I'm so excited to share with you the release of my brand new short stories, "Proof" and "Blind Date." Feel free to read them at your leisure absolutely FREE! Details below.
Writing & Publishing Fiction: A Dream Come True
Both of these short stories have been on the back burner until this year, when I officially set out to make focusing on my writing a primary goal in 2015. I've spent the last several months typing, proofing, editing, and polishing both of these short stories in order to achieve a personal dream of having my own fiction works published.
Now that dream has finally come true.
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And not only that, accomplishing such a rewarding achievement has armed me with two of the greatest weapons a writer can have (especially for fiction): Patience and Momentum.
Patience and Momentum
Having the patience to grind away at projects even as small as short stories (in comparison with full-length novels and similar works), especially when there's so many different ways you can arrange ideas, scenes, plot development, etc., within fiction is a massive undertaking in itself.
There are many times I wondered—and still do, to be honest—if I'm cut out for writing fiction. The fact is, we never get things truly perfect. It's getting things done that counts. Then you can work on getting them better; not perfect, never perfect, but better. And that accounts for something special, I believe.
But now that my patience has paid off and I have not one but two published short stories under my belt, I have the momentum and encouragement I need to creating more short stories as well as completing my first novel, currently in progress.
A Sneak Peek Into My New Short Stories
The first short story I'm releasing is called "Proof." It's about an ordinary family vacation that turns into an adventure. Here's an excerpt:
...Risking exposure, I hurried across the yard, still conscious of Bob’s position in the window above, and crept close to the side of the cabin. I looked around. Seeing no one, I continued to the back porch and turned to find Johnny; he was still hidden in the bushes. That’s my boy, I thought.
He saw me and waved; I waved back and pointed to the upstairs window. Johnny made the OK sign with his thumb and index finger, and I grabbed the deer by the antlers, preparing myself for the shot.
BANG!!!
The sound was like a cannon going off, and I whirled around to find the source of the shot. Seeing no one, I concluded it must’ve been a nearby hunter. That had quickly become unimportant, however, because the one thing I’d forgotten to check on was now broadcasting my treachery to the entire neighborhood as he nipped at my heels, no doubt excited by the shot.
Chico, the Bryson family rat—I mean chihuahua—was giving me away. Everything seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time. All of a sudden, I thought my life was flashing before my eyes. It turned out that Johnny had snapped a photo and the flash had went off, momentarily blinding me. Upstairs, Bob yelled, “What’s going on down there? Chico! What’s the matter with you?”
I knew I’d been had—or soon would be....
Exciting, huh?
We never get things perfect. It's getting things done that counts. Then work on getting them better; not perfect, never perfect, but better.
The second of my short stories that I'm releasing after "Proof" is called "Blind Date." It's an endearing Romantic Comedy about the value of second chances. If you're into reading light-hearted stories about people learning to adjust to not-so-favorable circumstances, then "Blind Date" is for you.
I won't include an excerpt here—this post is already getting pretty lengthy as it is—but suffice it to say that if you enjoy "Proof" then you'll want to stay tuned for "Blind Date" when it releases soon.
And speaking of which...
How to Get My New Short Stories—FREE
By clicking the button below, both short stories, "Proof" and "Blind Date," will immediately be sent directly to your email inbox!
Bonus!
When you sign up, you'll receive both short stories in PDF as well as Kindle format! So you can choose how you want to read them!
GET FREE STORIES!
Click below to Receive My Short Story
"Proof"
Plus one of My Most Popular Stories
Absolutely FREE!!!
A Behind the Scenes Look at My New Short Stories
Believe it or not, both of these short stories were written over seven (7) years ago and were the results of various writing exercises I used from a book called Now Write by Sherry Ellis. It just goes to show you that some good can come from writing exercises, whether they feel like "fake" writing or not.
Who knows, I've got several more short stories like the two above that came from additional writing exercises in the book; there may even be more nuggets worth digging up in my Now Write notebook.
I used Scrivener to piece all the parts of these short stories together. It's an amazing piece of software that's worth it's weight in gold, especially if you're a writer of any kind. I'm also using this same software to piece together and finish the novel I mentioned earlier.
There's a bit of a learning curve at first, but as long as you glean from the software what you initially need to know when you need to know it, it becomes easier to get a feel for the more advanced aspects of the software. For everyone else, there's always the Scrivener Coach.
Rather than make the covers myself, I took a page from many of the professional writers out there, especially in the self-publishing world, and purchased them on Fiverr. There are tons of cover designers out there, you just have to pick the one that "fits" what your type of story and writing is. I'll definitely be using this as a resource again in the future.
And besides, who can't afford a measly five bucks for a great book or short story cover?
Other than that, I did the initial and final edits myself, passed the short stories around to my wife a couple of times for more edits in between, and read bits and pieces of them in a local writer's group.
I formatted the files using Scrivener, once again, and after many more hours of setting everything up for publishing and distribution to my mailing list, what you'll see when you fill out the form above is the end result.
Happy Reading
So thanks again for joining me for this exciting announcement. Recently, when I began to ponder and consider the personal magnitude of this moment I realized that this is one of the proudest moments of my recent goal-setting journey. I've created made-up stories, and (not to toot my own horn) they're actually pretty good, in my humble opinion.
I hope you will agree. Whether you want instant access or would rather wait a while (in which case you've got even more patience than it took me to write these stories), please enjoy my meager offerings. These short stories will be around a while as I focus even more on completing my novel. Now that I have them completed, I can think of another weapon they provide: the beginnings of my own personal collection of works!
GET FREE STORIES!
Click below to Receive My Short Story
"Proof"
Plus one of My Most Popular Stories
Absolutely FREE!!!
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Question: Would you mind leaving your feedback about these short stories in the comments below after you've read them BOTH?
Pretty please, with a cherry on top?
Great! Thanks so much in advance!