Humour columns are a joy to many readers and writers. After nearly ten years writing my own column, I had to ask myself, did I want to do this writing thing anymore? The answer was a firm YES! My second question was, what did I want to write. I had to admit that, much as I loved the fun of humour, strictly writing humour had played itself out for me. Turning off the faucet that dripped out my creative juice, well that flat out wasn’t in the cards. I looked for a new challenge. I found it.
Short fiction was the logical alternative for me. Rather than sticking to the facts, as I had when writing about the situations that crop up in a (my) life, I was able to leave the everyday to step into the fiction realm. Creating characters and then having the freedom to send them wherever I pleased, that was, and is, very satisfying. I’d dabbled with short fiction for years, but I had not given it the weight or time it deserved. In fact, I usually only wrote an annual Christmas-themed story for submission to a local paper’s Christmas Story contest. Knowing I needed to learn the form from the basics, I began to attend workshops, read how-to journals, and finally, took a number of college courses.
I love the short story form. Nothing is as satisfying to me as tying up loose ends in the lives of the people I’ve imagined onto a page. I have devoted my time to writing short fiction and just so you know, YES, I repeat myself, I love the form.
DAISY CHAINED, my very first collection of short fiction, is the fruit of my labour. Just you wait …
humour, short fiction, short story, humour, daisy chains, northern writer, new beginnings.