KM Zafari

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About KM Zafari
I'm busy but friendly, so feel free to keep in touch with me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/thebatinthehat), where I often post free microfiction, or contact me on my site (http://thebatinthehat.com). I'd be glad to hear from you!
Why The Bat in the Hat? Poe and Seuss are my literary heroes. What you will see of my writing will likely be a mix of the two. Plus, I love bats - and I love hats!
Note to libraries and schools:
I do not impose an expiry date on my work.
Now available on Kindle:
-Time (a Flashdogs' anthology)
-Nibbles (Snack-Sized Stories Vol 1)
-Jippā (a short horror story)
-The Tears You'll Never Cry (a poem for mourning the loss of a child)
-The Cask of Amontillado Common Core Standards Lesson Plan
-The Tangi Bridge Common Core Standards Lesson Plan
-The Tangi Bridge (a very short story)
-A Comprehensive Guide to Finding Free and Inexpensive E-Books for Your Kindle
Coming soon:
-The Executioner
(short - historical fiction/mystery/horror)
A young journalist discovers more than he anticipated when he is sent to cover the county's first electricide.
(Poe fans may like this one.)
Are you an author?
Author Updates
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Blog postHere’s what people have had to say about my writing.
Homecoming (2017)
This is such a sad, but uplifting, story. The initial feeling that perhaps there is an element of estrangement between the children and their father changes as they dig through old memories and put them in perspective. It is the difference in the eyes of the younger, carefree footballer compared to the eyes of the soldier that reveals the truth, the effect that war can have on a person and subsequently thei5 years ago Read more -
Blog postExtraordinary
Young Adult/Fantasy
Coming soon
A teenage girl heads to the desert with her best friend, determined to find the geocache she and her brother were searching for when he died – and meets aliens disguised as animals on the run from the government.
Crusade
Historical Fiction
Coming soon
An English soldier forms a special friendship with King Richard during the bloody Third Crusade, where he meets and falls in love with a Muslim captive5 years ago Read more -
Blog postA note to schools and libraries:
I do not impose an expiry date on my work, and, whenever possible, I am happy to donate copies to at-risk and disadvantaged schools. Please contact me; I will be glad to help out. Teachers, be sure to check out my Resources Page to find out where you can get comprehensive lesson plans.
Jippā
(flash fiction)
Horror
Now available!
This short horror story is based on a nightmare I had some time back.
No one believed5 years ago Read more -
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Blog postThe Angry Hourglass Round 130
14 March 2017
Winner – “Homecoming”
https://theangryhourglass.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/round-130-winners/
Micro Bookends 1.52
18 October 2015
Winner – “Miscalculation”
http://www.microbookends.com/2015/10/18/micro-bookends-1-52-results/
Micro Bookends 1.51
11 October 2015
Honourable Mention – “Help Wanted”
http://www.microbookends.com/2015/10/11/micro-bookends-1-51-results/
Micro Booken5 years ago Read more -
Blog postThe Tangi Bridge
Reading Group Questions (coming soon)
Lesson Plan
Exceeds Common Core Standards for High School Literature – now FREE
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BTI48JQ
Barnes & Noble: http://www.bn.com/w/the-tangi-bridge-common-core-standards-lesson-plans-km-zafari/1114915879
Kobo (now includes Sony): http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/The-Tangi-Bridge-Common-Core/
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/295467
5 years ago Read more -
Blog postWritten for the victims of the Newtown, CT shooting and their families.
I’m the kind of person that has a delayed emotional reaction. Most times, it takes a while for things to sink in, which is great for emergencies. The problem is, once the sadness settles in, it takes much longer to leave.
Knowing this, I tried to avoid the news over the weekend and, for the most part, succeeded. But enough of it creeped in that it devastated me anyway.
I mourn for these children. I10 years ago Read more -
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Blog postWe are but ghosts in the machine,
begat from nothingness,
our rise, our desire to be,
inexplicable.
We are no more than the whispered fall
of snow upon the mountains,
no more than the silent
smile of ice, pristine.
Our deaths are in the rainbows,
in the butterflies,
in the false promises of spring,
wordless and fleeting.
We cling to every moment,
our every thought espoused supreme.
But we are no more tha10 years ago Read more -
Blog postI could never, in a lifetime, devise
how to say more than the tears in my eyes.
And yet, they are inadequate still;
in silent song, they fall free, without will.
When first I saw you, I wept with surprise,
all of my heart pouring forth with your cries.
Then on the blanket of tears that I’d shed,
you laid your small, velvet feet, trusting head.
And with each fall of my breast, with each rise,
came your soft, subtle breath, silent si10 years ago Read more -
Blog postExciting news for me!
I’ve been selected as one of the finalist judges for the first ever Phoenix Comicon Script Competition.
I’ve also been invited to be on a guest panel of screenwriters at the convention.
I’m so psyched!!!
The 2012 Phoenix Comicon is taking over a combined five floors of the Phoenix Convention Center and the Hyatt Regency hotel on May 24-27 (Memorial Day weekend). Register by May 23, and admission for the entire event is only $40! (Up to two10 years ago Read more
Titles By KM Zafari
It was written on 17 December 2012, for the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre.
Allison Wyatt, 6
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Catherine Hubbard, 6
Charlotte Bacon, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Daniel Barden, 7
Dylan Hockley, 6
Emilie Parker, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Jack Pinto, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Jesse Lewis, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Madeleine Hsu, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Olivia Engel, 6
Taken from those who loved them on 14 December 2012.
I pledge to donate 100% of my proceeds from the sale of this poem to charitable organizations benefitting those who have lost children.
Excerpt:
"I would give up my every breath,
if I were able to,
for just one second of the time
I'd thought I'd have with you.
Left wishing for that moment,
one more chance to say goodbye.
Left, alone, to shed for you
the tears you'll never cry.
No more skinned knees or lost balloons
or wishes not come true..."
The stories come in a variety of topics, styles, and genres, ranging from macabre to humorous, so (hopefully) there should be something for everyone.
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"The cowboy pushed up the brim of his hat with his six shooter, savoring the last drag of his spent cigarette. He was ready."
Drac shook his head. "Kids these days, getting high from huffing garlic." The worst thing he did in school was drink from hippies."
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Includes:
150 Nibbles (140 Characters or Fewer)
5 Bites (99 Words or Fewer)
3 Nuggets (299 Words or Fewer)
Also includes three bonus short story Snacks!
The Tangi Bridge
Jippa
Taedium Vitae
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This version has optimized for Kindle and formatted for readability.
Excerpt:
Ruddy Martian clay caked the soles of her bare feet and filled the webbing between her toes as she ran across the barren plains towards the edges of the woods. She slowed, then paused for a moment to lean against a small boulder and attempt to quell the labored heaving of her chest.
It wasn't just that she'd been running night and day - the child growing inside her was pushing up into her lungs, leaving her gasping for air as exhaustion threatened to creep inside her shaking limbs.
But there was no time to rest.
She was certain they wouldn’t be far behind, given the slowness of her condition, and her only hope of escape lay in the dark shadows of Pavonis Mons. Sweat prickled at the back of her neck, but the thought of being alone in the woods at night sent a shiver down her spine.
The wolves were there.
Nibbles (a curated collection of 17 author-favorite Twitter-sized, super-short stories, also available in Nibbles)
- Cheapskate
- Closure
- Connoisseur
- Dinnertime
- For Sale By Owner
- Miscommunication
- New Heights
- Prince
- Savory
- Secret
- Shadowland
- Six Bullets
- Strangers on a Train
- Telegram
- Trick or Treat
- Unrequited
- When Life Hands You Lemons
- Whiskey Sour
- 1984
- Absolution
- Adelgunde
- Aftermath of Neptune
- Ah, L’Amour
- All Good Things
- Amelia
- Anonymous
- Arecibo
- City of Angels
- Club Dead
- Collateral Damage
- Conflagration
- Dalliance
- December Mourning
- Delicious
- Deliquescence
- Dream
- Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles
- Festival of Love
- Five Little Gangsters
- The Foreman
- The Happiest Day of My Life
- Help Wanted
- Heresy
- Hide-and-Go-Seek
- Home
- Homecoming
- I, Tiger
- The Lee of the Stone
- Legacy
- Line of Duty
- The Long Farewell
- Mementos
- Miscalculation
- Missed Connection
- Monarchy
- The Night He Became a Man
- Not a Merlot
- One Year, Five Months, Thirteen Days, and Seven Hours
- Portrait
- Reason
- Reflection
- The Regular
- Salaasil (Chains)
- Salvation
- Shadows
- Skeletons
- Sniper
- Stages of Love
- Starmaker
- Sunbathing in Rio
- Taboo
- Vampir
- Waiting
- What Would Freud Say?
- Word of Dog
- Zhànlìpǐn (Trophies)
- Aiko
- Apotheosis
- The Artist
- The Culling of the Wolves
- Jippā
- The One with the Dead Girl and the Pizza Guy
- Recovery
- Taedium Vitae
- The Tangi Bridge
She was aware of this before gaining full consciousness, before she could see.
Fear settled in as she tried to will herself awake. But she was trapped, a prisoner in her own mind, unable to move, vulnerable to anyone and anything that lurked beyond the darkness.
Sound was becoming clearer, now, as the unmistakable cadence of footsteps approached.
“Help…” she murmured, unsure if the word had even reached her lips, let alone escape them.
A figure loomed over her, and a quiet yet assertive voice echoed through her head, as if miles away. “Shh. Don’t speak.” A firm hand stroked her skin with the gentle, reverent touch of a lover. “It will wear off soon. It always does.”
This man was her captor, not her savior...
Clocking in at just under 2200 words, this short tale of suspense and horror tells the story of a woman who wakes up on a stranger's table and discovers that her captor is an artist and she his latest canvas and muse.
This is the story of the night patrolman on the Tangi Bridge. Fans of "The Lottery" and "The Lady or the Tiger" may enjoy this one.
The Tangi Bridge
(excerpt)
"He didn't always see them jump, but the sounds were unavoidable. Some screamed on the way down; some went in dignified silence. But their lives always ended the same - with a loud, sickening splash.
A few chose to go at it alone, but most were grateful for his presence in their final hours. Several talked at length of their lives, although many were content to simply sit quietly beside him until dawn. Then, after steadying their nerves, they launched themselves off the creaking, wooden bridge and into the water below.
He had been told never to watch, but he always did. How could he not? The least he could do, he felt, was to be with them in those final, fleeting moments so they knew that they hadn't been alone, that someone would remember them.
Those who accepted the calling - really accepted it - went without fear. They were the fortunate ones, their calmness and serenity helping them recall what they had long been taught in school - how to hit the water at the ideal obliquity required for the fastest and least painful death.
The screamers were much harder to watch.
They frequently flailed on the way down, hitting the water, hard as stone, at an odd angle, crushing most of their structural bones. Survival instincts always kicked in, and they would splash around in a panic - helpless, thrashing sacks of broken limbs.
Whether they succumbed to the cold water or invisible injuries, eventually, they stilled, often floating in pools of dissipating wine as the impartial river swept their bodies out to sea."
Comprehensive lesson plans are also available.
Also available:
Jippa (a short horror story)
A longer short story, "The Executioner", is scheduled for May 2013.
Read these stories and join The FlashDogs in support of the only form of time-travel yet available: reading.
All proceeds go to a literacy charity.
Excerpt:
No one believed him that the monsters were real. His uncle grew frustrated and impatient with the nighttime fears the boy should long have outgrown. His aunt was more sympathetic and well-intentioned, but she dismissed them as being merely nightmares.
Only he knew that, at night, the truths always revealed themselves.
After the lights went out and all was dark, the silence of his room was broken by quiet scratching and moans. He covered his ears against the screeches, but they grew louder and louder until they filled the air, and he could feel them even in his lungs.
Then, when a scream threatened to burst forth from his throat, and he could bear it no longer, there was silence. Not one sound. It was the same disquieting nothingness as in a forest filled with animals that sensed a new predator.
The monsters were still, but he knew they were there.
He uncapped his ears and glanced at his little sister, asleep in the bed next to his. Quiet and undisturbed, she’d slept through it all. He envied her peaceful slumber; she always looked like an angel.
Then, there was another noise. Whispers. “She’s coming,” they said. “She’s coming. She’s coming.”