Tag Archives: Short Stories

Mozark Press Call Out and Trying to Be Funny

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Mozark Press has a quick call out for humorous stories that I received while hanging out at the beach with my folks. Which is kinda funny…well, let me tell you about the call out first.

The editor is seeking humorous fiction for A Shaker of Margaritas: A Bad Hair Day and you must submit by July 15th. So you probably want to go straight over here for all the submission details. It sounds like a fun premise, and the stories in the Shaker of Margaritas series are always a hoot, so I hope I can come up with something soon. Though I don’t know how good it’ll be if I need to write a humorous story.

See, I brought my mom and dad a handful of Chicken Soup books on this last visit: Chicken Soup’s Messages From Heaven, Boost Your Brain, and Married Life. All books that you may recall have a story from yours truly (also known as their loving daughter). My mom finally got around to reading my contributions (after I’d left) and so when I called to let her know I’d arrived safely back across the state, she wanted to let me know what she thought about my work.

MOM: I really like when you write a simple story…like the one in that Brain book. I don’t know about those stories when you try to be funny.

ME: Well, thanks, Mom. I’m kinda glad Chicken Soup doesn’t feel that way.

(I had two stories in the Married Life book.)

MOM: I’m just saying that your simple stories are better. I don’t know why you try to be funny.

(Notice how Mom kept saying “try to be funny”–clearly implying that I’m not succeeding.)

ME: Well, Mom, the Married Life book asked for funny stories. So I had to “try” to write something funny.

MOM: Oh. Well, I suppose if you had to try to be funny…

So I shall “try to be funny” for Shaker of Margaritas: Bad Hair Day. But I don’t think my mom’s expecting much.

Flush Fiction For the Reader on the Go

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So, finally, I can come clean. I’ve been sitting on this news for quite some time, and I refuse to waste another minute– I have a story in the just released Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Presents Flush Fiction!

Whew. That felt good. It’s been so hard, keeping that in! But there’s more. The amazing folks at Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader have agreed to give away a copy of Flush Fiction to one of my lucky commenters! Isn’t that swell?

But of course, you want to know more about this quick fiction on the go! This collection of 88 short-short stories covers just about everything: mystery, horror, sci-fi, humor, romance, and adventure. The editors scoured the country for some of the best fiction writers around and stuffed them all into this one BIG book. Um…the stories, not the writers.

It’s a mystery what I’m doing in this book with such a group of esteemed writers.  But just like that eternal unanswerable question, “Who forgot to flush?” I suppose we’ll never know. We will, however, know who will win the copy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Presents Flush Fiction in exactly seven days. That’s when I’ll pluck a winner from the mess of names floating around in the comments. (Sorry, folks, you must be in the United States in order to win.)

And you might want to follow Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader on Twitter or Facebook for more info dumps.

(Okay, that went too far, didn’t it? But I seem to be on a roll and can’t stop.)

(Oops.)

 

Friday’s Fun Find: Walken and YA

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Okay. I admit it. I have this Christopher Walken thing. It’s kinda weird, but probably nowhere near as weird as Walken. Anyway, when Elizabeth Dulemba shared this peek of him telling the story of The Three Little Pigs, I had to watch. You don’t have to watch unless you, too, have a thing for Christopher Walken. Or The Three Little Pigs.

So here’s my other fun find for today: Pugaliscious Press is looking for YA  for an anthology!

Here’s a chance for you writers who are all about the short stories. Say around 3,000 to 7500 words. Oh! And your story has to fit the historical romance genre. And even if you’re like me and your story is around 2,000 words, you have till March 30th to spiff up that YA.

Which is a very good thing. Because I have a few Christopher Walken clips to watch before I get down to writing.