New Story: For Art’s Sake – now live on Word Riot

This story is dedicated to CT.

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I’m proud to announce For Art’s Sake is now live on Word Riot; it is my third piece published in that very esteemed journal. I am endebted to Kevin O’Cuinn for his unflagging support and encouragement.

Please give the story some click-love here: http://www.wordriot.org/archives/5581

A permanent link will go on the Published Stories page.

New Story: For Art’s Sake Accepted by Word Riot!

Huzzah!!

My flash fiction work, For Art’s Sake, has just been accepted by Kevin O’Cuinn, fiction editor at Word Riot.

This is a new milestone for me, a third piece of flash being pubbed in the same journal: Woo Hoo! (Deep endebted thankfulness to Kevin, as always.)

The pub date has not yet been determined but when it’s published I’ll let you all know with a joyous announcement and link for your reading pleasure. For now, a placeholder will go on the Published Stories page…

Thanks!

New Story Up at Word Riot!

Hi everyone,

Cloud Girl is now available for your reading pleasure in the July 2012 issue of Word Riot! I’m so pleased this piece found a home with the help of Kevin O’Cuinn, Word Riot’s Fiction Editor.

And to give credit where it’s due, Kevin suggested the title change for this piece – and I love the final title, it was a fantastic suggestion. It shows what trust and great relationships with editors can create…

All love traffic is most welcome at this link:

http://www.wordriot.org/archives/4342

Enjoy!

Stories Accepted by Word Riot and The Washington Pastime!

They say lightening doesn’t strike twice, but somehow Kevin O’Cuinn, Fiction Editor of Word Riot has seen his way to accepting another of my flash fiction works, this one titled Cloud Girl. Of course, I’m extremely grateful to Kevin and Word Riot for continuing to support and publish my work.

A while back I wrote some blog posts about a story I was writing about a crack addict that was challenging to write. The subject matter, the characters and the tone of the piece is dark and difficult so I wasn’t sure if it would find a home. Paul Karaffa, Editor in Chief of The Washington Pastime has decided to give The Ties That Bind a chance, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have a longer story appear in their journal. And for the very first time since my short stories have been accepted for publication, I will be receiving a payment; it is a token payment but for me an encouraging and hopeful sign for my own publishing future.

I haven’t been given a pub-date for these pieces yet, but I wanted to let my regular readers know that the extreme summer heat has not stopped these editors from allowing me to continue to make publishing progress.

As ever, when these stories go live I’ll publish the links in a blog post and the permanent links will be added to my published stories page.

Story Up at Dogzplot!

Hi everyone, I have a new flash fiction piece, Lemon Poppy Seed Cake, up at Dogzplot thanks to guest editor Jesse Eagle. Thanks Jesse!

This new work pushes on some boundaries for me, and it was good to feel “out there” with a piece, which had something to say (although you, dear reader, will be the judge of that.)

All love traffic can go to the following link, please:

http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2012/06/lemon-poppy-seed-cake-carol-deminski.html

Please DO check out the rest of the issue too, because my friend Word Riot fiction editor, Kevin O’Cuinn has a story in it. This is a wonderful coincidence because last year Kev and I both had stories appear in the December 2011 issue. (I consider Kevin to be a personal good luck charm!)

Enjoy!

Story Up at Word Riot!

I’m extremely proud to have my work in the May 2012 issue of Word Riot.

I’ve thanked Fiction Editor Kevin O’Cuinn on this blog before, but I can’t say it enough. His editorial support was tremendous and the final piece, Flame, has the marks of his deft guidance.

For me personally, some pieces are watermarks in my brief career as a short story writer. PANK was one, and now this.

All love traffic is appreciated.

CLICK HERE for Flame, at Word Riot: http://www.wordriot.org/archives/4051

New Story Accepted by Word Riot!

Word Riot, people. WORD RIOT.

I’m pinching myself…walking around in a daze. I feel elated.

Word Riot’s Fiction Editor, Kevin O’Cuinn, has provided crucial support and encouragement. Without him, this achievement would not be possible.

Kevin has been patient with my submissions (there have been many) and he’s provided the kind of tough-love all writers need from great editors. His guidance – and scalpel cuts – have been a master class in editing. I do my best to use his lessons on each new piece of fiction I craft.

All I can say is editor, friend and trusted mentor only begin to describe how highly I think of him.

The piece Word Riot accepted is called Flame. It’s a flash fiction work, and as soon as I find out which issue it will appear in, I will let you all know.

Say What?

Is it just me, or have you noticed the distinct lack of quotation marks in flash fiction and short stories appearing across the web. I think it’s a trend.

What’s up with that?

In a non-scientific survey conducted by me randomly surfing small press literary sites, here’s what I found in a few minutes, three examples:

I decided you were infinite by Grace Hobbs at the Corium website. There are two nameless characters and nearly the entire story is dialogue, but no quotation marks in sight. (I like the story by the way.)

One Way to Rio by Kevin O’Cuinn at the Dogzplot site (fantastic example of well written flash, and certainly worth a read) is a conversation between a woman auditioning to be a lead singer and members of the band. No quotation marks of any kind.

Euchre by Kate Petersen over at elimae replaces quotation marks with dashes at the beginning of the sentence. Well, that’s just downright confusing.

So, do you use quotation marks in your stories, or some other method of conveying dialogue or spoken words? If you don’t use quotation marks, what’s the reasoning behind your choice?