short fiction « Storytellers Unplugged

Answering questions from an aspiring writer

By Bev Vincent, on October 17th, 2011

I recently agreed to be interviewed by a college undergrad for one of her classes. Their assignment was to interview someone working in a career that interested them. Since that interview won’t see the light of day outside of the student’s class, I thought I would post it here in lieu of my usual blatherings.

What [...]

Words count

By Bev Vincent, on September 17th, 2011

If you’ve ever read an author’s blog for any length of time, or followed his or her Facebook feed, you will no doubt be familiar with the tradition of posting sporadic or daily word counts. It is, perhaps, the only metric that writers have available to measure our productivity.

My favorite anecdote comes via Stephen King [...]

Are you ready? Well, then, let’s begin.

By Bev Vincent, on June 17th, 2011

No one can tell you when to start a short story.

People can give you all kinds of advice about how to write one, but only you can decide when you are prepared to start.

This is something I deal with all the time. I’ll have a window of opportunity where I can work on a short [...]

Reading Slush

By Bev Vincent, on May 17th, 2011

I’ve never been in the position of having to read through a slush pile to pick out publication worthy short stories. However, as one of the judges of a short fiction contest, I feel like I’ve been through a similar experience. The contest had on the order of 150 submissions. In the first round, we [...]

Rejection, rejection, rejection…acceptance! Rejection, rejection…

By Bev Vincent, on April 17th, 2011

Though my field of expertise is in chemistry, I hold a minor in math. I’m not sure that there has ever been a study to confirm or refute this, but I maintain a strange calculus: one acceptance letter is equal to any number of rejections. That is to say, an acceptance wipes the slate clean. [...]

Potpourri

By Bev Vincent, on January 17th, 2011

Every now and then, Jeopardy has a category called “Potpourri” that is filled with questions (or answers) that don’t fit into any other category. I think this is going to be that kind of entry. I don’t know what to call it and I don’t really know what it’s going to be about.

I’m in one [...]

When Even The Vampires Don't Want You - A Story for Halloween

By Richard Dansky, on October 27th, 2010

October is for scary stories, or so I’ve been told. Happy Halloween, folks. Enjoy.

*****

“When Even The Vampires Don’t Want You”

There comes a point in time when even the vampires don’t want you. I know. I’m there.

Now don’t you go telling me there’s no such thing as vampires. They’re real. I’ve seen them. And they’re all [...]

The Lost Mothers

By Gerard Houarner, on October 4th, 2008

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