Book Brouhaha

Summary: Two Frigate Victory short stories. Dramatic Solution: The Terran Federal Republic frigate Victory is escorting colonists to their new home world. Upon arrival they find a pirate ship orbiting the planet. Dealing the the pirates is easy. How can the crew prevent the pirates’ leader from finding his missing ship? First published in “Just Because,” September 1998. The Allergy Factor: There’s trouble on the colony world Vliets between settlers and a mining company. Captain Jason Ayers and the Victory are sent to resolve the dispute. One of his crew falls ill from a sip of beer. Could the explanation point to a solution? First published in “Hadrosaur Tales,” Volume 17, 2003. Review: This collection is composed of two stories, “Dramatic Solution” and “The Allergy Factor,” both part of a series entitled “Frigate Victory.” The sci-fi shorts follow the adventures of the crew on the frigate Victory, particularly Lieutenant Shannon Fournier and Captain Jason Aye...

I just wanted to announce that I am hosting a drawing/sweepstakes event on Short Story Symposium.  To enter  the drawing all you have to do is Tweet a blog link or share a blog link or Facebook.  As prizes, I'm giving away a $25, $20 and $15 Amazon gift card. Here's the link to find out more details:   http://shortstorysymposium.blogspot.com/2011/11/blog-raffle-win-free-amazon-gift-card.html I figure it's kind of a fun way for everyone to help each other out.  The authors get more publicity, readers could find new reading material and the general public could become more aware of short stories.

As far as short stories go, there are some pre-prescribed methods on how you should go about promoting your stories.  It's generally suggested that you use magazines (or e-zines) to your advantage.  Submit your story to the magazine and if they accept it and publish it you get a little bit of freelance money plus a way to introduce your work to new readers. Once the one year (or whatever) contract with the magazine is up, you are free to publish your short story on your own as an ebook.  Then you use the usual internet promotion methods to further yourself as an author. I feel like this is good advice and not at all a bad way to go.  However, I decided almost as soon as I first published that I'm not going to listen to it.  Here's why: I want to see if it's possible to just  be a self-published short story writer.  I kind of want to test the system.  There's a lot of chit and chat about how ebooks could revitalize the short st...

A few days ago I came across a link shared on Twitter by James Everington .  It was called "Is 2012 Going to Be 'The Year of the Short Story?'" and you can read the article here if you like. First of all, the title made me laugh.  It sounds like the a Chinese zodiac sign or something for the year.  The article itself doesn't really break any new ground either.  It basically just talks how traditional publishers have not been interested in short stories until this point because they cost too much to print.  Well, duh. What is  interesting about the article is that it suggests at the end how ebooks are changing the availability of short stories which has caused a renewed interest for publishers.  Now this is what short story authors have been hoping for since the beginning.  What's significant about this article is that it's a sign that our dreams could become a reality. Articles such as this show that short stories are now becoming a market ...

Summary: The true short story of one family, one critter, and one month's worth of problems. A comedic look at the travails of being a homeowner and dealing with the occasional uninvited houseguest. Review: In this story, homeowners do battle with a very determined rat who has moved into their home. Having an older home myself that seems to be prone to critter invasions, I fully appreciate everything the author and his family went through. Picturing Birdsell catching mice with a colander and chasing rats with a golf club reminded me of my own adventures: trapping mice in tupperware and driving to the park in my pajamas to release them, using a tennis racket to scoot a possum out from behind the dryer, etc. As Birdsell points out, many people have similar stories of critter or bug invasions. If the individual is a good storyteller, as Birdsell clearly is, such tales are tailor made for amusing blog posts or a comedically dramatic retelling...

Summary: Kidnapped and thrown into the lair of a deadly vampire, Susan Smith fights through the terror of her plight to survive. Will the evil creature get her in the end or will she find a way to defeat him? Review: I was a bit reluctant when I was given a vampire story to review. Veins make me queasy and I don’t like anything touching my neck, so it comes as no surprise that the recent trend of “sexy vampires” holds no appeal for me. In my mind, vampires will always be gross and scary. Fortunately for me, Roberts’ story “A Jalapeño For The Vampire,” is a modern nod to the good old days when vampires were terrifying. The story follows the capture and imprisonment of a young girl, named Susan, who is doomed to be a vampire’s snack. Though Roberts does an excellent job of crafting interesting characters, setting the scene and building suspense, Susan’s dialogue is sometimes forced. Instead of sounding like a spunky young girl, she sounds like...

Long trips to the bathroom Doctor appointments where they are only running "5 minutes" behind Obscenely long lines at the grocery store because the person in front is trying to win the exact change award Pretending to look like you're important and busy because you're staring at your phone Extended family get-togethers and you're not too keen on talking to any of your relatives Improving your vocabulary during a boring class - at least you're learning something, right? Waiting for your fashionably late friend to show up for your dinner engagement Actually putting your iPad to good use Lunch breaks where you don't want to look like a loser by just sitting there alone and chewing When you're not focused enough to read a novel but don't want to tell people that you just sat around and watched TV the whole weekend When you can't decide if you're in the mood for a rip-your-heart-out horror story or a rip-your-heart-out sappy romance ...