Tag Archives: short story

A Piece of Flash Fiction

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I usually don’t post my own writing here but last night, I had a migraine and when those hit, I try to do some deep breathing exercises to keep myself from vomiting or crying with the pain and nausea. My husband has been ill since before Halloween and spent 13 days in the hospital after spending two weeks unable to get out of his recliner. He came home Sunday night and is still so weak, it’s scary to see him. Of course, this all triggered my migraine.

As I lay there doing my deep breathing, I suddenly found myself chanting (inner monologue) Pizza, Pasta, and Spaghettios. As I waited for my meds to kick in, this little story came to me and so I thought I’d share it. So, here it is, my 2:30 am little ditty.

Pizza, Pasta, and Spaghettios

From the moment the door to DiMaggio’s Pizza Parlor opened and she strolled in, he knew he was going to marry her someday. When she walked over to the old fashioned juke box, he thrust his pool cue toward his best friend, the college quarterback, and told him to finish the game.

He took coins from his pocket and asked her what song she wanted to play. From that day forward, they were together and spent many an evening having pizza at DiMaggio’s and playing that song they loved. Their song.

When they both became professionals and paid off their student loans, with their new found financial ability to treat themselves, they experimented with pasta. Carbonara, shrimp scampi on angel hair, penne ala vodka, and clams with linguine. They chose pasta over pizza for a number of years.

When the children came, the fancy pasta took a back seat to spaghettios. They didn’t mind as the kids loved them and they were happy to see them eat a semblance of their favorite Italian cuisine.

When the children were older, DiMaggio’s became a favorite place again as the kids found their love of various flavors of pizza there. Cheese to start and moving on to pepperoni, but as their palates became more sophisticated, they ventured into mushrooms, peppers, and even anchovies on occasion.

With the children grown, married and on their own, he and she returned to their fancy pasta. Carbonara, shrimp scampi on angel hair, penne ala vodka, and clams with linguine.

In his old age, with her gone to heaven, he sometimes ate spaghettios straight from the can over the sink, her favorite song running through his mind. Their song. For eternity.

Penny Pinching Tips for the Morally Bankrupt by Libby Marshall– a Review

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Let me first say, I think I would love to spend a day with this author. She has a very vivid imagination, a clear love for Cold Stone Creamery, and a disturbing way of looking at many regular occurrences in all of our lives.  And I don’t say that in a bad way.  🙂

This book is a collection of short stories and some even shorter views of things we all experience, but certainly don’t think about in strange ways. At least not until they’re pointed out by Libby Marshall.  Then it’s so obvious that she observes events and normality in a different way than most of us.

Some of the stories are poignant and some are really funny in a twisted way. I won’t say which I felt was which lest I be judged for my giggles.  

I enjoyed these little tales and vignettes during my lunch hour and on small breaks from work. They are just short enough to fill in gaps in the day when you need a little smile….or a bit of melodrama. 🙂

Some of my favorites—by no means an exhaustive list—are “Witnesses of Historic Moments Who Missed the Point; 90 Day Fiancé: Dracula; A Man Goes on His First Date Since His Wife was Hanged for Witchcraft; Please Continue this Conversation as Normal or I’ll Be Forced to Assume it was About me; Yes, of Course I’m satisfied by just the Tip of this Piece of Cheesecake; and Yelp Reviews of the Chuck E. Cheese Haunted by the Spirit of Princess Diana.

There are so many more awesome little tales in this book. I recommend it highly for its sense of fun as well as the author’s sense of humor and her appreciation for the ridiculous. I really enjoyed this one.

New Story Sale

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I recently sold another short story- this one is called Music Hall, Music Hell.  It’s for an anthology called Happy Hell-o-Ween; Underworld Tours.  I wrote it in a couple of hours (after getting up three times in the night to jot down notes) and then let it simmer in my head for the day. I edited it that evening and submitted it. In 18 minutes, I had an acceptance.  The editor called it “a gem”-  made my day.

It’ll be out in September, 2011, I believe as it is a Halloween Anthology.  Check out the other books at the publisher’s website. I’ve got stories in several of them. I’m in Dear Valentine;  Christmas in Outer Space; Free Range Fairy Tales; Halloween Dances with the Dead;  and It Was a Dark and Stormy Halloween.  There are some amazing writers there.  http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/WhortleberryPress

Another Short Story Done and Submitted

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So, I subscribe to http://www.duotrope.com/  It’s a great site.  They have a lot of information about different magazines and literary publishers as well as calls for anthologies. You can even keep up with your submissions there and they calculate how many days your submission is out. They keep great statistics.  Every week, they send a reminder email of new markets, closed markets, reopened markets, and deadlines.  And if you report an acceptance, your name goes in that email with a congratulations.

This week, I noticed a call for Thanksgiving stories. First time I’ve seen this particular call. It was for a humorous mystery. Since I like to write light and love humor in my short stories, I thought it over on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, I woke up with the first line in my head.  Didn’t find the time to write it til today- labor day- I hope it is as funny as I think it is.  I finished it, edited it and submitted it all in one day.  I  usually mull it over more than that, but what the heck, gotta live life on the edge once in a while, right?

Won’t hear til after September 30 as that’s the deadline. Will keep ya posted when I know a yea or nay. Here is a pic of my Thanksgiving theme:

Submitting Another Short Story

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I have just submitted another short story under my real name. It’s not a romance, so it goes under my real name. It’s one I wrote ages ago and that I recently revamped. I’d planned to submit it to StorySouth, a journal that publishes authors and stories from the South but I didn’t get finished with the rewrite before they closed submissions in June because I was making a mad dash to add words to one of my romance manuscripts. They reopen on September 15 but I found another market to submit to today which is the Gulf Coast Magazine. So, I sent it in. They both take simultaneous submissions, so if it isn’t accepted by the 15th, I’ll submit it to the other as well.  Check them out: http://www.gulfcoastmag.org/     http://www.storysouth.com/

Costa Rica

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Used the research I did for a full length manuscript that my alter ego is writing for a fun little short story.  I decided to put the info to good use by writing something short to submit under my own name. I hope it will be accepted. I think it is a fun little story. Submitted it late this afternoon.  The guidelines were under 6000 words, romance, jungle theme.

I have 5200+ words, romance and it occurs partially in the jungle of Costa Rica.  AND I have the greatest, coolest name ever for the hero.  The name alone inspired me.  So, how could it miss?? 

Stay tuned for an update on the submission.  As soon as I know yea or nay, I’ll post.

Exciting news this morning

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SOLD–  Pimps and Hos, my short story, has been sold to Dreamspell Mysteries. Contract will be on the way soon.  I’m happy to find a home for this story.    It was a fun one to write and I was very happy with it so I’m glad someone else liked it!  A good start to the day!

New Short Story

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Gonna start a new one tonight-  that’s the plan, anyway.  It came to me this morning in the shower- have to work the real job first, though. Have a lunch date so can’t work on it during lunch either. I have jotted down gist of it.   I already know where I plan to submit it.  It will be one  under my real name.

Here’s a clue:  And for those of you that know how much I love the British Isles, this castle view isn’t much of a clue, is it? so, here’s another clue: there will be golden hair in this story.   Does that help?

Feeling bad

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Been sick and no motivation to update the blog.   I’ve been working hard on the latest novel and now that its done, I may knock out a short story or two.  While I wait for the inspiration for the next full length story.   IF I ever get to feeling like myself again, that is.  I’m counting the minutes til I can sleep.  For a long time.