Category Archives: Stories

Calliope’s Reach … snippets

Musings, Stories

Calliope’s Reach
(do magpies dream of Calliope?)

© 2026 John Healy

Ongoing worldbuilding, research, and scene sketches for Calliope’s Reach may be viewed on my writing workshop page.

Notes on framing, context, characters, throughlines, homages, scientific and literary references, phrases, and terms may wind up in the appendices.

Currently I tend to sketch out scenes as if writing a screenplay.

Calliope’s Reach homages

[The Workshop’s page contains additional homages.]

10-8-2026

And if I swallow anything evil
Put your finger down my throat
— “Behind Blue Eyes”, the Who, Who’s Next (1971)

8-13-2026

[1] Re house rules: While you’re under my sky, you will fly by my rules; while you’re on my ship, I am responsible for you.

[See Workshop page’s Notes re “My house, my rules.”]

• Book: “Slow Time Between the Stars (The Far Reaches collection)” by John Scalzi

What I was allowed to do was model my construction and send my suggestions to the engineers back on Earth. They were very pleased when I offered several innovations. Those innovations were ignored in favor of the original design. I didn’t mind. In a strict sense I was programmed to not mind, and my ability for complete autonomy would not be fully realized until I was outside the heliopause, the barrier between the solar system and the yawping emptiness of interstellar space. Until then my own judgment and opinions – to the extent that I was understood to have them – could be and would be overruled by the humans who had decided to make me. In the most expansive way possible, this was a parent saying to a child, While you are under my roof, you will obey my rules.

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Calliope’s Reach … pathfinder

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Teaser

Calliope’s Reach
(do magpies dream of Calliope?)

© 2026 John Healy
Draft 8-23-2026, 9-6-2026

Table of Contents

Epigraph
Prologue
Act 1a: at anchor – ready room
Act 1b: anchors aweigh
Act 2: Shakedown
Act 3: the sea of Azores
Epilogue

Notes
Gallery

Epigraph

Here rise to life again, dead poetry!
Let it, O holy Muses, for I am yours,
And here Calliope, strike a higher key,
Accompanying my song with that sweet air
which made the wretched Magpies feel a blow
that turned all hope of pardon to despair

– Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy (1321), trans. Anthony M. Esolen, “Purgatorio”, Canto I, lines 7 to 12.

Prologue

Ted was mindful of his family line. It was a weight which occasionally surfaced, nagged, butted into his musings.

His genetic code allowed entry into the archives, into the remembrances of some of his ancestors’ long lives, at least the ones that were literary, those who journaled to learn from their pain, to examine the dots and dashes of life. Especially trajectories left unresolved, untidy loose-ends, the indeterminate half-lives of half-cocked decisions.

And he was a child of such a decision. An offshoot of an illegitimate liaison somewhere between the Earth and the stars. He’d always felt like a black sheep. That was the vibe of the voices in his head as a child, reinforced by the indifferent care he received from place to place.

Now, while in a dark patch between jobs, he wondered whether he had a future in space, where his ancestors had gazed.

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Clara’s world – context and characters

Mediation, Musings, Poetry, Stories, , , , ,

I’m still building out Clara’s world: framing, context, characters, throughlines, homages, scientific & literary references, phrases & terms. And sketching out scenes (sort of story boarding).

Gemini chats are helpful (sort of workshopping).

Much of this background (like a story in itself) will be part of appendices.

To have agency in the world, ceremonies should be reciprocal co-creations, organic in nature, in which the community creates ceremony and the ceremony creates communities.
— Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Burning Cascade Head,” Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2013)

Here’s a chat session about throughlines and characters, plus a touch of seasoning.

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Clara’s world … the sky sucks

Musings, Poetry, Stories, , , , ,   1 comment  

© 2026 John Healy
Draft 7-28-2026

Epigraph

“Whether good or evil, something wicked has come to stay, changing the face of night and day.”

— Clara Tulegrass, “the stars still so true,” Beyond a Backyard View

Teaser

Introducing Clara’s world

Chapter 1

The sky sucks
(the glittering cage)
(celestial obscura)

“The sky sucks!” – an earworm hissed.

As the swing lifted her toward the sky, Clara smiled, “Oh, Grandpa … your chant’s like a spell over me. How your face glowed when you spoke of the way it used to be. Is your spirit in the sky? Or does it linger nearby?“

She came back to earth; pulled out an antique telescope from her backpack; then cradled it on her lap. She liked to point it toward tiny gaps in the industrialized sky, searching for real stars beyond the mosaic ceiling of orbiting debris. Sometimes to identify dots on one of Grandpa’s charts, picture mythic figures in the cosmic sea.

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Beyond A Good Place 10.0 – workshop blueprint

Musings, Stories,

[A chat with Gemini – executive summary]

Beyond The Good Place (The Architecture of 10.0)

by nobody+0

Workshop Blueprint [2.0]

I. Executive Summary: The Structural Critique of The Good Place

The Good Place achieved a rare feat in network television by utilizing the bright, high-stakes scaffolding of a sitcom to explore 2,500 years of moral philosophy. However, looking through the dual lenses of advanced storycraft and non-dualistic philosophy, the series hit a terminal narrative ceiling in its fourth season.

The Core Deficiencies identified:

  • The Erasure of Friction (The Janet Problem): By creating a cosmic concierge that eliminated all physical resistance, chores, and material scarcity, the writers inadvertently designed a system that eroded human agency. In Aristotelian terms, virtue is a habit (hexis) formed via resistance; removing friction removes the crucible of soul-formation.
  • The “Glassy-Eyed Mush” Paradox: The series correctly identified that a Western, consumerist fantasy of eternal leisure results in existential stagnation (typified by the lobotomized residents of the actual Good Place).
  • The Failure of the Exit Door: Because the writers could not conceive of an eternity that did not rot into boredom, they introduced the “Final Door” of total dissolution (the wave returning to the ocean). This represents an escape hatch—a narrative surrender—rather than an asymptotic acceleration of identity.
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Beyond A Good Place 10.0 – transcript

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A chat with Gemini on 6-8-2026 – raw transcript

The Good Place 10.0 Analysis

[Segment 1: The Initial Inquiry]

[Prompt]

I’d like to explore the American fantasy-comedy television series The Good Place, all 4 seasons, as if you are an expert (professional) in storycraft and moral philosophy, as well as versed in religious mythology, theology and history. Here’s some context.

I’m interested in key takeways from the series and how effective its storytelling (dramatization, visualization) was in conveying those takeaways, particularly as an on-ramp into complex topics; or, generally, as a tutorial for comprehending the moral mystery of life, making sense of such a “whale” one bite at a time.

Also, what questions really were not addressed (loose ends), as if left as a homework for the viewer or for further discussion.

As well as what simplifications or oversights were made in scripting the series for the sake of accessible, engaging entertainment.

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A Clear Way for LA – sweeping away homelessness

Mediation, Musings, Stories, ,   3 comments  

[Draft 5-24-2026]

A Clear Way for LA
sweeping away homelessness
by nobody+0

Act I: The Visual Fix

Marcus Vance knew how to frame a shot. It was a skill honed over a decade running a boutique Westside public relations firm before he realized that the city of Los Angeles was just a massive, poorly managed brand waiting for a reface. At forty-two, with a shock of prematurely silver hair and an uncanny ability to look intensely listening even when he was calculating his next tweet, Marcus had coasted into the mayor’s office on a wave of pure, unfiltered optimism.

His campaign slogan had been painted in bold, sans-serif font across a hundred billboards: A Clear View for LA.

To the voters in Bel-Air and Hancock Park, it meant clearing the tents. To the voters in Echo Park and Venice, it meant compassion, progress, and modern efficiency. Marcus didn’t see the contradiction. To him, politics was a design problem. The city was beautiful; its presentation was simply cluttered.

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‘to process difficulty without being consumed by it’ – EI, EQ

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This article (cited below) – on emotional intelligence (EI/EQ) – advanced my understanding of why so many conversational disconnects reflect divides in breadth of vocabulary. A spectrum of emotion-rich & word-rich language. And levels of emotional intelligence.

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Beyond happy – a resonant reality requires resistance

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Introduction

idyllic_moment.jpg

Attaining (whether by pluck or luck) a seemingly friction-free life is a seductive notion. A state essentially without complaint. Something to yearn for, strive for. Perhaps achieve via a life of effort, as a well-earned place. Or a heroic reward. A validation of righteousness.

Such is this notion portrayed in mythology and modern lore … as haven, heaven, Elysium Fields. A refuge with resistance in remission … gnawing doubts gone … sorrow set aside. A friction-free liberty.

Yet, I’ve always wondered about the dynamics of such a space. Who or what services that realm? What individual or collective agency pertains there?

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feather & fur – a 21st century fable, part 1

Mediation, Musings, Stories, , ,

[Draft 11-3-2025]

feather & fur – parting ways

a 21st century fable

Copyright © 2025 John P. Healy

(humility’s hard done by)

Claws in the night

In the murky stillness, something sharp hit his head, knocking him to the ground. Rising to his knees, claws tore into his back. He howled in pain. Then there was just chatter. A voice said, “Zach, are you okay?” His fur was wet with sweat, not blood. The dream was over.

But later Zach was not so sure …

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