Short Stories

I'm still so proud of how our progressive short story worked out--not that I had a lot to do with it. I just wrote my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery part and an occasional paragraph. I thank my blog sisters, especially Joanna, for the rest.

In a way, it brought me back to my roots--short stores. My first published fiction was a short story that appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. "Different Drummers" won the Robert L. Fish Award for best first mystery short story of the year. I subsequently had a couple of other short stories appear in EQMM, and then I started focusing on novels.

I've always enjoyed the short form, though, with all its different challenges--introducing characters and story quickly, keeping it interesting and short, getting in and getting out and engaging the reader.

Since my EQMM days, I've had a short story published in a Sisters in Crime, Los Angeles chapter, anthology--Murder on Sunset Boulevard.

I've had a Nocturne Bites published in e-form on line--a short paranormal Nocturne--and it was published in book form in the anthology Awakening the Beast. I'm pondering other Bites stories now.

Do you like short stories? What is your favorite source for short stories?