SHORT STUFF

Most of the following short stories have been published previously. I’ll add one, or two new ones along the way so that I can share the direction of my writing with my readers. The market for short stories, short fiction in general, has become very limited. Almost every national magazine of any quality used to contain a short story, or two. For example, Esquire magazine, one of my favorites, used to have a short story every month. Almost every major writer you can think of has been published there including Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, as well as contemporaries such as Stephen King and James Lee Burke. Now, they will have a short story on occasion but not regularly.

The Miami Herald used to have a wonderful Sunday section supplement called Tropic, which ran for years and featured ficitonal works of almost every Florida writer of any significance. Carl Hiassen, James Hall, Edna Buchanan, even John D. MacDonald published their short stories in this wonderfully literate magazine. I was lucky enough to have shared that hallowed company as well. But, as the internet grew, sadly, publications and their budgets began to diminish. Tropic magazine died, rather suddenly by the late 90's and was replaced by a local “weekender” publication that directs the reader to best restaurants and area festivals but does not contain much artistic content.

Now, our newspapers are just that-news, and magazines tend to promote self-help advice and pseudo-psychology, rather than art and culture. Look at a newsstand’s offerings sometime. I defy you to find a publication dedicated to fiction. But, you should still look for it. Because fiction, when done well, reflects our society better, in most cases, than does are so-called “news.” We read daily about the disasters, the husband who killed his wife, the missing persons, or another despicable CEO that ruined the future of his company and the pensions of millions of Americans and still walked away with a fifty million dollar golden parachute. But, that’s not who we are.

We are the souls, the emotions, the petty and the brave, the beautiful and the ugly, the hopeful and the hopeless, that make up the essence of humanity, that is captured by those writers who endeavor to seek that essence.

If you ask me, it is easy to report the news; it’s right there in front of you. But, it is a little trickier to try to capture a brief picture, an elusive insight into what we really are, using words that, in some cases are so poignant that they can either hurt, or heal.