We had a lot of rain in Connecticut this summer, some of it unusually heavy. Sitting at my computer desk, which overlooks a handsome courtyard, I watched one of them approach, darkening the sky, whipping the treetops, then unloosing a deluge.
I turned to the keyboard and tried to capture in words what was happening outside my window. Next day I went back to do a bit of polishing, and invented a story to entice readers into my description.
A New York City online magazine with the improbable title Hearth & Coffin was looking for stories under 500 words, for what it would call its ‘Micro’ edition. I thought they might like my quickie storm, and they did; you can read it now at their website

 

In its first draft, my short story “Opportunities” ended with a cop lamenting that no one had reported a man collapsed by a brook. One of the editors who turned the story down suggested it needed a stronger finish.
I invented a better ending, sent it off, and bingo! It was accepted by MacQueen’s Quinterly.
In the same breath, MacQueen’s accepted my ultra-short “Man with a Riata”, a memory of a Paiute cowboy I rode with.
The two are back-to-back in the new edition: This link takes you to the shortie, and “Opportunities” is on the next page. Click ==> here

“We are aiming for an issue that joins written word and images in a tight, dramatic, concise form.”

That was the theme of the latest contest by American Writer’s Review, one of the literary magazines published by a group of professional writers. And by “concise,” they meant at max 500 words.

I took my trusty Model A Ford back to Death Valley to imagine an encounter with the driver of a disabled convertible. They liked it; you can buy the 2023 edition at Amazon and flip through to page 75,
OR you can read it ==>right here

Hitchhiker

 

From time to time some literary magazine will suggest a new approach to writing a short story. One such note proposed beginning with an extended description of place, and then slowly developing why the protagonist is in that place and what he’s up to.

For reasons I can’t explain, I imagined a man parking outside a youth baseball stadium where he’d been coach until a tragic accident took his son and wife. Hardly the kind of topic I usually find, but I like the way it turned out, with a double-entendre title that suggested itself as I wrote the final paragraphs.

A young literary magazine called Atlantic Northeast liked it, and it’s out now. You can open it (free) ==>online  and scroll to page 23
Or read it ==>right here.

WayWords, a literary magazine run by professional writers, invited stories dealing with seasons. I’d just finished a piece whose protagonist, a grandfather, wonders if a gathering snowstorm will deter his being picked up for a family Christmas dinner. I wondered if the editors would like snow for their July edition; they did. You can read it in print or Kindle at ==>>Amazon
Or can more easily read it at my blog, ==>>right here

My short story “Buyout” was probably prompted by the steady atrophying of The Hartford Courant. It is a shadow of its former self, produced by a staff that is a fraction of the number who once put out the state’s dominant newspaper. It is not my story, although I borrowed a lot of my early experience at the competitor Hartford Times.

It’s out now in a small literary magazine called Portrait of New England.

You can download this issue at ==>>the magazine’s website and scroll down to page 57

Or you can (more easily) read it ==>>right here

The idea struck me as ripe for humor: Suppose a handsome, personable, younger-than-most man moved into a senior retirement community like mine, and suddenly began escorting a young blonde bombshell to his quarters? When asked, he might claim her as a granddaughter, but who would believe that?
OpenDoor Magazine found it a good fit for its Summer ’23 issue on the theme of “envy”.
It’s out now. You can download the entire virtual issue ==>here, and scroll down to page 89,
Or read it ==>right here at my blog

I began what became “A Purpose of Words” when a friend mentioned having considered suicide in her childhood. I’d recently read several articles about loneliness and depression in communities of the elderly, and one older person I knew had taken his life.

It turned out to be hard writing; I re-worked it (and re-titled it!) more than once. I finally got it where I liked it – as did the editors of a Pennsylvania college literary magazine. You can read it there, at ===>River & South Review

or of course ===>here at my blog

Most Seabury residents are determined to keep exercising into old age, and if I step out at daybreak I’m sure to see some brisk walkers. If I watch for her, I can also see the lady who delivers newspapers making her rounds.
She must also see the walkers, I thought one day; suppose one of them literally started out at sunrise: Could she tell the time of year by where she crossed paths with him? An opportunity to wax eloquent about early morning sights and sounds..
The Westchester Writers Workshop liked it. It’s out in their magazine Confetti. You can read it ===>here

A relatively new entrant to the huge array of literary magazines, The Muleskinner Journal is different because it sends out the stories and poems chosen for its next edition one per day by email, then later compiles them into a paper version.
Editor in Chief Gary Campanella says, “We look for writing of all kinds that uses skill, wit, and determination to deliver the goods.” I wasn’t sure about all that, but when I saw that the theme for the next edition was “Mirrors,” I was delighted: I’d recently written a short story whose protagonist goes to a mirror to compare her old-age face with her high school yearbook.
I titled it “Likenesses,” and it’s out now. Read it online here