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Showing posts from April, 2013

End With a Bang...Finally!

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Last week, I posted on Facebook that moonShine review accepted two of my short stories for publication.  Among the comments, one friend wrote, "Finally!"  I chuckled over this because I realized she thought this was my first published story.  It's not, but I loved her for her enthusiasm. Then, I thought about the two stories accepted by moonShine review . Gentle Snow might be one of my best stories.  I had never submitted it before because I wanted to choose the right publication.  And I was right; they wanted it.  That felt good because the other story, Pieces , plagued me for years. While working on my Master's degree in 2004, I wrote Pieces for a creative writing class. The professor had urged me to veer from my genre writing and try to write something literary.  The result was Pieces , a fictionalized account of a horrific event during my first marriage.  When the class critiqued my story, I received positive comments from the teacher and my classmates,

The Story Arc

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Last year, one of my short stories appeared in Stupefying Stories and soon after they asked me to be a first reader  of their submissions.  As I gained valuable insight from this experience, I began to recognize common problems in the stories I read.  When I commented on the most common one, lack of a story arc, to the editor, Bruce Bethke, he suggested I write a post about it for their blog.  So this week, I'm guest blogging about story arcs for Stupefying Stories. Do you know what a story arc is?  Check it out on Stupefying Stories' blog site.  Here's the link: The Story Arc: Without One, Your Roof Caves In . Please drop by and leave a comment.