MY FIRST EVER SHORT

Over the years I've been a writer, I have had hundreds, possibly thousands of articles (journalism, editorials, op-ed pieces, letters, blogposts, reviews and such) published. Hundreds, if not thousands of photographs I've taken with captions I've written. I've had five books published and had my work included in two anthologies. In my more whimsical youth, I even had a few poems published.

But I have never, not ever, until yesterday that is, had a short story published.

I'd only written one other complete short story in the past 20 years. It was intended for a contest and while the judges claimed to admire it, it didn't win.

In recent years I have had a lot to do with short stories. A couple of years ago I was one of the Edgar Award judges in the category of short fiction. Last year I was one of the editors of the Sisters in Crime Los Angeles short fiction anthology - MURDER IN LA LA LAND.

And now, at long last, my first ever published short story: AFFAIRS OF ESTATE. It is in the online magazine Dark Valentine. I was even paid for it - ten bucks - and everything.


If you click on the links in the last paragraph or the ones below you'll get to the Dark Valentine website where you need to click on the cover of the magazine to download a PDF of the magazine. There is no direct link to my story - it's on page 25 - but the entire magazine is free and well worth a look.

I plan to write something more, soon, about short stories in general. And I even have another that is going to be published in an anthology of Bangkok Noir next year. But at the moment I'm off to a Chinese movie matinee and lunch instead. So my blather about short fiction will have to wait.

Let me know what you think of AFFAIRS OF ESTATE.