On Writing

At long last! The Brussels Review's anthology TBR BLANC includes my short story, "A Scrap of Paper." Order your copy at: https://shop.thebrusselsreview.com/products/entrance-and-exits-tbr-blanc-26?shop_sign_in=true

Recently it seems that there have been more questionnaires on Facebook than usual. They appear on these "literary" sites, designed to engage people interested in English Literature, American Literature, and Classical Literature. Also Modern Literature, and British (as opposed to English) Literature, Bookish Litarature, Literature Quotes, Literary Literature . . . You get the idea. Sometimes these sites contain interesting factoids about noteworthy authors or their works. And

Lately I've been inundated with ads from firms that promise to promote my book and transform it into a bestseller. In truth, I have no one to blame for this flood but myself. I was the one who initiated it, after all, by inquiring about these businesses in the first place. I was feeling discouraged about the fact that my one self-published collection wasn't selling well (actually, wasn't selling at all!). And I was dealing with a writers block of sorts myself, so I wasn't pro

"Blueberries" I've played with AI since it first became available a couple of years ago. As a teacher, of course I'm always looking out for cheaters. A paper come in that looks too good to be true, and a little investigation reveals that the true author was someone named Claude (no last name), who is not in my class. It gives me evil pleasure co confront a miscreant with his mendacity. But I decided to dig deeper. I gave one these AI platforms the outline of one of my stories

I finished this story yesterday, and have sent it off to a couple of prospective publishers. I'll let you know when it appears, either in print or online. I've had it sketched out for months now. I got down roughly what happens and something about the central character. I won't even call it a draft; it was a page or two of ideas, and it stayed like that for months. I couldn't decide what to do with it. I knew that something bad was going to happen, but I couldn't decide who i

You know, readers, that I've been studious about avoiding any commentary on contemporary issues. It's not that I don't care, and if you look at my Facebook page you'll get an idea of the kind of things that concern me. I'm breaking with that to announce that I'm taking "Are You Okay?" and Other Stories off the Amazon market. It will be available only from Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardcover and as an e-book. I was moved to do this when I learned that Mark Zuckerberg and c

" A Scrap of Paper" At long last, I've heard back from The Brussels Review . I submitted two stories, "Kim" and "A Scrap of Paper" in March of last year. TBR wrote me back only two weeks later, saying that both pieces had been accepted. I was thrilled, of course; TBR is a fledgeling publication, but it already looks impressive: intriguing stories, captivating artwork, and an international following. It's unusual for a publication to accept two stories from the same author at

I got a notice the other day that an online journal was open for submissions. I went to my folder of unpublished stories and found one that I had written almost two years ago that I hadn't looked at since. It was kind of long for most publications (almost 8000 words), but it was a good concept: a failing marriage, symbolized by the destruction of an historic building to make way for a banal office plaza, and hope symbolized by the potential of a lottery ticket. I reread the s

For those of you who've been following, I've been thinking a lot about the publishing side of writing. Actually, that's not accurate. Writing is one thing, but publishing is quite another. I mentioned last time that I was frustrated by the fact that so many literary journals restrict the size of the submissions they'll accept. The overwhelming majority of them accept flash fiction, a term new to me until recently. Duotrope, my go-to platform for tracking my submissions, helps

The more I look at possible venues for my stories, the more conscious I am of genres - and what "sells." I use two different platforms to screen possible publishers and to keep track of what I've submitted, and where. The site Duotrope has been especially useful. They list literally thousands of journals and magazines, both online and print, as well as agents who might be open to reading works by unknown authors. It also provides tools to help you screen magazines for suitabi

Just yesterday, I got a text message that read, "Uncle, I suddenly realized I haven't messaged you in a while, so I thought I'd say hello."

A young friend, a student, asked me if I were still writing. I told her that I was, though I haven't published anything in about a year. Although I published Are You Okay? I refuse to do the vanity press sort of thing. The book is just a convenience for me and my readers. I don't have to paste links to all these magazines' web addresses into emails. And even if readers do take the trouble to track them down, it's often hard to find a specific story. These journals update th

This past spring, I had an idea for a story. I've been working on a series of short stories set on the coast of Maine during the summer....

That's the message on a poster I have on the wall of my classroom. I put it up several years ago when I was teaching underclassmen. I...

My mother was an Indiana farm girl. She lived in many places, including Daytona, Florida, New York City, Georgia, and New England, but I...

It isn't easy for me to write. I doubt that I'm the only writer to learn that it can be extremely difficult, especially if you're new to...

I started writing short fiction two years ago, after retiring from teaching. A couple of qualifications here: First, I've written short...