Not that kind! *minds out of the gutter*
I just got an acceptance for a story I recently wrote and submitted, about a gymnast who is Olympics-bound. The title is Tumbling Dreams and it will probably end up around 18,000 words. It’s for an anthology on the Olympics titled Going for Gold from MLR press. The plan is to release the anthology around the end of August, so it will mean some pretty fast editing, but the editor on this one seems to be on top of things. It will be fun to work with someone new. I learn things from every editor I do a story with.
Working with a new editor will also be part of the fun of tidying up Gift of the Goddess, my 20,000 word short that will be in the Storm Moon Press anthology Carved in Flesh, about guys with scars. This short story is a fantasy, which is fun since it’s a genre I write, but not one I’ve published much of. Well, unless you count werewolves.
I never used to write short stories. Before I published Life Lessons I don’t think I’d ever written a short that didn’t feel like the first chapter of a novel. But I’m kind of developing a taste for them. Getting in under a word limit is still not my forte, but trying can actually be fun.
I don’t read many short stories–basically because I get frustrated if I’m enjoying the characters and I always want more. But I do enjoy yours (I like the ‘little glimpse’ stories you’ve done about Tony and Mac), so I’m looking forward to these.
Hmm…’shorts,’ ‘Olympics,’ okay my mind is in the gutter anyway–my favorite summer Olympic sport is watching the male diving competitions :-0
Oh yeah, divers. They have the art of the gymnasts without the extent of upper body development. I love gymnastics, but the strength to do the rings and bar work means they have to bulk up a lot. Divers, and in winter the figure skaters, are pretty much perfect 🙂
I love reading shorts… if they’re done well and don’t end up feeling as if the last part of the story got all mashed up because a word count loomed. 🙂
That’s something thing I will say for MLR, they’ve been flexible on the word count. (I’m slightly dreading handing back Tumbling, which was supposed to be 5-10k, got accepted at 18K and with edits is headed for 20.) Their flexibility is a good thing because staying under a word limit with my writing is like snow here in June – it happens but not very often.