9 April 2006 MORE AMAZON SHORTS—I now have 4 short stories published and posted on Amazon Shorts. Their titles are: UTE MOUNTAIN, APRIL MORN, MURMUR OF RIVERS, and SUPERSTITION. The latter three might be designated as love stories, but, since I dislike categorization, let’s just call them life stories. Each story downloads for just 49 cents. SANTA FE SHOWDOWN—I have delivered the third novel in the VIGILANTE series I’m writing for Berkley. This completes a 3-book contract. Whether or not the series will go on from there is up to Berkley, but the door is open for the hero, Lew Wetzel Zane, to continue his pursuit of justice while a U.S. Marshal, Horatio Blackhawk dogs his trail. Blackhawk is not unsympathetic to Zane, but he does have a duty to perform. NEW SHORT STORY—On Friday, April 7th, I finished still another short story called SPINSTER. This will soon be added to my stock of stories that are being offered on Amazon. Those who do not read short stories are missing a great deal. And, those who wish to become writers could learn much from reading well-written short stories. While I wrote and published poetry in my early days as a writer, I truly learned the craft of writing by reading and writing short stories. While the big short story markets have largely disappeared, there are still plenty of markets for story writers. I plan to publish all of my short stories, both those on Amazon Shorts, the rights of which revert back to me after 6 months, and those I send out to subscribers. So, in a way, the stories may enjoy a longer life, reach a wider audience than those published in the past. Then, too, some of these could wind up in anthologies, extending their lives for an even longer period of time. I read a lot of short stories, and reread many of them. They are truly gems of literature, and in today’s busy world, they can bring a great deal of reader satisfaction in much less time than it takes to read a novel. I love to read long novels, of course, but the short stories often have a greater impact, linger longer in the mind. NEXT UP—My next novel will be the 2nd in THE SAVAGE GUN series for Berkley. The first novel should be published sometime this year. I know the novel is is currently in production. And, there should be another Baron novel out from Forge sometime this year. There also might be one from Harper’s, the first in a new series I’m writing for them, called THE SHADOW RIDER. I believe this one will be published as a Harper’s Torch novel. And, of course, I will continue to write short stories. THE LURE OF THE STORY—I was thinking this morning about the rebirth of my compulsion to write short stories. I always had a love for short stories, but it took me many years to break in, and I accumulated a lot of rejection slips. I always started at the top, sending my stories to Playboy, Esquire, Red Book, Cosmopolitan, and worked my way down. I papered the bathroom walls in every rented house I lived in. Finally, I got an encouraging note from an editor, along with the standard rejection slip, and so I continued my quest. I later met this editor, and thanked him. He was surprised because he no longer worked at the magazine. I worked there at the time we met. But my first short story was published in a literary magazine called Breakthru, edited by Norman Winski. He and I later became friends, roomed together in Hollywood, with an artist named Rick Beckmeyer who designed stage and movie sets. We all three worked on a motion picture together at one time, which is another story. We lived on Argyle Street in the shadow of Capitol Records. My story was called THE MIGRANT and was about a young boy who encounters metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls. Then, I began selling to men’s magazines, the Playboy imitators. When I left the magazine business and moved to Ensenada, Mexico, one of the publishers asked me if I would mind his selling 2nd rights to all my stories. I got money for stories I had already written and published for 7 years and it was a big help. I wrote under so many names, I lost track. Sometimes I would publish all of the stories and articles in a single magazine, all under different names. During one period, when I was writing and producing audio dramas for my MicroDramas company, paying $500 a month to rent Normal O. Rogers’ CLASSIC TEXT TAPES studio in San Bernardino, I wrote three stories a day to keep up the cash flow during the 18 months I spent producing YOUTH AND DRUGS and YOUTH AND ALCOHOL, audio dramas written like the old radio shows with vivid sound effects and music. I had met Norm Rogers when I produced and hosted a program on his radio station in San Bernardino, KRNO, called THE CREATIVE WORLD. Norm, incidentally, was the man who discovered Tennessee Ernie Ford, who was doing a gig in Palm Springs over another station Rogers owned. I lived in Mexico again and got a call to come back to work as an editor in North Hollywood. Part of my deal, as Senior Editor, was that they would buy all the stories and articles I wrote. When I worked for Knight/Adam, their contract called for first refusal of all stories and articles, so I sold to their various magazines. But, on the new job, I wrote a story in the morning before I went to work and then another before supper after I got home. I kept that up for 7 months and earned around $20,000. We bought a home and furnished it from those stories. So now I’ve come back to the short story. The ideas are endless, the satisfaction in writing them, great. It feels good to be writing stories again. I hope people read them. Sometime this year, I should have a collection of Western short stories to show a publisher. In the meantime, I’ll keep writing them. Some of my early stories later became novels and there are some I’m writing now that would lend themselves to expansion. And, many of our best motion pictures grew from short stories. There is more to them than meets the casual eye. Until next time, keep writing and reading. Jory Sherman