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Tag: Short Stories

My short stories do double duty.

No, scratch that. They do more like triple duty.

So, You Want to Write Short Stories?

They run from drabbles to works that are just this side of novellas. My shorter pieces serve a few purposes.

So first of all, they are the usual continuation and push for creativity. If I want to write every day or at least try to, then that is going to mean writing shorter pieces. So, there’s one reason for their collective existence.

Second of all, I have had a lot more of them published! Sometimes, it’s by a magazine that cannot pay me. Or, sometimes, I get a nominal sum. Hey, don’t knock it. It beats a kick in the teeth any day, am I right?

Or, it can be just for charity. So, no matter what the outcome and the profit (if any) there is, these are a part of my writer resume. A credit is a credit.

And finally, they can serve as almost an elevator pitch of sorts. For someone who is unfamiliar with what I write, I do not want to just plonk a huge novel on their virtual desk. No.

Rather, it makes more sense to lead them along gently, with something that is maybe 2500 words or so, more or less.

Face it, if it was a first date, you would not be getting down on one knee and handing over a ring, now, would you? So, instead, a short story is more like taking someone out for coffee. Short, sweet, and without a lot of commitment.

Self-Review – SurprisesSurprises 42 and Beyond Self-Review Adventures in Career Changing

Self-Review – Surprises

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 21, 2023

Review – Surprises

Surprises was one of those weird little stories which I did not expect to write. I thought The Enigman Cave was done and dusted.

So it’s a sequel of sorts to The Enigman Cave.

Background to Surprises

The background is that Marnie and company are on their way back to Earth. So it is not going to be easy going. Marnie is well aware the reception they get might not be such a great one. In fact, it could even be a death trap.

The Plot of Surprises

And the plot is, well, there isn’t too much of one. Essentially, Marnie and her pals get drunk, much like at the start of The Enigman Cave. But in this instance, they are worried about how the Earth is. And so Marnie ends up an emotional mess.

But keep in mind, it was a requirement of this anthology to add two specific elements. I had to add a towel and the number 42. So this was in keeping with the anthology’s Douglas Adams theme. For this space opera, it did not lend itself too well to either Easter egg.

Characters

The characters are Captain Marnie Shapiro and her first officer, Trixie LaRue, and the chief medical officer, Jazminder Parikh. Assistant Veterinarian Lex Feldman shows up. But it’s botanist Ben Chase who gets the most time – and he isn’t even “on screen”.

Memorable Quotes from Surprises

“We got ourselves a gol-darned party here,” LaRue said, her accent betraying every moment of a rural Kentucky upbringing. “Booze ‘n dancing girls.”

“Just the one dancing girl,” Parikh said, doing a little swishing step and then a twirl which made her lab coat fly out a little bit, like the barest approximation of a whirling dervish. Her accent, in marked contrast to LaRue’s, was the posh product of a fine education in Leeds and a childhood in a wealthy suburb of Hyderabad.

“Jazzie, you sound plummier than usual,” Marnie said. “How much of that have you had so far?” She waved a bit at the bottle.

“I’ve had just enough to make me all right with it being chardonnay and not merlot. It’s alcohol for the damned hoi polloi, even worse than that white zinfandel rubbish. It’s a sorry sop for the masses.” She stabbed the air with a finger. “But at least it’s posher than that six.”

Rating

The story has a K+ rating. While no hanky panky occurs “on screen”, there are certainly references to it. Plus, there is a bit of bad language and a brief bit of nudity at the end. However, I don’t describe the nudity in any way. So it’s just … there.

Upshot

It was great when 42 and Beyond published Surprises. But the anthology is no more. It only lives on in memory and in a few scattered books and Amazon Kindle files. A pity, as that one did extremely well on Amazon, hitting #3 in its Amazon category.

The biggest surprises for me was the chance to write this story at all. #amwriting

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Self-Review – The Last PatientShort Stories, Road, My Aliens, Last Patient, interview, Surprises, Props, shipwrecked, child, Killing Us Softly, Ditte, Band, three minutes, Longest Night Watch, Nothing Good Ever Happens, Complications, Your Call, Darkness into Light, canaries, gentrification, Cynthia, True Believer, Short Stories, Wilder Bloom, Dish, Mitalisque, kitten, Last Try, Minnesota Wish, Dominick and Angela, Alix, Alix’s Apocalypse, A Chance Encounter in Time, A Crime in Time, A Show for the Galaxy, Alien Justice, And the Band Played the Apocalypse, Babel 2.0, Side Pages, Frozen Assets, Julie's Dollar, Mandy Goes to Aspen, Martin's Choice, Mike’s Grades, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, Sarah’s Invention, Small Acts of Defiance, The Future Has No Foundation, Unexpected Help, You Will Drink Your Coffee and Like It, Unreliable, East Side of the Universe, Eros vs Thanatos, Dust Between Our Stars, A Show for the Galaxy, A Fairy Tale for Skeptical Adults, A School for Scavengers, Frozen Assets, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, 1960s Temporal Crimes, Lizzie Borden is Vital to the Timeline, Walls Came Tumbling Down Again, The End, Will's Dog, Building Trust, Message in an Odd Bottle, The New Kid, What's an Animal, A Touch of Gray Hair, Guilty of Imperfection, Jared's World Turned Upside Down, Caring for Carole, Nuremberg Redux, Art Has All Sorts of Effects, When Russia Invaded Texas, Failure, Tumble in a Tomb, Beauty is Only Earth Deep, Peddler, Escape Violinist, Shimmering Wasteland, Cave Canem and Cave, Skating, Uninformed, Stellar Stowaway, dinosaurs, fragments, none of this is real, buzz, quartz, water, verity, quarrel, rivalry, breakout,

Self-Review – The Last Patient

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 12, 2023

Review – The Last Patient

The Last Patient was a story I wrote for the Stardust, Always anthology. All of the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. Please give generously, even if you never buy the book. Cancer is horrid, and I have seen what it can really do to people. Let’s end this scourge in our lifetimes.

This short story is based on real events from my life.

Background

When I was in my first two years of college, I had a therapist. He was a fun guy; I liked him. Then I left Boston for the summer between sophomore and junior year. Yet when I returned, I noticed he was more stooped and paler. He seemed to be tired and weak.

I asked him what was wrong and he told me he had lung cancer. Keep in mind, this was late 1981 and that was essentially a death sentence.

I saw Dr. Brodie a few more weeks, with our last session happening before Halloween of that year. He told me that he didn’t want to see his other patients, who were all a lot older. At age nineteen, he felt I was lively and that helped him. He told me that I was his last patient.

Plot

I lifted this story directly from my memories: hook, line, and sinker. A few of the quotes are precisely as I remember them. It wasn’t writing. This was me taking dictation from my own memories.

Characters

The only characters are the unnamed narrator and Dr. Richard Brodie.

Memorable Quotes

Thirty-five years ago, a sacred trust was unexpectedly given to me, to be a friend and confidant to the man who was supposed to be mine. I did what I could, but I was not ready for it.

Rating for The Last Patient

The story has a K rating.

The Last Patient: Upshot

I would have liked to have shown him works like Untrustworthy. I think he would have been happy for me.

Even now, over forty years later, I remember how he looked a bit like Broderick Crawford. Funny, the things you remember.

I was his last patient. #amwriting

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Self-Review – All My Aliens

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 7, 2023

Self Review – All My Aliens

All My Aliens? What the hell?

Background

This was a story originally created for a competition. But it also came from a very wacky idea I had had several years previously.

The concept was, how would First Contact happen? And so I hit upon a very strange way to do it.

Plot

Because TV is more important to many of us than we would care to admit, the idea was a simple one.

My aliens would have to originally contact us on television. And, even better, it would have to be via the medium of fiction. But what would be the best means of doing this? After all, TV shows are cancelled all the time. It would have to be something long-term, with little to no chance of cancellation.

And then I hit upon the more or less perfect answer.

Soap operas.

And so the idea was born – my aliens would make contact with us via the soaps.

My Aliens: the Characters

The characters are not of this earth, of course. The only two who really get names are Chaz and Katherinemma. Katherinemma got her name because Alyssa Milano had (at the time) recently named her daughter Elizabella. So K got her name as a kind of homage to that.

And Chaz, of course, was the most typical and obvious male soap star name we could think of.

The Action

Some of my favorite parts of this story are how the action zooms from the strangers thinking about contacting Earth to the stars getting here. And then, of course, they have to get to Area 51 (because, reasons). And, of course, the daytime Emmy awards.

No good soap opera would ever be complete without a dramatic scene with a slap. No good story about celebrities would ever be complete without some crazed fan screaming about having her idol’s baby. And no good science fiction yarn would ever be complete without something with tentacles.

Fortunately, the story has all of that.

It also has what, I feel, is perhaps the funniest ending line I have ever written.

Rating

All My Aliens is probably a K when you get right down to it.

All My Aliens: Upshot

You can find it in the Longest Night Watch II, if I recall correctly.

All My Aliens — because TV is a logical choice for communicating with humans. #amwriting

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Self-Review – There is a RoadAdventures in Career Changing | Janet Gershen-Siegel | There is a Road

Self-Review – There is a Road

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 5, 2023

Review – There is a Road

There is a Road originally came about as a response to an image prompt on the old Trek United. However, I do not have the rights to use that image, and Trek United is a mere shell of its former self.

Background

The original image was a dreamy almost black and white, very shades of gray type of image. It was a wooden pathway into the woods, bending and seemingly with no ending.

Plot

The narrator is never named. She talks about her grandmother’s death from smoking, and her father’s from a transport accident. She mentions aliens and flying. Hence the time must be the future, and perhaps it is a rather deep future versus right now.

And then the narrator talks about making art. As she describes her process, the reader begins to understand that the narrator has screwed something up royally. Whether there has been an explosion or a fire, it hardly seems to matter. Because all that matters is that (spoiler alert), the narrator numbers among the dead.

Characters

The only character is the unnamed narrator, although she refers to her father and her grandmother. Since it’s a narration, it doesn’t really have quotes.

The Road to Story Postings

This story is really only available on Wattpad.

There is a Road on Wattpad

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Takeaways from the Road

This story is odd and dreamy and probably a little too spiritual for regular consumption. Also, there is just no way it could ever get a sequel or the like. Could I take it off Wattpad and submit it to an anthology? I suppose I could but, frankly, I do not think it stands as one of my better works.

The piece is old and the seams do show. Still, it is an interesting premise, and perhaps I should rework it one of these days.

There is a road — and it leads to this. #amwriting

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Self-Review – The Myth of The Last TryShort Stories, Road, My Aliens, Last Patient, interview, Surprises, Props, shipwrecked, child, Killing Us Softly, Ditte, Band, three minutes, Longest Night Watch, Nothing Good Ever Happens, Complications, Your Call, Darkness into Light, canaries, gentrification, Cynthia, True Believer, Short Stories, Wilder Bloom, Dish, Mitalisque, kitten, Last Try, Minnesota Wish, Dominick and Angela, Alix, Alix’s Apocalypse, A Chance Encounter in Time, A Crime in Time, A Show for the Galaxy, Alien Justice, And the Band Played the Apocalypse, Babel 2.0, Side Pages, Frozen Assets, Julie's Dollar, Mandy Goes to Aspen, Martin's Choice, Mike’s Grades, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, Sarah’s Invention, Small Acts of Defiance, The Future Has No Foundation, Unexpected Help, You Will Drink Your Coffee and Like It, Unreliable, East Side of the Universe, Eros vs Thanatos, Dust Between Our Stars, A Show for the Galaxy, A Fairy Tale for Skeptical Adults, A School for Scavengers, Frozen Assets, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, 1960s Temporal Crimes, Lizzie Borden is Vital to the Timeline, Walls Came Tumbling Down Again, The End, Will's Dog, Building Trust, Message in an Odd Bottle, The New Kid, What's an Animal, A Touch of Gray Hair, Guilty of Imperfection, Jared's World Turned Upside Down, Caring for Carole, Nuremberg Redux, Art Has All Sorts of Effects, When Russia Invaded Texas, Failure, Tumble in a Tomb, Beauty is Only Earth Deep, Peddler, Escape Violinist, Shimmering Wasteland, Cave Canem and Cave, Skating, Uninformed, Stellar Stowaway, dinosaurs, fragments, none of this is real, buzz, quartz, water, verity, quarrel, rivalry, breakout,

Self-Review – The Myth of The Last Try

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on March 16, 2023

A Review of – The Myth of The Last Try

I wrote The Myth of The Last Try as a part of writing every day in 2021. This little story hit me pretty hard, so I added a few short chapters to it.

As a result, it has more body and depth to it. Could I stretch it into a novella? Maybe? But the truth is, at a certain point, it becomes obvious stretching. And then a story like this will break.

And I don’t want that to happen to this one. I like it far too much!

Background

One of the best (I feel) parts of this little multi-part short story is that it takes place in a location I know well. But it’s not called The Last Try.

Rather, the inspiration is a little place right by where I went to college—The Dugout Café.

The Dugout is a tiny hole in the wall, rumored to have opened right after Prohibition ended. As in, the day of or the day after. Hence, the bar in the story got a rather similar back story.

Plot

Kel is just an old fellow nursing his beer at a dive bar when the bartender (his cousin Dean) tells him to lift a particular crate. Little does Kel know, but he has been chosen. The very act of lifting the crate changes everything.

The Last Try is a lot older than Kel ever knew. And Dean? He’s ancient, too. As in, record-breaking years alive.

Characters

The characters are Kel (Dan Kelly), Dean, Fred, and Olivia. Kel talks about Julie, his late wife. Dean mentions Silas, a prior owner of The Last Try. There’s a little bit about Kel’s mother and his late brother, Rob. And… that’s it.

Kel is just an old man, a regular at his cousin’s bar. His cousin Dean is even more ancient and frail, but still running the bar. Fred is Kel’s great-grandnephew, and Olivia is his new wife.

Every single one of these characters has a heavy Boston accent, although I hear Dean with a bit of a brogue.

Memorable Quotes {the first person talking is Dean}

Near the back window, there was a small door hidden by crates of supplies. “Can you get me one of those?”

Kel looked at the stack skeptically. At age 84, he wasn’t nearly as spry as he had been. “I’ll try. But you might want to get Fred or Olivia to do this.” He nodded in the direction of a great-grandnephew on his mom’s side, and the man’s new bride. Cute, if you liked scrawny. He bent over to pick up the crate.

“No, that one, over there.” Dean pointed to a truly old crate. It seemed to have been from the day Dean had opened the place. “See if you can lift it.”

“Deano, I can’t be throwing my back out, y’know. Seriously, Olivia may be a shrimp, but she’s got some moxie to her.”

“Hey, I heard that!”

“See?”

“Kel,” Dean said, looking at Kel with watery blue eyes, “that crate is for you only.”

Kel furrowed his brow, trying to figure out what the hell that meant. “Okay. But I blame you if I end up at Mass. General again.”

“Fair enough.”

Kel bent down again, squatting this time. “Lift with your knees, not with your back,” he whispered to himself.

“You say something there, Uncle Kel?” Fred hollered.

“No, no.” Kel picked up the crate and it was far lighter than he had been expecting.

The small door opened of its own accord, and Kel nearly dropped the crate on his foot as the scenery changed.

Continuity

Dean reveals that one of the previous incarnations of the bar was in Ballyvaughan, in Ireland—which is the birthplace of Ceilidh O’Malley. Peri Martin is a graduate of Boston University (as am I), the nearby university I reference in the story but never name.

Rating for The Myth of the Last Try

The story has a K rating.

Upshot for The Myth of the Last Try

When I was first writing this one, I was just kind of noodling around and had no plans for it. But once the small back door opens up, seemingly by itself, the story took shape.

Given the time frame and the location, there’s no reason why Kel can’t run into, say Noah Braverman and Elise Jeffries of Mettle, or even Peri Martin from The Obolonk Murders.

Kel could turn out to be a bridge character between two very separate universes. Hmmm.

I like to think there’s a little Last Try in every city. #amwriting

Want More Short Stories Like The Myth of the Last Try?

If The Myth of the Last Try resonates with you, then check out my other articles about Boston short stories and Boston characters.

Character Reviews:

• Peri Martin
† Nell Murphy
• Josie James
† Frances Miller Ashford
• Marnie Shapiro
† Self-Review: The Boy in the Band

And for more short stories, be sure to check out a complete list of my shorter works, at Hub Page—Short Stories.

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Self-Review – Wilder BloomShort Stories, Road, My Aliens, Last Patient, interview, Surprises, Props, shipwrecked, child, Killing Us Softly, Ditte, Band, three minutes, Longest Night Watch, Nothing Good Ever Happens, Complications, Your Call, Darkness into Light, canaries, gentrification, Cynthia, True Believer, Short Stories, Wilder Bloom, Dish, Mitalisque, kitten, Last Try, Minnesota Wish, Dominick and Angela, Alix, Alix’s Apocalypse, A Chance Encounter in Time, A Crime in Time, A Show for the Galaxy, Alien Justice, And the Band Played the Apocalypse, Babel 2.0, Side Pages, Frozen Assets, Julie's Dollar, Mandy Goes to Aspen, Martin's Choice, Mike’s Grades, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, Sarah’s Invention, Small Acts of Defiance, The Future Has No Foundation, Unexpected Help, You Will Drink Your Coffee and Like It, Unreliable, East Side of the Universe, Eros vs Thanatos, Dust Between Our Stars, A Show for the Galaxy, A Fairy Tale for Skeptical Adults, A School for Scavengers, Frozen Assets, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, 1960s Temporal Crimes, Lizzie Borden is Vital to the Timeline, Walls Came Tumbling Down Again, The End, Will's Dog, Building Trust, Message in an Odd Bottle, The New Kid, What's an Animal, A Touch of Gray Hair, Guilty of Imperfection, Jared's World Turned Upside Down, Caring for Carole, Nuremberg Redux, Art Has All Sorts of Effects, When Russia Invaded Texas, Failure, Tumble in a Tomb, Beauty is Only Earth Deep, Peddler, Escape Violinist, Shimmering Wasteland, Cave Canem and Cave, Skating, Uninformed, Stellar Stowaway, dinosaurs, fragments, none of this is real, buzz, quartz, water, verity, quarrel, rivalry, breakout,

Self-Review – Wilder Bloom

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on March 9, 2023

Review – Wilder Bloom

I wrote Wilder Bloom quickly as I was under a time crunch. I wrote this short story for the second volume of The Longest Night Watch. And all of the proceeds go to the Alzheimer’s Association.

So with the (at the time) very recent death of actor Gene Wilder to Alzheimer’s, the participants decided to honor his memory. So this was much as the original volume was to honor Sir Terry Pratchett.

The story is a simple one. Wilder – called by his real name, Jerome Silberman, cycles through his many roles as he loses his true sense of self. And so the reader, by definition, sees his roles as essential facets of his personality.

Wilder Bloom: Background

With Wilder’s death, it became imperative to me to commemorate him in some fashion. But how? And then it came to me.

Since I know Alzheimer’s often affects your short-term memory first, longer term memory would work for my purposes. But what would a long-term actor remember?

Their roles.

Plot

So much like in Props, Mr. Silberman is in a nursing home where he is slowly and not so slowly losing himself. But while in Props the main character plotted her escape, Silberman instead relives his biggest roles.

No longer able to distinguish fantasy from reality, he becomes his characters again.

And so, the story essentially turned into countless Easter eggs.

The following films get shout outs:

• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
† The Producers
• Silver Streak
† Blazing Saddles
• Young Frankenstein

I went with these as they are, more or less, his best-known film roles. And I also decided on these because the characters are so indelible. I felt that they would resonate with Mr. Silberman and, by extension, with the reader.

Characters

The only character is an unnamed nurse who observes Mr. Silberman. Through her, the reader learns about Mr. Silberman (Wilder).

Memorable Quotes from Wilder Bloom

He said his second wife – perhaps she was his third – she was a comedienne who died young, of ovarian cancer. He did not speak about her much, but it was always with great affection.

Rating

This story has a K rating.

Upshot

The anthology is stalled in developmental hell. Sad, really.

A wilder Bloom there never was. #amwriting

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Self-Review – A Kittengentrification, Kitten, Wilder Bloom, Last Try, Minnesota Wish, Props, Dominick, Band, Mandy Goes to Aspen, Frozen Assets, Sarah’s Invention, Mike’s Grades, Building Trust, Martin's Choice, World Turned Upside Down, Caring for Carole, Failure, Tumble in a Tomb, Uninformed, African Escape, Scavenger Hunt at Lanterman's Mill, Jealousy, freshly baked bread, AM/FM ghosts, rescued,

Self-Review – A Kitten

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on February 23, 2023

Review – A Kitten

I like A Kitten, and I think it’s one of the cuter short stories I have ever written. At some point, I would love for it to have a home… somewhere. But I imagine it may not. So, it is entirely possible it will become a free giveaway.

Background

I wanted to write something which would be sweet and very all-ages friendly. But because of the kind of writer I am, I could not resist a little surprise…

Plot

This story has very little plot. Rather, its charm and its uniqueness come from the twist ending.

But the story is, essentially, that Suzy will be turning six years old very soon. So, the entire plot essentially revolves around deciding whether it is such a good idea. And, when it is decided that it is a good idea, getting Suzy her heart’s desire.

It is a gentle story, and the surprise is nothing in the vein of jump scares in the dark, or anything.

Characters

The characters are Suzy, and her two friends who she associates with. Oh, and there’s also Smoke.

One thing a reader who is paying attention may realize is… something is odd here. Who are these people? Why are they in charge of whether Suzy can get such a gift? They are clearly not her parents. So, how do they fit in with her? Why are they even necessary in her life at all?

Also, everyone uses American Sign Language. There is only one scene where people are actually speaking out loud to each other.

Memorable Quotes from A Kitten

We entered Suzy’s room and she came over. Ever the gracious hostess, she signed, “It is good to see you, Scott. Do you want a cup of water? Do you?” she turned to me.

“I’m good.” Scott asked, “Suzy, do you know how to take care of a kitten?”

“I think so,” Suzy replied after a while. “You feed and give water and play and they get a comfy place to sleep.”

“There’s a litter box, too,” I explained. “A kitten will need a place to poop.”

“I understand,” Suzy replied.

“That’s very good,” Scott praised. “Do you think you could be responsible enough to care for a kitten?”

“Oh yes! Oh yes!” Suzy got excited and started jumping a little.

“Do you understand, Suzy,” I pointed out, “that a kitten will grow up to be a cat? And that a cat might not want to play as much?”

“I understand,” Suzy replied. “I will be sure to remember and be careful. And I will love a kitten just as much when it grows up to be a cat. I promise!” To emphasize her point, she crossed her heart.

“We will think about it,” I stated cautiously.

Rating

The story has a K rating.
Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

A Kitten – Takeaways

Suzy is one of those characters that I have no future plans for. But I sometimes think I would like to.

After all, how does she get along with Smoke? Does it all work out? So, in all honesty, I do not truly know.

Doesn’t every vaguely described child want a kitten? #amwriting”

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Self-Review – A True Believer in SkepticismShort Stories, Road, My Aliens, Last Patient, interview, Surprises, Props, shipwrecked, child, Killing Us Softly, Ditte, Band, three minutes, Longest Night Watch, Nothing Good Ever Happens, Complications, Your Call, Darkness into Light, canaries, gentrification, Cynthia, True Believer, Short Stories, Wilder Bloom, Dish, Mitalisque, kitten, Last Try, Minnesota Wish, Dominick and Angela, Alix, Alix’s Apocalypse, A Chance Encounter in Time, A Crime in Time, A Show for the Galaxy, Alien Justice, And the Band Played the Apocalypse, Babel 2.0, Side Pages, Frozen Assets, Julie's Dollar, Mandy Goes to Aspen, Martin's Choice, Mike’s Grades, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, Sarah’s Invention, Small Acts of Defiance, The Future Has No Foundation, Unexpected Help, You Will Drink Your Coffee and Like It, Unreliable, East Side of the Universe, Eros vs Thanatos, Dust Between Our Stars, A Show for the Galaxy, A Fairy Tale for Skeptical Adults, A School for Scavengers, Frozen Assets, Out of the Work Camp Frying Pan, 1960s Temporal Crimes, Lizzie Borden is Vital to the Timeline, Walls Came Tumbling Down Again, The End, Will's Dog, Building Trust, Message in an Odd Bottle, The New Kid, What's an Animal, A Touch of Gray Hair, Guilty of Imperfection, Jared's World Turned Upside Down, Caring for Carole, Nuremberg Redux, Art Has All Sorts of Effects, When Russia Invaded Texas, Failure, Tumble in a Tomb, Beauty is Only Earth Deep, Peddler, Escape Violinist, Shimmering Wasteland, Cave Canem and Cave, Skating, Uninformed, Stellar Stowaway, dinosaurs, fragments, none of this is real, buzz, quartz, water, verity, quarrel, rivalry, breakout,

Self-Review – A True Believer in Skepticism

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on September 22, 2022

Review – Self-Review – A True Believer in Skepticism

So the concept for A True Believer in Skepticism came from a few stray thoughts which ended up coming together rather nicely. It was at this time that I was actively trying to write every single day. Hence, I needed to find inspiration anywhere I could.

And in this case, it was the Home Depot. No lie.

Background

When I wrote True Believer… my husband and I had just come back from ordering flooring from the Home Depot. We had met a very pleasant and knowledgeable salesman named Reynaldo.

And I loved that name, because, to me, it evoked mystery. Hence the story started to come together.

Plot

Denise lives an ordinary life in a dull, ordinary town. But when a fair comes to town, she eventually goes to it. But she scarcely knows why.

While there, she meets the Great Reynaldo, who tells her fortune. Denise is skeptical, feeling that fortune tellers are only so much hokum. And she isn’t fully convinced that the Great Reynaldo can do what he claims he can.

It’s not until she leaves the fair that the first part of his predictions start to come true….

Characters in A True Believer in Skepticism

The characters are Denise and the Great Reynaldo. While there are other people at the fair. While the story refers to them, they don’t have names. And those other people don’t speak, either.

Denise, of course, is the True Believer.

Memorable Quotes

There was a booth which she had not noticed amidst the crowds. A fellow was seated on a stool, wearing a turban. There was a banner at the front top of the booth which said, ‘The Great Reynaldo Will Tell Your Fortune.’

Denise laughed a little. Fortune tellers were just so much hokum, the product of willing believers who were so chatty they would give their secrets away willingly. A scam artist merely needed to be good at reading body language, asking leading questions, following up on the answers, and convincingly recover from unexpected or out and out wrong answers.

Rating

The story has a K rating.

A True Believer in Skepticism: the Upshot

I really love the title of this one, and am particularly happy that it found an audience. It is to be published by Mythic Magazine, which also published Three Minutes Back in Time.

Are YOU a true believer in skepticism?

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Self-Review – CynthiaJake to represent Cynthia

Self-Review – Cynthia

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 25, 2022

Review – Cynthia

So the thing about Cynthia is, it’s a fun although ultimately sad story.

You see, Cynthia is a Great Dane.

And to her sorrow, her master is succumbing to Alzheimer’s. This short story was written for the second volume of The Longest Night Watch. All of the proceeds go to the Alzheimer’s Association.

I love the canine point of view. There is just something about writing about a species that is so incredibly close to us yet their ‘language’, such as it is, is vastly different.

Furthermore, even science says that dogs experience so much more than we do when it comes to scent. And so, I firmly believe that their perceptions have to be rendered in that manner.

Background

I have always been a dog lover, and I even have some fan fiction where the POV comes from a canine perspective. As a result, I had the itch to write something similar yet wholly original. I also wanted it to reflect the overall subject matter, Alzheimer’s. What better way, than to show that the creature keeping their faculties is one who didn’t have quite so many to begin with?

Plot

The plot is small and compact, and it reflects how Daniel’s life is shrinking in on itself. The dog even says that there is more food when Keisha arrives, and the walks are longer. You don’t need to be human to know that Daniel is faltering. Because this status quo will change, and the center will not hold.

Characters

The characters are the narrator, Cynthia the dog, Daniel Robinson, her owner, and Daniel’s daughter, Keisha. However, we only see Keisha at the end, although there is a mentioning of her before.

Memorable Quotes from Cynthia

I love him.

He smells good.

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Cynthia: Upshot

Canine POV, as I noted above, is great fun to write. But the story is truly a sad one. For Keisha in particular, her father is slipping away. And even though she’s a nurse, she can do nothing to slow down or stop his decline.

Cynthia’s devotion and love are as real and true as any human’s. #amwriting

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Self-Review – Gentrificationgentrification, Kitten, Wilder Bloom, Last Try, Minnesota Wish, Props, Dominick, Band, Mandy Goes to Aspen, Frozen Assets, Sarah’s Invention, Mike’s Grades, Building Trust, Martin's Choice, World Turned Upside Down, Caring for Carole, Failure, Tumble in a Tomb, Uninformed, African Escape, Scavenger Hunt at Lanterman's Mill, Jealousy, freshly baked bread, AM/FM ghosts, rescued,

Self-Review – Gentrification

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 18, 2022

Review – Gentrification

Gentrification is about an extremely controversial topic—abortion. When I wrote it, Roe v Wade was still fairly secure. I didn’t intend to write a prophecy.

Background

The story idea originally came to me because house flippers are a pretty large segment of the customers for the company where I work. And then the peeling away of the layers of ownership turned into something far different. But I did not intend to write about much. But it just … happened.

Plot

While peeling wallpaper from an old house’s walls, the narrator comes across a mural, painted in pastels. So, it’s clearly for a child.

She traces down the ownership of the house, finally finding one woman who was probably around when the mural was painted.

Yet Hazel Prentice Morse wasn’t just around. She was in the thick of it.

Characters in Gentrification

The characters are the unnamed narrative, a woman who is a retired lawyer. Also, Hazel Morse, the storyteller, who was twelve at the time of the events. In addition, Hazel’s Aunt Martha and Martha’s boyfriend, Chet. Also, Hazel’s parents and her grandparents.

Memorable Quotes

That woman, Hazel Prentice Morse, agreed to meet with me. We met at a café in her much nicer neighborhood, where she was reserved and somewhat skeptical, even after seeing numerous pictures. Then I drove her to the brownstone. The four flights we had to walk up weren’t too kind to our old knees.

When we were in the room and she saw the mural in the flesh as it were, she started to cry. I didn’t really have much of a place to sit during renovations, so I went downstairs to give her some privacy and find the one folding chair I always bring so I can have a place to eat my lunch.

I brought the chair up. She sat down as I leaned against the windowsill. “What is it?” I asked. “What do you remember, Mrs. Morse? Do you know who the artist was?” When I was still practicing law, I took a ton of depositions. I know how to gently get information out of frightened witnesses. You never forget how to do that.

“Yes, I know who it was.” She stared off into the distance.

“You don’t have to tell me anything.” She was no witness. I didn’t have to indulge my morbid curiosity.

“I do, actually. Woman to woman. It’s funny. But I’m the only person alive who remembers. I imagine the statute has run by now.”

“Statute?”

“The Statute of Limitations—you know—how long you can be charged with a crime.”
Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

Rating

The story has a PG-13 rating. There are some rather upsetting parts of it, and I depict deaths but not in detail.

However, I tell about the deaths via the conceit of having a character relate them decades later. So, the reader is even further removed from them.

But they’re still not the kind of thing most people like to talk about, or ever think about.

Gentrification: the Upshot

I have workshopped this story more than once and I have submitted it for publication. So for a publisher with the cojones to take it on, I think it’s a story to tell. Particularly these days.

But I have been getting the feeling that publishers are just too afraid to rock the boat right now.

Gentrification, a story that we need to tell. #amwriting

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