Racket Communications John Geysen Copywriter

How to build a short story

Easy… start with a picture like this and go.

Need a Ride? Looking for a Vanishing Hitchhiker

Keep your foot on the gas. Avoid eye contact. Never slow down. My car swings around a curve as the two lane highway changes from strip malls and car dealership lights to a dark New England road. I’m in search of the Red-Headed Hitchhiker, a ghost who has haunted this stretch of Route 44 for […]

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Bump In The Night

They Can’t All Be Flakes, Weirdos, Cranks, Opportunists and Out-And-Out Psychotics. Can They? “I’d tell all my friends but they’d never believe me; they’d think that I’d finally lost it completely.” –Radiohead, “Subterranean Homesick Alien” A huge triangular object appeared, swooping in low. The sky turned into a whirl of flashing red and white lights. […]

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As Joe Strummer Said…

The Copy Biz

“I think we’re going to have to forget about the radio and just go back to word of mouth.”

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A Family Legend

Newspaper Columns

Here’s a story of a life told in pieces from different years and different times. They are the kind of family legends people use to remember loved ones. Roland Mueller (he’s our hero) is working in his garage in Bellingham. A mechanic by trade, he’s also been a fireman and served in the Navy. Most […]

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Fur Panic Strikes

Severe Magazine

Teen Wolf, Bray Road, Silver Bullets and Werewolf Moms “If you hear him howling around your kitchen door. Better not let him in. Little old lady got mutilated late last night” – Warren Zevon, Werewolves of London Listen for the creature breathing in the darkness, waiting to rip your lungs out. A howl comes from […]

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Scottish Prayer

Severe Magazine

This is the traditional Scottish Prayer I wrote by when I was writing my “Bump in the Night” column for Severe Magazine. From ghoulies and ghosties And long-leggedy beasties And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!

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In The Bowels of the Health Care System

Newspaper Columns

I roamed free for an hour inside the hospital, killing time in the bowels of the health care system. I didn’t do anything illegal but I probably shouldn’t have been poking around in those back halls. Over the years I’ve learned an important lesson. As long as you look like you belong somewhere no one […]

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