Short Stories

Happy National Frog Jumping Day!!

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Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. Today is National Frog Jumping Day so I thought it would be fun to do a little digging into this fun observance.

Frog jumping contests have a deep-rooted history in many cultures, but the tradition is particularly strong in the United States, where it turned into a popular pastime during the Gold Rush era. Miners would gather to watch the frogs they caught from nearby streams compete, leaping towards victory and providing a momentary escape from the daily rigors of mining. It was a simple contest: whoever’s frog jumped the farthest, won. This lighthearted competition was not only a test of luck but also a demonstration of one’s ability to spot potential in the most unlikely contestants.

Then, of course, there’s Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” The Civil War put an end to Twain’s time as a river boat pilot. Afterwards he spent some time in Nevada and California, where he continued to write, primarily as a reporter.  But he also occasionally mined for silver and gold, and it was during his work with the miners that he first heard the story of a jumping frog.

In 1865, he wrote the now famous short story under the original title “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog,”  The story was immensely popular and was published all over the United States. This short story brought Twain considerable attention and to this day is still considered an important piece of American literature. In the story, Twain, with his characteristic wit and humor, tells the tale of Jim Smiley, a man who would bet on anything, including frog jumping. Smiley’s frog, named Dan’l Webster, was no ordinary amphibian; he was trained to jump high and long. However, in a twist of fate and a bit of cunning from a competitor, Dan’l Webster meets his match through a bellyful of quail shot, proving that in gambling and frog jumping, anything can happen.

Today frog jumping contests are held across the country, with the Calaveras County Fair & Jumping Frog Jubilee being one of the most famous. Participants of all ages gather with their trained (or sometimes just lucky) frogs to compete for titles and prizes. These events are filled with laughter, excitement, and an enthusiasm that harkens back to simpler times.

Whether you choose to read Twain’s famous tale, attend a local frog jumping contest, or simply spend some time outdoors appreciating the agility of these fascinating creatures, National Frog Jumping Day is a perfect time to celebrate the lighter side of life.

Here are some additional facts and trivia related to frog jumping:

  • How the Contests work – Each contest may have its own specific set of rules and traditions, but the general principle of measuring the jumping distance to determine the winner is consistent across most frog jumping competitions.
      • Number of Jumps – Frogs are often allowed a set number of jumps, commonly three consecutive leaps, from a designated starting point. The total distance covered over these jumps is measured.
      • Measuring the Distance – The distance is typically measured from the starting point to the point where the frog lands on its third jump. The frog that jumps the farthest total distance is declared the winner. In some contests, each individual leap is measured, and then the distances are summed to get the total distance.
      • Starting the Jump – The frog is placed on a pad or a similar starting point. Handlers are not allowed to touch the frogs once they have started jumping, but they can encourage them to leap by shouting or gently prodding the ground behind them.
      • Keeping Within Bounds – In some contests, if a frog jumps outside a designated lane or area, that jump may not count, or the frog might be disqualified. This rule ensures that all jumps are measured within a controlled and fair environment.
      • Handling Rules – Handlers generally have rules about how much they can interact with the frogs. Excessive handling or influencing the direction of the jump can lead to penalties or disqualification.
      • Safety and Welfare – Rules are also in place to ensure the safety and humane treatment of the frogs. This includes regulations on how frogs are handled, kept, and released after the event.
  • Oldest and Longest Continuously Run Contest – The Calaveras County Fair & Jumping Frog Jubilee is arguably the most famous frog jumping contest, inspired by Mark Twain’s story. It began in 1928 and has run almost every year since then, making it one of the oldest and longest continuously held frog jumping contests in the world.
  • Record for the Longest Frog Jump – The record for the longest frog jump in the United States is held by a frog named “Rosie the Ribeter.” Rosie jumped an impressive 21 feet 5.75 inches in three consecutive leaps at the Calaveras County Fair in 1986, setting a record that still stands today.
  • Frog Jumping Day Worldwide – While the most well-known events are held in the United States, similar contests and celebrations occur globally, reflecting the universal appeal of these likable creatures. Countries like the United Kingdom and France have their versions of frog racing and jumping contests, often as part of village festivals or educational conservation events.
  • A Wide Variety of Competitors – The types of frogs entered in these contests vary greatly, from the local bullfrogs to exotic species. However, regulations are often in place to protect native species and ensure humane treatment of all participants.
  • Impact on Pop Culture – Frog jumping contests have not only inspired literary works like those of Mark Twain but have also been featured in movies, television shows, and even video games, showcasing their cultural impact beyond mere competitive events.
      • Literature – Beyond Twain, frog jumping contests have inspired various children’s books and stories that capture the playful spirit of these events. For example, “The Frog Jumping Contest” by Lang Campbell is a children’s book that depicts an array of animal characters participating in a frog jumping contest, emphasizing themes of friendship and community.
      • Film and Television – The concept of a frog jumping contest has been used as a plot element in several TV shows and films, often as a backdrop for community gatherings or comedic relief. For instance, in an episode of “Gilmore Girls,” a frog jumping contest is used as a key event in the annual Stars Hollow Spring Fling, adding charm and whimsy to the storyline.
      • Video Games – The idea of frogs jumping has been incorporated into various video games, sometimes as mini-games within larger games where players can bet on which frog will jump the farthest or manage their own frog to win races or jumping contests. This mechanic is used in games like “Stardew Valley,” where players can participate in seasonal festivals that include frog jumping contests. And of course there was the 1981 arcade game Frogger where the player had to guide five frogs through traffic and across a stream to arrive “home”
      • Educational Programs – Some educational TV programs and web content use frog jumping contests as a fun way to teach physics and biology concepts, such as muscle power and biomechanics, to children. These segments often include real-life demonstrations with frogs or animations to explain how and why frogs can jump such great distances.
      • Advertising – Frog jumping contests have also been used in advertising campaigns to evoke a sense of fun and nostalgia. For example, companies selling outdoor or garden products might use images of frogs or a frog jumping contest to highlight the joy of spending time outdoors.

And as a final note I actually had a frog jumping contest in one of my books. It was the third book I published, Whatever It Takes. It was published by the now defunct Dorchester Books so it is currently out of print. However I hope to bring it back before the end of the year by publishing it myself.

In the meantime, do you have any experience with frog jumping contests? Or frogs in general? Is there any tidbit in my post above that caught you by surprise? Have you read The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain?

Leave me a comment to be entered in a drawing for your choice of any of my books.

 

 

Dreams of Love Unfurling Tomorrow

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I’m excited to share a brand new series with you that will start releasing tomorrow!

Three sweet and wholesome historical novellas are set in my fictional town of Holiday.  If you haven’t read any of my other Holiday stories, start with Holiday Hope, which is the story of Jace and Cora Lee Coleman and the beginning of Holiday. After that check out Henley, and then you’ll be ready for this new series.

 

Each book can be read as a standalone, but it’s fun to read about the characters you meet in other books too.

DREAMS OF LOVE

 Release Date: March 21

Will dreams of love lead to an unexpected future?

Weathered from too many years of apprehending outlaws, Marshal Dillon Durant is resigned to a life of solitude. The small community of Holiday, Oregon, offers the opportunity for him to build lasting friendships while discovering a sense of belonging. Then he encounters an exasperatingly beautiful woman attempting to break into the local school, leaving him to contemplate the possibility of a new chapter in his life.

Desperate to escape the arranged marriage her father is attempting to foist upon her, Zara Wynn accepts a job as a schoolteacher in Holiday. Intent on a fresh start, she doesn’t want anyone to discover she’s a runaway bride. But concealing her past proves difficult, especially when the astute and handsome Marshal Durant captures her heart.

When her father and fiancé find her, will Zara be forced to abandon her dreams of love? Or will Dillon make them come true?

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DREAMS WITH FAITH

 Release Date: March 28

Can faith conquer their fears?

John Ryan is committed to his role as pastor in the quaint town of Holiday, Oregon. He values each member of his congregation, and aims to lead by example. However, his resolve is tested when a free-spirited woman arrives in town. John struggles with his growing attraction to her, determined to keep it from distracting him from his calling.

Following a devastating tragedy that leaves her isolated and shattered, Keeva Holt is eager for a new beginning. In need of consolation and clarity, she decides to seek refuge with her brother in Holiday. As she navigates through her grief and attempts to find direction for her future, Keeva’s vibrant spirit and exuberance challenge those around her, including the reserved Pastor Ryan. While logic tells her that John is beyond her reach, her heart urges her to pursue her dreams and embrace the possibilities of tomorrow.

Will John and Keeva learn to lean into their faith and let go of their fears?

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 DREAMS FOR COURAGE

 Release Date: April 4

Will two lonely hearts find the courage to love?

A loner for most of his life, Rowan Reed wants nothing more than to be left alone. He buys a run-down farm near Holiday, Oregon, intending to turn it into a successful ranch through hard work and determination. When a nosy, albeit beautiful, woman shows up on his doorstep, the instant attraction he feels to her sets off nearly as many warning bells as her barrage of probing questions.

Private detective Rhetta Wallace always unearths the truth. Involved in a lengthy investigation into a man suspected of killing a politician’s son, her pursuit leads her to the town of Holiday. Accompanied by her adopted son, Rhetta finds herself squaring off against the grumpy, growling rancher she believes is the suspect. Whether or not Rowan admits his true identity, Rhetta is sure of two things: his innocence of the crime, and the deep affection he awakens in her heart.

Will their dreams for courage help them release the past and embrace a future together?

Amazon

The heroines are all so different.

Which one would do you most relate to?

Post your answer for a chance to win a digital copy of Dreams of Love!

A New Venture into the World of Short Stories

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Howdy!

And good morning!

Well, I guess it was earlier this year when our wonderful blog creator, Pam Crooks, wrote to me to ask me if I might contribute a short story to their anthology.  (I hope that’s the right word.)

Short stories have never been my niche.  I tend to be “long winded” and need a little space in order to collect my thoughts.  And, I love the freedom of setting up the story and having what seems to me to be lots of time to tell the story properly.  But, I told Pam I’d try.  The upshot of this was that I did write a short story, which is still in the anthology you can find here on the blog, and found it was a little easier to write than I had thought it would be.

My considerations on not writing short stories have been that every word counts (forgetting that this is true in a long novel, too).  But, I do much, much research for my stories and so I have my mind full of true stories from the early days of the traders first coming into Blackfeet Country as told by James Willard Schultz.  I tell these true stories to my grandchildren often when I pick them up from school, and, because they seem to like them (they often request a story from me), I thought that maybe I could use what I have learned from these early accounts  to write a romantic fiction story, based on these tales from the early 1800’s.

Lo and behold, I found it to be fun…not the grind I had thought it would be.

Now, over the years, I’ve taken a few of the beginning parts of a couple of my stories (where the hero and heroine are children or teens) and have made them into little books of my own making for my grandchildren.  With recent editing of these and getting two of them together for the book, I’ve now published a book of three Historical Native American Romance short stories for teens and young adults.

They are sweet stories of first love, but also tell of some of the real and true dangers the Indians encountered in our long ago past.  And so, I’ve now published all three of these stories in a book entitled, THE COURTSHIP OF MEDICINE PAINT, using the pen name of Genny Cothern.  They are stories from the early days in the wild west and the first story of Medicine Paint is based on two true stories, though highly fictionalized.

The other two stories are MOON WOLF AND MISS ALICE and RED HAWK AND THE MERMAID.

Here is the link:  https://tinyurl.com/thecourtshipofmedicinepaint

Because this is a new venture for me, it sure would warm my heart if you’d go over and have a look.  Soon, I hope to have the book in paperback, also.

Now, to other news — if you are on my newsletter list, you’ll know the the entire MEDICINE MAN Series is going on sale on the 12th (Thursday).  But only for a few days.

Book #1, SHE STEALS MY BREATH will be on sale for $.99 cents — Book #1

SHE CAPTURES MY HEART will be on sale for $2.99 — Book #2

and my latest book, SHE PAINTS MY SOUL will be on sale for $3.99.

 

This is the link to the series page:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4V1HRT?tag=pettpist-20

And now for a recipe I promised to post to the blog in my newsletter today.  For those of you who are not on my newsletter list, let me repeat a little segment from it:

This recipe comes from the book, COOKING WITH SPIRIT, North American INDIAN Food and Fact by Darcey Williamson and Lisa Railsback.
Plains Pemmican (Traditional)
“Dry long, thin strips of buffalo meat.  Pound meat to a coarse powder.  Cut raw fat into walnut-sized pieces and melt over slow fire.  Pour fat over pounded meat and mix in some dried serviceberries.  Mix it well and pack in parfleches.”
     As many of you might know, when men were going to be going on the war trail or were going to make a long journey, they carried pemmican with them.  It was a nourishing food and could sustain a warrior through many weeks of being away from home — depending upon how long he was going to be away and how much he was able to carry with him.  Often, in my books, the hero of the story shares his pemmican or dried meat with the heroine.
     I’ve never made pemmican, but I’ve mirrored it when I am going on a long car ride and then I use dried meat, butter or coconut oil and usually raisins or other dried fruit.  It is not only delicious, it keeps one alert and very importantly…awake.
So I promised to share my own recipe for dried meat.
Here it is:
     In the old days, they dried meat over a low fire or in a smoke house.  Since I don’t have either of those, I marinade very thinly sliced beef in an equal combination of red wine and traditionally made soy sauce, covering the meat completely.  (I use Ohsawa Nama Shoyu Unpasteurized Soy Sauce.)  I marinade this in the refrigerator (because sometimes I forget about it.)  Usually I marinade it for several days.  Then I dehydrate it in a dehydrator until it cracks when you pick it up and tear it.  (Dehydrating it until it cracks was an instruction my sister on the Blackfeet reservation gave me on when it is properly dried.)  Don’t worry about the wine in the marinade.  By the time the jerky — or dried meat — is done, the alcohol from the wine is gone.  It usually takes 2-4 or more days to dry it.
     Very easy to make (you can often get the meat already sliced thin) and very delicious, nourishing and very satisfying.  It’s from this kind of dried meat that pemmican is made.
     Well, that’s all for today.  Hope you enjoyed the blog and hope you’ll go and check out the new short story book, THE COURTSHIP OF MEDICINE WOLF.  Let me know what you think, and, as always, thank you so much for coming to the blog today and for commenting.

Why I like Writing Short Stories by Jodi Thomas

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Jodi Thomas has graciously agreed to fill in for Phyliss Miranda today. Let’s make her welcome!

* * * * *

Thank you for having me. I’m happy to be back with everyone and talking about one of my loves. Writers often ask me why I write short stories. And, I have to say simply, “For the love of writing.”

But in truth, the benefits are far more than that. 

It all started one week before Christmas in ‘93. I’d just finished a novel and mailed it in. I was free and had a list. Shopping, making cookies, decorating, and cleaning house. I put in my first batch of cookies when the phone rang. It was my agent, who rarely called. “Jodi, I want you to write a short story. Think it over, come up with a few ideas and we’ll talk in January.” We talked about a big publishing house that was offering me the bottom slot in an anthology. She hung up. The cookies were burned. 

I scraped the cookie sheet and started again. As I put the next batch in, the phone rang again. “Hello, Jodi,” an editor at the big publishing house said. “What is your idea?”

Now, I’d had about ten minutes to think and so I said, “Two old men go to a train station in Texas the Christmas after the Civil War. They’ve ordered their boss, Holly, a mail-order husband for Christmas. One man steps off the train. He’s tall, dark, and handsome and he’s wearing a Union uniform. Before they can get to him, the man passes out drunk. Sam looks at Ben and says, “Great, we not only got her a Yankee, we got her a dead drunk Yankee.” 

“Sold,” the editor said, “Can you get it to us by January?” 

I hung up, took out the second batch of burned cookies and danced around the kitchen. I bought gift cards, let my two boys decorate, picked up Christmas cookies from the bakery and went back to my tiny study to work. 

A year later A HUSBAND FOR HOLLY hit the NYTimes thanks to Pat Potter the lead writer. 

And, I fell in love with writing short stories.

Here are three of my favorite short stories. I’m proud as can be of each one.

    

COWBOYS & MISTLETOE – Only 8 More Days!

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We all know the fillies are some of the best loved and bestselling authors in the western romance genre, right?

And we all know Christmas is coming, right?

And we all love holiday stories that warm our hearts with romance and happy endings, right?

RIGHT!

We’re thrilled to offer you our best collection ever of

Christmas Romances!

Be sure to stop by every day from November 26 through 29th when we present our Christmas novellas and books for each of you to enjoy.

We’ll make you fall in love with falling in love during Christmas.

We’re giving away lots of $10 Amazon gift cards, too.

Because it’s Christmas, and because we love each of you, we’re going to make it easy to WIN!

(Want a sneak peek?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND MORE!

Don’t forget – November 26 – 29.

Ho-Ho-Ho!

Gunsmoke and Lace and a Giveaway!

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Today is going to be a very busy day for me. I’m going to West Texas A&M University to film a segment for PBS. It’s for a show called 24 Frames. It’s exciting but very scary. I hope I don’t mess up too bad. The segment will air in September. I’ll have more on that later. I may not get to all the comments right away.

But today I want to tell you about my short story collection that I’ve self-published. Gunsmoke and Lace is my first attempt to put something out myself and I found nothing about the process easy. I was supposed to have the ebook and print releasing simultaneously but it didn’t work that way. After two weeks, only the ebook is up. The print should be along soon I’m told.

I have four stories in this collection: The Telegraph Tree, Moon Dog Night, The Gunslinger, and Hard Luck.

The inspiration for The Telegraph Tree came after I attended a lecture about women who came West and the challenges at West Texas A&M University. The speaker quoted statistics about the number of women who committed suicide, unable to handle the constant hardships and loneliness. The women spent most of their time alone in the empty, vast space with their children (if they had any) and not having anyone to talk to broke their spirits until there was nothing left.

Listening to that reminded me of a Sam Elliott movie called Conagher that he made with his wife Katherine Ross. To combat her loneliness, she wrote poems and tied them to tumbleweeds. Maybe you remember it.

That’s where The Telegraph Tree was born and when I finished, I entered it in several writing contests. It placed 3rd in Women Writing the West and also in Wyoming Writers, Inc.

I wrote The Gunslinger (formerly The Widow’s Heart) for an anthology for Cheryl Pierson at Prairie Rose and was real proud how it turned out. I made a few changes to it though.

Moon Dog Night is about two children who ride into a bounty hunter’s camp on a cold winter night. They’re trailing the man who took their mama and they’re determined to get her back. Of course, Bonner Raine can’t let them go alone. But will they arrive in time to save her?

Hard Luck has a lot of humor as two cowboys try to rob a bank. Absolutely nothing goes right and I’ve saved a surprise at the last.

All these stories sprang from a deep well inside me and I think it’s time to share them.

The fabulous Charlene Raddon designed this gorgeous cover and I love everything about it. She’s so creative. The fantastic Jerri Lynn Hill did the editing and she’s an amazing woman. Jeri Walker formatted it. I couldn’t have succeeded without these ladies.

Gunsmoke and Lace is available everywhere online. But here are a few links:

AMAZON  |  B&N  |  iBooks  |  KOBO

 

My question for you is if you lived back in the 1800s in a desolate place, what would you have done to keep your sanity? Or would you have given in to despair?

I’m giving away a copy of Gunsmoke and Lace to three people who comment. If you’re willing to wait a few days for print, I’ll offer both formats.

Later this month, I’ll have a giveaway for my upcoming To Catch a Texas Star (July 3rd release.)

So don’t go anywhere. There’s more to come!

Christmas Roses

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Hi everyone, Winnie Griggs here.  I hope all of you had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was lovely – I feel truly blessed.
As for today’s post, I’m going to break from my usual western-themed subject matter to tell you about another project I’m part of.

Shreveport, Louisiana is home to the national headquarters of the American Rose Society.  The Gardens of the American Rose Center are located on a 118-acre tract of wooded land and is the nation’s largest park dedicated to roses. The park features in excess of 65 individual rose gardens and somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 rosebushes. In addition the park is also filled with other plants, fountains and sculptures. And every year during the month of December, they transform the place into a winter wonderland known as Christmas in Roseland. It’s a magical place filled with lights, festive displays, entertainment, photos with Santa Claus and lots more.

As it happens, the Shreveport area is also where my local chapter of Romance Writers of America©, the NOLA STARs, is based. Last spring we decided to undertake a project where a number of our members would pen original short stories for an anthology and we wanted to feature the American Rose Society as part of the project. So nine of our members set out to write these stories with the only restrictions given is that each story be set during the Christmas Season and that there be some mention of the Rose Center as part of it. The result is a collection titled American Roses. Though the stories all contain those same two elements we started with, they are all as different as the authors who penned them. And I deviated from my normal setting to create a contemporary story. My contribution is titled A Crossword Puzzle Christmas and is a play on the ‘friends to lovers’ trope.  I had such fun writing it!

One of the neat things about this collection is that all of the authors have donated their stories – none will be collecting royalties. Instead, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the American Rose Society and the remainder will go back to our chapter.

And now, as a reward to you for reading through all of this, I’m going to give away a copy of the collection to one of the visitors who leaves a comment on this post between now and Tuesday afternoon. Just tell me your favorite rose-related memory or what variety/color of rose is your favorite and why.

CHRISTMAS ROSES

Come visit a place where love blooms and holiday magic fills the air…

Set against the background of the Gardens of the American Rose Center, these stories of hope and holiday cheer are sure to warm your heart and put you in a festive mood.

There’s no better gift than finding love among the roses. In this collection, you’ll find second chances at love, couples who find more than friendship under the mistletoe, and holiday reunions that bring the joy of the season. So grab a cup of hot cocoa and curl up with Christmas Roses.

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Christmas in a Cowboy’s Arms & Book Giveaway

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Christmas in a Cowboy’s Arm will be released on October 3rd.  Don’t you just love that title?  I’m so excited to be part of the collection, which also includes stories by Leigh Greenwood and our very own Linda Broday!

My story is titled A Texas Ranger for Christmas and I’m giving away a copy (giveaway guidelines apply). So be sure to leave a comment.  Here’s a sneak peek: 

Sadie had just put Adam down for his afternoon nap that second week in December when a hammering sound drew her to the kitchen window.

“Dang that man!” Now the ranger was on the barn roof hammering down shingles. Last week, after he’d spent the day repairing the fence, he’d run a fever and had to spend two days in bed.

Now here he was at it again, overdoing it.

She pulled a woolen shawl from a peg by the back door and stepped outside. The wind was cold and angry clouds crowded in from the north like a bunch of wooly sheep.

Upon reaching the barn, she yelled up to him. “If you fall and break your neck, don’t come runnin’ to me!”

He peered over the edge of the roof. His nose was red from the cold and his hair tossed about like sails in the wind, but he sure was a sight for sore eyes. “I guess I’d just have to wait ‘till your friend Scooter comes.”

She balled her hands at her side. “I’d think you’d have a little consideration for my reputation.”

His eyebrows quirked upward. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

“How do you think it looks for a woman to entertain a man that’s not her husband?”

She’d not yet told anyone of Richard’s death. She didn’t want friends and neighbors coming to her door to express condolences until after the ranger was long gone.

He shrugged. “Isn’t it a little late to worry about that?  Some of your neighbors already know I’m here.”

“I told them my husband sent you here to recover from your bullet wound.”

“Your husband sent me? That might be hard to explain when the truth comes out that he’s dead.”

“That’s my problem.”  She tossed her head.   “I mean, it Captain.” She grabbed hold of the ladder and gave it a good shaking. “If you don’t come down, I’ll see that you’re stuck up there for good!”

“Why, Mrs. Carnes, is that a threat?”

She glared up at him. “You’ve already had one relapse and I’m not about to take care of you for another. So what’s it gonna be?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll come down, but only on one condition.”

She straightened, hands at her waist. “What?”
“You stop calling me captain. My name is Cole.”

“Not gonna happen,” she said. Calling him by his given name would only strengthen the bond between them, and she couldn’t let that happen. It was hard enough trying not to like the man more than was absolutely necessary.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I never name an animal I plan on eating, and I sure don’t aim on naming a man who’ll soon be gone.”

“All right, Mrs. Carnes. Have it your way. But could you at least tell me what your Christian name is? I promise not to use it unless you say it’s okay.”

She chewed on a bottom lip. “Sadie,” she said. “And I don’t want you calling me that, you hear?”

“Nice name,” he said. “It suits you.”

She didn’t know what he meant by that and she wasn’t about to ask. “So what’s it gonna be, Captain?” She grabbed hold of the ladder and rattled it. “You coming down or ain’t you?”

“Oh, I’ll come down, Mrs. Carnes.  But only because I don’t want you complaining about me to your dead husband.”

Short stories and novellas are popular around the holidays.  I don’t mind writing short, but I prefer reading full-length novels. Which do you prefer?  Also, has a short story ever inspired you to check out the author’s novels?

What do you call Christmas in a Cowboy’s Arms?
Heavenly!

Amazon

B&N

iTunes

FAVORITE SHORT STORIES–WHAT’S YOURS? by Cheryl Pierson

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Do you like short stories? I love them, both as a writer and as a reader. I’m so thrilled that they’re making a comeback in today’s world! I remember as a teenager in high school English class, some of the short stories that were taught at the time. You can probably recall these classes, too—we read many short stories and novels that couldn’t reach into our world and touch us, not at that age.

It’s odd to me that had some of the selections been different, or more age-appropriate, this might have fostered a love of reading the short story rather than dread for so many. The essay questions at the end of the story seemed hard for many of the students to understand, much less formulate answers to in order to show what they learned from the story. As high school freshmen in the 14-15 year-old age range, and with our limited knowledge of the world, it was difficult for some to be able to grasp symbolism or foreshadowing among other story elements. I realized later on that some people never grasp it, no matter how old they are. Reading with that kind of intuitive understanding is not something everyone is able to do.The Lady or the Tiger

Being forced to read something for a grade rather than enjoyment was something I didn’t understand. For one thing, I enjoyed reading. As with any kid, some things held my interest more than others. But I never could fathom some of my classmates who actually said, “I hate to read.”

The Most Dangerous GameI had some favorite short stories, even out of the ones we were forced to read. Who could forget Whitney and Rainsford in Richard Connell’s THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME? Frank Stockton’s THE LADY OR THE TIGER? Or, TO BUILD A FIRE, by Jack London?

Those stories were what inspired me to want to write “like that” and I often wondered in later years, seeing my kids’ English books and the stories they contained, where our next generation of writers would come from? There was certainly nothing “inspiring” in those stories. I was wishing there were some of the stories from “the good ol’ days” in their books, even though at the time I had been their age, many of my classmates had detested those same stories that I loved so much.

But one day, my daughter came home from school and said, “Mom, we read a story today that was so To Build a Firecamp-firegood! It’s about a guy who is trying to survive in the cold and he tries to build a fire…” And a few years later, my son couldn’t wait to tell me about a story they’d read about an island, where men were hunted…

Not everyone who loves to read wants to become a writer.  So I’m wondering…was there a particular short story that you read when you were younger that made you want to write? Or one that made you become an avid reader? Since so many of us write westerns, was there a western short story that influenced you when you were younger? The one that I loved was not really a short story, but a short novel, Fred Gipson’s OLD YELLER.Old Yeller

In later years, another one that stood out was Shirley Jackson’s THE LOTTERY.

 

I’d have to say one of my all-time favorite short stories is  Dorothy M. Johnson’s  LOST SISTER–this is a fictional story based on Cynthia Ann Parker’s real life story of being kidnapped by the Comanche, and marrying a Comanche chief. She later became the mother of another prominent chief, Quanah Parker. LOST SISTER is a story that you will remember long after you finish reading it!

 

 

What’s your favorite short story? It doesn’t have to be a western. I’d love to hear what your favorite(s) are. My TBR list is bursting at the seams anyhow, but I can’t stop myself from adding to it when I hear about MORE great reads!

 

I’m giving away a free print copy of one of my short story collections today, DARK TRAIL RISING.  All you have to do is comment, and check back later this evening to see if you won!

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