A Lovely Surprise

Barbara Carnal

I received a lovely surprise from a student who took my short stories workshop at the S.C. Book Festival. As class exercises, the students wrote and volunteers read some six-word and six-sentence stories. Barbara Carnal, whose website is http://www.patchworkfamily.com/, wrote a delightful six-sentence story with a twist at the end. On Saturday, before my panel, she met me at the door, thanked me, and placed an oversized envelope in my hand. Later, when I opened it, I discovered she had bound and illustrated her story, “A Surprise for Minnie,” in a small book. Thanks, Barbara, for this wonderful, thoughtful gift!

Teaching at the S.C. Book Festival

At this year’s South Carolina Book Festival, I had the remarkable opportunity of teaching a class about writing and submitting short stories.

Since noted short story writer Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year, short fiction markets have received renewed interest and attention.

I used exercises to allow my class of thirty students to complete two (very short) stories, one just six words and the other six sentences.

They produced some amazing results. Here are pictures from the class. I mentioned a number of print and online journals, and shared my story structure and submission tracking charts.