Welcome to Summer Saturday Short Story Spectacular!

Starting this Saturday, I welcome you to a very special summer feature here on my blog, something that I'm calling The Summer Saturday Short Story Spectacular! 

In honor of the release of my mystery story collection  Strange Faces, my first original Indie release, (release the balloons and cue the music from Chariots of Fire)  and one that I'm very proud of, I've decided that on Saturdays throughout the summer, I will be interviewing Indie writers of short fiction, either short, short fiction, sometimes called "flash fiction" or "postcard fiction" to writers of novelettes or novellas. 

There is a wealth of new Indie writing to be discovered out there, almost so many that it boggles the thinking, hence the reason for the focus of this blog. Maybe if you met writers, one on one and one by one, you won't feel so discombobulated when you're faced with a big page of Amazon new releases. 

I have had immense fun meeting some of these great writers online and reading their stories which have ranged from sweet and cozy mystery to other-worldy stories of exotic and fanciful worlds, and from noir to literary.

First, a few definitions:

Flash fiction - under 1,000 words
Short short story - 1,000-3,000 words
Short story - 3,000-7,500 words
Novelette - 7,500- 17,000 words
Novella - 17,000 - 40,000 words

I am asking all of my summer short story author guests to answer a series of questions, which, I hope, will help you to get to know them and their work better.  I've asked them for their favorite short story of all time. I also want to know how, in their opinion,  short story writing differs from writing a longer work, the most difficult part of writing short fiction, and then, of course, links where you may purchase their stories for your Kindle, Kobo, iPad or iPhone (or whatever you read your stories on.) 

So, if you love reading short stories, the way I do, I’m sure you will find lots of new and wonderful short story authors and plenty of reading material for the long hot summer. So, read the interviews, click on the links, read  previews of their stories and then download them onto your eReaders, and enjoy.

Here's a tentative schedule for Season 1, this summer. (It's subject to change, but I hope not too much change)

Episode 1 - July 5 - Barbara Phinney
Episode 2 - July 12 - B.C. Laybolt
Episode 3 - July 19 - David Todd
Episode 4 - July 26 - Donna Fitch
Episode 5 - August 2 - C.A. Rowland
Episode 6 - August 9 - VJ Schultz
Episode 7 - August 13 - Kaye George
Episode 8 - August 16 - Rosemary McCracken
Episode 9 - August 20 - Terri Judd
Episode 10 - August 23 - Bobbi Chukran
Episode 11 - August 27 - JM Davis
Episode 12  - August 30 - Valerie Douglas
Episode 13 - Sept. 3 - Lyn Cote
Episode 14 - Sept. 6 - Margaret Daley
Episode 15 - Sept. 10 - Lina Gardiner
Episode 16 - Sept. 13 - Melissa Yuan-Innes
Episode 17 - Sept. 17 - JA Menzies
Episode 18 - Sept. 20 - Ben Solomon


And yes, yes, I fully realize that there are not 8 Saturdays in August, not unless you're in some weird dystopian world where the planets and the earth and the rotation therein has been seriously compromised. And yes - I know the kids are back in school in September, but it's still technically summer! But, the response had been so overwhelming that I decided to include some author interviews mid-week and into September. 

So welcome to Season One  of the Saturday Short Story Spectacular! Come back each Saturday and meet a new author of short fiction.