I invited my friend and fellow author, Maureen Sherbondy, to post on my blog today. When I first moved to North Carolina, I continued my habit of writing at Starbucks. One day I noticed a beautiful woman sitting at a nearby table. She’d type a little, then stare into space, then type a little more. A fellow writer, I mused. Of course I was right. Turns out Maureen was (and still is) a poet. I was not “into” poetry, but when I read some of her work, that changed. She can write funny and she can write poignant, but the thing that strikes me most about Maureen’s poetry and short fiction is her ability to move her reader with just a few carefully chosen words. I’ll let Maureen tell you about her latest book, The Slow Vanishing.

Thanks Diane for allowing me to guest blog. I’m a “virgin blogger” unless you count my one-line statements on Facebook. I met Diane at Starbucks a few years back. We both grew up in NJ, just a few towns away from each other. Anyway, I would like to talk about my forthcoming short story collection.

It’s difficult to get a short story collection published these days, so I am thrilled that my debut collection, The Slow Vanishing, has been accepted for publication and will be released in the fall. Many of the stories are flash fiction pieces. For those of you who don’t know what flash fiction is – they are very, very short stories. These are also referred to as “sudden fiction” or “micro fiction”. These flash fiction pieces are usually image-driven and often surreal. In the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, a reader can read an entire flash fiction story. Karen Quinn, bestselling author of The Ivy Chonicles, says of my book: “The writing is very evocative and interesting to read.  I enjoyed each piece tremendously.”

It’s important for people to support small presses, like Main Street Rag Publishing Company, the publisher of this collection, by pre-ordering books to show there is support for an author and her work. Many authors (like myself) struggle to get that first book published. If not for these small presses, many new authors would never find a home for that first book. If I’ve piqued your interest about flash fiction, I hope you’ll consider ordering The Slow Vanishing here.

Thanks, Diane, for the chance to talk with your readers!