In catching up on the blog circle postings, I’ve made it into August. This makes me feel good in more ways than just remembering I worked my ass off this past August (80k+ words!). It’s also been darn cold in this house lately, and remembering the warmth-ish from August is helping my feet stay sorta lukewarm.

For the prompt:

Do you write them? Do you hate them? Do you think they’re lovely but there’s no market for them? For those who wish to be published, many people will tell you that short story publications get your foot in the door. And while that is definitely true, I’m not sure how many people really focus on the short stories. So tell me about your own views on them. Have any been published? Are you looking to publish some?

Bonus: What is your favorite magazine/anthology of short stories? Send us a
picture of the cover! (Especially if you have a favorite issue.)

In 2014, I wrote 49 short stories. Most of these are really short flash, others are closer to novella length. Mostly they were written from prompts to get my brain working in the morning, some were written to specific prompts within WriYe (such as those in the Hint Fiction and Last WriYer Standing challenges). Only one was written specifically to publish, and was accepted into the Fossil Lake II: The Refossiling anthology. I may polish some of those written this year and try for publication. I’m not sure yet…

I do like writing shorts, they’re great for stimulating the mind creatively. Unfortunately, I find that it limits my writing longer pieces. I tend to get into the habit of wrapping the stories in short order, rather than going longer and developing more. I need to finish the novels I’ve started, instead of wrapping them at 13k or less. Know what I mean?

As much as I like doing them, I’m going to limit the number I do in future. Lessons learned in 2014, says I!

PS: For the bonus, I have to say my all-time favorite short-fiction magazine has been Necrotic Tissue. Sadly, it went out of publication several years ago, and doesn’t look to revive. I don’t have an image copy of my favorite cover, but it was the last issue, the one with the crazed easter bunny on it Found the cover… LOVED this!

What do you think about short stories? Do you write them? Read them?

’til next week…
<3 JL