A Pratfall to Avoid When Writing Short and a BOOK FREE through Friday!

Write Short to Succeed Just Released in Audio! Read on for how to get a FREE EBOOK or AUDIO BOOK copy!

Much of the reason for my success in writing short stories comes from my avid reading of short stories. Recently, I've noticed a disturbing and major flaw in many of the short stories I read. 

They're too long. They're padded. This is bad for a novel and much worse for a short story. This happens most often in anthologies or collections from a number of authors.

I've wondered about why this might be occurring so often and come up with a possible explanation. In this era of eBooks, publishers of anthologies, whether they be traditional or authors in a collective, sometimes focus on word count of the individual stories to the detriment of the collection.

Now I've submitted and published in many anthologies over, um, a number of years. Since I'm now focused on several other writing projects, I don't submit as often as I used to. However, I still check anthology calls.

A number of them now have strict limits on words. No less than 3500 words is common.  In romance, often the short stories must be longer, no less than say 5000 or 6000 words.

Why? I believe it may be because the publishers are attempting to have a large number of pages. Because of eBooks, readers expect a lot of reading for their money. In order for a publisher to be able to set a good price for an eBook, there have to be quite a few pages. Or so many of the publishers seem to think.

I may be wrong in this, if so please mention it in the comments! Whether I'm wrong or right, there's an easy solution: have your stories the length they're meant to be. Resist the urge to pad to be able to submit. Realize that a satisfactory read is far better than one that slogs. Remember that a well written story will sell.

Now: FREEBIES! Today through this Friday Write Short to Succeed is FREE on Amazon!
AND: If you comment and give me your email address I will send you a code for a FREE download of the Write Short to Succeed from Audible. (Comments with addresses will not be published.)

ENJOY!

Mild West Mysteries on SALE 3 days only! .99! Audio out too! And a GF, dairy free, egg free easy recipe!

In honor of the release of the audio book version of Mild West Mysteries, the eBook version is on sale, only .99, through January 8th!

Woot! Now Mild West Mysteries is out in all formats! Enjoy!

And here are some cookies to munch on while you read/listen to Mild West Mysteries. These are gluten, dairy and egg free!

EASY QUICK CAKE COOKIES (mildly sweet and nutty)

Ingredients:

1 cup cashew, almond or peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup oatmeal flour + 1/2 cup oatmeal flour

1/4 cup potato starch

3 teaspoons Xanthum gum

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 tablespoons Vegan Egg in 1/3 cup cold water

Nutmeg and/or cinnamon to sprinkle on top

Directions: 

Place rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, potato starch, sugar and Xanthum gum together. Add liquids and stir well. Dough will be stiff. Roll into balls and press on cookie sheet until 1 to 1/2 inch depth. Sprinkle with nutmeg and/or cinnamon. Bake 15 to 20 minutes depending on thickness of cookies (thinner cookies will be crunchier, thicker more cake like). Flip cookies half way through baking. Cookies should be lightly brown both sides.

Again, enjoy! And pick up your on sale copy of Mild West Mysteries, just .99 through January 8th.

Christmas Romance Audio Novella Giveaway! Free! While supplies last!

Some of this year's Christmas Decorations

To get you off in a festive mood, here's a gift to get you into the holiday spirit. While supplies last you can have a code for an audio book download of A Crispy Rice Christmas FREE.

Fun, clean Christmas romance! A Crispy Rice Christmas!

This will be a download from Audible, the audio book arm of Amazon. You will have to go onto Audible.com and sign in (no membership required) to redeem. Yes, they'll send you a few emails asking you to become a member, those can be ignored. And yes, I would love an honest review IF you have time! But mostly I really loved writing this story and want to share the Christmas joy!

So COMMENT (with your email written out as in: name dot yahoo dot com and I won't publish your comment either) for your free audio book!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Wedding Horror Stories and a Bridesmaid Short Story on sale!

My honey Bruce and I at our niece's ceremony, fun, but a little damp!

June, the month of brides and weddings, just ended. Whew. We attended my niece's ceremony in a tiny town outside of Austin. A delightful time, although my niece worried because of what happened while the minister was giving the vows. We were out in a large tent and an enormous thunderstorm blew through, emphasizing the minister's words with thunderclaps and great rumblings, as if the skies objected. The rain managed to find every single crack and hole in that tent, dousing a number of people, including the groom! Upsetting to the bride until Bruce mentioned that this would be a memorable occasion and a great story.

In honor of all those June wedding disasters, The Bridesmaid Wore Stains is on sale for only 99 cents until July 4th! Get your copy here.

So dear readers, let me know in the comments your tales of weddings past, present and maybe future?

Happy Thanksgiving with a fun Christmas romance audio book! Recipe too!

My humorous romance short story A Crispy Rice Christmas out in audio and eBook.

Now that it's Thanksgiving, "It's beginning to feel..." and to get everyone in the spirit, here's some fun stuff.

First, a gift with a small request attached. My humorous romance short story, A Crispy Rice Christmas, is, ahem, a Christmas story and in need of a few more reviews for the season. If you would be willing to give an honest review of my story on Amazon or Audible, I will gift the audiobook to you. Please just comment on this post. You may leave your e-mail address as follows: Name (at) email server which is yahoo, or whatever dot com (In other words, obscure your address.)

In A Crispy Rice Christmas, if Beth can't figure out a way to seduce her love's picky appetite, she fears her relationship is toast-burnt. She cooks up a plan only to have it boil over. What's a terrible cook to do? Can Beth brave a winter storm in search of a Christmas dish to save her relationship - or will the holidays be a distasteful disaster? One reviewer said, "You will need to read this funny story to see how she gets herself in and out of trouble. It's the perfect book to curl up on the couch and get in the Christmas spirit!"

Second, in honor of this story about a wretched cook, here's the easy, iconic recipe Beth tries to make in A Crispy Rice Christmas, with a photo of the dish that's turned out being considerably better than Beth's--despite the pink! (I was going for a Christmassy red and failed.)

Rice Crispy Cereal Bars

Basic Recipe:

4 tablespoons margarine or butter or even coconut butter (oil)

6 cups crispy rice cereal (can be the gluten free variety, if needed)

1 16 ounce bag of marshmallows (fresh mini marshmallows work best)

In a large saucepan, heat the butter on medium heat until it melts. Add marshmallows and stir constantly until marshmallows all melt. Remove from heat. Add crispy rice cereal and stir well. Using a greased spatula, spread mixture in a buttered 15 X 10 inch pan. Cut into bars when cooled.

Okay, now for the variations:

Add vanilla or rum or orange or lemon extract, a teaspoon or two to the melted marshmallows and stir well for rum bars or lemon bars—well, you get the idea.
Add a cup of nuts, or raisins or any dried fruit, or a cup of chocolate bits (or a third a cup of each!).

Add any spices you like, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, or cardamom.
Add mini chocolate chips, butterscotch chips or

Add 1/3 cup of cocoa for chocolate bars.

Or be daring and try adding a bit of cayenne pepper and hot sauce to the cocoa! Strange but good if you like it weird and spicy!

The recipe above was the inspiration for A Crispy Rice Christmas. Where do you find your inspiration? 

The cover for the eBook version of A Crispy Rice Christmas.