Sweet and honorable is sleep for him who dies for his country. But what if he lives? Shrink is the story of a soldier who lived.

I’ve written a lot of stories, finished some of them. Shrink is one that I wrote a long time ago, almost 20 years ago now. It was originally titled “The GI” (as in the general infantryman…not gastrointestinal), and had its roots in a novel that I wrote half of back in 2001. Although that novel is still only half done, Shrink is completely finished.

Shrink, the Paragraph: a Summary of a Short Story

Even though the story is a little longer than the original, the premise, plot and characters are still mostly the same. The GI was only a few pages, and that wasn’t long enough for what I wanted. Also, as I re-read it, I realized it was pretty skeletal in terms of a story. I had left the soldier’s secret unrevealed and left most of the characters’ personalities to the imagination. All of this seemed good at the time I wrote it, but leaves the reader feeling pretty unfulfilled.

To fix some of those issues, I added in a lot of detail about what really happened to the soldier. Originally I had left all of this out because it’s a spoiler for the novel I was writing back in 2001. But since that novel is not (and might not ever be) finished, it didn’t seem to make much sense to preserve any of its mystery. Rather than sacrifice the quality of this story, I went ahead an spoiled that other story, which you might never read.

The story is written in first person, which let’s the reader share in the mystery faced by the narrator. The main character has to piece together a mystery with no witnesses, which is one of the things I like best about this story.  I say I like this, but only in a story setting. Ironically, I hate it when I’m dealing with real life, especially my kids…and you might be surprised how often stuff happens without witnesses around my house.

Seriously, though, the search for “what really happened” fits in with the overall theme of Thread and Other Stories, which is about challenging reality and our perception of it.

Reviews (please…)

If you’ve been following all these recent posts I’ve been writing about my short story releases, then I offer my heartfelt thanks. I really am grateful for people reading what I write, even when it’s about me. Also if you’ve been reading these, you’ll notice a plea for reviews in all of them. Reviews help authors immensely, it’s one of the things most readers look at on Amazon before making a purchase. I don’t think many people buy a book cold without some kind of endorsement by another reader.

So, if you have a minute, please write a quick review and post it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads, wherever you like to buy books. I would be so thankful!

If you’ve read thread, you could post a review on all four of my books (Thread and Other Stories, Conflict, Deception, and now Shrink). Other things you can do to help are add my stories to Goodreads lists, recommend to a friend, or share my blog. All of these help.

The Cover

You might also note that I’ve been focusing on the cover design art in each of these posts. First, that’s because people actually do judge books by their covers. And I’m really pleased with how the covers look on each of my books. Second, I hope the cover designers find some more business this way. MatYan (also designer for Deception) did Shrink, and I think it is perfect.

 

Deception came about because I wanted an odd number of stories when I put Thread and Other Stories together. The stories in Thread are all about challenging reality. I intended Deception to explore what happens when someone’s worldview is so self-centered that they lose sight of the big picture. Other than that, I started writing it with almost no idea of what it was going to be. 

Deception is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble now, and should be available on your Kindle or Nook by April 10, 2018!

Deception, a Short Story

Deception’s beginning just poured out of me when I sat down at the computer one evening. I had been thinking about the story for a while, but didn’t have a clear picture of any of it. The plot was still a mystery. The rest of the story didn’t come so easily, but now and again paragraphs like this materialize.

“The soft click of a doorknob and the muffled swish of worn hinges shattered the stifling silence blanketing the basement. Dmitry’s eyes flicked up from the report he held under the glow of the yellow light emanating from the lamp on his desk, but he did not move his head. The dusty brass fixture of his desk lamp was dull in the dim light of the room. His eyes followed Olyesa’s movements as she carefully closed the door from Captain Syomin’s office behind her and took a few tentative steps into the main work-room. She held a file in her hands. Fidgeting with the slim sheaf, she appeared hesitant to deliver it. He supposed that meant it was for him.”

I don’t know if this the best paragraph I ever wrote, maybe not even the best in the story. But what I like about it is that you get to know the two main characters pretty much instantly. Their personalities are already showing.

What I didn’t expect from this story is that readers would like it. I purposely put it at the end of the book so no one would get a bad impression early on. At least by the time they got to Deception, they’d be so close to finishing the book that they would probably just go ahead and get to the final part, Conversation, which is what I really wanted them to read.

This probably shows I know nothing about what people like to read.

What happened after that slightly awkward opening paragraph was an amazing growth of two characters that I didn’t have any clue I could have created. Dmitry is a dark villain who seemed to pop out of strange corners of my mind as I wrote this story. Olyesa, who actually has almost no “screen time” but who I still feel everyone has a solid feel for by the end, is an enigmatic side character that I really love. I had no idea what Olyesa was going to do until the end of the story. She surprised me.

One of my favorite writing moments in Deception was when my wife was reading drafts and offered me some criticism directed at how I portrayed Olyesa. She said something or other along these lines:

“Russian women aren’t that weak.”

By that time I knew a little bit more about Olyesa that hadn’t made it into the drafts yet. So I didn’t say anything to her, but I chuckled inside.

Reviews

Once again I’d like to shamelessly plug for a review. If you have already read Deception, please go leave a review on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. If not, Deception costs only $0.99 for your Kindle or Nook (on pre-order until April 10, 2018).

I would love to hear what you think of it. If you have read it, feel free to leave a comment below or start at thread on the forums.

Cover Art

I want to take a moment and mention the cover design. To be clear, I am not an artist, and I didn’t design this cover. This art was done by MatYan, who designs a ton of book covers. This was a pre-made cover that he offered through the same website I got the cover for Conflict from.

Mat was really easy to work with, he makes really nice covers for the kind of stories I’ve been writing, and I hope to find more from him.

 

This is the cover art for my short story “Conflict,” which is one of the seven stories included with Thread and Other Stories, released in June 2017. I’m releasing Conflict and several of the other short stories as stand-alone works with their own Amazon listing. Each one will cost $0.99.

If you already purchased Thread and Other Stories, you won’t have anything to buy with these releases, and the cover art will all be posted on the blog, so you won’t miss that either. I am including some new material inside (like my author bio and a list of my published works), but if you click on pretty much anything here on my website you will see all of that stuff already.

I’m releasing these individual short stories for people that haven’t yet read anything I’ve written. I’m hoping to find more ways to reach readers. If you like what I write, please share with a friend, and more than anything, please leave a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads!

What is Conflict?

Conflict is a short story I wrote in eighth grade for an English assignment. The current version of the story is written much differently from my teenage version, but the essence has not changed.

When I was young I loved to read history books, especially WWI and WWII accounts. Conflict is my own attempt to bring others into that world with a (hopefully) entertaining story coupled with historical events.

Writing historical fiction takes a lot of work. I spent many hours researching, verifying, and rechecking facts and places. I don’t know how many hours because most of them passed by 25 years ago. When I decided to publish Conflict, I had to go back and make sure all the stuff I said way back in 1992 was accurate. I can’t guarantee there aren’t any mistakes. I also took a few deliberate liberties with some things to make the story work.

The two main characters in Conflict, John and Greg, represent no one from real life. I did my best to imagine what various opinions or ideas might have been from the early 1900s, especially the strong nationalism that seems apparent (at least to me) from that era. Then I instilled those notions into the heads of my two characters.

I think most of the soldiers going to war early in WWI had a strong sense of duty to their respective monarchs. But, I believe by the end of the war, if they survived, they would have held different viewpoints, not only jaded, but likely completely opposite from their initial stand. This speculation led to the final scene of the story.

What am I doing this for?

By releasing these short stories as standalone works I hope to appeal to readers who are genre-focused. Since I have written stories across a fairly wide range of genres (sci-fi, suspense, historical fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction), some readers might be turned away from Thread because of the genres they don’t like. But if they have the option of reading just the type they like, it might get them more interested in my writing.

I’m really excited about how this cover looks, and now I kind of wish I had a full-length book to go with it. I’ll post each of the upcoming stories as I go along, and hopefully this will build some momentum towards getting more book exposure. I’m hoping to have four short stories released by June or July 2018.

Where’d I get the sweet cover?

Ivan of bookcoversart.com produced this cover and I enjoyed working with him. He produced this image on his own and displayed it in his gallery. I found it searching for WWI-themed, pre-made book covers.

Reviews (a shameless plea)

One of the most important things for an author on Amazon is reviews, whether good, mediocre, or bad. If you already read Conflict because you already bought Thread, please go leave a review of it. It doesn’t have to be fancy or wordy, but be honest.

Before I published anything, I had no idea that reviews meant so much to authors, but they are key. Some sites won’t even let you promote your work unless you have a minimum number of reviews (usually 10-20).