I’m a novelist so shorter fiction is a struggle for me. The economy of words necessary for a short story will always be a trial. Nevertheless, I continue to work to lessen my verbosity. Deadly is an anthology of short stories, each a small character sketch that manifests a deadly sin or a virtue gone horribly awry. It started as a writing group exercise. Each of us was to write a story based on a deadly sin. I chose Sloth and the story “Natural Consequences” sprang into being. I neglected the others, focusing on longer WIP. Finally as one of my NaNoWriMo attempts I finished a fourteen story collection with paired sins and virtues. Each challenges me differently; some by length; some by POV; others by subject matter.

If I write another anthology, and that may never happen, I will use the titles of the #1 hits of the Bee Gees. Now that’s a challenge. I might even use a playlist while writing for the first time ever to keep it fun. Or maybe when our world is chaos, Leonard Cohen songs should be the nidus for a new collection of stories. An utterly different vibe but an interesting possibility. Or perhaps Gordon Lightfoot or Joni Mitchell, Crash Test Dummies, Bare Naked Ladies…the list of Canadian musical talent is endless.