Why Short Stories?

For the past couple years I've been writing a lot of short stories.

Why?

I have several good reasons.

One: it means I have more releases in a year than if I write only one or two long books. This keeps my name in front of the reading public.

Two: One of my publishers usually releases short stories that are part of an anthology later as a stand alone title. They also put stand alone short stories into an anthology later. AND they've started recording mainly their shorter stories as audio books.

Three: One of my other publishers just jumped into the audio book bandwagon and they told us that they prefer to make the shorter books, not the longer books, into audio books.

Four: Since I write erotic romance, a lot of erotic romance readers say they prefer to read erotic romances that are about 40,000 words or less.

Occasionally, I still write longer stories, too. But for now, as long as I have a day job, I foresee writing many many more short stories.

Recent posts you might like to read:

What Do You Want in a Romance Hero & What Do You Want in a Real Life Husband?

Rejection: Where Do You Go Next?

Procrastination

Cliche or Coincidence?

What Prompts Me To "Follow" A Blog

Make Sure Pretentious Words Don't Turn Off Your Readers

Dedicating Books

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Make Every Word Count

Nanowrimo is coming to a close today and for many it's been a month to write as many words as they can, at least 50,000.

With or without nano, I like to write my rough draft straight through and get the words on paper. Then I edit.

At this point, however, it's time to tighten the writing and make every scene, indeed every word count. Recently I've been writing 1,000 word short stories for promotion which has reiterated to me, the need to write tightly.

When writing tightly, every word of dialogue, scenery and plot must count. Nothing can be extraneous. Perhaps even characters can be combined.

I'm a big fan of "V" also known as "The Visitors". I loved the show in 1984 and I love the new version now. My husband bought the old mini-series and series on DVD so the kids and I have recently been watching it.

There are many similarities between the old series and the new. But the characters are tighter in the new. Some have been combined. For instance "Tyler", the boy who's enamored of the V's and becomes a V-youth-ambassador is also in love with one of the V's. He's also the son of Erica, the main female character.

In the old series, Tyler's character was a conglomeration of Mike's son (Mike was the reporter), Daniel the boy who was the V-youth ambassador and Robin, the young woman who was in love with Bryan, a foxy V.

Erica as I just mentioned, seems to be the new "Julie" who was the leader of the earth resistance movement in the old series. Julie was a doctor who happened to be a good leader. As much as I liked Julie, Erica's character is in a better position to help earth being an FBI agent who has access to the V's.

Ryan, the 5th Columnist V traitor in the new series is a combination of Willie, Bryan and Martin from the old. Ryan's a 5th Columnist V traitor who's in love with an earthling and helping the earthlings. He's also the father of the half-human/half-V baby.

The V's themselves are better drawn. Their voices aren't as rough in their reincarnation. They don't wear goggles and announce to us earthlings that their eyes are light sensitive. The observant will notice that Anna's eyes occasionally oddly flicker. She's the V's leader in the new series if you've not seen it.

Of course, the writers of the new series have had 25 years to observe and think about how to tighten the story. But we writers who are writing a never-before-told story have the responsibility to write tight prose, interesting characters and a fascinating plot.

Recent posts you might like to read:

Nanowrimo Thoughts 

To Nano Or Not To Nano - That Is The Question

Why You Should Consider Library Booksignings

Make Sure Pretentious Words Don't Turn Off Your Readers

Are You Writing Me Into Your Book?

Dont Give Up Too Early

Must Write Must Write Must Write!!!


You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

The Cover Gods Have Been Busy

I've been blessed by the cover art gods. Not just with one new cover, but three.

I came home from Black Friday shopping today to find this gem in my mail box.

"Crazy In Love" is a Lust Bite (for those of you unfamiliar with what a "Lust Bite" is, it is TEB's short stories) that will be released in March 2010. Lust Bite covers are all the same - one for M/F and a different one for M/M. We authors don't get a say for Lust Bite covers like we do for covers of novels and novelettes. Luckily, TEB always has beautiful covers and I think this one is gorgeous.

The next cover is for "Pirate's Booty" a short MMF which will be released by Ellora's Cave December 9th. Again I'm pleased with the cover.I love the colors.

The last cover I'm going to show today belongs to "Take A Chance" which is a free story I wrote for The Long and Short Reviews. I didn't expect to have a unique cover made for a free story, but I'm thrilled that LASR made a cover and a beautiful one at that.

This Thanksgiving themed story is available now for your reading pleasure at: http://longandshortarchives.blogspot.com/2009/11/take-chance-by-ashley-ladd.html

 

It's more usual that I am asked for input on my covers. When one of my stories is accepted for publication, before the final contract is even sent, I must fill out the cover art request and return it.

These requests ask specific questions such as:

"What is the book's title?"

"Is this book part of a series? If yes, what is the series name?"

"Describe the heroine."

"Describe the hero."

"What do you want shown on your cover?"

"Is there anything you don't want shown on your cover?"

"Give a brief cover blurb that will hook your reader and make them want to buy your book."

"Tell us about the book. What is it about?" *Sometimes an excerpt is requested.

Although the cover art gods are good, sometimes outstanding, they aren't mind readers. Descriptions need to be in-depth. Vague descriptions such as "tall, dark and handsome" for the hero doesn't help the cover artist. For instance, you might envision this for "tall, dark and handsome":

But if you neglect to mention skin tone, age, build, length of hair, identifying marks such as tattoos, facial hair, and clothing style your cover artist might envision this:

Or this:

 

 Whereas the second two pictures are of very handsome men, they may look nothing like the hero described in length inside your book leaving your readers to suspend belief, if they can.

The same is true for description of the scenery. Sometimes a little information is more dangerous than no information. If you have a story set in South Florida and neglect to tell the cover artist, especially if they know it is Christmas or winter-themed, you're at risk to get this on your cover:

Instead of this:

 

Or this:

They evoke very different characters and images, don't they?

I've been blessed. Most of my covers are gorgeous. One day I'd like to have oil paintings made of several to hang in my house. At the very least I'd like to frame large poster size images. Only a couple times did I get a blonde when it should have been a brunette character, or a short-haired character when the character's hair should have been long.

Usually when a mistake like this happens most publishers are willing to fix it if you ask nicely. However, cover artists are busy people and I'm sure it's not always easy to change a finished cover, so be as precise as possible when you make your first request.

Recent posts you might like to read:

Nanowrimo Thoughts 

To Nano Or Not To Nano - That Is The Question

Why You Should Consider Library Booksignings

Make Sure Pretentious Words Don't Turn Off Your Readers

Are You Writing Me Into Your Book?

Dont Give Up Too Early

Must Write Must Write Must Write!!!


You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Reviews, comments, and criticisms, and praise

This week's topic revolves around my short story "Brazen" published on "East End of the Web". Today, I focus on the many different comments and the diversity of them. It's almost funny and I think, teaches a lesson, one I've also learned working customer service at the day job. You can't please every one all the time. It's impossible. What one person loves and thinks is perfect, the next one absolutely hates, often for the same exact reasons. I wrote this story many many years ago. In fact, I don't even remember which year and I had forgotten all about it until I received a recent very favorable email about it that made my day. The comments range from "It sucked" to "unrealistic" to "Nice story. Enjoyed reading it" all the way to "I love it! I love it! I LOVE IT!!! I write stories like this. It hooked me from the very first sentence! Really great job!!!" Honestly, if memory serves, it was just a quick short story I wrote for my website when I was starting out, that I later posted on East End of the Web. I don't recall expecting it to be the next Great American Novel but just a cute, quick short story. It's good to see what readers think as I usually don't hear a lot of feedback from them. It makes me think I'll write more short stories to post there to see what kind of reaction I get. I've thought of that over the years, then opt out to actually sell the story to a royalty paying publisher. But it's also good to have free promo in many spots as my advertising budget right now frankly sucks. So after I finish my huge judging project and at least 2 sets of edits, I'll start writing a short story here and there for promo and post it again on East End of the Web or other popular writing sites. My younger daughter loves http://www.fanfiction.net/ and reads their stories all the time. That's probably another excellent place to post free short stories. If you're a reader, please tell me, if you ever found a writer by reading a free short story and if you followed them to their other books. If you're also a writer, please tell me if you ever post free short stories to give as samples of your stories and if you think you've gained readership?

Writing and Reading Short Stories and Novelettes vs. Novels

I'd like to segue from yesterday's post about my short story "Brazen" published on East End of the Web. Yesterday I explored comments about is romance too unrealistic and if fantasies are bad or good as well as women's vs. men's fantasies. The comment I mentioned yesterday begs another, totally unrelated question. "How much do readers expect writers to put into a short story?" If a story is publicized as a short romantic story, I'd expect a quick romance, or at least a quick reconciliation. "Short" really does mean "short". Right? In the world of romance reading, "short story" is different from "novelette", "novel", and "super". The majority of readers are savvy about the terminology and thus what to expect. In case you missed yesterday's post (of course you could just scroll down and read it now :) ) here's the comment that made me ponder all this: "Very mills n boon.sappy n unreal.thts not romance.women always write fantasy stuff instead of finding romance in real life daily stuff.no wonder girls get their heart broken everyday,its cause theyre brainwashed by such material.all in all i didnt enjoy it cuz it makes u less hopeful in fallin in love.n perfection doesnt exist.love is so much more than fantasy n lust" I don't begrudge the reader his or her comment. But it seems unrealistic to me that someone who reads a short romantic story wouldn't expect it to be on the fantasy side. Unless it's a recant of a real romance, then a short romance would have to skip a lot of things so it can be short. Recently, (which you may have noticed) I've been writing a lot of short stories. I work full time and the kids tug at me a lot to cart them around to Halloween bashes, trick or treating, getting costumes, scouts, softball, etc. etc. There's only so many hours in a day and personally, I like to produce a lot - I think it's the ADHD in me. Short stories and novelettes releasing several times a year feels like a big accomplishment vs. one or two releases a year if I solely concentrated on longer stories. (However, I do have 3 full-size novels on submission with publishers right now, so I've not given up on them.) I like to write meaty stories that get deep into relationships, too. I love to read them. But sometimes, if I'm tired, but not too tired to go to sleep yet, I just want to read a short piece all in one sitting and get my romance fix. Writing short isn't easy, believe me. Now that I've had more practice it's easier than I once found it. I used to find it way more difficult to get everything into a short story instead of having the luxury of 50,000 words plus to get it all down. I really struggled to pare down short stories to under 15,000 words, in particular if they were also in the erotic romance genre. Perhaps it looks easy while reading it if you've never tried to write one, but it's not. Not for me, anyway. And not for some of my writing buddies who would much rather writer longer 100,000 word stories than stories of 15,000 words or less. Obviously writers earn more per story in royalties from a long story as the publishers charge more for the book. However, my biggest seller and biggest royalties ever came from a short story in the anthology "And Lady Makes Three" published by Elloras Cave. That's when I decided that my time would be well spent writing shorter. After all, my business training taught me to work smarter, not harder. That's not to negate what I wrote above. Short stories, at least until my mind set and skills were honed to write short, were much more difficult to write. However, they still took less time than writing a 100,000 word story. I guess I didn't get my MBA and bachelor's in Accounting for nothing (for a few years I seriously wondered about that). Also, so many stories are tugging at me to be written, short and long, it's almost impossible to decide which one gets the honor of being written next. Prioritizing which story to write next should be another separate topic. Here's a short excerpt from "And Lady Makes Three" published by Ellora's Cave.

An Excerpt From: PIRATE’S BOOTY

(from the "And Lady Makes Three" anthology)

Copyright © ASHLEY LADD, 2005.

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

Keir’s warm breath tickled her neck. “Something troubling you, Princess?”

Her hand grasped her throat in shocked alarm.

“I have a name. Would it hurt you so terribly to use it?” She exhaled slowly as she turned to find him barely kissing distance away. Lifting her lashes slowly, she gazed up at him. Not as tall as his colleague, he was the perfect height, his nose level with the top of her head. His lips rested at her eye-level and from this distance, they looked ideal, too. Usually, she couldn’t see them for his full beard, but at this distance, she could see them very clearly.

“Melena.” Keir caressed her name as no other had before him. It rolled off his tongue like the richest Synkethian milk chocolate.

Mesmerized by his dark, sultry voice, a minute gasp escaped her lips. Quivers of lust racked her, and a strange twinge resounded between her legs. It might not hurt him terribly to use her given name, but apparently it made her ache. But it was too late to take it back now.

Realizing she stared as if he were her last supper, she cursed silently and forced herself to act nonchalant. She was chained by a thousand different prisons and had no right to quiver at his nearness or devour his lips with her gaze. Too late to act as if everything was sunny when she probably looked as if she were about to go nova so she confessed to the partial truth. At least, he wouldn’t hear a lie in her voice. “What if we’re never rescued?”

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she swept her gaze wide in an all-encompassing arc around the glade where they’d moved their camp. Lifting her chin high, she tried to sound confident, but her voice emerged strangled. “What if we spend the rest of our days on this planet, completely alone, except for the three of us?”

Keir raised his hand as if to stroke away the stray wisps of hair from her heated face, but it hovered mid-air and then dropped limply to his side. “We have to be optimistic. We can’t give up hope.”

If it were only the two of them, she and Keir, it could be paradise. But three? She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. Someone would be the odd man out and that spelled trouble.

Uncomfortably hot, bored, and frustrated, she glared. “Why? Shouldn’t they have found us by now if they were searching? My people must think me dead from the explosion. They may not have launched any missions of rescue.”

Keir slid a finger under her chin and forced her to look him square in the eye. His were deep, murky pools that she could happily drown in. “Because we’ll go crazy if we give up. Because you’re much stronger than that. We’re not just going to lie down and die…”

Published by Ellora's Cave