Skip to main content

Christmas Wish

 Maybe it happens to you too, struggling writers.  Just when you get on a roll for fiction, nonfiction comes knocking.  In the past few months I’ve been invited to contribute to three non-fiction books and I’ve secured a nonfiction book contract.  I was just getting back into fiction.


Last year I had four stories accepted for publication.  The last one came out just this past week.  “Christmas Wish” is a funny werewolf story.  You can find it in Calliope 174 (Winter 2021/22).  If you don’t read Calliope you should.  They’ve got lots of worthwhile stuff there.





What’s so fun about a werewolf, did I hear you ask?  Well, if you try to make one your pet you’ll find out.


The Christmas theme actually came from a story challenge I saw.  They were looking for Christmas stories and this one was set around that time of year.  Add a few words making it explicit and then you have a story.


Given the time of year, the story is set in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a place I’ve never been.  I actually wrote an entire novel with a character from Bethlehem, imagining what it must’ve been like living there.  I’ve been to Pittsburgh, so I can guess.


Bethlehem was actually founded on Christmas Eve by the Moravians.  The local Lenape tribe probably understood what was happening differently.  Nevertheless, Bethlehem styles itself the Christmas City.


Do they have werewolves around Bethlehem?  I have no idea.  I can imagine if they did, however.  This story makes one flight of fancy supposing they do.


If you’ve been following The Space between Atoms, the story will be winding up in the next few weeks.  The whole thing will have been posted on this blog and both of the characters appear in other stories I write.  In the meantime, happy Christmas!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dusty

  My, this thing is dusty.   My fans—hi, Mom!—perhaps believe me to have perished in the pandemic.   No, it was nonfiction’s fault. Since the pandemic began I’ve had two nonfiction books published and have written a third.   With a nine-to-five job something’s got to give.   Unfortunately it’s been fiction. Well, the groundhog didn’t see his shadow yesterday, so it must be safe to come out.   I shuffled away the rejection notes and began submitting again.   I’ve got a backlog of weird stories and maybe some new publishers have emerged? The thing is, don’t you just hate it when you’re in the mood to submit and some lit journal has its window for submissions firmly shut?   My last story, “ The Hput, ” was published about three years ago.   Oh, I’ve submitted since then, but with no traction.   Well, it is winter. I’ve got a lot of stories lined up.   I’ve been sending them out again, dreaming of making a dime at what I love doing best...
Post a Comment
Read more

Creative Righting

  Rejection of my writing is a rejection of my imaginative world.   That’s why I was cheered by the acceptance of one of my stories this week.   That makes number 31. I’ve been working on a lot of fiction lately, even as nonfiction book number 6 is going to press.   The ideas are still there, and bizarre as ever, but publishing venues just aren’t welcoming. The other day I had lunch with a professor whose wife is also a professor.   She just had her first novel published, and so he pointed me to her indie publisher.   I went to their website to learn that they’re closed to submissions.   I have to admit that my latest accepted story, “Creative Writing Club,” was probably given the green light because I know the editor.   That seems like a pretty dicey way to get any notice, doesn’t it?   You have to know the right people even in the low circulation world. My fiction is difficult to classify.   It’s got speculative elements to it.   ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Creativity

  Maybe you’ve noticed this too.   When you step away from fiction writing for a while, your creativity becomes flaccid.   I’ve had to step away from this blog for a while because I was writing my sixth nonfiction book.   God, I’ve missed fiction! Now that I’ve entered that phase of waiting for publishers to respond, I’ve turned my limited writing time back to fiction.   I submitted a couple of stories this week and am waiting to hear about those as well.   When you’re a writer, waiting is a way of life. Opening my software where I store my fiction stories, I was amazed by how many I found.   Some of them are bad—so bad that they’ll never (rightfully) be published.   Some are surprisingly good and have been sitting around while I finished up my nonfic. The vast majority, however, are unfinished.   Some years back I realized that when I’m writing in the heat of inspiration but don’t have time to finish a story that I need to write down where I...
Post a Comment
Read more