P. James Norris

Short Fiction and Poetry

Teleplays & Screenplays

Novels

When a Tree Falls... (Feb 2010)

As yet unpublished, a non-speculative-fiction short story in which a man learns by reading a classified ad that he has been missing the forest for the trees.

I wrote this story for the Third Round of NPR Three-Minute Fiction Contest for which NPR listeners were to write a story which could be read aloud in three-minutes or less inspired by this image:

You can read Rhonda Strickland's winning entry, "Please Read"--as chosen by Alan Cheuse (All Things Considered's book critic) from 3,000 (!) entries here.

The Golem (Feb 2023)

As yet unpublished, a haiku cycle in which a cabalist creates a golem to avenge the slaughter of his Jewish village during World War II.

Listen to it read by a professional actor by the name of Val Cole at:

The Ifrit (May 2022)

A young man sets out on a quest to find a Djinn to cure his younger sister who is dying of waisting ailment, and finds instead an Ifrit who tells him that in order save his sister's life, he must kill an Old Mother who has cursed his entire family.

As yet unpublished, it is a Semi-Finalist in the 2023 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Competition. The Finalists will be announced on Wed 15 Mar 2023--wish "The Ifrit" luck!
It's placement makes it the #5 fantasy short story and in the top 9% of discoverable projects on Coverfly's Red List for preceding calendar year ending Feb 2023.

A Selection of Haiku (2005 - 2006)

A selection of haiku including "Fireflies", "Waking in the Fall", "Geese", "Incongruence", and my haiku cycle (the first line of each haiku includes a word from the last line of the previous haiku) of 8 haiku "Coyote Under Winter Sun".

Wind (May 2010)

A precision short story of exactly 250 words about a person of unspecified gender who may be losing losing his/her mind.

I submitted Wind to Mad Wife Productions' Mad Wife Productions Fellowship in which they request Horror/Thiller feature screenplays, treatments and even concepts. I admitted in my cover letter that a 250-word short story didn't give them much to work with, but "Wind" was still a QuarterFinalist!

Nowhere to Go (May 2010)

A set of haiku about a coyote with nowhere to go in winter.

Listen to it read by a professional actor by the name of Val Cole at:

Nowhere to Go - nine cloud journal cover

Vanessa (March 2017)

Vanessa is a gothic vampire story about a man in existential fear that his lover, who he was unable to protect from a vampire, will return and damn him to an eternity as something that should not exist in God's creation.

Izzy Tells No Lies (March 2014)

What I call a "Catholic Fantasy".
A transgendered homeless woman, who makes uncanny prophecies, restores the faith of a Catholic priest with the help of the Archangel Michael after predicting that local homeless man will be killed.

Angel of Death (August 2012)

In cold blood, a woman kills the drug addict who murdered her boyfriend during a botched robbery and to relearn compassion is required to act as an Angel of Death.

Out of the World - The Best Short Stories from The MOON - Volume 1 (2013 - 2109) cover

Moon Magazine - January 2018

Clouds (September 2012)

A science fiction piece in which colonists from an Earth that is tearing itself apart must make the terrible decision of who will survive on the planet they had hoped to make their home: them or the natives.

Anthology Askew, Vol 6 - Askew Horizons - August 2018

Beyond the Door (April 2018)

(mouse-over to enlarge)

Update: Sat 9 December 2023

Beyond the Door has been received an Award of Recognition from the Accolade Global Film Competition in, three, that's THREE categories!
Short Film
Direction
and something for which I can take credit:
Script/Writer

Update: Fri 1 December 2023

Beyond the Door has been chosen as a Semi Finalist in the San Francisco Arthouse Short Festival!

Update: Wed 29 November 2023

My half-hour podcast interview has been posted! You can listen to it at:
www.wildsoundpodcast.com
or
podcasts.apple.com

Update: Tue 7 November 2023

I sat for my half-hour podcast interview today, and will post a link to it when I am given it.

Update: Fri 20 October 2023

I answered 11 interview questions regarding myself and the making of Beyond the Door for the 2023 Toronto Feedback Female Film Festival which you can read here.
And...
On Mon 6 Nov 2023, I'll be sitting for a 0:30 hours podcast interview regarding Beyond the Door! I'll update my site and send out a blog posting when the podcast is posted.

Update: Sun 15 October 2023

Beyond the Door has won the Best Sound & Music award in the 2023 Toronto Feedback Female Film Festival!

This is yet another example of something for which, as the screenwriter, I can take absolutely no credit. If you haven't watched the audience feedback reel, please do so!

Update: Sun 24 September 2023

Beyond the Door has been chosen as an Official Selection for the 2023 Toronto Feedback Female Film Festival!

And an audience feedback reel can be viewed here.
Several people give positive comments on the film which demonstrate that filmmaking truly is a collaborative effort between screenwriter, director(s), and the actors--so many of the comments concern things that were not in my script but instead creative choices made by the directors, MJ Palo and Greg Klino!

Update: Mon 31 July 2023

Beyond the Door is available at

Update: Tue 2 May 2023

Post-production has been completed and the short film is now available on vimeo.com but I'm afraid I've been asked to not share it until Dead Wife Productions has had a chance to premiere it. :-(
As soon as I have permission to do so, I'll let people know via my Blog.

Update: Fri 20 - Sat 21 Jan 2023

I drove to Reno to be on set for the third and fourth day of filming--the crew and actors filmed for two days over the previous weekend. I had an opportunity to have a non-speaking role myself--as a coroner's technician taking pictures of the husband's corpse, but that scene was being filmed at 10:30p--two and a half hours past my normal bedtime, and I let the opportunity go. Even after taking wardrobe and a 1960's flash camera with me. Vat an ideeot!
But it was incredible being on set!

Wed 6 June 2022

I have moved Beyond the Door out of chronological order (by the date I started working on the project) because it has been OPTIONED! MJ Palo of Dead Wife Productions has optioned the script and we will be filming Beyond the Door in late-2022 or early-2023!

A ten-page adaptation of Philip K Dick's short story of the same name published in the January 1954 issue of Fantastic Universe that I wrote for Aaron Sorkin's MasterClass on television writing--you can read the story at Project Gutenberg.

When a man buys a cuckoo clock for his wife, he discovers that there is more behind the cuckoo's door than just the cuckoo.

FILM

	Short Film
	Director
	Script/Writer

SCREENPLAY

Michael is Coming (March 2021)

An adaptation of my short story "Izzy Tells No Lies".

Angel of Death (January 2021)

Angel of Death - artwork copyright Anne Stokes/

An adaptation of my short story "Angel of Death".

Powers & Glory (May 2020)

An original one-hour "Catholic fantasy"/police procedural TV pilot
A rookie Narcotics Detective who feels betrayed by the Church and who is determined to rid New Orleans of the heroin that killed his mother is assigned to an equally determined veteran Detective who is secretly an angel of the Order of Powers, killed during a drug bust, resurrected, and the two are tasked by the Archangel Gabriel to find a Prince of Hell who has escaped the Pit.

Supernatural: Lucky and Gabbie (September 2018)

Written as a one-hour backdoor pilot for Supernatural.

Investigating the deaths of several wealthy women, Sam and Dean discover Lucky of "All Dogs Go to Heaven" and his partner Gabbie, a witch, are working the case from a different angle. But can the Boys, a skin-walker and a witch put down the incubus responsible for the deaths of the wealthy women and several prostitutes before it kills again?

Project Ωmega (April 2014)

An original one-hour "Catholic fantasy"/procedural TV pilot

A Catholic retired Army colonel must deal with memories of his son's ritualistic murder, his wife's suicide and his feeling of being betrayed by God, as he, his brilliant experimental psychologist daughter, and a charismatic expert in the occult expose a fraudulent spiritualist before she swindles a widow while filming their paranormal-busting reality TV show pilot.

2023 - Page Turner Fatih Based - Quarterfinalist

Star Trek: The Next Generation:
veStaHneSwI'a' (July 1991)

A one-hour spec teleplay
Unproduced
While investigating a trinary star system in what was once Klingon territory, the crew of the Enterprise discovers a planet inhabited by a group of Klingons, forgotten since the last war between the Klingons and Federation, who epitomize the Klingon Warrior Philosophy.

Star Trek: The Next Generation:
To Better the Instruction (August 1990)

Star Trek: The Next Generation Communications Panel

A one-hour spec teleplay
Unproduced
Alien colonists whose terraforming colony is destroyed by alien raiders commandeer the Enterprise using their advanced, telepathic computer. And while Picard struggles to wrest control of the Enterprise from the colonists' computer, Riker strives to help Deanna overcome its control over her own mind.

Star Trek: The Next Generation:
Yellow Alert (November 1988)

Star Trek: The Next Generation Holodeck Door

A one-hour spec teleplay
Unproduced
During a prolonged and stressful mission to monitor the ignition of a protostar from a stellar nebula, Wesley developes a psychological addiction to a holodeck program some of the more webpted children on the Enterprise have written.

If you think reading "Yellow Alert" was worth your time, consider making a donation:

Resulted in a letter that allowed me to submit future scripts without representation

Made it into the top 10 of 110 specs left for 3^rd season Producer by 2^nd Producer

The Order of the Brotherhood

29,385 words
monastary with crops growing in the foreground

The year is 2042 and Ishmael Brown, himself an ex-convict, is the Warden of an independent and self-sufficient prison in a post-apocalyptic Illinois, but he prefers the title Abbot of the Brotherhood, as the inmates refer to themselves. When National Guardsmen, on orders from the autocratic Mayor of Peoria, arrive and demand that the Brotherhood accept new inmates and teach the people of Peoria how to survive in a technology-less world, Ishmael must decide if he will acquiesce or refuse. Either way, Ishmael must fight forces within and outside the Brotherhood bent on destroying the rational democracy the Brotherhood has so carefully crafted for themselves.

Timeloop Trilogy: Book 1 - The Loops of Time

35,184 words
P. James Norris drawing of timeloops with a spaceship

In 2189 Samuel serves as a linguist onboard a United Earth Survey vessel after losing the ability to do theoretical physics due to a brain injury in a lab accident that also killed his wife two years ago. When he is kidnapped by aliens who want him to entreat a God unaware of and unconcerned with Its creation to save them, Samuel learns the true nature of time and slowly regains his cognitive abilities. But using his newfound knowledge and recovered faculties, will he be able to travel back in time to save his wife?

The Djinn War Trilogy: Book 1 - A Broken Ruh

10,875 words
a Middle Eastern warrior/wizard

The year is 2013 and Afghanistan-War veteran Greg aimlessly wanders the Appalachian Hills trying to regain his moral compass. When he is magically transported to Ramja-Sul, a sultanate much like medieval Afghanistan, he finds himself thrust into a political and martial conflict between Ramja-Sul and a neighboring Sultanate, the Sultan of which is covertly controlled by Djinn who are thought to be mythical. Can Greg maintain his moral autonomy, or will he be forced to make himself vulnerable to the magic of Ramja-Sul to save the woman he comes to love?

A Desolate Habitation

5,429 words
statue of Judas kissing Jesus

Since his suicide after betraying Christ, Judas has repeatedly reincarnated after each death. During each life, on the nights of the days of his life that he died, he dreams of his past deaths. In this life in 2018, he is a lawyer seeking justice for nuns sexually abused by priests of the Catholic Church--throughout the 2,000 years of his lives, he has fought against injustices perpetrated by the Church--often leading to his deaths. But unlike during his previous lives, the dreams now speak to him of undeniable realities, and he seeks counseling to understand them. Through past-life regression, he learns that he was once Judas, and that he must forgive himself for his necessary and pre-ordained betrayal of Christ in order to be admitted to Heaven.

In the Light of the Morning Sun

4,120 words
angel dominates vampire

The angel Hadziel befriends young Johnny, who will, should he die of "unnatural" causes after puberty, become a vampire. Johnny grows to want nothing but to be like his older brother Tommy, who is popular and athletic, and on a dare, drowns after jumping off a reservoir and becomes a vampire. Hadziel teaches Johnny how to disguise his vampirism and to survive without preying on humans, for if he should ever do so, Hadziel will send him to Hell. As Johnny begins to eclipse Tommy as an athlete, Tommy grows jealous. Tommy is drafted to go fight in Viet Nam, and upon being medically discharged for a wound suffered in battle, returns home bitter, and decides to kill Johnny when he learns his high school sweetheart has fallen for Johnny. Will Johnny find a way to survive without draining his brother and damning himself to Hell?

untitled

0 words

A non-speculative--maybe a thriller?--based on Level 42's "Take a Look" lyrics. The lyrics below are from LyricFind but I hear something different when I listen to the song, and I've struck out their lyrics in favor of what I hear when I listen to the song.

I'm a ragged man with a ragged heart
But I wear my soul with pride
You can see me on the road
See my carrying my home
And perhaps it seems that I'm all alone
But I'm happy here inside
You can keep your fancy dress
'Cause to me it don't impress

When I look in your face
That camera And the smile looks out of place on you
By the look in your eyes
I can see you realize

So lend Surrender yourself to me
I'll show you what could be

Well I've come so far down so many roads
I've experienced your pain
You know that that's a fact
I can see the way you act
But I learned to see what was wrong with me
And I won't go back again

I know I've made mistakes
But I also made the break
You surround yourself
With secrets you are afraid to show to the world
You convince yourself
There's no other way to go
Don't you see the smile on my face
Does it look so out of place

So lend Surrender yourself to me
I'll show you what could be
Yes, I will

So many ways
For you to spend the passing days
Loving and living or losing and using
Life is forgiving for giving so use it well
Feeling revealing or wheeling and dealing
Life's not for stealing and time will tell

Loving and living or losing and using (Take a look at your face)
Life is forgiving for giving so use it well
Feeling revealing or wheeling and dealing (Take a look at your face)
Life's not for stealing and time will tell

You must surely know
If mMan made heaven then and man made hell
So take a look at yourself
What's this secret you can't tell me
When I look in your face
I see that smile so out of place on you
And by the look in your eyes
I can see you realize, oh yeah

Which novel do you think I should focus on?

Academic Writings

The Promise of Roberts' "Measurability Account of Laws", P James Norris, Southwest Philosophy Review 20 (2), 117-128, 2008.
Empirical Investigation of Extreme Single-Particle Behavior of Nuclear Quadrupole Moments in Highly Collective A, Clark, S. T., et al, Physical Review Letters 87(17), 22 October 2001.
Forward rapidity results from RHIC, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Bøggild, C Chasman, ..., Revista mexicana de física 52, 112-118, 2006.
Charged Meson Rapidity Distributions in Central Collisions at Au + Au Collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200GeV, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Bøggild, C Chasman, ..., Physical review letters 94 (16), 162301, 2005.
Forward and midrapidity like-particle ratios from p+p collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200GeV, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Bøggild, C Chasman, ..., Physics Letters B 607 (1-2), 42-50, 2005.
Nuclear Stopping in Au + Au Collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200GeV, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Bøggild, C Chasman, ..., Physical review letters 93 (10), 102301, 2004.
High p_T results for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200GeV, I Arsene, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Bøggild, ..., The European Physical Journal C-Particles and Fields 33 (1), s603-s605, 2004
Strangeness production in $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC, I Arsene, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Bøggild, ..., The European Physical Journal C-Particles and Fields 33 (1), s624-s626, 2004
The new physics at RHIC. From transparency to high p_T suppression, JJ Gaardhoeje, I Arsene, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, ..., Nuclear Physics a 734, 13-27, 2004
High p_T hadron spectra at high rapidity, I Arsene, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Boggild, ..., 2004.
High pT results for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV, I Arsene, IG Bearden, H Bøggild, C Besliu, CH Christensen, ..., European Physical Journal C 33, 605-605, 2004.
Rapidity dependent strangeness measurements in BRAHMS experiment at RHIC, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Boggild, C Chasman, ..., Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics 30, 585-592, 2004.
Nuclear stopping in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV, H Ito, EJ Kim, MJ Murray, J Norris, SJ Sanders, American Physical Society, 2004.
Rapidity dependent strangeness measurements in BRAHMS experiment at RHIC, JH Lee, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Bøggild, C Chasman, ..., Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics 30 (1), S85, 2003.
Transverse-Momentum Spectra in Au+Au and d+Au Collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV and the Pseudorapidity Dependence of High- p_T Suppression, I Arsene, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, B Budick, H Bøggild, ..., Physical Review Letters 91 (7), 2003.
Results from the BRAHMS experiment at RHIC, D Röhrich, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, Y Blyakhman, J Brzychczyk, ..., Nuclear Physics B-Proceedings Supplements 117, 80-82, 2003.
Rapidity Dependence of Charged Antihadron to Hadron Ratios in Au+Au Collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, Y Blyakhman, B Budick, H Bøggild, ..., Physical Review Letters 90 (10), 102301, 2003.
Transverse-momentum spectra in Au+Au and d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV and the pseudorapidity dependence of high-p_T suppression, H Ito, MJ Murray, B Neumann, J Norris, SJ Sanders, American Physical Society, 2003.
The BRAHMS experiment at the relativistic heavy ion collider, YK Lee, IG Bearden, D Beavis, ..., Journal of the Korean Physical Society 43 (Suppl), S27-S31, 2003.
Rapidity Dependence of charged particle yields for Au+Au at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, Y Blyakhman, B Budick, H Boggild, ..., Nuclear Physics A 715, 478c-481c, 2002.
From y= 0 to y= 3: Recent results from BRAHMS, P Zavada, D Beavis, C Besliu, Y Blyakhman, B Budick, H Boggild, ..., 2002
Rapidity dependent net-proton yields in Au+Au at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV, JH Lee, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, Y Blyakhman, B Budick, ..., , 2002
Pseudorapidity Distributions of Charged Particles From Au+ Au Collisions at the Maximum RHIC Energy, $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV, IG Bearden, D Beavis, C Besliu, Y Blyakhman, B Budick, H Bøggild, ..., Physical review letters 88 (20), 202301, 2002.
Pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles from Au+Au collisions at the maximum RHIC energy, $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV, Ito, J Norris, SJ Sanders, Ameircan Physical Society, 2002.
Current Sensor for the Silicon Strip Detector's at BRAHMS, J. Norris, T. Sobering, S Sanders, 15 March 2001
A Measurement of $\frac{BR (D_{S}^{+} \to f_{0} (980) π^{\pm})}{BR (D_{S}^{+} \to Φ (1020) π^{\pm})} ˙ \frac{BR (f_{0} (980) \to K^{+} K^{-})}{BR (Φ (1020) \to K^{+} K^{+})}$ , P James Norris, Kansas State University, 1996.
In-beam tests of a ring imaging Cherenkov detector with a multianode photomultiplier readout, R Debbe, S Gushue, B Moskowitz, J Norris, J Olness, F Videbaek, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators …, 15, 1995.
BRAHMS MRS Threshold Cherenkov Proposal, R Debbe, H Ito, M Murray, J Norris, SJ Sanders.
Fragmentation of CH₄ caused by fast-proton impact, Ben-Itzhak, I., et al, Physical Review A May 1993
Direct Determination of recoil ion detection efficiency for coincidence time-of-flight of molecular ragmentation.webp, Ben-Itzhak, I., et al, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 79(1-4), 138-141, June 1993.
Velocity dependence of ionization and fragmentation of methane caused by fast-proton impact, I. Ben-Itzhak, K. D. Carnes, D. T. Johnson, P. J. Norris, and O. L. Weaver, PHYSICAL REVIEW A 49(2) February 1994.