I love short stories. I love them both as a reader and as a writer. And while the audience for short stories is substantially smaller than those for novels, I continue to write them now and then because 1) see above, 2) they help me grow and challenge myself as a writer, and 3) I can occasionally take a flyer on a character or idea just to see if it might work at novel length. Oh, and I do manage to sell many of them to magazines and anthologies, so they do net me a little money (I do stress little) while acting as a sort of advertising for my writing in general.
That said, I’m always sad that some of what I consider my best work is often read by very few people, so I’ve decided to do something new for my readers. A few times a year — no set schedule, no set genre — I’ll publish a short story for free online at www.scottwilliamcarter.com/story. Most of these tales are a bit, well, irregular in other ways too. My specialty, you might say! A brief introduction will usually be included, talking about the origins of the story or something else I find interesting.
The first is “Creative Vice,” which is now live. If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss the next one, subscribe to my newsletter at www.scottwilliamcarter.com/news.