Category Archives: short stories

Meet LAst Resort Author Laurie Stevens "The Ride of Your Life"

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Excerpt from “The Ride of Your Life” by Laurie Stevens

Photo by Laurie Stevens

“What about you?” He swiveled his head toward her. “What’s your name, anyhow?”
“Mary. Mary Fitzpatrick.” She let her eyes roam the mountains bordering the canyon road.
“Well, Mary Fitzpatrick. It looks like you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You have a husband?”
The car fishtailed as it hit the bumps in the center.
“Please slow down!” Mary cried.
He evened out and decreased the speed.
“No, I don’t have a husband,” she said, eyeing the road ahead of them with worry. The turns were tight, and they were still traveling too fast. The car tightly hugged the hills to their right. On the opposite side, the road bordered a sheer, steep drop to the canyon stream below.

Mary could swear that the last person they’d passed whipped out a cell phone and photographed the Buick as it sped by them. Surely, someone would have called the police by now.
“You have kids?” the man asked her.
“No.” Mary barely heard the question. Her mind mulled over some possibilities. “I live alone.”
“Los Angeles can be a cold and lonely place for a nice old lady.”
She cocked an eyebrow over her spectacles at him.  She smiled despite her predicament. With her gray hair, glasses, and dowdy clothing, Mary knew most people considered her much older than her years. That was okay with her. She wanted them to think that.


The Rochelle Staab Questions asked of Laurie Stevens 

 What is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you in Los Angeles?
What’s not been weird? I guess the time I exited a gym and saw an elderly woman walking aimlessly through traffic. I asked if she needed a ride and she told me “Quick! Take me to the Pink Turtle!” She instructed me to drive her to the Beverly Wilshire hotel and asked if I would wait with her for her friend. She bought me hot chocolate and spaghetti. No friend appeared, so I took her to her apartment in West LA. I helped count out her ration of medication/pills for the week and as a thank you, she insisted I take home a folding chair. I kept that chair for a long time.
 Do you have a yet-to-be realized L.A. dream?
I have not yet hiked to the Hollywood sign.
Why write short stories? Why write at all? What’s in it for you?
Do writers really have a choice whether or not to write? We have to. Short stories give me a chance to make a quick commentary or take a snapshot of life that isn’t big enough for a novel, but delicious just the same.
What is the biggest challenge in writing to theme?
That you don’t stray from the theme.
Are the characters in your story based on you or people you know/met?
Without creating a spoiler, I’ll say that one of the characters is based on a nefarious and infamous person who, I believe, is still serving time in prison.
Los Angeles is a patchwork quilt of different neighborhoods. Why did you pick the area you used for your story, and how did the neighborhood influence your writing?
Well, if you read the story you will see the two characters travel all over. They start in the city, go through the valley, then end up in the canyons on the way to the beach. I myself like quilts!
Are there scenes in your story based on real life—yours, hearsay, or a news story you read?
Available at Amazon
I’ve read about embezzlement cases, so the man’s crime is not unusual, unfortunately. As far as the car jacking is concerned, I wanted to put a twist on that, and I’ve never heard of it happening before.
What came first, the character or the plot?
The plot came first. The twist came first… Then I added that character from the news story.
While you’re writing: music (what kind?), dead silence, or…?
Silence while I write. Music while I walk between writing to complete those hard-to-complete scenes. I keep a playlist for each book or story I write.
Favorite writing quote—yours or from someone else…
If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.  Stephen King
Your writing ritual begins with…
A cup of coffee and a lit candle. A quiet space and for God’s sake turn the phone off!
Photo by Guy Viau



Laurie Stevens is the author of the Gabriel McRay psychological thrillers, The Dark Before Dawn and Deep into Dusk. The books have won twelve awards, among them Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011, the  IPPY for Best Mystery/Thriller, Library Journal’s Self-E Award, the Amsterdam Book Festival, and Random House Editor’s Book of the Month. Laurie is an active member of MWA, ITW, and sits on the Board of Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles. She’s proud to have been included in two Sisters in Crime anthologies: Last Resort and Last Exit to Murder.

Meet LAst Resort Author G.B. Pool "Method Actor"

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Excerpt from “Method Actor” by G.B. Poole
He said I had it in me, that killer instinct. But he couldn’t have known about Gloria. That happened when I was sixteen. Water under the bridge, like they say… and Gloria, too. The producer said I was what he was looking for. Somebody who could kill his wife with a smile on his face. He offered me a part in his latest movie if I could come to California and didn’t lose that sharp edge. He told me that twice.
The Rochelle Staab Questions
What is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you in Los Angeles?
Not the weirdest, but a totally Welcome To LA story – I was taking acting classes from Rudy Solari and Guy Stockwell when I first came to California back in the 70s. I wanted to learn how to write dialogue and acting class seemed like a great place to do that. My acting partner and I were given a scene from The Odd Couple. We were to play the leads. Instead of Felix and Oscar, we became Felicia and Esther. We practiced until we knew it backwards then decided to take the “act” on the road. We went to a local Hollywood bar where actors hung out. We went in in character. Karen, playing the rather “out there” Esther hit on all the guys. I, the shy and retiring Felicia, kept telling her to stop embarrassing me. When asked what I wanted to drink, I said a Harvey Wallbanger, but I asked what it cost. When the bartender told me the price, I acted shocked and said I didn’t want to buy drinks for the entire bar. He said it was my drink alone. I fumbled in my change purse and still kept telling Esther to stop making a scene. When the bartender put the drink in front of me, I wiped down the bar with a hankie. He stopped and said in a very loud voice, “Talk about ‘the odd couple.’” I broke out laughing and we told everybody what we were doing. I didn’t have to pay for my drink that night or any time we ever went back. We were a hit. Rudy liked the scene we did in class, too. Later, he started The Solari Theater in Brentwood. He actually put on The Odd Couple with women in the lead. Sally Struthers ended up doing it on Broadway, but Karen and I did it first.
Do you have a yet-to-be realized L.A. dream?
One of my series, either The Johnny Casino Casebookseries or the Chance McCoy stories from Second Chance, turned into a TV series.
Why write short stories? Why write at all? What’s in it for you?
I teach a class: The Anatomy of a Short Story. I tell my students that a short story has all the elements Aristotle said should be in a story: Plot, Character, Dialogue, Setting, and a Theme. I like being able to put all those elements into a 25-50 page story. If I have more to say, I write a novel.
What is the biggest challenge in writing to theme?
Trying to guess what the editors of the anthology are reallylooking for.
Are the characters in your story based on you or people you know/met?
In “Method Actor,” no. He’s totally from my imagination. In my detective series, all three of them –The Johnny Casino Casebookseries, The Gin Caulfield P.I. series (Media Justice, Hedge Bet and Damning Evidence), and Second Chancefeaturing Chance McCoy-, since I used to be a private detective in real life, I use some of what I learned on the job in those stories.
Los Angeles is a patchwork quilt of different neighborhoods. Why did you pick the area you used for your story, and how did the neighborhood influence your writing?
I bring a New York actor out to Los Angeles because he believes what he sees in the movies. I let him experience the difference between The Big Apple and the desert. Then I put him in a cheap hotel before he meets a big producer who lives in another world. Soon those worlds collide.
Are there scenes in your story based on real life—yours, hearsay, or news story you read?
“Method Actor,” a story about a New York actor who comes to Los Angeles because he believes everything he sees in the movies is strictly out of my own imagination.
What came first, the character or the plot?
Available at Amazon
Plot usually comes first for me. Almost everything I have ever written starts with some voice in my head telling me a story beginning with an opening line or paragraph. I might rewrite that opening two dozen times, but that basic core of the plot doesn’t change. Sometimes that voice becomes the main character, but he or she is still telling me the plot. I figure out who the characters are as the storyline progresses.
While you’re writing: music (what kind?), dead silence, or…? 
I have a fountain that plays bird tweets and forest sounds. It is so relaxing, that I can get a lot of writing done. I’m on book 20, so it must work.
Favorite writing quote—yours or from someone else…
“The first chapter sells the book. The last chapter sells the next book.” from Mickey Spillane
Your writing ritual begins with… 
Coffee… La Llave and French Market with chicory, 2-1.
A former private detective and once a reporter for a small weekly newspaper, Gayle Bartos-Pool (G.B. Pool) writes the Johnny Casino Casebook Series and the Gin Caulfield P.I. Mysteries (Media Justice, Hedge Bet, Damning Evidence). She wrote the SPYGAME Trilogy: The Odd Man, Dry Bones, and Star Power. Other books: Caverns, Eddie Buick’s Last Case, The Santa Claus Singer, Bearnard’s Christmas, The Santa Claus Machine, andEvery Castle Needs a Dragon. She teaches writing classes: “The Anatomy of a Short Story” (which is in workbook form), “How to Write Convincing Dialogue” and “How to Write a Killer Opening.” Website: http://www.gbpool.com.

Gayle Bartos-Pool Sums Up Sisters-in-Crime Anthology, "LAst Resort"

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By Gayle Bartos-Pool

         NOTE: The interview and excerpt from Gayle Bartos-Pool’s short story “Method Actor” is now posted.

Los Angeles writer
Michael Connelly
If Michael Connelly introduces a book, you know it has to be worth a look. This time he focuses on a journey through Los Angeles, its dark alleys and places tourists never go. Who inhabits these locals? People who come from out of town looking for fame, fortune, excitement, or maybe just a place to bury a body. L.A. is like a drug. It can cure and it can kill. Read on.
“Eggs Over Dead” by Wendall Thomas shows us that waitressing might be a dead end job when you came to L.A. to be a writer, especially when your one break turns sour, but sometimes when the meal’s finished, the just desserts can be delicious.

“The Ride of Your Life” by Laurie Stevens begins with a carjacking. Los Angeles put them on the map. But you never know who might be in that car.

“Method Actor” by G.B. Pool tells the story of a New York actor who is offered a part in a Hollywood movie by a producer with one condition: the actor has to kill the producer’s wife with a smile on his face. Our young thespian practices his craft across country and tops it off in L.A. before the cameras roll.

Available at Amazon

“The Best LAid Plans” by Anne David lets you know you can take the girl out of the country, but not the country out of the girl. This gal hasn’t lost her green thumb because the tomatoes grown in her backyard are winners. Wonder what kind of fertilizer she uses?

L.H. Dillman weighs nature vs. nurture in “Lead Us Not Into Temptation.” When a street punk from Chicago comes to Los Angeles to be nurtured by his very caring aunt who works as a housekeeper for a wayward “parachute kid” in a mansion on the expensive side of town, he learns a valuable lesson. But L.A. can play havoc with your schooling.

“Highland Park Hit” by Gay Degani lets us know family is family. But when you come from Louisiana to help your cousin with his daughter and find a dead body in the living room, you might need more than Gorilla Glue to fix the problem… like maybe a good dose of Law & Order…Lennie Briscoe style.

“Independence Day” by Avril Adams tells the story of Ava who’s just out of prison on the 4th of July. This gal is looking for her own kind of fireworks like finding the guy who killed the wrong people and got away with it. Let the fireworks begin.

Lynn Bronstein’s “Mimo” is a poignant tale of a tiny woman heading for a dead end… her way.

“Today’s the Day” by Mae Woods features a spurious psychic who had a pretty good operation going in prison, but when she tries to ply her craft on the outside she finds out con artists sometimes can’t read the handwriting on the wall.

Figueroa Street in Highland Park

“Little Egypt” by Georgia Jeffries lets you know it’s hard to bury your past especially when there’s always somebody around who will dig it up for you. But some memories can be buried for good… or maybe for bad.

“Thump Bump and Dump” by Wrona Gall is a study. When you think your lifestyle needs a makeover, why not move to L.A. and fix somebody else’s problem. It just might make a new man of you…

“Hired Lives” by Cyndra Gernet takes a trip back to a quieter time in Los Angeles where you meet an older couple who only want a few simple things out of life, so they put an ad in the paper for a couple who can provide just what they want. Ask for references…

Sarah M. Chen’s “Nut Job” introduces us to Hector, a guy with friends who have a great idea to make big money. With that money he would make his girlfriend happy. She wouldn’t dump him. What could go wrong?

“Crime Drama/Do Not Cross” by Melinda Loomis features Alexandra Jones. She goes by Zan. She’s currently working as a private detective. But when your favorite TV show, the one where you know all the episodes by heart, is ending its run, and you really want to be an actress, not a P.I., but you can’t get a job, sometimes reality and fantasy collide.

“On Call for Murder” by Paula Bernstein is the story of a dead surrogate mother, a question of paternity, an arrogant doctor, and another doctor who has questions and gets answers that just might get her killed.

Stephen Buehler’s “Seth’s Big Move” shows us that you can have bad days… and then you can have the Titanic. Seth is a wannabe actor from Indiana who can’t catch a break in Hollywood. Then he meets Emily and he’s going to move into a new apartment and share his life with her. And he has a small inheritance. Things are looking up, but than he looks at his bank account… Can things get any worse?

Last Resort is the latest anthology from Sisters-in-Crime/Los Angeles, edited by Matt Coyle, Mary Marks, and Patricia Smiley.

Meet LAst Resort Author Anne David "The Best LAid Plans"

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Excerpt from “The Best LAid Plans” by Anne David

Irene had arrived in Los Angeles at the Greyhound bus station shortly after her twenty-first birthday. She shed the name Elvira Klotzman in favor of Irene Ross on the long road trip from the farm in Minnesota. A substantial stash of movie magazines in her travel bag, the source of her information on how to break into the movies, reported on the many stars that had changed their names. No shame in doing that. Better John than Marion, or Marilyn than Norma Jean. Irene seemed glamorous, but dignified, and there didn’t seem to be any Irenes on the movie scene right now. Irene Dunne was the last one she knew of, so there wouldn’t be any confusion with someone else.
The seedy people wandering around the outside of the bus station and the general dinginess of the street dismayed Irene, and she realized that she had no idea where to go. She had some money saved from her waitressing job at the Prairie Café from the last few years to get her started, and her mother had pressed a twenty-dollar bill into her hand as she boarded the bus.
“Be careful.” Her mother was a woman of few words. “You can come home anytime.”
Her father just stood with his hands in his overall pockets, chewing on a toothpick. “Take it easy, girl.”
None of them was demonstrative, so no hugs or kisses. She did have a slight lump in her throat though, because as far as she was concerned she wasn’t coming home again. She would never return to the backbreaking work of a farm, with the endless chores and the smell of the place on your clothes and in your hair, and the dirt always under your fingernails. The long hours aged a person beyond their time. Look at her mother.
“I’ll write.” And then she was on her way.

The Rochelle Staub Questions

Photo by Charles Ng – Time On Film
What is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you in Los Angeles?
My daughter’s dog was running off leash in the Hollywood Hills and came bounding back from the brush dragging a plastic bag that contained a severed head. Needless to say, he made the papers and late night TV. The mayor even issued him a commendation from the City of Los Angeles. That might actually be the weirdest part.
Do you have a yet-to-be realized L.A. dream?
I’m looking forward to the day when the L. A. highways, byways, and freeways are trash free.
Why write short stories? Why write at all? What’s in it for you?
“What’s in it for you?” and “why write at all?” are two sides of the same question for me. It’s like an out of body experience in which I can relive an episode from my past, or project myself into another life altogether. It’s a chance to expand the finite experiences of a single lifetime into an ever-changing universe.  As far as “why write short stories?”… not every idea merits a book, but most ideas merit the telling.
What is the biggest challenge to writing to theme?
I wasn’t so much challenged by the theme as by the word count. That makes you hone the language and boil the story down to its essence – no sidebars, flights of fancy, or unrelated facts allowed.
Are the characters in your story based on you or people you know/met?
I don’t think so, but then you store a lot in your sub-conscience and it probably comes out in your characters. 
Los Angeles is a patchwork quilt of different neighborhoods. Why did you pick the area you used for your story, and how did the area influence your story?
Available at Amazon

I got to know Silver Lake when my daughter and her family moved there several years ago. The side streets can be narrow and winding and very confusing, and I used WASE to find my way around. It never seemed to take me on the same route twice, always looking for the least traffic, so I developed a real appreciation for the quirky neighborhoods and a healthy respect for the treacherous hill streets. It can take your breath away to crest the summit of the neighborhood roller coaster ride, have the sun in your eyes, and meet a garbage truck coming at you.  I also spend a lot of time driving the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that runs through Silver Lake, not the posh stretch, and there is a never-ending stream of pedestrians, mostly young, and you wonder where they come from and how they live.

Are there scenes in your story based on real life – yours, hearsay, or a news story you read?
The singles bar scene was a pretty standard one in the 70’s, and characters like Roy were usually lurking there, waiting for an Irene to come along.
What came first, the character or the plot?

They came together, but not as they finally played out in the story. Irene followed me around for days declaring that she was rich and famous, but had to back down from that position when her humble farm girl origins began to emerge. But as Irene evolved, so did the plot.
While you’re writing: music (what kind?), dead silence, or… ?
I have to write first thing in the morning. I’m up at six, make a cup of coffee and retreat to my quiet corner, away from the household traffic and the distractions of email, TV, or phone calls, which can tempt me back into the real world.
Favorite writing quote – yours or from someone else…
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” Mark Twain
Your writing ritual begins with…
Reading aloud.  I like to hear how the words written yesterday sound today.


Anne David retired from a lifetime spent in elementary education and now lives in Pasadena with her husband, John. She had intentions of beginning a new career writing children’s books, but somehow she deviated from that plan and turned to murder and mayhem with a novel, The Accidental Benefactor, followed with another murder in her short story “The Best LAid Plans.” She has a BA in English, a MA in Reading Instruction, and a PhD in Literacy and Language Arts. Her children’s book, The Three Basketeers, is the first in a series developed for the emerging reader.

Meet LAst Resort Author: Wendall Thomas "Eggs Over Dead"

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Excerpt from “Eggs Over Dead” by Wendall Thomas

Photo by Wendall Thomas

I cover the weekday breakfast shift at Summer/Winter/Fall. The “of the moment” restaurant is not where I thought I would wind up when I drove cross country ten years ago, but waitressing pays better than a development job, and I’m in a bills situation. I should be working the more lucrative weekend brunch—the mecca for all fedora-wearers—but I’m afraid I’ll eventually lose it, stab the fifth lead in a streaming sitcom, and wind up on TMZ.

           
The restaurant reeks of kale chips and the phone is already ringing.
           
It’s a customer frantic to know if we have his gold teeth. After searching the lost and found box and register, I finally locate the crescent of gold Chiclets swept under the bar, entwined in a tuft of “emotional support dog” hair. I shake them off and put them in a take-out bag for pick-up.
           
I’m filling the artisanal salts when I hear a mad click click click on the glass door. Outside, a lanky forty year old, still dressed in his mid-life clubbing clothes, waves and points to his mouth. I let him in and hand him the bag.
           
“Thought I was gonna have to call my jeweler in Jersey. I owe you one.”
           
Literally one, I guess. He hands me a dollar bill. He takes the glittering brace out of the bag and pops it straight in. If he’d given me a twenty, I might have told him he should rinse it first.
           
I check the clock. It’s seven minutes to eight and a few regulars are already hovering outside. I take my last chance to sneak out into the alley for a smoke. I look down the street of one bedroom pseudo Spanish, Deco, and Tudor bungalows, all listing for well over a million, and strike a match.
           
Bang. Bang.


The Rochelle Staab Questions asked of Wendall Thomas:

Photo of Wendall Thomas 
by Stella Mulroney
What is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you in Los Angeles?
The weirdest (and maybe the best) thing that ever happened to me here was seeing Stevie Wonder in the Radio Shack at Highland and Wilshire. I think that kind of thing only happens in LA.
Do you have a yet-to-be realized L.A. dream?
To live in a quiet 20’s duplex.
Why write short stories? Why write at all? What’s in it for you?
Some ideas aren’t big enough to be novels, but they are still interesting enough to be told.  I also like the challenge, because there’s nowhere to hide in a short story.
What is the biggest challenge in writing to theme?
I think there’s always the chance that you’ll be heavy-handed or force the characters to do something they wouldn’t actually do.
Are the characters in your story based on you or people you know/met?
The “Thursday Guy” is an amalgam of a few producers I’ve encountered over the years and the restaurant patrons have elements that I’ve observed over twenty-five years of writing in restaurants.
Los Angeles is a patchwork quilt of different neighborhoods. Why did you pick the area you used for your story, and how did the neighborhood influence your writing?
It’s actually my neighborhood, which has become increasingly “hipsterized” and entitled in the last five years. This makes long term residents like myself feel old, irrelevant, and irritated. That seemed the right setting for the tone of the story.
Are there scenes in your story based on real life—yours, hearsay, or a news story you read?
As noted above. A producer actually did point a remote at me and say “Okay, go” in a meeting once.
What came first, the character or the plot? 
Available at Amazon.com
In this case, the plot. I like the idea that someone didn’t show up for a breakfast meeting because they’d been murdered.
While you’re writing: music (what kind?), dead silence, or…? 
Usually music. The music depends on what I’m writing. For this story, Warren Zevon/Tom Waits.
Favorite writing quote—yours or from someone else…
From Flannery O’Connor: “Don’t be subtle until the fourth page.”
Your writing ritual begins with… 

Coffee.

About Wendall Thomas: 

Wendall Thomas teaches in the Graduate Film School at UCLA, lectures internationally on screenwriting, and has worked as an entertainment reporter, script consultant, and film and television writer. Her short fiction has appeared in the crime anthologies Ladies Night (2015) and Last Resort(2017) and her first novel, Lost Luggage, will be published in October by Poisoned Pen Press.







16 Authors Answer Siren Call in Sisters-in-Crime/LA’s LAst Resort

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Available through Amazon and the
Sisters-in-Crime/LA website

by Gay Degani

It has become a tradition for Sisters-in-Crime/LA chapter to produce a crime/mystery anthology every couple of years asking writers to incorporate LA as a “character” in each story. 

Recently released, LAst Resort follows suit with tales set in Hollywood, Leimert Park, Highland Park, Silver Lake, Venice and points north, south, east, and west of the sprawling city.

As stated on the back cover of this collection, “LA is the sun-kissed city of high hopes and second chances, where everyone seems to be from somewhere else.  A siren’s call to dreamers, misfits, mystics and freaks, lost souls and purveyors of sin. They roll in on their last tank of gas, their suitcases bulging with secrets of pasts better forgotten. They stay for a few days, a month, a year, a lifetime. The determined and the desperate, careening and colliding toward trouble…and their last resort.”

Author Michael Connelly


A long-time resident of the City of Angels and award-winning author of detective and crime fiction, best known for his LAPD Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller, Michael Connelly was a perfect choice to introduce  the Sisters-in-Crime/LA chapter’s 2017 anthology, LAst Resort. Generously agreeing to do so, here is a snippet from that introduction: “Here is a collection of stories that sit on the unsteady ground of the last resort. In the zone where anything can happen.”



Edited by renowned authors Matt Coyle, Mary Marks, and Patricia Smiley,  LAst Resort is comprised of sixteen mysteries about the misdeeds and downfalls of characters drawn to the cultural panoply that is Los Angeles.



Who’s in LA Resort?


Avril Adams, “Independence Day”
Paula Bernstein, “On Call for Murder”
Lynne Bronstein, “Mimo”
Stephen Buehler, “Seth’s big Move”
Sarah M. Chen, “Nut Job”
Anne David, “The LAid Plans”
Gay Degani, “Highland Park Hit”
L.H. Dillman, “Lead Us Not Into Temptation”
Wrona Gall, “Thump, Bump, and Dump”
Cyndra Gernet, “Hired Lives”
Georgia Jeffries, “Little Egypt”
Melinda Loomis, “Crime Drama/Do Not Cross”
GB Pool, “Method Actor”
Laurie Stevens, “The Ride of Your Life”
Wendall Thomas, “Eggs Over Dead”
Mae Woods, “Today’s the Day”


Come back for more. During the next few months, I will bring you a taste of each story as well as a Question and Answer segment with each author. 


Here is the link to all the Sisters-in-Crime/LA anthologies. You can purchase them directly from the site: http://sistersincrimela.com/anthologies/



























JOURNEY TO PLANET WRITE: Never Too Late, Never Give up

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by Gay Degani


My novel, What Came Before, took more than twelve years to write.

I’m not bragging about that. The book is under 300 pages and not a deep philosophical treatise on man’s inhumanity to man. There are no white whales, no Dublin boarding houses, no madeleines, so why did it take me so long?

Well, life got in the way.

Like many others who yearn to put words on paper, my dream of becoming a writer began in childhood. With me on her lap, my mother read aloud the Bobbsey Twins, The Swiss Family Robinson, and Heidi. My dad introduced me to the dauntless detective, Nancy Drew. After devouring Little Women, I knew I had to be a writer, just like Jo. I drew pictures of books, my books, with enticing titles along the spines, my name just below. At twelve, I scribbled a “novel” in purple ink about the Twellington twins and their nine siblings.

I was surprised in high school to find out that Mrs. Hawkins, my Creative Writing teacher, had entered one of my short stories in the Atlantic Monthly High School Writing Contest and was more surprised when I won second place. Wow. “Collision,” I thought, was just the beginning.


After graduating with a B.A. from UCSB in 1970 and getting a Masters’ Degree in 19th Century English Literature at Long Beach State in 1971, I found myself in need of a career—or at least a job. I had to support myself, but I was certain I could dig up the “spare time” to write. As a kid of the 50s and 60s, I thought time grew like fat plums waiting to be plucked, but as a full-time worker bee, I couldn’t find the tree, let alone the fruit. Still I thought, one day, some day. Now I realize I had to live my life before I could write. When I look back, I can identify those moments of learning that gave me the confidence and know-how to put words on paper.

In a retail executive training program after college, I learned that the Junior Department at the Del Amo Broadway was only a small segment of a huge enterprise. Behind the selling floors, the dressing rooms, and the customers was a complex operation spread over 40+ stores as well as a blocks-long system of offices and warehouses in East LA. In the beginning I vaguely understood the size and shape of the company, but not its intricacies, how it actually functioned. Later, as a writer, this experience of learning the complexities behind the obvious helped me understand that behind a basic storyline, there is structure, a way of doing things, a way of controlling results. Words no more spring spontaneously onto the page than pantsuits and mini-skirts miraculously appeared on shelves, rounders, and mannequins.


As a Gap store manager, my job was about people—customers and employees. I understood something about human nature, but not much. My first lesson came before I was even hired. The company gave all candidates an “honesty” test. It seemed obvious to me that anyone could pass this kind of exam whether they were honest or not, so I asked the man who hired me if anyone ever failed. His answer? Yes, they did. A high percentage. This surprised me and forced me to become more aware of how very different we are from each other.

Later, as a Gap district manager, when I had to figure out how to foster top performances in others, I developed more insights into what motivates and what discourages people. Working toward team goals in a positive atmosphere as well as appreciation for a job well done, helped to create a desire to achieve. Strong characters in good stories have to want something too. They have to strive and overcome disappointment. What pulls the reader along is how characters respond to the obstacles put between them and their desires.


I had kids. I thought becoming a stay-at-home mom would allow me infinite time to sit down at a typewriter and pound out stories. They would nap, wouldn’t they?  Play outside in the backyard? Entertain themselves? As it turned out, I was no Danielle Steele or J.K. Rowling. There were no scribblings of passionate love scenes on the dryer in the middle of night. No sneaking out in spare moments to tea shops to create wizards. My job was all consuming: Room mother, Cub and Girl Scout leader, swim mom, have van will travel.  Here was a lesson I taught myself: whatever I chose to do, I did it full on to the best of my abilities. 

Tupperware came next. Yep, I learned everything there is to know about eradicating mold from my refrigerator, but more importantly, this job forced me to rely on myself to get what I wanted. I had a simple goal: I wanted to buy a computer. What I learned was more valuable. Selling Tupperware taught me to rally to the task, to observe and imitate successful behaviors, to give encouragement as well as to accept it, and to think on my feet. Selling Tupperware made me feel something like a stand-up comedian—the more they laughed, the more I sold—and I became addicted to being “in the zone,” that feeling that comes when everything one does, works. I had forgotten how that felt. I knew it was finally time to write. My first screenplay was called “Plastic Dreams,” about a man who seeks refuge in selling Tupperware.


I wrote screenplays, stories, random poems, and journal entries. I took UCLA extension classes, went to conferences and workshops. Mimicking what I had learned from Tupperware, I surrounded myself with like-minded people, set goals, planned for results. By the time my kids left home to chase their own dreams, I was beginning to understand what made for good writing. I accepted that writing well doesn’t just happen, but that it comes with practice and study.

I am proudest of not giving up, of refusing to abandon my writing dream. I’ve published many stories in print and on line, been nominated for Pushcarts, won contests, short-listed, long-listed, and honorable mentioned here and there.  I published an eight-story collection in 2010 about mothers and daughters, Pomegranate. Pure Slush released my full-length collection, Rattle of Want, in 2015, which includes my novella, “The Old Road.” My suspense novel, What Came Before—that twelve year endeavor—is currently available in its second edition by Truth Serum Press.

I’ll be 68 on the 19th of this month. Thank goodness, it’s never too late.

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Gay Degani has said almost everything there is to say about herself above, but she’d like to add that since she was born in Louisiana, spent her earliest years in Iowa, and road-tripped every summer to both for each of her summers while growing up in California, that she gained a strong love of place: desert, mountain, plain, swamp, farmland, and beach. She hopes her work reflects that love.  

JOURNEY TO PLANET WRITE: Channeling Benjamin-The Data Made Me Do It

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by Linda Wastila
On January 2, 2016, I marked my ten-year anniversary of–writing. How do I recall so clearly when I began writing? And, after a decade of pen to paper, much of it devoted to two-and-a-half novels that remain unpublished, why do I even bother?
Let’s back up. By day, I’m a scientist, first trained as a pharmacist in the bucolic kingdom of Chapel Hill. I started down the pharmacy path as a means to medical school but discovered I didn’t want to deal with warts, ear infections, and patients’ poor lifestyle choices. I turned to public health, where I learned a lot, including the sad fact that after five years of an undergraduate curriculum studded with science classes and multiple choice exams, I didn’t know how to string together a sentence. My thesis advisor mandated I get a writing tutor. Which I did.
My first job was at a Boston think tank. My office overlooked the entrance to the emergency room at New England Medical Center. It was loud, distracting, fascinating existence. There, I wrote nothing you’d be interested in: passive voice, peer-reviewed manuscripts filled with science jargon. Shortly into my first gig, I realized I wanted to run my own studies, which meant I needed a Piled Higher and Deeper. I returned to another bucolic campus—Brandeis University. It was there I fell in love with… numbers.
Fast forward to Baltimore, 2005. As a Research Professor at the University of Maryland, my job was to grow our department’s research endeavor. My salary was 100% covered by me. Which meant a LOT of grant writing. Fortunately, I was good at grant writing and had several studies, almost all involving gigabytes of data that required massage and analysis using sexy techniques like negative binomial regression. But I acquired one unusual project that required me to look both back in time and into the future regarding psychiatric medication development. The study required both analysis and reading about drug discovery, theories on illness manifestation, and how chemicals alter psychiatric maladies.
I read at night, crunched numbers by day. One afternoon, while studying data on health care costs among mentally ill people, I noticed several individual points scattered far from the bulk of the others. The outliers. And it occurred to me, for the first time, that those data points were people. Real people. Individuals with serious and expensive mental and physical health problems. Which made me ponder those dots of data, ponderings that didn’t make themselves known to me until…
I woke up one morning and my first thought was, “Who is Benjamin Michael Taylor and why is he in trouble?”
I got out of bed, went to my computer, and wrote a short, incoherent paragraph about Benjamin. I shut the file, went to work, and forgot about him.
Until six months later when, in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I stumbled across the file I’d named ‘benmich’. As I read my notes, his entire story tumbled before me.
Benjamin consumed me during the holidays—What did he look like? Did he believe in God? What music did he listen to? I didn’t know what to do with the information. I believed myself mad—crazy mad—because Benjamin became an obsession: I saw him in the streets, I dreamt about his tattoo, I woke at night and worried about him locked up in the loony bin.
On January 2, 2006, after not listing ‘writing a book’ on my list of New Year’s resolutions, I began to type out the words stuck in my head. At first, I wrote tentatively—what if I got stuck? What if my words sounded ridiculous? But the writing came easily—I was in ‘flow’—and continued until I finished Ben’s story five months and 183,000 words later.
During those five months, it felt as though I was a medium and someone else channeled words through my hands onto the keyboard and onto the screen. I worried my protagonist and I shared a common malady—bipolar disorder. What else explained my extreme focus and productivity? Much later, I found out frenzied writing is a medical condition called hypergraphia, a compulsion to write. An incredibly heady and empowering experience. I believe if my first foray into writing had been ponderous and tedious whether I’d still be at it because, as I’ve since discovered, writing IS hard. Damn hard.
I continue to spend every morning, often in the dark, writing for 30-40 minutes before my family wakes and the day swallows me. I pluck away minute by minute, word by word, because in those blessed hypergraphic months I discovered I love the journey of creating with words almost more than the creation itself.
Ten years later, my sad-lad literary creation BRIGHTER THAN BRIGHT is exactly half as long as the first draft. I’ve continued Benjamin’s adventures in PURE, a novel of academic malfeasance. I’m marketing my novels in hopes of finding a sympathetic agent or editor who wishes to help me launch my babies into the world. My third novel, THE MINISTER’S WIFE, started three years ago for my Master’s thesis, remains a glorious mess.
As it should be—novels are beasts. And it’s this challenge—and pleasure—that compel me to write.
In the end, data drove me to write. I wrote what “I knew” and discovered the people behind the data points have stories to tell. So I try to tell them. Over the decade, these problems have become personal, affecting friends and family, but these experiences only fuel my need to write their stories, to bring to light my take on my world.  
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LJ Wastila writes from Baltimore, where she professes, mothers, and gives a damn. Her Pushcart- and Best-of-the-Net stories and poems have been published at Smokelong Quarterly, Monkeybicycle, Flash Frontier, Scissors and Spackle, MiCrow, The Sun, Blue Five Notebook, The Poet’s Market 2013, Hoot, Camroc Press Review, Every Day Fiction, and Nanoism, among others. In 2015, she received her MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins. She currently serves as Senior Fiction Editor at jmww. In between sentences, she blogs at Leftbrainwrite.

Stroking the Details to Deepen the Story

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Reprinted from Flash Fiction Chronicles article dated January, 2011

One of the comments that is difficult for many of us to come to grips with is when someone tells us our stories are not deep enough or that we haven’t given the reader enough to go on. I used to think: we’re talking flash here, micro flash, hint fiction, short shorts!  How am I supposed to “go deep?”
But for something to resonate, it must have context.  Readers want to feel empathy with the main character—or some kind of emotion for the main character—even if it’s distaste.  The question is, how does a writer do that with a limited word count?
Details not only set up time and place, but also suggest a back story, the circumstances, or even a trait or two of the main characters.  Specific details also anchor the story for the reader, giving them something to visualize while reading on to find out what happens next. Context and empathy come about through concrete, specific details that immerse the reader in the writer’s world.
A lake and two small boats give
context to Munch’s painting

I’m not suggesting there’s any need to describe an entire room or tell the reader the exact time of day, but rather to stroke in a detail much as a painter might do.  If you examine a painting closely, you may discover that the person in the background is just a line squiggle with a touch of brown at the top to suggest hair and a swish of red to suggest a skirt or as in Munch’s The Scream: two small boats in lake.

The man screaming in the foreground of the Munch painting is alone while behind him there are two figures on the road and two boats on the lake.  I have no idea what the artist had in mind, but for me, this structure and detail suggests a strong fear of facing the world alone or facing death and because these details are behind him, he has no hope.

These details do not need to be written into a piece immediately in the rough draft–get the story down first–but can be added in the revision stage of the process once the writer understands what details will best serve the story in a thematic way. 

So detail, if carefully chosen, can suggest setting, foreshadow events (remember Chekov’s gun), as well as deepen character, and underline theme.

Here’s an example:

Water drips from icicles outside the kitchen window. Clear skies glisten through dirty glass panes. I’m pouring my first cup of coffee when I hear snow sliding down the roof and know it’s time to call Carissa.

This image sets scene as well as mood

This is the opening to my story, “Spring Melt.” It’s a stroke like a painter’s stroke.  The whole house isn’t  given, not even a whole kitchen,  just the suggestion of a house because it has a kitchen, dirty window panes, and a sloping roof.  There is a sense that winter is passing into spring and that brings the narrator to a decision to call some woman. It’s a specific image to carry the reader into the next paragraph, but also to give the story context and later, a thematic pay-off.

Details should be as carefully chosen as anything else in a story.  Which will enhance the character and hint about what could happen next? Physical appearance often dictates personality.  A woman who has always been admired for her beauty may never feel compelled to grow artistically or intellectually, and therefore has little to talk about except hairstyles and Botox. This narrowed point-of-view could, in turn, bring conflict to a piece about marriage or best friends or wherever the writer wants to go.  

Showing tension between characters through dialogue becomes easier when there is a trait or detail in the story that sparks deep feelings.  Here’s a brief exchange between Anna and Matt from “She Can’t Say No” to show how this can work.


…Alone at the table, Matt asks Anna how she knows his friend, Kerrick, a fast-track kind of guy, gel in his hair and Hugo Boss shoes.  

“I met him once,” she says and smiles. When she smiles, the scar on her upper lip whitens. Sometimes when he wakes up alone in the morning, thinking of her, the word “harelip” pops into his brain. He’s hinted to her about childhood operations, bringing up tonsillectomies, appendectomies, avoiding the words “quadrilateral mirault flap,” but she says nothing.  

Looking at her mouth now, he can almost feel its slight ridge on his tongue. He coughs. “And?”  

“And what, Matthew?”  

“You were flirting.”  

“I know.” She slips the side of her naked foot along Matt’s calf and tucks it behind his knee. “I’m sorry.”


People in stories don’t always have to agree and when they don’t, they argue, and when they argue, they bring up old grudges, other disagreements, and reveal who they are and what’s important to them.  In the example above, the relationship between the two characters is revealed by how Anna parries Matt’s jealousy.  It’s not a fight, but it’s still a moment of revelation.  Then Matt remembers how it feels to run his tongue along the scar on Anna’s mouth telling us that although he is jealous of her past with men, he’s also aware of her affect on him. The detail of her scar makes this scene more interesting and deepens the emotional risk for both characters.

Sometimes a story may work without specific detail, but going deeper can often be as easy as changing a word or two, adding a line, using a bit of dialogue, or throwing in a specific detail that gives the reader context for the unfolding events like Anna’s slipping her naked foot behind Matt’s knee. She has the power and he knows it.

Giving Context to Structure

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Reprinted from an article that appeared in Flash Fiction Chronicles in June, 2009

Content, structure, and language work together


No one element can make a story work. Many writers use a series of steps—brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revision, editing, and proofreading—to juggle content, structure, and language. The order of each step is a matter of choice and fluctuates with story ideas. Here is my preference:

  •  To create content: brainstorm, free-write, draft a first draft
  •  To apply structure: outline first draft, then draft second draft
  •  To perfect language: revise, edit, and proofread

Content refers to the subject matter of a story


Allow the story to blossom
The who, what, when, where, and how of a specific idea.

A character (the protagonist) finds himself in a difficult situation at a certain time and place and must deal with that situation. 
How the protagonist deals with the situation depends on the protagonist’s wants, character, and the nature of the obstacles he must overcome.

Content provides the “story question or problem” that propels the protagonist through the plot and ultimately reveals a universal theme, a jolt, an epiphany, some small observance of life.
Content evolves from a premise, notes, a rough draft, research, observation, plus the attitudes and concerns of the writer.

Structure refers to the basic organization of a story


Unfold the story for maximum effect
Just as a play is divided into three acts, most stories have three main segments.

The opening (Act 1) gives a story focus and meaning by providing the premise, setting, and tone of the story as well as hints at the nature of obstacles the protagonist will face.

The main body of the story (Act 2, which I like to split into 2A and 2B) focuses on the protagonist’s actions to resolve the story problem.

The conclusion (Act 3) reveals the results of the protagonist’s struggle and infuses that struggle with meaning.

Each segment of a story has a similar structure: the overall story as well as each chapter, each scene within the chapter, each beat within the scene

Structure also involves other devices such as set-ups and pay-offs, sub-plots, and the shaping of structure specifically to content.

Structure evolves from outlines, note-taking, drafts or a combination of the three.

Language refers the diction and style used to express a story’s idea


Choose precise language
Diction refers the specific words that are chosen.

Style refers to how those words are combined, the order, the length of sentences and includes the use of literary devices such as metaphor, symbolism, and allusion.
Grammar keeps writing clear and understandable.
Language evolves from revision and rhythm.



Process is what brings these three basic components of composition together


The rough draft is about content…making it up.The second draft is about structure…making sense.The third draft is about language…making it clear.The fourth draft is about perfection…making it publishable.

Actually, the steps to the writing process bleed into each other like ink dropped from a leaky pen over one spot. The blotches don’t land in exactly the same place, but they seep beyond each other’s borders, and create a new kind of art.