You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

986 Views 10 Replies 8 Participants Last post by SB James, Mar 23, 2015

Peter Spenser

Discussion Starter · Mar 21, 2015

A while back one of our fellow Café people spoke about how she was doing better now, but had endured one affliction after another for months. We all wished her well and I commented that, if someone had put all of it into a book, an editor would have made the author take half of it out as too unbelievable.

Well, here's another one, on the USA Today website:

Human remains found in stove may be 'Food Network' star

You know, it dawned on me years ago but I'm still brought up short whenever I strikes me again: there is nothing that you as a writer can think of---no matter how outrageous---as plot, or happening, or occurrence, or character, that has not already existed somewhere, somewhen, to someone. All we as authors can do is attempt to make it---that thing, that character---seem plausible within the work in which we place it.

But think up something completely new? I think not.

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David VanDyke

· #2 · Mar 21, 2015

"It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense."

- Mark Twain

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cinisajoy

· #3 · Mar 22, 2015

One seen on a news channel's Facebook
"Woman tries to steal tv from Walmart, robs corpse."

Yes, while she was running away from walmart, she ran across a body, stopped and stole the guy's wallet.

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jlmarten

· #4 · Mar 22, 2015

cinisajoy said:
One seen on a news channel's Facebook
"Woman tries to steal tv from Walmart, robs corpse."

Yes, while she was running away from walmart, she ran across a body, stopped and stole the guy's wallet.

I'd like to know what a cadaver is doing lying around outside of Walmart!?

I thought the 'shop 'til you drop' saying was just that, a saying.

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Robert Dahlen

· #5 · Mar 22, 2015

jlmarten said:
I'd like to know what a cadaver is doing lying around outside of Walmart!? I thought the 'shop 'til you drop' saying was just that, a saying.

Was it on Black Friday?

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Kirkee

· #6 · Mar 22, 2015

Cin, can you blame the poor woman? Probably needed cab fare; money for
beer & Chips. You wouldn't expect someone with a freshly stolen TV to sit there
without something to munch on, as well as something to wash it down with,
now would you? ::)

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cinisajoy

· #7 · Mar 22, 2015

There is a hill beside that walmart. The poor guy had gotten drunk and fell down said hill two days before.

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Jason Eric Pryor

· #8 · Mar 22, 2015

Peter Spenser said:
A while back one of our fellow Cafe people spoke about how she was doing better now, but had endured one affliction after another for months. We all wished her well and I commented that, if someone had put all of it into a book, an editor would have made the author take half of it out as too unbelievable.

Well, here's another one, on the USA Today website:

Human remains found in stove may be 'Food Network' star

You know, it dawned on me years ago but I'm still brought up short whenever I strikes me again: there is nothing that you as a writer can think of---no matter how outrageous---as plot, or happening, or occurrence, or character, that has not already existed somewhere, somewhen, to someone. All we as authors can do is attempt to make it---that thing, that character---seem plausible within the work in which we place it.

But think up something completely new? I think not.

I wonder if this is the same story that happened last week. One of the guys I work with told me last Monday that a friend of his and her husband turned up missing. She was a contestant on a Food Network show. She worked as a caterer on movie sets. Her husband worked as a key grip. He was supposed to show up in L.A. on a set and never did. She was supposed to show up in New Orleans on a set and never did.

Long story short, they arrested a guy that knew them. He was at their wedding! Anyway, he killed them both and chopped her up and tried to burn the body. She worked on the new Terminator movie as a caterer and when the news broke, Arnold himself tweeted about how awesome she was. He said her cooking brought the whole cast and crew together.

To make things even worse, she was 7 months pregnant.

The guy that killed them was a suspect 15 years ago in the disappearance of an 18 year old boy. They couldn't get enough evidence to convict him. Now, they're looking into it. If they can get him on that, he'll be charged with 4 counts of murder. Right now, he's being charged with 3. The husband, wife, and their unborn child.

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Peter Spenser

Discussion Starter · #9 · Mar 22, 2015

Jason Eric Pryor said:
I wonder if this is the same story that happened last week.

That's the one. "Bizarre" seems like too tame a word here.

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Jason Eric Pryor

· #10 · Mar 23, 2015

Peter Spenser said:
That's the one. "Bizarre" seems like too tame a word here.

Yes. I hear this kind of thing and it's bad. But in this case, because I know a guy that was close friends with her, it makes me angry. Mainly because I can see how it affect the ones that knew her. Everyone says that her laugh was infectious and that she was super kind to everyone. That, plus the fact she was pregnant makes this story heart-breaking. I didn't know her, but I know some of her friends. They're really torn up over all of this. The guy that did this isn't human. He's a monster.

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SB James

· #11 · Mar 23, 2015

cinisajoy said:
There is a hill beside that walmart. The poor guy had gotten drunk and fell down said hill two days before.

You mean it took them two days to realize that there was a guy laying there whose wallet was just waiting to be robbed?

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