My Past Life as a Dung Beetle

Recently, I wrote my first short story, "My Past Life as a Dung Beetle," found an editor and cover artist, and published on Amazon. This is the beginning of my exciting journey into the Indie world. I have another short story waiting to be published in an anthology and am working on the third. 

 

 

 

The inspiration behind "My Past Life as a Dung Beetle" is hoarding. The story is light-hearted and does not touch upon the dark side of hoarding, but it recently got a 5-star review titled, "Too close for comfort." My thought on this is that the story was spot on in capturing the hoarder mentality. Excited beyond reason, I felt a full sense of accomplishment. While "My Past Life as a Dung Beetle" is meant to be funny, it does have a satirical quality that some might find 'too close for comfort.'

Why did I write this short story? Quite honestly, and certainly the reason I was able to capture the hoarder mind so well, I am a recovering hoarder. The show "Hoarders" on TV changed my life, it really did. I could see myself in some of those people, not the ones collecting garbage, but the ones collecting stuff that they didn't have room for. I saw myself in them and where I could be headed and it lit a fire in me to throw things away like never before. Anything that was useful that I wasn't using anymore, I gave to charity.

After the realization and ability to admit that I have hoarder tendencies, I have been able to successfully fight off the urge to collect, an urge that I was able to capture in the storyline. Sometimes it's a hard fight and I have to stop myself from being attracted to things that demand collection, but even my family has noticed a change in me.

Though none of them are in that sick stage that is often portrayed on those TV shows, many members of my family could be classified as hoarders as well. The school bus in the story is homage to the school bus in my brother's yard. He was very excited about that bus, even called to ask me to guess what he found. A school bus was the last thing I would have guessed and it found it's way into my story as well as his yard.

So, "My Past Life as a Dung Beetle" began taking shape in my mind. It is a story about a family of collectors from the perspective of the husband/father in the family, who thinks his collecting derives from being reincarnated from a dung beetle. In addition to being described as 'too close for comfort,' it has also been described as 'funny, with a feel-good ending.' Either way, it is sure to be amusing.

The story can be downloaded here: My Past Life as a Dung Beetle.

Enjoy!