12 Comments
User's avatar
S.'s avatar

Wow. Excellent.

S.'s avatar

I was scared She was part of the accident.

Create Nonfictional qualities throughout.

You wrote:

"Erik Rostad said it sounded like a great opening line to a story. I took it as a challenge."

Does this mean…?

Joel J Miller's avatar

To clarify, I saw these driverless mowers at the nearby Civil War battlefield. I took a picture and shared it on Twitter, saying something like, “Looks like the ghosts are mowing the lawn at the battlefield.” A friend, Erik, responded and said that would be a great opening line for a story. And I figured, well, Halloween is around the corner; I’ll just work up a ghost story based on that.

Katherine's avatar

Delightfully eerie and a wonderful commentary on the dangers of relying on technology. Super sharp and a fun read!

Joel J Miller's avatar

Thanks, Katherine!

Duane Toops's avatar

Superb opening. An eerie disquiet running throughout the entirety of the piece. Well done!

Joel J Miller's avatar

Thanks, man! It was fun to do.

Tessa Lind's avatar

I woke to the smell of my morning java on auto-brew, opened my computer, and read 'Ghost in the Machine'. I'm now desperately searching for the auto-type feature to accomplish today's writing goals for me...

Joel J Miller's avatar

LOL. I hope you find it!

adam hill's avatar

Glad that mower took you somewhere.

Joel J Miller's avatar

When I tweeted about it, Erik Rostad said it sounded like a great opening line to a story. I took it as a challenge.