Friday, June 15, 2012

Short Stories


In July 2011, while on a tour for the summer reading program , I met Susan Weise, librarian at Augusta, Montana, population 284. Because her patrons were too busy and too few to have a book club, she started a short story club. The readers come to the club prepared because while they don't have time to read a book each month, they can read a short story.

I thought that was a great idea, and when I came back, I suggested the idea of a short story blog to our critique group.  Wade Peterson jumped at the idea and we've been writing stories for Black Coffee Fiction http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com ever since, alternating weeks.  Today, I posted my 20th story.  Not every story is a blockbuster, but there are some that are pretty darn good.

Today's story is "Love and the Colonoscopy", the sixth story in a series about Sheila and her life, starting with "Love in the Sixties" and following her story through the decades. In two weeks, I finish the series, then go on to new topics.

Wade and I do quite a bit of this thing.  He has a couple of minor superheroes called Michael and Corncob who have shown up twice and will be back.  Then there's another with an annoying talking sword called Balance. Is it obvious that Wade writes fantasy?

My depressing Christmas stories were recurring as well, with characters weaving their way into other stories than their own.  I almost have enough for a book, so I will return to these as we get closer to the holidays. There are so many ways to be depressed at Christmas.

To celebrate our first year of short stories, we plan to self-publish a collection, both in paper and as an e-book.  All of this while working on our individual blogs and writing novels.

Sometimes, all it takes is starting and sticking to a project to get results.   

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