural enemies, humidity, and it knew this but just had to investigate.  It watched the humans, with much less covering than they usually wore, jumping into a big bluish pool of water. They laughed, smiled, exercised, it seemed to the robot to be a happy place for them.  One ran and a man with a loud implement in his mouth forced the child to slow down with a piercing noise. The robot heard someone yell “Cannonball!” and as he hit the water a little sprayed the robot, and it knew it had to leave. This was no place for a metallic man.

Artwork by Ryan Vecci. Go to www.laserbaked.blogspot.com for Ryan’s website. The last two installments of The Melancholy Robot will come next week, but for now check out the old stories.

The Melancholy Robot and the Dump

The robot reached the top of the hill and spotted a sign that said City Dump; it looked over the mounds of garbage, piled all the way to a distant river. The robot felt as close to sad as it could; it recognized humankind’s vast wastefulness, clearer now than it was in the city. It could not fathom why they refused to mulch what they could, why some ignored recycling when areas like this dump could be so easily avoided.
The robot wanted to do something about it, but what could one mechanical being do?

Today’s art is created by the talented Emily Homrok. Emily is co-editor of Pitbull Magazine and is available as a freelance artist. Email her at ehomrok@gmail.com if you wish to contact her!

The Melancholy Robot and Art

The robot walked through the art museum trying to understand the why behind art. Lots of small dots created a pond scene. A bronze statue of a ballerina. A can of soup. It could not fathom why humans created it. They should focus on needs: food, drink, clean air and water. As it walked, it failed to notice the child sitting on the floor finger painting as his mother copied a nearby Van Gogh. The kid looked up at it and said, “Hey!” forcing the mechanical man to look down at the marble flooring. It had stepped in the kid’s red paint and tracked its footprint onto a clean sheet of paper.
“Sorry,” it said to the child. As it tried to leave, the boy tapped the robot’s shoulder and handed over the sheet with the red footprint.
“You made it. You should keep it,” the kid said.

Today’s artwork is created by the talented Richard Holt. Click on the image for his blog.

Be sure to follow the rest of The Melancholy Robot story from last week. It continues this week as well.

My First Story Published in a Magazine!

Hey all! For those of you who follow me here, I wanted to let everyone know my first short story EVER to be published in a magazine is available online today! The story, originally published here on my blog (but since taken down for publishing) is called I Heart Polka (And I’m Not Talking About the Dots). Click here to purchase the Instigatorzine issue. Here’s the cover:

Scroll to the bottom of the page to order it. They even have it for Kindle!

And be sure to check out the cool Melancholy Robot stories I’ve been doing along with many talented artists!

The Melancholy Robot on the Metro

  The robot sat on the metro, speeding quickly to its destination. The train slowed, stopped, hissed. A couple got on, holding hands, and sat across from it.
The robot noticed how close they sat to each other compared to other passengers. They started to kiss as it watched. It tried to comprehend why humans kiss. The action served no useful function that it could see, yet the robot found itself yearning for its own partner to kiss.
It rotated its head to a window and looked at the reflection.
It had no lips.

Artwork by the wonderful and talented Kira Bang-Olsson. Check out her website or click on the artwork for her blog. To read the rest of The Melancholy Robot stories, click here.

The Melancholy Robot and the Caterpillar

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This time story AND art both by me. I wanted to get into the act 🙂

The Melancholy Robot is a collection of flash fiction stories about a robot who wishes he were human. It focuses on its daily life and small experiences. I’ve asked different artists to do renditions of the stories; a different artist creates art every day inspired by the story. It’s been a fun experiment so far, I hope you enjoy!

Check out the other Melancholy Robot stories here.

The Melancholy Robot and the Little Girl

The Melancholy Robot is a collection of flash fiction stories about a robot who wishes he were human. It focuses on its daily life and small experiences. I’ve asked different artists to do renditions of the stories; a different artist creates art every day inspired by the story. It’s been a fun experiment so far, I hope you enjoy!

The robot stood in the park watching a dog defecate on the grass. A little girl approached the metallic man.
“Hi.” It looked down into her impossibly blue eyes. “What’s your name?”
The robot turned its attention back to the dog.
“I have no name.”
“Everybody has a name.”
“Not me.”
“That’s sad.” The little girl skipped away and the robot watched as she stepped in the fresh shit.

Artwork by the lovely and talented Kate Hiscock. Click the image for her blog or click here.

If you enjoyed this, check out the other robot stories featuring different artists here and here. And please, like my Facebook page.

The Melancholy Robot and the Office Workers

Today’s story is by me and artwork was created by Zach Rodis. Visit his website by clicking on the image or check out his blog.

Check out yesterday’s robot story here.

And if you enjoy my work, please like my Facebook Page!

As You Wish

Xander shifted his pillow a little so his head was more comfortable as he read when Zoey gasped at something on her laptop. He looked over at her.

“What’s up?”

“Peter Falk died. I loved him in Princess Bride.”

“Peter Falk died? Inconceivable.”

“Nice,” she said. “Seriously though, he was amazing in that movie.”

“He was also Columbo. And he was in Vibes with Jeff Goldblum and Cindi Lauper. But yeah, I’ll always remember him as the grandfather. I love that movie.”

“It’s a classic.”

“Hello, my name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

“Stop saying that!”

Xander dropped his book and stabbed her in the shoulder with an invisible sword.

“Promise me money! Promise me wealth!” he yelled as he jumped up and down on the bed pretending to stab her as she pretended to die.

He dropped down and flopped back onto his side of the bed.

“Remember when we had those ROUSs in the old apartment?” she asked.

“Rodents of unusual size? I don’t think they exist.” He paused to catch his breath a little. “And of course I remember those rats. Not as big as in the movie, but scary nonetheless.”

She read a bit of the bio and sighed.

He knew he had to cheer her up. “Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?”

She smiled. “If there are we’ll all be dead!”

“Stop that rhyming now, I mean it!”

“Anybody want a peanut?”

“I love that part when Peter Falk says something about television being called books in his day. Classic. And when he skips the final kiss? Priceless.”

“I just loved his role. I didn’t grow up with a grandfather…but when I was a kid I liked to pretend mine was just like him.”

He looked over at her and smiled. “Love you, Zo.” Then he started tickling her until she couldn’t breathe.

Once she could speak again she playfully frowned at him. “Okay, okay, you’re bothering me. Go to bed. I’ll likely kill you in the morning.”

He kissed her goodnight. “As you wish.”

Upcoming Feature!

I’m introducing my upcoming series of flash fiction pieces titled The Melancholy Robot for a reason. I’ve written a bunch of very short stories about a sad robot and asked for volunteers in the artistic community, mostly in the Philadelphia area, but also with a little help from some friends from afar. So far I’ve gotten a good response from people, so I’m excited to tell you that coming on Monday will be the first installment of

If you are an artist who would like to get in on this, please comment here with your email and I will gladly get back to you. Otherwise, I hope everyone enjoys the new short series. Each artist volunteer is given a vss (very short story) about the robot and is given creative freedom to draw, paint, illustrate, or whatever a scene or variety of scenes from the vss. It’s been REALLY fun so far, seeing what people come up with. So obviously, each robot will look different and they could be all kinds of different mediums, but hey, that’s part of what makes it fun!

Stay tuned, readers! Should be a blast. First story is coming on Monday.

-Den