Do you write short fiction but long to s-t-r-e-t-c-h those tight little 55ers, flash pieces, and short stories into longer, publishable work? Do you have binders full of short pieces with characters you’d love to flesh out? Are you dying to tell the rest of these stories? If so,The Short and Long of Itis for you! Award-winning short fiction writer Paul Alan Fahey shows you how to expand and adapt your brief creations into longer, more satisfying stories, plays, novellas, and novels pitch perfect for publication in the e-age. This book will help you practice expanding your short fiction. Through detailed examples and hands-on exercises, you’ll learn how to: Adapt 55 fiction into flash fiction;Adapt flash fiction into short stories and plays;Adapt flash memoir into personal essays;Write a tight logline;Develop a story theme;Build three-act structure; andDevelop characters and enhance backstory.So grab a copy today and start writing longer stories tomorrow!

The Short and Long of It

Camilla rose, fetched the candle by her bedside, and went out into the corridor. It was late, after evening prayer, but she knew she’d find Father in the chapel. Father Dominic with his kind face and strong arms. Even his name implied a closeness to the Lord.


Camilla wasn’t alone in these thoughts. Hadn’t she caught Sister Mary lingering in the garden on more than one occasion, watching Father cut back the green wildness with a machete? “On my way to feed the livestock,” Sister Mary would say, or hang the clothes, or fetch the mail, and Camilla would toss her a knowing look.


Camilla passed a partially open window and, for a moment she thought she saw, reflected in the candlelight, a flash of metal. Was someone watching her? Ridiculous what one could imagine in this hellish place. She took a deep breath, let it out, and then pulled open the chapel door.


From The Katanga Herald, Belgian Congo, June 6, 1960


Chapter 11