420 Characters is a online book of stories (limited to 420 characters each, including spaces and punctuation) by illustrator Lou Beach. “I started out filling in the ‘status update’ box on Facebook with short fiction musings rather than the usual b.s. last year,” Beach told me. “Turned out people liked them and I liked the challenge of creating a new story each day.” Since posting a 420 Characters fan page on Facebook the other day, he has gotten over 400 fans! “I interested my famous friends in doing readings (e.g. Jeff Bridges and Ian McShane, here) and some established writers for blurbs and voila!, handsome little site for the wee tales. I’ve got several hundred stories which I’ll switch out on the site regularly and more audio as well. I keep writing, hoping someone will extend a check.”
Here’s one of the stories:
THE PRISONER OF NOISE stood before the bathroom sink, fingers in his ears, head down, mouth wide open, willing the sounds in his head to spill into the basin – the yelps and booms, screeches, screams and howls, crashes and groans, explosions and roars and babel and bangs. What if they formed a hairball of din, clogged the sink, scared the children when they came in at night to pee? He closed his mouth, went back to bed.
