Conversations With The Bookless: Keith Rawson

Here is a conclusion that I came to about Keith Rawson. The guys acts like a pro. Even if I sometimes disagree with him I’m confident he will make it for that simple fact alone. Keith’s fiction contains scenes of, sometimes, shocking brutality and when he is firing on all cylinders it is confrontational fiction at it’s best.

I freely admit that I don’t often get the label “transgressivefiction”. It feels to me like an excuse. Set me straight, what is it about transgressive fiction (as a reader and writer) that does it for you?
Most people don’t get transgressive fiction, it’s one of those weird sub-genre’s that gets batted around all the time and for the most part no one–at least in my opinion–has really gotten around to adequately describing what it is. For me, transgressive fiction is a style that straddles genre. The best examples of it tend to mix a little of everything into the pot. For instance, is American Psycho a satire or a serial killer novel? Is Last Exit to Brooklyn a hard-boiled crime novel or a character piece detailing the lives of the New York working class?

The one thing that sets transgressive apart for me is the extremes. With most so-called genre fiction, there seems to be a pre-set limit with how far you can go with certain subjects. (Violence, sex, drug use. et al.,) However, with transgressive fiction the gloves typically come off and, what would typically be considered going too far is no longer an issue.

Now would I consider myself an exclusively transgressive writer? No, not at all. I do consider myself a crime writer, but there have been times I’ve written stories that lack definition that get lumped into the transgressive category.

Where are you, right now, as you’re writing these answers?
My living room, on the laptop.

What’s your favorite story written by someone else?

I’d have to say The Box by Jack Ketchum. That story is just plain creepy and told so plainly, and even though I read it close to year ago it still sticks with me.

Who are your influences and what is your most unlikeliest influence?
The big guys for me are James Ellroy, Ken Bruen, Charlie Stella, and Kurt Vonnegut. All four of them are pretty uncompromising when it comes to their writing, which is a real rarity. Most writer’s (at least in my opinion.) seem to be a little too preoccupied with what their agent wants, what their editor wants, what the readers and critics want instead of just writing what they want to write. I have a lot of admiration for the folks who stick with personal vision as opposed to following along with trends. Plus the stories they write actually make you want to turn the next page and the next. . .
And yeah, here’s cheesy suburban Dad answer to the second half of the question: My Daughter, Sadie. After she was born, I really started hitting it hard and haven’t let up since.

What do you most value in the fiction you love?
Honestly, the reason I love crime fiction is that out of all the styles of fiction out there, I think crime/mystery fiction possesses the most talented, innovative writer’s working right now.

Why do you write?
Simple answer: I love it.

Long drawn out answer: I’ve dealt with depression most of my life and writing for me works extremely well as a means of self medication, same thing goes for reading.

What do you like most about short fiction?
Other than I can finish telling a story in one or two sittings?

Seriously though, I’m kind of an old school type writer who uses short fiction as a training ground. With short stories I can make mistakes, I can play around with different themes and ideas and I only have to dedicate 10 or 12 pages to it as opposed to two or three hundred. Personally, I think there are a lot of novelists out there who probably would’ve benefited greatly from churning out 10 or 15 short stories first before tackling something book length.

When did you start writing short fiction and what prompted you to do so?
I started writing short stories when I was a teenager. I wrote mostly because I was bored, lonely teenager from a middle of no where town where there really wasn’t all that much to do. (but isn’t that the way all teenager’s feel no matter where they’re from?) I kept writing into my twenties until a few years after I met my wife when I stopped writing entirely and I was more or less content with working full time and going to school. But a few years after quiting, I started getting bored with just having a job and spending my very abundant free time doing nothing but reading, watching movies and playing video games.

By this time, I’d gotten very into reading hard-boiled and noir novels and started farting around with the genre. By the time my daughter showed up, I was very into churning out crime stories and I just kept rolling from there.

Although, I really just started sending out my stuff a little over a year ago and even though I still feel I have a lot left to learn, I’ve been really enjoying seeing my stories in print.

Of your stories, which is your favorite; the one that showcases best your abilities?
I don’t think I’ve written it yet. Yeah, there are some stories I’m very proud of (Clinical Trial in Plots with Guns#5 [which I know you hated, but I really enjoyed writing it], Memory Lane in Pulp Pusher, A Quiet Minute of Reflection in DBTD/CrimeWaV, and Performance Anxiety in Bad Things.) but I don’t think there is any one story out there now that I would say entirely encapsulate me. There are some stories that I’m getting ready to send out that I’m very proud of and demonstrate a lot more range in story telling. But right now those are in the unattached to any publication phase except for one of them.

Do you have any short story publications forthcoming?
I’m pretty sure I have a flash piece coming out in the next Bad Things in April. Also, I have a longer story coming out in the June issue of Yellow Mama. And, like I said, I have another wad of stories I’m getting ready to send out, so we’ll see if they find homes?

I understand you have a completed manuscript, tentatively titled Retirement. What’s it about and would you like to share a paragraph or two?
Certainly:
Retirement focuses on a DPS (Department of Public Safety, Arizona’s state wide police force) Lieutenant named Tyler Donahue. Donahue works for the Special Investigation branch of DPS, specifically in the narcotics division. He is a decorated twelve year veteran of the department, he’s also the dirtiest cop in Arizona, who secretly works for one of the most dangerous Speed Kingpins in the state, Clyde Raines. Raines uses Donahue as a bagman, a fixer, a hitter and sometimes as muscle, and in return Raines hands over tips of where and when his competitors deals will be going down and cash and drugs.

Recently Raines has been cleaning house within his organization and he orders Donahue to participate in a hit on an old school bagman named Setton, who Raines wants killed because he wasn’t paying close enough attention to a story he was telling. The hit goes down like a product exchange gone wrong, the only problem is that Setton lives and drives to his daughter Danni’s apartment and tries to tell his daughter what happened. As Setton dies in his daughter’s apartment, one of Danni’s regular clients (Danni works as a prostitute.) Mike Sandoval, walks in.

Sandoval is an accountant who has convinced himself he is a mob hitman, and he agrees to help Danni take revenge on her father’s killers.

Well, that’s the first time I’ve had to summarize the book, it’s a little slop, but here’s a couple of paragraphs:

Danni Setton stood staring at her reflection in the single dirty window of her trick flop gently tugging at the sterling silver barbell in her left nipple. It was her worst feature, her nipples. The rest of her body was taunt and athletic, as well tuned and supple as a 21-year-old despite the fact she was closer to 31. But her nipples, they were like something out of National Geographic; large and brown, the circumference of an old fashion silver dollar. They were the type of nipples you’d expect to see on a married mother of four; sucked on, dried out, the difference being that she’d never had a baby’s mouth attached to her tits. Sure, there had been plenty of clients nipping and tugging on them, but for as long as she could remember they’d looked the same. Thus, the piercing, the heavy barbells and rings she wore through them; the glimmering, flashing steel off setting their overall ugliness. Of course, the hardware fit in fairly well with her latest look: Lost Goth/street girl. In the 12 years since she’d left home, she’d gone through lots of different looks, but the jet black hair, thick black eye makeup—the raccoon look—tattered black clothes, it complemented her milky dead girl skin perfectly, plus the whole outfit made her look 10 years younger and attracted a breed of client that preferred street hard 12-year-olds to whorehouse softened 26-year-olds.

“Oh God, what have I become?” Tony, the dumb fucker was still here. Tony was one of the clients who would prefer screwing a 12 year-old, but still maintained enough guilt and disgust about his desires to only pursue youthful looking adults.

“Oh Lord, help your servant!” Tony’s biggest problem was that he was a holy roller and spent fifteen or twenty minutes after they were finished to beg God for forgiveness.

Tony’s second biggest problem was that he was a father of three, all three of them girls. Danni knew that he would never touch his girls, but their friends, that was another story. Danni knew that if Tony ever stopped coming to see her, chances were that he was in jail for touching one of his little girls’ friends; it made her shutter anytime she thought about it.

“Jesus, make your servant whole!”

Tony’s third biggest problem was that he liked getting shit on. Literally, and the wetter the better; so typically Danni would eat a couple of Taco Bell burritos a few hours before she knew he was coming over.

“I know my sins are grievous!” Normally Tony’s little ritual wasn’t a problem. Twenty minutes of praying, a quick shower and the asshole was out the door. A $1000 in her pocket and all she had to do was cop a squat on Tony’s shallow chest. But tonight she needed him out of here, Mike was coming over tonight.

“Tony,” She said her voice barely above a whisper, “get your clothes on and get the fuck out of here.”

“What. . . I can’t, it’s still all over me. . . “

“I don’t care, times up. Get the fuck up.”

“But . . .”

“Tony, I’ve got someone coming in 5 minutes, and he doesn’t like it when someone else is here when he gets here, and if he finds you in the shower when he comes through the door he’s going to cut you from your belly to your dick.”

“Can’t I even wipe the shit off me? I mean, you really smelled tonight. . .”
“Tony. Go, Now.”

Her holy roller gathered his things and hustled out the door quietly griping about the smell, intermingled with prayers.

Chances were Mike wouldn’t give two shits whether Tony was here or not. Mike knew what she was and they were by no means exclusive; he paid for her time just like every man in her life. But there was something different about Mike. He’d been a regular for the past 2 years and he’d hinted at connections with Clyde Raines, the same asshole thug her Dad worked for. Danni never delved too deeply into what it was that he did for Raines, or whoever, but with how gentle he was, she imagined that he spent most nights waiting on his bosses to pick up the phone and order him to deal with minor annoyances permanently. Most killers were gentle in their private life, and typically wanted their sex as far removed from their professions as possible; quiet, gentle and slow. What Danni most liked about Mike nights—other than the fact that he wasn’t a complete freak like most of her clients—was that sex was very much a secondary interest for both of them. Mike liked to talk, and more than anything, liked to listen. With Mike, Danni was a walking cliché, a whore with heart a gold.

*** Keith Rawson blogs at Bloody Knuckles Callused Fingertips

Originally Published April 18, 2009 by Brian Lindenmuth

Conversations With the Bookless: Anonymous 9

Anonymous 9 is one the best crime fiction writers that you aren’t reading. As her work progressively get better and stronger it’s in the select company of other authors whose work reduces me to shouting Randy Jackson like exclamations like a cracked out mattress salesman.

Who is Anonymous 9? Why is she anonymous? Does she know John Twelve Hawks?

What’s your favorite story written by someone else?
Serenade, written in 1937 by James M. Cain, who is widely accepted as the father of hardboiled. He’s famous for The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce. But my favorite is Serenade, and it’s so politically incorrect, you probably couldn’t even get it published today. Cain always goes for the niches of humanity seldom seen, the areas we’d rather pretend aren’t there, or wallpaper over with civility. Tom Wolfe said, “Nobody has quite pulled it off the way Cain does, not Hemingway and not even Raymond Chandler.”

Who are your influences and what is your most unlikeliest influence?
In addition to Cain, I love Jim Thompson, and all the old noir movies. The Grifters film, based on Thompson’s 1963 novel has a dark, mother-son sexual tension seldom explored in fiction, but seen increasingly in the news today, mostly involving female teachers and their young students. Art doesn’t seem to be keeping up with real life these days.

I had never heard of Andrew Vachss before Tequila Spike got published in Thuglit and a few readers started a comparison. Like him, I’m aware of the terrible suffering of some children at the hands of their supposed protectors. My unlikeliest influences are Tom Robbins and the new age writer, Louise Hay.

What do you most value in the fiction you love?
A writer who puts me under the skin of the character. I crave intimacy. I want to know what’s driving that person on the page. I have no interest in stories that manipulate stick-figures around a mystery-puzzle.

Why do you write?

Because I have to.

What is the value and purpose of short fiction in mystery/crime fiction for you personally and overall for the form and genre?
For me, shorts were a way of getting back into writing fiction. A novel was too high a wall to scale at first. Now that I have published shorts under my belt, it seems do-able. Mystery/crime is just part of my internal landscape, and I like the idea of experimenting with style, voice, sentence structure, without the commitment of a full-length novel. I feel a writer is made or broken on the cross of the novel, though. At some point you have to go for it.

What issues or ideas about fiction have been foremost in your mind of late?
I always want to write what’s not being written. I ask, “What story would I like to read that’s nowhere to be found?” I like peeking through gaps in the fabric of reality. I want a glimpse of the monster’s tooth we’re suspended on.

Who is the best short story writer that people haven’t gotten hip to yet?
Andy Henion. Check out When the Strangers Come over at Plots with Guns, issue #4 . I found the story almost hard to read it was so revealing of a couple’s sado-masochistic head-game. But Henion doesn’t stop at description—he gets to the root of why. “You’re the bastard son of James M. Cain,” I told him.

What do you like most about short fiction?
You can write it and get instantly published online. I outlined Claw Marks on an envelope, while waiting outside a restaurant. Polished it over a few days and sent it to DZ Allen’s Muzzle Flash. It was up in a matter of hours. The site had a comments section, and I got reader feedback instantly as well. The immediacy of e-zines is very encouraging and makes you want to keep working.

When did you start writing short fiction and what prompted you to do so?
I discovered online zines a year ago. I loved that a lot of sites were interactive and you could correspond with writers and editors. E-zines are more personal than magazines, and cultivate their own communities. I discovered Thuglit first, and left a comment for Glenn Gray. I was hooked. (Glenn’s Mr. Universe has just been chosen for the next Thuglit crime anthology, BTW.)

Of your stories, which is your favorite; the one that showcases best your abilities?
That’s like asking me to pick a favorite child. They each showcase something different. Comedy: Organic Chicken Tequila Soup with Chopped Finger Garnish. Best Ending: Tequila Spike. Best Voice: Killer Orgasm. Most Depraved but Still Offers Redemption: M-N-S.

Do you have any short story publications forthcoming?
I was contacted by a publisher of noir anthologies for the Dutch countries, but I haven’t signed yet. It’s gratifying that we’re not writing in a vacuum online. Agents and publishers seem to be trolling zines all the time for new material and talent.

How do you plan to rectify your booklessness? Both Hard Bite and M-N-S are just brilliant stories, any chance of either of them being expanded into something longer?
Thank you for thrilling me with those words, even more than the female response cream in my night stand. I’ve had plans for a while to expand Hard Bite into a novel. I have another chapter written on M-N-S.

BTW, just a quick plug here for Anthony Neil Smith, the editor at PWG, who read M-N-S and offered inspired suggestions. He was a dream to work with. Also, David Cranmer at Beat to a Pulp isn’t afraid of edgy, unique material and is a talented, helpful editor. My fiction isn’t something I need to struggle to get published. My struggle is with the word and the page. I rewrite every story dozens of times. I can deliberate for days over a comma. So in my opinion, when the novel is ready, the publisher will appear.
*** Anonymous 9 keeps a myspace page which, in keeping with her secret identity, is not current. Like last minute house parties on a Saturday night you just have to keep your ear to the ground for new stories then tell all your friends and spread the word when you hear about them.

Originally Published April 17, 2009 by Brian Lindenmuth

Conversations With The Bookless: Sandra Seamans

A couple of years ago Jeff Vandermeer ran a series of blog posts called Conversations With the Bookless. The Conversations with the Bookless series was designed to showcase those writers who are up and coming, who don’t yet have a collection or a novel out, who are making their names known writing short stories. With Jeff’s blessing I will be continuing the series here at BSC over the next couple of weeks, but with a focus mostly on mystery/crime fiction.

From the first generation successes of Anthony Neil Smith, Victor Gischler and Sean Doolittle that came out of Plots With Guns to the later success of zine author/founders Sandra Ruttan and Russel McLean to a lot of others the online zines have, over the years, proved to be a fairly successful and fertile ground for emerging talents to launch a career, highlight their own work and showcase the work of others.

These writers are the next generation and it will be interesting in the next couple of years to see which of them will make it and which will stand out.

Nothing else to say really except to end with a quote from the original series.

The fact is, if you don’t have a book out, it’s harder to get attention and it’s harder for reader attention to crystallize around you. I hope these interviews introduce readers to some of the great talent that, in the coming years, will be amazingly and bountifully bookful. — Jeff Vandermeer

To kick off the series there can be only one choice and that is Sandra Seamans. After partially breaking away from The Short Mystery Fiction Society to fill a gap in their coverage Sandra Seamans has gone on to become, in many ways, the queen of the scene. In creating her own little corner she has created a salon for discussion and a crossroads with links to markets, zines, contests; links to her own stories and other’s. She has become the biggest cheerleader of the short form and those who practice it, freely giving out Snoopy Dances at the success of others. Her work has the quality of professionalism about it; you know that you are going to get a consistent level of polished quality whether it is a flash fiction piece or something longer.

Where are you, right now, as you’re writing these answers?
I’m in the office my husband built for me. The shelves that hold my books and pictures and the desk where the computer sits are made from pine and maple boards harvested from the trees on our farm. It’s a small space filled with pieces of my past and present. A good place to build stories.

What’s your favorite story written by someone else?
Ha! That’s like asking me to pick my favorite grandchild. This past winter I’ve been spending my time reading the classic short story writers of the mystery genre’s past. Chandler’s “Red Wind”, and Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” just blew me away with the writing, the mood they set, how everything felt so real. And Stanley Ellin’s “The Payoff”, my God, can that man turn a story on its ear. Of the newer writers, Andrew Vachss’ “Cain” showed me how you can take a worn out theme and make it new and Harlan Ellison’s “Soft Monkey” taught me how to break all those short story “rules”. Of the new generation of writers I’ve read on the internet, I’d have to say that Kyle Minor’s story “They Take You” is one that will stick with me for a long time. When I got to the end of that story, I felt myself saying, no, no, no, you can’t do that. But he did and it was the perfect ending to a glorious story.

Who are your influences and what is your unlikeliest influence?
My biggest influence is O Henry, short story writer extraordinaire. When I was in eighth grade I was given an award for reading more than twenty-five books during the school year. My English teacher, Mrs. Gow, told me I should expand my reading beyond the horse related stories that I loved and presented me with a copy of “O Henry Stories”. What an amazing writer to discover. He wrote crime, western, romance, drama, horror, all of them set in the Depression era time that he lived in. And it wasn’t just the times he explored with his writing but every aspect of the life he lived. Every writer should receive such a gift.

My most unlikely influence would be Georgette Heyer. I love her books and own a paperback copy of nearly every one. While she is known as a regency romance writer, a great many of her books center around a crime of some type, usually blackmail or theft. She makes you realize that not every crime story has to have a murder in it. I especially love how she brings her characters alive with dialogue, the words they use and the things they say draw a complete picture of their character. And her books are filled with humor instead of the angst of most romance novels showing that you can step outside the boundaries of your genre to create something fresh and different.

What do you most value in the fiction you love?
The voice of a storyteller. When a writer can weave a story that sucks you in to the point that you can’t stop reading you know you’re in the hands of a true storyteller. A good storyteller can make the whole world fall away and sweep you into the lives of their characters until you feel every emotion, smell every smell, and taste every sensation with them. Their breath is your breath as you travel through the story with them.

Why do you write?
Why does anybody write? It’s certainly not for the money or the glory because very few writers actually achieve that sort of fame and even fewer can claim they make a living with their writing.
I suppose like every other writer, I hear the voices in my head begging me to tell their story. Worse, they haunt me be until I actually get them written down. But deep down it goes back to a line I heard in a movie once. A writer gives a voice to those who can’t speak for themselves. And that’s what I try to do, get inside the people who are afraid to speak out for themselves, to tell the truth of what their lives are like. I guess for me, writing boils down to a search for the truth by scratching at the wounded lives of the people around me.

What is the value and purpose of short fiction in mystery/crime fiction for you personally and overall for the form and genre?
For a newbie crime fiction writer, like me, the value of the short form is in helping me find my voice and finding the niche within the genre that suits that voice. I’ve also used the form to create characters and explore every aspect of who and what they are or can be. With the short form I can tackle subject matter that would never sell in novel form. Readers don’t mind catching a glimpse into the darkness of being human if it doesn’t swallow them whole.

In using the mystery/crime genre to create stories you meet characters on the worst day of their life and how they react to that moment in their life is the basis of the story. You tap into emotions that don’t exist in the day to day act of living. You can explore cowardice, heroism, fear, self-preservation, anger, the list of emotions that can be brought into the story are endless. It’s not just a scattering of clues to solve a mystery, it can go much deeper into the human condition and that’s what the very best writers in this genre achieve. And isn’t that what readers really want, that glimpse into themselves?

What issues or ideas about fiction have been foremost in your mind of late?
Reality – getting every detail exactly right in your story. For people who live in front of a television watching news that skirts the truth, and TV shows and movies that step way beyond the possible, I’m surprised when people get upset that you don’t get every detail exactly right in fiction. And for me, fiction is the key word. Let’s face it, people don’t complain when their action hero walks into a scene carrying knives, guns, and a missile launcher but let your book character shoot one bullet too many or put a silencer on a gun that shouldn’t have one and they go ballistic. Why? It’s pure fantasy, the same as the picture on your TV screen. Yes, fiction has to be truthful and believable but why do readers focus more on these minor points than on the story as a whole? And if a reader becomes so obsessed with the minor details how does he ever let himself escape into the story? For me, a story is pure escapism, a place to step outside of my life and into another world whether I’m reading or writing.

Who is the best short story writer that people haven’t gotten hip to yet?
Kyle Minor, hands down, is the best writer out there on so many levels. The writing is full of emotion and he taps into your soul while you’re reading, leaving you completely breathless when you finish one of his stories. He makes me want to toss everything I’ve ever written into the circular file.

What do you like most about short fiction?
As a reader, I love that I can steal a few minutes here or there and read a complete story in a book or on the internet. Instant escapism. I love that a short story deals with just one scene or one moment in someone’s life with no other story lines or themes to take you out of the main thrust of the story.
As a writer, I love that I can sit down in the morning and know that by the end of the day I’ve got a complete first draft of a story, especially if it’s a flash piece. With that first draft down, I can look for the point of the story and which character can best tell it, then expand from there. I find the tells and turn them into shows with actions and dialogue and in doing that I find where the truth in a story lies, what I really want to say with this bit of fiction.

My problem writing longer fiction is that I tend to write more and more convoluted plots until nothing in the story makes sense, with the shorts there is more focus without the temptation to throw in more and more problems for the character to deal with.

When did you start writing short fiction and what prompted you to do so?
When I first started writing, almost twenty years ago, I wrote because I was sure it was the path to getting rich. Ha! I learned soon enough that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. That just because I could make up as good a story as the one I was reading didn’t mean I could actually get published.
So, I started learning by reading books about writing, getting a subscription to Writer’s Digest, and writing, writing, writing. I’d submit a piece here or there, get rejected, give up, then go back and try again. I also discovered in myself a knack for writing short slice of life pieces and started submitting them to local newspapers and regional magazines with some success. But writing had to be fit into the bits and pieces of time that came my way when the kids didn’t need something or the farm didn’t need tending. Probably why short stories were the way I went with my writing.

Then about six years ago I got a computer, discovered an online flash writing workshop, found a mentor and started getting serious about writing. I put aside thoughts of getting rich and famous and concentrated on just writing, grabbing every opportunity that was offered. It didn’t matter that I didn’t get paid, I was doing what I loved and that was writing short stories. I embraced the theme write/submit, write/submit, write/submit and I actually began to get published, not just online but in small print journals and one small press anthology.

There are still markets I haven’t cracked but I’m working on it and that’s all any writer can do. Just keep writing, keep striving to be a better writer, and keep submitting. I try to remember to embrace the joy of writing and keep the doubts tucked under the blankets, though they do creep out from time to time and try to steal away the joy.

Of your stories, which is your favorite; the one that showcases best your abilities?
Of my flash pieces, I’d say that the one I wrote for Patti Abbott’s Shifting Gears flash challenge is my best. It’s called “Rabbit in a Trap” and I think I captured all the emotions of the woman in the story and came up with a perfect flash ending to the story. Of my shorts there are two. You do know that this question is similar to choosing favorite grandchildren again? The first was “The Guilty” published in Crime and Suspense because I’d crafted two characters, Ginger Blue and Bones, who should have been totally unbelievable within the boundaries of the genre and managed to make them real. The second story is “Cold Rifts” published in Crooked, because I wanted to break some “rules”, first by starting off a story with the weather and second by creating a character that nobody should have liked but still felt sorry for, and I killed the dog, the biggest no-no of them all.

Do you have any short story publications forthcoming?
Hopefully. I’ve got several out on submission and several more in various stages that will go when they’re ready.

How do you plan to rectify your booklessness?
First by actually sitting down and writing a novel. I’ve been putting this off because I didn’t feel I had the skills to take on such a project, but as the stories grow longer and my writing ability improves, that next step is fast approaching doable. One thing that has always stuck with me, though, is something another short story writer once said. “Not everybody has a novel in them.” And I do believe that there is some truth to that. Right now, I’m happy writing shorts and anything else that comes my way is just frosting on the writing cake.

Sandra Seamans blogs at My Little Corner where links to her fiction can be found.

Originally published April 16, 2009 by Brian Lindenmuth