Three short stories in one anthology!

I am so behind on doing story announcements posts on this blog! Expect to see me catching up with my 2020 publications over the next few weeks…

First up, three drabbles out in Black Hare Press’s Oceans dark drabble anthology.

I really enjoy the satisfaction of doing drabbles, when you absolutely nail a story in 100 words. It’s a challenge, most especially in that I like my stories to be neat and precise and have well defined parts, and that’s something that you often have to forego in a drabble.

I wrote four for this anthology; the first one (more about that one in another post!) wasn’t accepted, so I then turned to twitter for inspiration:

I’m trying to write as many drabbles as I can in the midst of the chaos of a house that is currently holding 6 adults and 11 children.

Who wants to volunteer me some names of characters?

— Doctor Logic (@SaraLUckelman) December 28, 2019

I got three suggestions and wrote three stories. “Dr. Ventham’s Log” features a Martian scientist; “The Box Beside the Bed” is about drowning in our fears; and “Group(er) Think” turns on a cool fact about groupers, which is that they change their sex as they grow up. The acceptances for all three arrived while I was in Newcastle airport en route to Luxembourg to give a talk in January 2020 — a lifetime ago, at this point!

A month or two ago, someone reviewed the anthology on FB and highlighted “Group(er) Think” as one of their faves! First time I’ve gotten a personal review of one of my stories.