Christopher S. Bell

Christopher S. Bell has been writing and releasing literary and musical works through My Idea of Fun since 2008. His sound projects include Emmett and Mary, Technological Epidemic, C. Scott and the Beltones and Fine Wives. Christopher’s work has recently been published in Lakeview Journal, Noctua Review, Yellow Chair Review, Crab Fat Magazine, Crack the Spine, Foliate Oak, The Gambler, Lime Hawk and Talking Book among others. He has also contributed to Entropy and Fogged Clarity.

Artist: Christopher S. Bell
Title: Field Days Often Fade
Release #: MIF334
Release Date: 10/24/2016
Format: Paperback Book

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A Carpenter
A Nurse
A Professor
A Past Master
A Journalist
An Actress
A Clerk
A Party Planner
An Advertiser
A Receptionist
A Cable Repairman
A Peddler

Field Days Often Fade follows six couples coping with the inevitability of human existence in the small town of Laulis, New Hampshire. It is a tale of lingering connections and leftover pieces amongst lopsided companions measuring their time in years. Minor betrayals and subtle lies spread from backyard barbecue to watering hole; the next generation adopting every nuance while parts slowly crumble from the larger mold.

Artist: Christopher S. Bell
Title: Modern Hobbies
Release #: MIF284
Release Date: October 21, 2014
Format: Paperback Book

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Lawrence Thorne has been punching away the numbers at Pittsburgh-based super company Graffius Co. for twenty years; his body deteriorating until a new test program offers the chance to up his productivity. The small silver injections every week give the recipient a much-needed boost in all the wrong directions, Lawrence being one of nine dummy employees receiving their first dose.

Lost in an inevitable swirl of collected nostalgia tied to his deceased girlfriend, Bianca Deist, employee Thorne initially shows few improvements.  However, the spark comes in several forms by Friday. Lawrence’s livelong friend, the recently-divorced Grace Emerson, returns to the Burg, soon seducing him into hysterics.  Unsure of his feelings, he desperately considers quitting his job and selling off his hobbies.

Internal tensions skyrocket following news of his Cousin Wesley’s suicide in their hometown of Atterbury, Indiana.  Returning to his roots with an unlikely ingredient inside, Lawrence Thorne is propelled into a depleted world of familiar faces and clever ploys in a place he hardly recognizes.  Haunted hotel rooms and alluring teen prostitute, Megan Bartina, are but half of the problems before the flood and his showdown with crazed legend, Motorcycle Frank Dribble.  Lawrence subsequently loses his cool; collected habits amounting to very little while lost in the eye of the storm.

Modern Hobbies is the tale of accumulated memories tied to the staying quality of inanimate objects.  Lawrence Thorne stands firm as one of the last survivors of a non-digital age, inevitably imprisoned by a thickened experiment meant to propel the human race forward, while still taking them two steps back.  Amongst his jilted ego, a frantic rebel resides waiting for the inappropriate moment to lash out on society before his insides do so first.  The subsequent consequences are beneficial albeit crippling to the fading mementos meticulously catalogued on his shelves.

Artist: Christopher S. Bell
Title: Transferable American Morals
Release #: MIF244
Release Date: December 11th, 2012
Format: Paperback Book

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Transferable American Morals follows twin prodigies, Libby and Neil Robinson, in the fall of 1972. Born and raised in the small town of Marble Valley, Washington, the siblings are pushed into the limelight by their father, Brian, at the age of thirteen, soon arising victorious as grand-prize winners on the popular game show Teenage Know-How.

Now both seventeen and ridden with hormones, the Robinson twins are living separately across town from one another. Libby is a shining example at her religious mother’s side, until college boyfriend, William Hamilton the III, violates the girl’s every conviction. Sick and stranded at a university gala, Libby finds solace in slacker, Evan Wheeler, soon meeting his older brother, Davy, an addicted Vietnam veteran reduced to working carnival games on the outskirts of town.

Neil is unstable, residing above the garage at his Uncle Dennis’ humble abode and unfortunately in love with his Cousin Grant’s girlfriend, Josie Crissman. The twin locates a temporary solution in newscaster, Mona Gilmore, stranded by her own sense of trust following husband Woody’s invitation into a swinger’s lifestyle. Neil and Mona begin a sordid love affair just as Libby and the Wheeler Brothers dance around the point.

Amongst all the routine confusion, the Robinson twins fail to notice their mother Carol’s new boyfriend, Gabriel Hegedus, snaking his way into their lives. Approaching holidays, unexpected engagements and rising suspicions all coalesce as Neil and Libby slowly discover half-truths about their rare talents and interwoven lifestyles.