Publishing

Fifth in our series of interviews with the authors whose fabulous stories appear in The Twofer Compendium: Kerry E.B. Black. Her story, “Blanket of Black,” is the tale of the bond between twins who are opposites.

1. What was your motivation in writing your story?

Jaimie and James are twins in my novel Season of Secrets. In developing Jaimie’s character, I explored her grief when James passed. This story was part of that exploration.

2. Does it have special meaning?

Siblings often struggle for their individuality, especially when one is dependent upon the other. James relied on Jaimie, and although she felt a measure of guilt, she enjoyed the independence of separation when she enrolled at school. However, when James died, the exhilaration of freedom transformed into guilt.

3. What do you do in your real life?

My life’s too dull for a bio.

4. What draws you to write short stories vs. novels?

Short stories are cosmologies expressed in few words. It takes practice to compress thoughts into tiny tales, and I enjoy the challenge. Besides, I love reading short stories; there’s something satisfying in reading a complete story in one session. I hope other fans of the genre find something to enjoy in my efforts.

5. When did you write your first story, unpublished and then published?

From an early age, I wrote short stories, most of which I never published. (Back in those days of pocket copyrights, stories were printed out on cotton bond paper and sent with a SASE to prospective publishers.) After a lengthy hiatus to raise kids, I returned to writing and found a supportive online community and some great local friends, too. Their presence makes writing less lonely.

6. Where have you previously been published?

I have, indeed, been lucky enough to have several pieces placed in some amazing publications. And every time one of my stories finds a literary placement, I feel a thrill.

7. Are there any other details you’d like us to include?

If you want to be a writer, never give up on your dream. If you submit something for publication and the editors decline, don’t despair. That means you’ve not yet found the story’s home. All writers feel the sting of rejection. All of them. And remember, editors are usually writers themselves. They have a vision for their projects that perhaps your work didn’t quite fit, but assess the story and try again. Also, I can’t stress enough, find a community that bolsters your enthusiasm. I can’t wait to read your words!

Fourth in our series of interviews with authors whose stories appear in The Twofer Compendium: Carolyn Geduld. Her story, “Multiple Loves,” introduces us to Steph, a woman looking for love online. She meets a man whose name is Roy. Or is it Ray?

Thank you, Carolyn, for your story!

1. What was your motivation in writing your story?

I began writing fiction in September 2018. “Multiple Loves” was written while I was deciding between two genres. One genre was Humor with a grim twist (“Multiple Loves” belongs to this group). The other was Psychological Horror with a humorous twist. Although I enjoy writing both genres, psychological horror has been my mainstay.

2. Does it have special meaning?

I believe all of my fiction is autobiographical in the sense that everything creative is ultimately autobiographical. That said, while I am not a twin, I grew up with twin cousins. They may have some meaningful place in my imagination that inspired “Multiple Loves.”

3. What do you do in your real life?

Writing has become my real life. Other than that, I have been a psychotherapist for the past forty years in Bloomington, Indiana—a university town that is central to my fiction.

4. What draws you to write short stories vs. novels?

Actually, I write connected short stories that may become novels when joined. “Multiple Loves,” for example, is one of five stories with the same main character, Steph, a foolish young woman “looking for love in all the wrong places.”

5. When did you write your first story, unpublished and then published?
   First short story: September 2018. First publication: “The Pink Envelope” in Not Your Mother’s Breastmilk: 4/26/19
6. Where have you previously been published?

I have been very fortunate to have had 17 short stories accepted for publication in literary journals and anthologies in 2019 and one so far in 2020.

Thirty of my connected short stories about a mass killing’s effects on a small town are being published under the title Take Me Out the Back by Black Rose Publishers in August 2020.

7. Are there any other details you’d like us to include?

All of my stories come to me after sleeping. I don’t dream them. I just wake up knowing what to write. If I get stuck, I take a nap. That removes the block.

Third in our series of interviews with the authors whose fabulous stories are in The Twofer Compendium: Steve Carr. His story, “A Bayou Tale,” tells the story of twins who are different as Night and Day.

1.What was your motivation in writing your story?

I liked the prompt of writing a story about twins. I had only written one story before this one with twins as the main characters so I wanted to see if I could do something different in the way of telling a story about twins that also had the feel of being very region-specific.

2. Does it have special meaning?

I have traveled through the Louisiana bayous a couple of times and it evokes for me a place of mystery and magic. It felt like the perfect setting for my story.

3. What do you do in your real life?

I’m retired. I write.

4. What draws you to write short stories vs. novels?

The short story form is art when done well. Since 2016 I have been trying to perfect the art of writing short stories while also reading short stories written by my peers, paying close attention to how others interpret the art for themselves. I have written one novel, but the entire process drove me crazy. It requires a different artistic approach, one that I am not yet attuned to.

5. When did you write your first story, unpublished and then published?                                                       I was a junior in high school and wrote a very lengthy short story, which may have been my first, about something medieval, complete with knights and damsels in distress. It wasn’t published but I think I received an A for it. I didn’t really turn to writing and publishing short stories until 2016, but while in college (back in the 1980s) I wrote and submitted three short stories to different publications and they were all published. I still have them somewhere in my files. I wasn’t interested in writing short stories at that time. My interest was in writing plays.

6. Where have you previously been published?

Literally Stories, Sick Lit Magazine, Door is a Jar, Flame Tree Publishing,Viewfinder Magazine, Fantasia Divinity Publications, Fictive Dream, 50 Word Stories, Centum Press, Short Tale 100, The Spotty Mirror, CultureCult Magazine, Temptation Magazine, Visitant Literary Journal, The Wagon Magazine, Infernal Ink, Tiger Shark, Double Feature, Ricky’s Back Yard, Bento Box, NoiseMedium, Chronicle, Zimbell House Publishing, The Drunken Llama, 67 Anthology, Inane Pure Slush Vol. 14, MASHED: Culinary Tales of Erotic Horror Anthology, Communicators League, Jakob’s Horror Box, Panorama Journal, Midnight Circus, Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine, The Haunted Traveler, Fixional, The Gathering Storm Magazine, Rhetoric Askew, Wilde Stories 2017 (Lethe Press), Trigger Warnings, Night to Dawn, Not Your Mother’s Breast Milk, Aphotic Realm, Bull & Cross, The Dirty Pool, Thrice Fiction, Story and Grit, Thousand And One Stories, Occulum, Aether and Ichor, 4StarStories, Tuck Magazine, Ariel Chart, Truth Serum Wiser Anthology, Lunaris Review, Trembling With Fear, Boned: A Collection of Skeletal Writing,The Horror Zine, Hot Tub Astronaut, Kristell Ink Holding on by our Fingertips Anthology, Ordinary Madness, The Serving House Journal, Near to the Knuckle, Ripcord, Varnish Journal, Yalobusha Review, Clarendon House Publications, Cadaverous Magazine, Blue Fifth Review, Black Heart Magazine, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, Storyland Literary Review Magazine, Tessellate Magazine, The Airgonaut, Jokes Review, Lycan Valley Press, Two Sisters Publishing, Your One Phone Call, Furtive Dalliance Literary Review, New Reader Magazine, The Galway Review, Deadsteam Anthology, Barking Sycamores, Bewildering Stories, Soft Cartel, Quail Bell Magazine, Dodging The Rain, Fear of Monkeys, Locust Magazine, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Cabinet of Heed, Aurora Wolf, Night Garden Journal, As Told by Things, Storyland, Dastaan World Magazine, Saddlebag Dispatches, Screen Door Review, Spillwords, Strangely Funny, Feed Your Monster, Runcible Spoon, Round Up Zine, Literary Hatchet, Enchanted Conversation, The World of Myth Magazine, Taxicab Magazine, Down in the Dirt Magazine, Who Writes Short Shorts, Propertius Press, Nude Bruce Review, Literary Hatchet, Ink Pantry, Clever Magazine, Jete Away Anthology (Hurricane Press), QSF Impact Anthology, Terror House Magazine, Chelsea Station, Mirror Dance, Free Library of the Internet Void, Writers’ Cafe Magazine, Millwork, Qutub Minar Literary Review Magazine, Fantasia Fairy Tales, Theme of Absence, Kingdoms in the Wild, Founder’s Favourites, Other People’s Flowers (podcast), CommuterLit, The Blue Pages, Empyreome, Fear & Trembling Magazine, Altered Reality Online Magazine, Horrified Press (Lonesome Train anthology), The Piker Press, Prismatica Magazine, Retreats From Oblivion, Zany Zygote Review, Writer’s Block, Close to the Bone, CafeLit,  Natural Light: 2018 Scars Publications collection book, Brave Voices Magazine, Spill Yr Guts Horror Zine, Colp: Issue 4: A Little Bit of Nonsense, Me First Magazine, Frontier Tales, Pixie Forest Publishing (Modern Fantasy Anthology), Nthanda Review, Fathom Magazine, Chronotrope Magazine, Zooscape, Potato Soup Journal, Mental Papercuts, Slippage Lit, Emerging Worlds, Bending Genres, The Selkie, The Mark Literary Review, Setu, The Elixir Magazine, Turnpike Magazine, Aromatica Poetica, Selcouth Station, Every Writer’s Resource, All Worlds Wayfarer Literary Magazine, The Andreasperat, Rhetoric Askew volume 07, Blackbird Publishing (Golden Door anthology), The Rye Whiskey Review, Mosh Lit, Inner Circle Writers’ Magazine, Teleport Magazine, Our Wonderful Anthology, Still Point Arts Quarterly, District Lit, Foreign Literary Journal, Stinkwaves, Zombie Works Publications Monsterthology 2, Sweet Tree Review, Zombie Pirate Publishing, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, The Creativity Webzine, Words for the Wild, Celestial Echo Press Twin Anthology, Collective Realms, Active Muse, Volume 10 The Best of Frontier Tales, Shlock! Webzine, Portland Metrozine, Drunk Monkeys, Novelty Magazine, Dying Planet Anthology (Flame Tree Press), Great Void Books, Black Poppy Review, Christmas Lites Anthology, Dream Noir, The Stray Branch, Literary Yard, Sweet Tree Review, Breadcrumbs Magazine. Impspired, Breaking Rules Publishing, cli-fi anthology Terraforming Earth for Aliens. 

7. Are there any other details you’d like us to include?

Thank you for accepting and publishing my story. I’m honored to be included along with such great writers.