The Taste of Success!

One of my MFA classes was writing short stories. When I was younger, I used to write them, after I gave up writing bad poetry. I moved to novels until that class rekindled my love for writing them. So I started writing and submitting. One that was recently published is Little Girl Lost which was on the website 101 Words (link highlighted below). The format is a complete short story in exactly 101 words. It’s not as easy as you may think. Even though it’s not a paying market, it’s nice to see my name on a new piece and it keeps my name out in the internet universe. Subscribe for free and enjoy the eclectic stories or sub your own. (You can search for my story on the Search Stories tab.)

https://101words.org/#:~:text=Alice%20Couldn%E2%80%99t%20Go%20Back%20to%20Yesterday.%20Alice%20was%20sitting%20under

Using What I Know

Another story that I’ve signed a contract for is called Toolbox for an anthology titled Goodbye for Now; True Stories of Life, Love, and Loss. It wasn’t an easy memoir piece to write because of the subject matter, loss and grief. But I needed to stretch my literary wings and the short story is a perfect jump off point. I’ve had this story in my desk for years and at various times pulled it out and revised it. When I saw the advertisement for this anthology, I knew this would be the best place to sub it. And yep, I get paid! It’s not a great amount but it’s added to my resume of paid, published works.

The actual toolbox in the story

Something Wicked I Hope Comes This Way

Another short story which I’m waiting to hear if it’s been accepted is for an anthology of ‘what came after’ the happily ever after in fairy tales (it’s never The End…). It’s called That Cottage in the Woods and tells you what happened after Hansel and Gretel escaped from the wicked witch. The anthology is called Wickedness and Wonder and it will be published by Wild Ink Publishing (if anyone is interested in submitting, hurry, there’s a deadline). There is no payment, but I’m hoping if my story is published, I’ll be able to order copies and offer them for sale at book festivals, put one on My Books shelf, and again, it puts my name out there in case any agents or editors are curious…

Photo by Malte Luk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-and-white-concrete-house-surrounded-with-trees-1729156/

Every Friday (well, almost every Friday-broken legs, hip replacement surgery, covid, torn rotator cuff, and bronchitis notwithstanding), I try to write, edit, and/or submit to various short story markets. So far I’ve done paranormal, horror, romance, memoir, fantasy, and women’s fiction. Honestly, I’ve gotten a number of rejections, but I haven’t been at it very long, so I feel that two acceptances and the possibility of more is a good sign.

Every once in a while, I’ll catch you up on how things are going with the shorts as I continue to work on several novel projects.