Due to the popularity of this post it has been given its own page.
American Sentence
Published by 7×20 on their Twitter site.
American Sentence
Cuento Magazine is a Twitter-based magazine of microfiction. Here’s an American Sentence of mine they published.
g.lentz
Published Sept. 25, 2015 in
Saturday Night Reader (gone, sadly)
This story was originally written for a class taught by AnnMarie O’Malley. She was gentle in her (needed) criticism and urged me to revise and submit for publication. This is for you A.M.
g.lentz
by DL Shirey
Nearly every day I followed her. Bohemian and quite thin, it wasn’t physical attraction. Physicality, perhaps, as she slalomed sidewalks with that enormous fake Fendi bag, switching hands, using its weight and momentum to navigate through gaps in the crowd. She was g.lentz according to a Labelmaker font beside the apartment buzzer.
The grocery store had a sandwich window and stainless steel counter along the front glass. I sat on one of the stools waiting, her last stop as certain as Tuesday. I imagined her leaving the shabby Brownstone, with its warren of medical offices, adjusting her foot-speed to catch the crossing signal changing from red hand to green man. If her timing was off, avoiding the cluster of pedestrians by inspecting the pawnshop window.
American Sentence
Another American Sentence published on Twitter. This time at escarp*.
*may they rest in peace
American Sentence
Seven by Twenty was kind enough to publish one more.
American Sentence
Another American Sentence published, this time in Seven by Twenty. Visit them for your very very very short literature needs.
American Sentence
Cuento Magazine is a Twitter-based magazine of microfiction. Here’s an American Sentence of mine they published.
Deep Pools of Tepid Remorse
First published by Beyond Imagination, a digital literary magazine that, sadly, is no longer available. Fear not, my story is reprinted below.
There is an intersection near our house with a police station. An artist was painting a mural on the large, blank wall behind the bus stop. I wondered where he got the inspiration.
This was my first published story.
Deep Pools of Tepid Remorse
by DL Shirey
“Does the mural have a title?” she asked.
The artist pointed a brush toward the far left corner. “Inscription on the headstone, the quote is the title,” Curtis said.
He knew who the woman was, her reputation and why she was here. Deliberately he said nothing more. Q&A was the game.
He also knew the next question this blogger would ask.
“You always put quotes in murals but I didn’t know they were your titles. Where is the quote from?” said Trina.
The answer would be found in a book of poetry: Do not delve in deep pools of tepid remorse. One line buried in a sonnet written about him, about a night deep red with too much wine, when his new lover opened herself for the first time.
DL Shirey 