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

It is over between us. No doubt you will take to drink when you read this, but I cannot be responsible.


I want you to understand how appalled I was to read my name in print. How could you? I, who accepted your darker side, the funeral bells tolling, that damn buzzard peering down at us while we made love. How dare you discuss our affair, mention my name in every stanza? What possessed you, dearest?


Only yesterday I was in the kitchen with Flossy. Remember her? She acted as go-between when my Herbert had gout. We were careful then, afraid others would discover our midnight rendezvous in the cemetery behind St. Bridget’s. My God, Edgar, if you must, write about that cold slab up against your bare backside, just leave me out of it.


Chapter 14