On Vacation

I'm taking a blogging vacation. Not that I've done much blogging lately. I used to love blogging and writing. It was a true joy to write, both here and in the course of wrangling my novel onto the page. Now I feel like I'm having a midlife crisis. A creative one, at least.

I just don't know what to say. I don't feel I have anything to contribute to the collective conversation. I'm sure I'll be back in the fall, when my juices are flowing again.

If you who happen to stop by, leave a comment just to say you waz here. And have a pina colada on me.

Happy Summer!

Short Stories are Hard

I had to write a short story this weekend. It was hard. My short stories are a lot like chapters in my books. They have conflict and character development but leave one hanging at the end, wondering if that's really all of it, or did the author just stop writing?

I wish I was here!

A lot of books I've read end that way, actually.

I have to work on it some more. Part of the problem is that I have a hard time narrowing down the situation to fit in a few thousand words. I could write a whole book about these characters, maybe two. It's funny because I've written them before, but in a different situation they sprang to life in a way I hadn't expected. My hero has scars on his legs and the heroine is a bit of a witch.

I think I'm going to write past the end and see what happens. (grin)

How do you get ideas for short stories? How long are they, typically? Or do you prefer other forms of writing?