Remembering Sandra Seamans

I knew Sandra Seamans, but I didn't know her. It's amazing the impact a person can have on your life when you never meet them in real life. I wish I had met her in real life because in our email exchanges and online interactions, she was warm, supportive, and encouraging. When I was first starting to write fiction she introduced me to everybody, hosting my blog by adding it to her blogroll. And when Joy Sillesen, Joanne Renaud, and I started Dark Valentine Magazine, she became a

contributor, which helped give us street cred as a fiction site and also helped us spread the word. I am really sorry that Dark Valentine is no longer archived because she wrote some great stories for us, including "Abiding Guilt," about a widower escaping from a nursing home. He misses Gloria. He misses sex. And the nurses at his facility have confiscated his phone after finding out he's been calling 1-900 numbers.

I was a daily visitor to her site My Little Corner, looking for places to send my work. I'd sometimes sent her tips when I found markets on my own that she hadn't highlighted. She always gave me a hat tip and I was always pleased because I'd been able to give her something in return for the many tips she gave me. (I sold one or two stories to markets she'd listed over the years.)  I also liked reading the occasional story she posted and sought her fiction out on other sites. Here's a link to the short stories she wrote for Shotgun Honey.

Kattomic Fiction!! New stories

Over at A Twist of Noir, there's a story from my Misbegotten universe called "Sex Crime." Read it here.
I also have a story up at Shotgun Honey called "Dark-Adapted Eye." It is part of my upcoming Poisoned Teat collection of shorts, due out this summer.

When Less is More

I like flash fiction. I like writing it; I like reading it. I really admire writers who can pack a story into a small space and let it uncoil like a jack in the box.  The famous one, of course, is Hemingway's six-word story:  For sale, baby shoes, never worn.
As I was posting my entry on ShortStory365 today, I was thinking about writers who can pull off the really, really short story. Chris Rhatigan showcased Thomas Pluck's "Faggot" a couple of days ago on SS365 and if you haven't read it, you need to. In fewer than 100 words, he'll take your breath away. Here's the link to the story on Shotgun Honey.
Thinking about short-shorts sent me searching for Somerset Maugham's "The Appointment in Samarra," which I remembered being short. I'd forgotten how short. It's 198 indelible words. Find it here.

I'm in awe.