Originally published in September 2022, this 100-word story appeared in Grimdark from Black Hare Press. As you might expect, all the stories in this anthology are grim and dark. Including this one:
5-4-3-2-1
by DL Shirey
What did the shrink say? That trick when I feel overwhelmed. 5-4-3-2-1. Focus on senses, turn off my brain and stop obsessing. Just stop.
5-4-3-2-1.
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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.
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He’s not quite a soldier, but Bazzy is a willing participant in a near-future war. Read all about it in my short story “The Imidor.” Now available in Bullet Points 6 on Amazon, along with a half dozen more stories about war and its aftermath.
My creepy flash fiction piece “Halfway” is out in the inaugural issue of SPOOKY Magazine (no longer avaialble). I can’t say it’s about a lab experiment gone wrong, because the experiment is only halfway complete.
Purchase SPOOKY now on Amazon.
After Dinner Conversation is a unique magazine. Not only do they publish excellent short stories, acceptance is predicated on the premise that what you read is worthy of discussion. As such, the editors then follow up with philosophical or ethical questions for further conversation.
“The One That Damned Me,” first published in July 2020, is about a man wrongly accused of a crime. It is reprinted below without the magazine’s follow-up questions.
The One That Damned Me
by DL Shirey
Sent u email about Jesmyn.
Please read.
S
The text from the Ex was short and sweet, like Susan used to be. The message nearly sobered me up. I was suddenly warmer, caused by the friction of memories rushing back from five years ago. The flip phone in my hand felt twice as hot, so I dropped it in the sand as if scalded. I stared at the message until the screen blanked black. Like my life after Jesmyn.
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This flash fiction piece was originally published on PAPER (shock) in February 2022. No. 17 is about a man’s search for something in an Iowa cornfield. Strangely enough, it was a UK publisher that picked it up.
When I received my contributor’s copy of Hungry Ghost Magazine, I was blown away by the production value. Not only were the stories top notch, but the graphics were astounding.
No. 17
by DL Shirey
“Long way from home,” the old man said. He raised the crossed leg to point a foot at my Oregon plates. Eighty if he was a day, a stereotype in overalls. When I asked about my destination, he waved a whittling knife vaguely northwest, “That-away. Yonder. Three, four miles as the crow flies.”
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During the pandemic, my wife took up the piano. She played as a youth and was refreshing her skills, practicing diligently every day. I was hearing a lot of piano and was inspired to write this story. Published in Ink Pantry.
My sister is an artist and my father could have been. I never got the gene. This nonfiction piece exemplifies why it is better that I write than draw. Originally published in July 2022 by Potato Soup Journal, which, unfortunately, is no longer published.
Learning to Draw
by DL Shirey
An art teacher once called me retarded. She was criticizing my drawing, but I took the adjective personally.
To be fair, this was in the late 1980s, long before political correctness disallowed that pejorative term for the developmentally disabled. Back then, the word wasn’t necessarily used to describe someone’s abilities, but as criticism for a task poorly done. A half-hearted attempt to make a bed, for instance, could be called retarded if the sheets were lumpy and the blankets hung askew. This condemnation did double-duty, disparaging the bed itself, as well as the person who made it.
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‘Tis the season to be jolly? Maybe not. In this short story, the North Pole denizens must deal with the demise of their fabled leader. Published in the anthology “Christmas Across Time, Volume Three.” Now available on Amazon.
DL Shirey 