Tom's Musings

My short stories are very short, mostly, closer to flash fiction than a classic short story. But, I think flash fiction is trending. It’s a thing people can grab and read on the commute home, read in a few minutes at breakfast over coffee and pastry. It’s my opinion that flash fiction paces our society. It’s not what I intend to stay with forever, but it’s a starting place. I was told that Hemingway started like this, but probably not like this.

The next thing is that these stories are subject to revisions, nothing major though. One per week will be work-shopped by peers in a community called Becoming Writer. Peer review has been eye opening, but I don’t see how beginning writers do without it.

Lastly, everyone is welcome to peer review me here also. If you find flaws or errors. or just think my story could be made better, just register, sign in, and then leave a comment or two. You’ll find the register link to the right, it’s WordPress, it’s familiar and easy. Anyone can comment, but to leave a comment, you MUST be registered and logged in.

More stories will be up soon.

Tom

My long-awaited-by-no-one-novel called The Strange Case of Tommy Dean is finished, but has been scrapped. It doesn’t exist, except for an old, dusty docx file that I do not intend to pursue. There is no more to come. I have taken that bad first novel and have thrown it away.

I have posted a new short story on it’s own page. The link is at the top above my picture. The formatting is a bit off but it is readable. I like this WordPress theme, and it is supposed to be for writers, but the text formatting is difficult. I may have to throw in some HTML tags, but I’m a little rusty with those. Enjoy!

I am near the end of my novella, Born Anew, (working title). It is an LGBT+ themed short work and the finished product will be just under 50,000 words.

Update:

I reached the end of the first draft of my novella, Born Anew. It ended! Right now it is four chapters , 75 pages, and 47,000+ words. After the first editing and re-write it will be shorter, but not by much. I will create its own page then.

I received another rejection letter Friday. What was great was that the response time was only six days. I like working with with people who do what they say, in this case, a prompt reply. I have also sent a new query for Tommy Dean on the 2nd of March and intend to send more this upcoming week.

Recently, I entered a new short story, The Caring Leader, in the annual Short Fiction Journal contest for short stories, and also the yearly Tillie Olsen Short Story Award contest. Sadly I cannot publish any of it here until the results of these contests are published. Wish me luck in the contest.

The Caring Leader is about a U.S. Army Platoon Sergeant, SFC Danny Franks. There is a member of his platoon, Specialist Trainor who does not fit in with the rest. Seeing trouble ahead, Danny Franks jumps into Specialist Trainor’s life. Through close, one-on-one counseling Danny Franks uncovers the truth of Specialist Trainor’s fears.

I know The Caring Leader will do well in the contest for short stories.