Given the generous support of editor Thom Didato and editorial staff at Failbetter, my very short micro-fiction work “Holocaust” is now live and available for your reading pleasure!
Please give the story some readerly love, by clicking the link:
http://failbetter.com/49/DeminskiHolocaust.php?sxnSrc=ltst
It’s a funny thing about this work… I wrote it several years ago, and the piece was accepted over a year ago by Failbetter and is now getting some public sunlight.
It’s ironic to me because the entire story is about 200 words. But writers need to cultivate patience to get their works published, and I’m extremely pleased this piece is seeing the light of day.
A permanent link appears on my Published Stories page.
Enjoy!!
Filed under: Short Story, Small Literary Magazines, Writing | Tagged: character study, Failbetter, failbetter.com, Holocaust, microfiction, short story, short story accepted, writing |
Cdeminski's Blog 
good story!
Thank you very much Sean!
Freaky. Like the penultimate line a lot.
Yeah, I have strange friends… but that’s because I’m strange too. 😉
Thank you for your comment about the writing! 🙂
He may find life in Europe isn’t quite so comfortable once he starts to feel what other people really think. I will say this, however: Germans by and large own up to the horrors of the holocaust. Some other countries with much to atone for have not gone 1/10th as far as Germany has.
The friend in question is European, but not German. And he’s got the equivalent of a PhD in history about this area (obviously, based on what I say about him and his obsession), so he understands the issues on a deep level – from his own perspective.
If I represent his viewpoint more fairly, and not in an exaggerated fictional way, he would say that people should be judged as individuals and that whole countries of people don’t “do” x, y, or z.
And that could get us down an entire rat hole of conversation (and with him, usually does.)
Still, I won’t disagree about what you’ve said about Germany’s desire to atone for what happened.
Also…it’s gratifying to know the piece makes people think. If I’ve done that, I’m satisfied. 🙂
Hi Carol,
An impressive story. A man is trying to control his emotions?
Yes George, exactly.
“I call him. Take him out for steak dinner.”
I know this story was written a long time ago. But …
“Yes, after over a year of being a vegetarian, I am disgustingly healthy.”
Could it be possible, that being a vegetarian, it will also have an effect on your mental well-being?
Then back to your story.
“I call him. Take him out for salad dinner.”
As much as my new eating habits have had a positive effect on my mental well being, I’m completely neutral on what other people put in their bodies.
Yes, even if that means taking a friend out for a steak dinner (where I’d eat the baked potato!) 😀
But it would be nice to think I could help influence good friends to at least think about what they’re eating and then to make the choices that are best for them. 🙂