Shell Out

Exclusive Extras

Want more content than just the story? Then scroll through this section for bonus items, including not one but two series of questions for your readers’ group, because I know you want to talk about my books in your readers’ group.

Readers’ Group Discussion Questions

Thank you for choosing Shell Out as the subject for your reading discussion. The following questions mean to guide readers through the conversation but should in no way limit its direction or focus during its exploration of ideas. If your group has a topic other reading groups should discuss, please e-mail me (via the Contact section), and I may add them to a future edition of the book. Thanks.

Note that the following questions may contain spoilers. Think of them as the test questions you look through ahead of time to validate the answers to questions you’ve already attempted (read: bonus test-taking tips!).

There are two series of questions. Choose the series that better fits your group’s style:

Reader Question Series #1:

Why does Greg want money so badly? Why does he struggle to keep it? Is the problem with him or with society?

Which force drives Greg’s desire for financial success the most? Himself? His family? The woman? Society? Some other reason? Explain.

Why does Greg give up on his dream for success? Or does he not give it up? Discuss.

Is Greg’s story outrageous or familiar? Has he missed the “American Dream,” or has he discovered a new American Dream?

If his story were not set in college, would Greg’s financial circumstances change? How? Why or why not?

Which of Greg’s jobs is the best? The worst? Which situation made you laugh? Cringe? Why?

How does Greg’s financial situation affect his relationships? Is this for the better or the worse? How would his life be different if money wasn’t an issue? Explain.

If you could talk to Greg about any of his choices before he makes them, what would you say?

Reader Question Series #2:

Greg’s story represents a hyperreal look at the common teenager’s journey into young adulthood. How does exaggerating this journey help refine his character growth?

What role does the father-son relationship play in Greg’s journey into adulthood? How would his journey change if his father were rich?

In Shell Out, do Greg’s job choices really matter? Why or why not? What about his father’s job choices?

What role does Jeff (Greg’s best friend) play in Greg’s journey? What about Mandy? Whose role is more important to Greg? Why?

Why do Greg’s methods for earning money ultimately fail? What should he have done instead? How do his choices define him as a character?

What’s the real lesson Greg learns by the end of the story? Could he have reached this conclusion a different way? Discuss alternative avenues he could have taken to learn this lesson.

What else about Shell Out spoke to you and warrants discussion?

Shell Out

Behind the Story

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading this far. As a reward for sticking with the book, I’ll give some background information on Shell Out in case you’re the type of person who enjoys the “Special Features” selection on Blu-rays and DVDs (or whatever you use to watch movies at the time of this reading). 

A Quick Note: Even though “Shell Out” is a short work, I’ve gone back to it often over the years, trying to decide if this is really how I want it to begin, or if this sequence is strong enough to move the story forward, or if this ending works to resolve the story, and so on. The more I write and the more I study the techniques of storytelling, the more I want to apply what I’ve learned to stories I’ve already finished. And “Shell Out” is one of my test canvases for improvement.

However, now that I’ve done just about all I can do without oversaturating it with ideas or undercutting its theme, I’m officially pushing it out to the public. Doesn’t mean I think it’s ready for the public; I’m never ready to publish anything I’ve written. Like most authors, I keep wondering if there is anything, anything at all, that I could’ve done better. Chances are, a few months or years down the road, I’ll learn yet another storytelling method that’ll convince me I published this thing prematurely. But, like all artistic works, there comes a point when I just have to believe in it and move on to other things. So here you go. Hope you enjoyed it. 

A Brief History: I first conceptualized “Shell Out” in 2002 while I was working at a hospital. I was at my desk, listening to an evening radio show, when the hosts challenged callers to talk about the stuff they had tried selling on eBay. One caller, whom the DJs must’ve thought was a troll–they hung up on him–said he had tried selling his underwear on eBay. Whether it was true or not, I thought it was funny. And it got me thinking about the lengths people might go to earn an extra buck, including selling crap no one wants on eBay. It was then that I had remembered that I’d wanted to write a joke involving the Psychic Friends Hotline (where the psychic predicts catastrophe on the caller, and it comes true, rather than the expected “you’ll find love tomorrow” nonsense they used to advertise on TV) into something, anything, and I realized that a story about making a buck in ridiculous ways was the perfect source to bring that joke into play. And the timing was great because one of my coworkers had a girlfriend who worked for a psychic call center at one time, so he gave me insight about the telephone psychic business, like how smoky the environment could get in those offices and how they use psychology and listening skills to “predict” futures, among other things. With that and the eBay joke, I thought I had a winning combination for writing about the absurdity in alternative moneymaking.

As much as I wanted to see where this could go, however, I didn’t finish drafting the story in one sitting. At the time, I was juggling a number of projects, including an attempt to adjust to emotional instability while patiently waiting for my proper financial window to make returning to college and actually finishing my degree possible (in that regard, Greg, the main character, and I had a lot in common). It took me until 2005, when I buckled down and finished several short stories to complete a self-published collection of works, to finish the first version of “Shell Out.” By that point I was so proud of the story that I didn’t think it needed extensive editing, so in November 2006, I published it in the print version of my third collection of works, called Seven-Sided Dice: The Collection of Junk Volume3, and left it alone, thinking it was great, until years later when I discovered that I could have, in fact, made it better. In 2011, I took it through another edit, and in 2015, after reading an excellent book about openings called Hooked by Les Edgerton, I took it through one more major edit, separated it into seven parts, and now I think it’s done for good.

So that’s some background on “Shell Out.” I admit I had shallow reasons for starting it in 2002, but with real-life economy breaking down in the season since I’d first published it in my print volume, and with my own experiences of financial distress persisting throughout its development, it’s become one of my most valuable works (no pun or sense of irony intended).

Is this the end of “Shell Out” then? Hard to say. Although I have no plans to update it further, I would like to someday include it in a new volume of short stories geared entirely around the theme of “economic survival.” We’ll see how that goes. 

Update April 2020: This new edition comes up on the five-year anniversary of the original e-book release, and given the current coronavirus crisis gripping the world and endangering the global economy, now couldn’t be a better time to reintroduce the story. And it comes with a new opening chapter to help readers orient to Greg’s conflict better. As I said in the original author’s note, I’ve always struggled with how this story opened. I still don’t know if this is the right place to tell Greg’s story, so I have another alternate in the waiting (about Greg getting in a car accident) if I ever decide to rewrite this story from scratch (a real possibility). But for this version of “Shell Out,” I think it works.

Anyway, if you’re reading this during the global quarantine, stay safe. If you’re reading this long after COVID-19 has made the history books, then congratulations on living during a time of economic prosperity, assuming that’s how life is at the time of your reading. It’s certainly not that way at the time of this writing.

Shell Out

Revision History

The following is a list of milestones during Shell Out’s development.

September 2005: Completed first edition of “Shell Out.”

November 2006: Revised and included into my CafePress exclusive paperback anthology Seven-Sided Dice: The Collection of Junk, Volume 3.

November 2011: Made a few story changes and created a new manuscript version.

May 2015: Created a new scene to begin the story. Minor revisions to existing text. Story split into seven parts. New version converted to e-book format.

December 2015: Included in my electronic and paperback anthology Zippywings 2015.

April 2016: Minor revisions and updated back matter information.

August 2019: Added new back matter, including a “Readers’ Group Discussion Questions” section. Improved interior formatting. Removed bonus materials to eliminate e-book bloat (most of the represented works are still unreleased, anyway).

April 2020: Added another new opening scene to establish conflict and character goal. Story is now told in eight parts. Changed the final chapter title from “Finale” to “The Nice Guy.” ProWritingAid edit. Removed some adverbs, fixed some style issues, and strengthened story context where needed. Added fire to the cover image (maybe temporarily).