About the original story.
Check out the Instagram Reel version.

This microfiction is about small-town rumors. First published by 50-Word Stories in April 2022.

The Witch

by DL Shirey

          By day her grave is littered with pentagrams and stumpy, gutted candles. On moonless nights, gothed-out teenagers chant her name at the stroke of twelve. They tell drunken stories of surviving her spells.

          Before she died, the old woman’s only sins were berating trespassers and living with too many cats.

END

Authors Publish Magazine is a wonderful resource for writers. I’m on their email list and dutifully read it each time it hits my in-box. There are loads of articles, agents looking for manuscripts and journals open for submission.

I dropped them a line in April 2022, thanking them for all they do and asking if they knew about The Short List. Not only was Authors Publish intrigued, they asked me to write the following article:

A Short Course in Finding the Right Publication

by DL Shirey

Short prose can offer big challenges. Those who haven’t tried writing microfiction sometimes balk at the craft, often thinking it’s no big deal to dash off a couple hundred words. Yet, the hardest part may not be composing a complete, engaging story using minimal word count. Finding a publisher for your 50-word story, drabble or flash can also be difficult.