Christmas Stories From Out West

Excited to see my book of Christmas Short stories, all set in the west, up to Number 35 on Amazon – Thanks for reading – Under Western Skies

Writing Short Stories

What is a short story? If you take the time to look it up, most suggest a short story is 1,000 or 1,500 to 7,500 words. Some writers enjoy doing shorts, others think it is a waste of time. Many modern writers skip short stories because they do not sell very well – too bad. I love reading short story collections and most of the time I have a book of shorts I am reading. Guess there are not many readers like me.

Another book and another day finished. Photo 2-24-2016

I just finished reading a small collection of O. Henry stories, loved them. And he, above all other writing, enjoyed writing them. He liked writing them so much he even gave away his short story writing secret. “I’ll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.”

Junot Diaz, who won a Pulitzer for his terrific novel, The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, had this to say about writing shorts.  “We get so many people saying short fiction is not economical, that it doesn’t sell; but there are so many of us enjoying writing it and reading it. So it’s wonderful to be around people who love short fiction too – it’s like hanging around with my tribe.”

In November, I published a collection of short stories, Under Western Skies, a book of short stories of Christmas. I loved writing them, but it is not easy. I found it to be quite a challenge to write a beginning, middle and end in a couple thousand words. I have read that after poetry, short stories are the most difficult to write and in many ways, I think that is true.

If nothing else, I believe Ray Bradbury had the correct idea about writing shorts. “Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.”

Meanwhile, if anyone has read any great short story collections lately, let me know.

My favorite photo this week - I call it, Do You Think They See Me?

Christmas in the West

My new book of Christmas stories in the west is finished.  

Find it here

Out west, Cowboys and Christmas have always been a near perfect match. I’m not sure that there has ever been a Cowboy that didn’t love Christmas. 

When it’s Christmas in the west magical things happen. Tales set in both the old west and the modern west, a few serious and some humorous but western stories through and through.

Give it a try today – makes a great gift. 

Write More in 2015

Not sure my writing total of a bit over 100,000 words was enough this year. In the past couple of weeks I have read two posts by authors that wrote over a million words in 2014.  Not sure I could ever get close to this but am hoping to get close to 250,000 in 2015.

 I have an advantage over many writers and would be writers, because I don’t need to sell anything. I live comfortably on retirement and occasionally substitute teach in the local district to pick up what we old folks used to call, “a little pin money.”

I have been lucky to publish many short stories and travel pieces over the years but still have high hopes for a novel. So 2015, will be the year!

At present I have a non-fiction, local history, being edited with publishing coming, I hope, in February. When that is complete, I will work on the two novels I have completed and two completed volumes of short stories.

 Who knows? If everything goes great I might get a few books out this year – and maybe write a bit more.

“I was sorry to hear my name mentioned as one of the great authors, because they have a sad habit of dying off. Chaucer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and I am not feeling very well myself.”
- Mark Twain

Freezing up North of Town

Happy New Year!