"Making a Critique Group Work For You"  ​Click on this link for the notes
Click on titles to access stories and essays.
Stories are arranged from top to bottom, first with my favorites, then by when they were written.
In progress, Archer's Target a novel.
Inspired by a writing prompt, "The guy on the bus said I look just like his fantasy dream girl then named her, and it's my name." ​​


"Moya"

​A sentient house
takes care of
​her family.
"Today?"
An 85 year-old man confronts his pledge to kill himself if the love of his life dies.
"The story does the beautiful and careful dance of exploring an extremely high stakes situation, the loss of a spouse, with a quiet, calm voice.  Doug Fortier chooses a specific slice of time and within the confines of that tiny space, he explores trust, promises, love and lies between two people." Natalie Serber, 2014 MCWC Short Fiction Instructor
Finalist - Short Fiction - 2014 Mendocino Coast Writers Conference
Published: NOYO RIVER REVIEW, 2014, p. 84 short story "Today" 
Third Place 2016 California Writers Club, Sacramento branch
​Short Short Fiction Contest
Rewrite of "Today?" at 100 words exactly
"Too Beautiful
​To Kill"
A young man, Everett, returns from seven years in an asylum where he was sent after three houses burned, and he was caught holding the lighter at the final fire. ​
1394 words
Scholarship Winner 2007 Mendocino Coast Writers Conference,
2nd Place, CWC SF/Peninsula's Fault Zone III anthology 2014
"I Knew It Was You"
A very tall and socially inept man meets a woman 
he thinks could understand him, but there is a problem.
2463 words
Appears in CWC SF/Peninsula Fault Zone Uplift anthology 2017
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"Killer Tesla"
An in-car artificial intelligence is charged with making a Tesla owner a better driver after he crashes one car after another, giving the company a bad name. ​
1836 words
"Candace of the Kingdom of Kush, ​
​332 B.C."
A Berkeley professor talks to a queen of 2,339 years ago using hieroglyphics and alien physics.
572 words
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"Life For Death" 
In this drama of error, a wealthy US gem dealer goes to Bangkok and makes a critical discovery.
 1734 words
Honorable Mention in the California Writers Club, Redwood Writers 2016 Steampunk Contest.
 
​"Anarchy's Shadow"
A stringer for the San Francisco Chronicle acquires a new understanding of anarchy with the help of four sisters who build interiors of the finest private railroad cars in the world.
1878 words
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​"Mendocino Mayhem"
The story of man's wedding band found when emptying the pond at the historic Kelley House for renovation.
​975 words
​Won Honorable Mention in 2016 Kelley House writing contest.
"Voodoo Taboo"
Approached by an Orthodox Jew who’s losing his identity to Alzheimers, a Mendocino tattoo artist affirms his concern for people and his long lost religion. 1456 words
​"Sunshine Dive"
​A shady character free-dives for sport on a tab of acid.
​556 words
"Shoe Shine Magic" 
The spark of this story came from hearing about a man who called widowers in newspaper obituaries to see if he could shine their shoes for their wife's funeral.
971 words
Thanks to Google Docs, the titles link to the documents I edit; if you happen to be reading one I'm working on, you'll see it change.
dougfortier@gmail.com
 ‘Almost everything you do, you don't know why you do it. Our assumptions are hidden to us, we are blind to our assumptions,’ he [Beau Lotto] said.
‘The biggest barrier to doing something new is uncertainty. Your brain hates uncertainty. If you are not sure it is a predator, it was too late. Your brain evolved to take what is uncertain and make it certain.’
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." —​​H.L. Mencken.

​meditating whale
an eye at the waters edge
reflecting the moon
​"Love of Country"
A son returns from London to the family's home in the African country of Mauritania to bury his father and learns of his father's passion.

Linocut by Cathy Carl
for CWC Mendocino's
2018 Ekphrasis Project
​"Art Describing Art"
"Brothers in Blood"
"Your brother confides in you: you used to be his imaginary friend, he says, the one he wished were real. His wish came true."

​"Trinity of Blood" 

​First three memories
"Toward the Light" ​
If you were given a painting of a lighthouse and a boat in the water, what would you write?
"Get Back" theme of "April Showers"
For California Writers Club, Mendocino Coast,
2015 "SmatchUp" tag-team writing of 2 pages.

"So That to Know Her"        1220 words

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An essay based on Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway where we see how Clarissa embodies the people she loves and those she despises, and of the places important to her now and in her past. The thesis is, “So that to know her, or any one, one must seek out the people who completed them; even the places.”

"Puzzles, Programs, and Aging Brains" 
     1300 words 

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An essay that argues that companies vying for dollars spent on products to provide mental exercise have not offered sufficient proof of slowing age-related decline, therefore we should not buy their programs or services. Crossword puzzles and others like Sudoku are a pleasant diversion but only give the player the ability to become better at crossword puzzles and Sudoku.  info link: Jan6'15 Luminosity Fine
"Dopplegänger" 
One page letter connecting and protecting.                        
"Fire Across the Street"
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​Evacuees from the Valley Fire of October '15 call their answering machine to see if the house is still standing, but instead of their message they hear a new recording of a loved one there to save the house.    (fiction)

​
"Waylon and SuzieQ barked, then Linda nudged me. The clock read 5:23. “I heard something Wes. Listen.” Red and blue lights streaked in waves along the ceiling and walls of our bedroom." more... 
  "One More Time" 1327 words
Daytime bartender, Trixie, relates several visits by a couple who stop by for lunch, drinks, and conversation after getting their hair cut.
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"Welcome to the Purple Rose Zone" 
​"Tuesday is my night to cook, a euphemism for dining out, usually at the Purple Rose for our favorite Mexican food and outstanding margaritas.
​972 words
 
 ​"Mile Marker Forty-Two"
A traveler wakes in an unfamiliar place and learns why her host is far from home.
924 words

"Presque Vu"                               In progress 

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Kemp is a baby when her superpower is revealed. Presque vu is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon; in her head, Kemp hears the person who can't think of the word say it in their own accent and language. Her problem; she can't stop from calling out the word.
"Cordyceps Meets T.gondii" 1,618 words 6 p.
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Professor Randy Celebra has four days to prove a human brain parasite could influence a fungus to turn people into zombies. Failure would doom his upcoming book and deny him tenure. In pursuit of the proof, Celebra joins the husband of the missing Margaret Stacey, his target.
​ 
YouTube-Sir RichardAttenborough

"Senior Sumo" 2,631 words 

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Ronin Judo - Elmer Gale
Aaron, a superstar wrestler in college, works out twice a day and has always said, "If you're not ripening, you're rotting." On his 60th birthday, he's invited to join fellow wrestlers of another sort. He sees a chance to regain a sense of the glory days and prove he's still got it. His antagonist knows Aaron's strengths and weaknesses, is the owner of the sports club, does physical training and therapy, but a mystery to the general public, weighs three hundred pounds.

"Reunion Charade" Incomplete 1st draft, paraphrased finish  
     7,200+ words 

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His greatest treasure is his high school yearbook with "Most Likely To Succeed" under his picture. After a life of failed marriages, failed jobs, and drug addiction, Danny Haggarty, now 67, camps in the deer trails one hundred steps behind the house he wishes he owned. Danny kills the owner in an accident he caused, flees with the man's  clothes, money, and car back to the small town of Granger, PA, to show his classmates at the fifty-year high school reunion that he's a success.  The daughter of the dead man follows clues to Granger, and on the night of the reunion party, confronts Haggarty about her missing father.

"Arnold 1790"    
Goal:  Create a digital chapter-book  for kids  
     14 pages--8,000 words

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What if a pet outlives its owners, generation after generation? Meet Arnold, hatched in 1790, marked with names and dates scratched into his shell by his owners, chronicling history, his story. A nine-year-old boy who has lost his mother helps a homeless woman unravel the mystery of Arnold's most recent owner and ensure that she and the tortoise will stay together.

"Summer of Love"
A fictional autobiography   18,223 words  

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A small town kid fresh from the Army gets to San Francisco in 1967 where the chance to learn computer programming at Bank of America is undermined by sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

"Inside the Jaguar"
     4 pages--2,600 words

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An astro-archeologist announces the Maya knew of the black hole at the center of our galaxy. This leads to a meeting with a Maya man who holds the missing half of evidence that connects the astronomical findings to the end of their calendar on December 21st, 2012. In the process of combining the pieces, the scientist inhabits the body of a jaguar in the Maya underworld where all is revealed.

"Hosteen's Problem"
Part 1       3 pages--1375 words

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For twenty years, Usagi and Hosteen lived Hosteen's wish; away from people. Their hidden squat made of scavenged materials has been found by an intruder. Hosteen wants everything the way it was and makes a plan to alter the life of the man who found him.

"Guilty by Association"
Part 2     2 pages--1425 words

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A young man, Everett, returns from seven years in an asylum where he was sent after three houses burned and he was caught holding the lighter at the final fire.

Fiction Scholarship Winner - 2007 Mendocino Coast Writers Conference
and 2nd Place, CWC SF/Peninsula's Fault Zone III anthology - 2014
YouTube of a reading of story 

"Fire and Water"
Part 3 of 3    4 pages--2350 words

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Within days of his release, Everett is befriended by someone his age and meets a mysterious woman with dark skin and deep wrinkles who puts him on the road to healing.

Finalist - Short Fiction - 2008 Mendocino Coast Writers Conference  

"Bound by the Glory of his Past"        8 pages--4600 words

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A man with no money and an impending death sentence due to bad genetics becomes the recipient of nano-size mechanical brain cell replacements for each of his doomed components; but that's only the beginning.

"The Lesson" 
2 pages--1480 words

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A con man brings a wild painting to an antiques store to find a buyer.  The image is of a Pacific Island woman, bare breasted, swinging a banana peel over her head.  Overnight, the store owner and his friend research the painter's name and find the painting described as part of a hoax on the art world in the 1920s.

"Lares at Crossroads" 
​2 pages--1375 words

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Lares' body reacts violently to stormy weather's thunder, lightning, and rain.  He is agoraphobic and goes only as far as the residence hotel's lobby where he impersonates other people because he doesn't want anyone to see him.

"Loose Gravel" 
5 pages--2500 words

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Lucifer lived on a farm that became surrounded by Kansas City.  His father was murdered, his mother withered from loss and grief and he had a mental breakdown.  Years later, he returned to bring retribution to the people who had him committed and took the family farm.

"Surreal Poetry"  
     1 page

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Susan Wooldridge led an interesting session at the 2008 Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. From old dictionaries, single pages from books, and a dozen or so random words printed on what looked like theater tickets, we chose words, about 50 of them, and wrote them as a list. Then we went "poem crazy," as she called it. We constructed surreal poetry that might have made sense if we'd chosen to. I didn't.
     See an odd video "Reading From Outer Space." 
WRITING EXERCISES
"Overcoming Darkness" - Loss of a sense
"Dangerous Games" - Action here & there
Kelley House Ring

"Stranger Conversation"    
​2 pages--800 words

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An online chat room with eight people who've met this way for a long time continues until the tractor salesman, ThreaTT, learns the truth about his friends.

"Soule and the Magician"                   3 pages--1960 words

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A thousand years ago, a slight-of-hand magician encounters a black cat, Anther, who intervenes on his behalf.

"You Had to be There"         
​  2 pages--915 words

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Two short writing exercises using second person.  I tell my 18 year-old self about the day on the Air Force base flight line when I had a moment in the twilight zone. 
Son of Antoine Fortier
1644-1707
Born in Dieppe, Normandy, FR
http://www.famillesfortier.com

"My Protection"          
3 pages--1260 words

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The gardener of a ten acre estate witnesses the protection provided by springer spaniels.

"A Surfboard for Wesley"                       3 pages--1575 words

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Wesley plays the organ in a pizza parlor in Philadelphia.  He gives it up to move to Molokai because he hates his life and his triple swirl comb-over. 

"Survival Lessons" 
6 pages--2475 words

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A fifteen year-old boy hides in a snowy mountain cave after his new step mother kills his father and blames it on him.

"Dominance & Submissiveness;
Understanding Our Partners"  
3 pages--1220 words

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An essay from Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata and Ibsen’s A Doll House with the thesis we must understand our partners as well as the implications of our choices.
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Once a waiter at the New Almaden Food and Beverage Company, New Almaden, CA