I’m a novelist so shorter fiction is a struggle for me. The economy of words necessary for a short story will always be a trial. Nevertheless, I continue to work to lessen my verbosity. Deadly is an anthology of short stories, each a small character sketch that manifests a deadly sin or a virtue gone horribly awry. It started as a writing group exercise. Each of us was to write a story based on a deadly sin. I chose Sloth and the story “Natural Consequences” sprang into being. I neglected the others, focusing on longer WIP. Finally as one of my NaNoWriMo attempts I finished a fourteen story collection with paired sins and virtues. Each challenges me differently; some by length; some by POV; others by subject matter.

If I write another anthology, and that may never happen, I will use the titles of the #1 hits of the Bee Gees. Now that’s a challenge. I might even use a playlist while writing for the first time ever to keep it fun.