Short Story Summer

I declare (like Michael Scott shouting, "BANKRUPTCY!") ...

SHORT STORY SUMMER!!!!

Why? Well, I've got this awesome stack of books that I already own and haven't read. They're a little random, but they're all short fiction or how to teach it. I like doing things that serve multiple purposes. Short Story Summer is going to be two months of me reading short stories, writing short stories, and learning some new ways to teach short stories.

The last one because I want to be rejuvenated and excited when I return to teach my creative writing classes in the fall. The middle one because I've spent the last few years really focused solely on a pair of novels (one of which I'm shopping around to agents and the other I'm waiting to get some more feedback on before I give it a [hopefully] final draft) and it's time for me to get another round of short stories out on the market to magazines. I have several that just need to be revised, but I'd like to start some new ones too. The first one because what better way to learn, grow, and get excited about all of this than by example? What better way to spend summer than reading in my newly strung hammock?

That, in a nutshell, is my vision for Short Story Summer. I will read and blog my thoughts. I will write and revise and submit. I will turn pedagogy into plans and post those here and on Teacher's Pay Teachers.

I'm not sure if I have goals any more hard-and-fast than that. It'd be cool to do a draft of a story every week. That seems manageable. I'd like to blog twice a week, at least on average. Lesson plans... we'll just see what happens. I have to get inspired first.

Here's to a long summer full of short stories.

See ya between the pages and outside the margins.