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

If you will not allow me to return to your side, I beg you send me to a convent where I can demonstrate my unswerving loyalty and devotion to Your Majesty through kind and loving acts.


It is dark now in my cell except for the glow from a candle I am allowed to burn through the long days—and the much longer nights. Even as I hear the constant hammering in the courtyard, I pray, my love, do not let this light go out.


Scholars believe Queen Anne Boleyn wrote this unsigned letter to Henry VIII during her final days at the Tower of London. Employees of Stuart Cleaning Service recently made the discovery at Hampton Court Palace while power washing an outer wall of the Royal Tennis Court. So far, no one can explain why this piece of rolled up parchment was concealed behind a loose brick, but it is rumored King Henry was watching a palace match when he received word of his wife’s execution. (484 words)


Chapter 37