A to Z Challenge: Short Stories

I don't get to write many short stories of late, but once upon a time, I did.

A few months ago I was thinking of taking up short stories again, but more as flash fiction, and more as bloggy type stuff. Just to stretch the ol' muscles. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.

My fellow woodland creature and short story writer extraordinare Colin D Smith has spent his A to Z Challenge by writing short stories. He's well-practiced, so they're pretty good. Go read them.

Because I'm woefully out of shape, I thought I'd give one a go.

I chose five words at random:

• Substitute
• Love
• Beads
• Indemnity
• Blackout

...and now I'm going to write a short story.

Margaret leaned out of her apartment window. Mrs Catalan's apartment window was only three meters away, but Mrs Catalan's scorn lay heavy on Margaret's shoulders. "You should have married my Steve," she's shout across the way. "He's a good lad. Goes to church, you know."

Prayer beads were no substitute for love beads, not with the way Steve used them. Margaret's throat still ached. She levered the ladder out from her window to the ledge across the way. When one found oneself suddenly single, one had to get used to doing things by oneself.

Well, Steve had a new home now for three-to-five years. Amazing how easy it was to find new housing when the cops caught you in Intent to Sell. Was it Coban or Armand who slipped that little packet into his jacket?

Mrs Catalan blamed Margaret for that as well, even if she had no proof.

Ever-so-carefully, Margaret made her way across the makeshift scaffold to Mrs Catalan's window. The nasty old biddy was out that afternoon.

A liberal squirt of Liquid Nails along the window frame ensured it would never open again. The rattle of mixer beads in the can of blackout paint sang sweetly in her ears.

Rightly so, Mrs Catalan would blame her for this bit of vandalism.

Margaret could afford the indemnity if it meant those accusing eyes would never accost her again.

________________________________
Her Grace might stick with novel.

No Skeletons in Her Closet

Have you read my short story "The Skeleton in Her Closet"?

la calavera catrina by dantetyler,
a lovely, talented artist.
Go buy a print.

If not, go get it RIGHT NOW, as it's free: Penumbra Magazine, April 2013

All downloaded? Good. Read my story. I'll wait until you get back.

...

Okay, did you enjoy that?

Aside from having you read a fun little story, I've got another little story of my own.

Today, something very much like "The Skeleton in Her Closet" happened to me.

Last week a friend of someone I know died (peacefully in her sleep of old age). Her husband gave all her clothes to the someone I know. As the clothes didn't fit her, someone I know passed them on to me, as I was of a similar size.

A dead woman's clothes?

COOL!

Their Ladyships and I had so much fun sorting through and sizing them up. There were bags and bags of some rather nice items. Nothing quite as exciting as the closet Janet inherited, but there were some lovely things I shall enjoy.

There were so many my blouse wardrobe has doubled, and that's me keeping only half of what I was given.

The only disappointment? No skeleton.

_______________
Her Grace is sporting a lovely pair of slouch-about-the-house cotton trousers in a gentle pink. So comfy!

Because I love them.

I want y'all to read my stories. Not necessarily buy (though that would be nice) but definitely read.

Why?  Because I love them so much. My stories make me so excited. They thrill me.

I'd very much like you to feel that way too. That is one of the biggest reasons I publish my stories--to share and to make happy.

There's not much out there that's free at the moment, as anything older than about five years... the archives don't seem to exist any more. Alas. But you could read my story "Erasure" in Moonlight Tuber #1 and What to Do when your Husband is Zombified in the post-apocalyptic housewife's domestic companion, issue 2. If you haven't read these two quirky little pieces, go read them right now.

And for something more recent, of course there is always "As Good As Gold", and soon my next novella "For Richer, For Poorer" will be released by The Wild Rose Press, real soon now. I've got pretty cover art and everything.  Also coming out soon in the Aphrodite Terra anthology is my short story "Goldilocks Zone", out from Whippleshield Books later this year. It's science fictiony goodness.

______________________
Her Grace has lots of stories yet to be published that she hopes will continue to thrill others as well.

Read a short story of mine for free!

My slightly-disturbing short story "A Little off the Top" is available free for download as part of Moonlight Tuber #1.  It's a tale of why some girlfriends become ex-girlfriends. (Actually, I quite enjoy this story, in the vein of  "Bitches be Crazy".)

The other stories are worth a read as well.

Download.  Read.  Comment if you wish.

This is a prime example of Australian Small Press.  We Aussies love our small press.

____________________________
Her Grace enjoys a good short story from time to time.

Rejectomancy

A few weeks ago I submitted a story to a super impressive magazine.  I knew the guest editor CC Finlay personally, which is how I heard about his call for submissions.  It was only a two week window, but he received over seven hundred submissions. (WOW!)

Modus operandi from the author's side of the fence, we submit a story to an editor, we wait anywhere from 48 hours to 48 weeks before we hear back. Then, one day, when we're least expecting it, we get an email.

Goes something like this:

Thank you for your submission to Super Impressive Magazine. I'm afraid your story is not suitable to our needs at this time, alas.
Regards,
Editor

Doesn't say much, does it?

Authors dream that editors would give a bit more info as to why the story was rejected.  Was it simply not thematically suitable to the je ne sais quois vibe of that issue, or did the story completely suck?

Thus, is born the fine art of Rejectomancy.

When you've collected a few hundreds or thousands of rejections, sometimes you imagine patterns in their replies that might hint at why the story was rejected.

Then CC Finlay posted Nectar for Rejectomancers.   It's like handing us a personal grimoire.

I love how he shared his experiences as an editor.  We don't get to hear about what happens on the other side of the fence too often, especially not in this much detail.

It was good for me.  I've been getting a little frustrated lately with all the rejections I've been getting  on stories of mine, stories I and various editors think are publishable.  (How do I know this?  Basic Rejectomancy.)

Editors rarely send back personal notes on stories.  They simply don't have the time (especially if they're getting over seven hundred stories in a two-week period).   So when they do, it's a big deal.

Also, when they say, "We loved this story," that's kind of hard to mis-interpret.  I especially like when they couple it with "Please send more."  They wouldn't ask if they didn't think I could write publishable stuff.

It was good to hear what CC Finlay thought about all his submissions. He even included what his rejections emails mean.  Much appreciated.

Sometimes the odds do get you down.  One often forgets just how long the odds are.  CC Finlay listed the stats in his post.  He had so many good stories, he had to be Very Selective.  Extremely Selective. He even had one story that it broke his heart to turn down.  (I want to read that story, whose rejection broke two hearts.)

So, from seven hundred-odd stories, he probably selected, maybe ten-ish?    So, 0.01% got sold.

Ouch.

I offer my most sincere congratulations to those dozen-odd authors who were lucky enough to hit this editor at the right time, in the right way, with their i's dotted proper and their eyes crossed right and the stars in auspcious alignment, and the absolutely bestest written story evahr!  I wish I was in your ranks.

Ah well.  There's still dozens of other magazines out there.  Maybe some day I'll get my chance.

___________________
Her Grace is wondering how to improve the odds in her favour.

My Research Fun (or how to get infected)

I recently finished a short story featuring Gene Therapy applications. Your eyes might glaze over, but I found it fascinating!

For the purpose of my story, essentially, transgenes are inserted into cells via viruses for a beneficial purpose.

I love research.  I learn so many interesting things.  Enthralling. Engrossing. Mesmerising. Sometimes I get carried away, and find out I've spent hours and hours on all sorts of things.  It's a habit I wonder if I should curb or encourage.  Not sure.

Anyhow, back to introducing new DNA/RNA into cells via viruses.  If you were brave enough to click through to the Wikipedia article, you'd have discovered that all sorts of little issues prevent gene therapy from being a Really Useful Technology.  That's a shame. It's a fascinating concept.

It's a good thing I was writing a science fiction story. (Yeah, I write sci-fi too.)

Sci-fi is fun in that you can take some plausible science idea and "tweak" it a bit.  In real life, gene therapy isn't a wide-spread technology, but in my story it is.  Suspend your disbelief and play along at home.  This is why we call it science fiction and not science fact.  You want fact?  Go read Scientific American.  It's cool and is a hotbed for skiffy ideas.

In science fiction the science doesn't have to be exact, but it does have to be plausible. If, to 90% of the readers the science appears to work, they’ll suspend their disbelief and go with the flow.

Stories are about conflict.  Sci-fi takes an idea or a situation and posits, "What if?"

I had some conflict in that a certain number of cells required certain genes to make up for a default.  The best way to introduce those gene was by transduction with a virus. (Transfection, which is a cooler word, is the introduction of genes by a non-viral method. How disappointing. Not as sexy.)

Now, where'd the virus come from, and how do we prevent the body from wiping it out, as bodies are very good at doing?  Thus, an interesting quandary for the story.

The actual conflict comes between two biohacker sisters who are competing to get the best delivery method to save their dying mother.  Could I have written any old story about two competing sisters with a dying mother?  Sure.  But the fact that the potential to save her lies within their grasp adds just that extra bit more of emotional angst.

I also had a few other skiffy elements in the story, namely insurance company-mandated Humour Therapy and a Blues Club (complete with jazz) available by Rx only.

___________
Her Grace is fond of science, especially Biology and most especially Astronomy. How could she not write sci-fi?  Wanna engage her interest? Talk to her about stars and other heavenly bodies. She'll accept the demotion of Pluto, only because it means the re-promotion of Ceres.  If only Rosalind Franklin was given the same love.

The Enchanted Faerie - What's It All About?

This is the temporary cover for our romantic anthology, The Enchanted Faerie. 

But how did it all come about? We have Cheryl Wright to thank for that. She set us all a challenge to write a short story with a common theme.

Cheryl set the scene: In the highlands of Scotland, in 1678, there is a gypsy, Alishandra Orona. She has an enchanted faerie that will guide the holder to their one true love. The cost for the service is 100 gold coins.

Cheryl created the character names and provided suggested towns where they might live, but the rest was up to us. From this premise, we set about challenging our characters to not only come up with the money, but to know true love when they found it.

We shared research and had a wonderful time in our characters' heads. It's been hard letting them go, but we've had such a lovely time we're sure to be making another anthology in the future.

Soon it will be time to release our bonny lasses onto the wilder world. It's going to be a great adventure.