Got an ereader? Maybe an ereader app on your computer or mobile? If you do, have I got a deal for you! Individual short stories just 99 cents!
Why? Because back in the dark reaches of time, when I first joined the Southern Indiana Writers’ Group, I was confronted with a challenge: write a short story for their annual anthology. A few years prior to my joining, the group initiated an anthology project to familiarize members with the submission and publication process. This was the Indian Creek Anthology Series. I’d come in just as they were putting their latest volume together and they wanted me to submit a piece.
Ooookay . . . short story. Hmmmmm. Over the years, there’d been essays, comic book scripts, articles, graphic novel scripts and a few poems but very few actual factual short stories.
Truth to tell, the whole reason I joined SIW was because a graphic novel script had taken on a life of its own and become a full-length novel. It took me five years to finish, but during that time, I discovered how much I enjoyed writing in general and writing in the novel form in particular. I joined the group hoping to figure out what came next. Now, here they were asking me to write a SHORT story. A short story about CHRISTMAS, no less. Oy. The background I come from is/was a real mixed bag. Sure, I had some holiday stories, but they more resembled Jean Shepherd with a dash of Edgar Allen Poe than Norman Rockwell. What to do. . . .
When in doubt punt. I fell back on what I knew and looked to the black and white television programs I grew up on, the ones that so strongly influenced me. I wound up writing a Playhouse 90 type of thing about a family of escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad crossing from Kentucky into Indiana on Christmas night.
The story became Away in a Manger and it was included in volume 3 of the Indian Creek Anthology Series, Christmas Bizarre. That was a lot of years ago. SIW is about to publish volume 17 in the anthology series, Holiday Bizarre — which not so coincidentally contains much of the original Christmas Bizarre at the core.
The upshot of all that? Between the SIW anthologies, contests, challenges, other anthologies I have contributed to, other anthologies I have TRIED to contribute to and stuff that just popped into my head, I have a slew of short stories lying around. Used to be that, unless it fitted into an anthology or was needed as a sample of an author’s work, a short story by itself wasn’t worth much. The advent of electronic publishing and the proliferation of electronic reading devices has changed that. Now a short story is just the right length to pull up between flights, before meetings, on breaks or just before settling down to sleep. That’s why I decided to put my work out there as singles for just 99 cents each. A little story for a little price that I hope will bring big enjoyment.
Listings of my titles — in about any flavor desired — can be found:
Oh, and that graphic novel that ran off with itself? It’s currently under submission at a small press. Fingers crossed!
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