Tag Archive for: Loren Eaton

Anthologies (and Ghost Stories) for the Holidays

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by Paula Gail Benson

For today’s short story post, I want to tell you about two new short story anthologies and an annual “Drabble” (100-word story) tradition that celebrates the “haunted” aspect of the holidays!

Two new short story anthologies have been recently released. The Capitol Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime featured fifteen authors in FARM TO FOUL PLAY. The Bethlehem Writers Group’s holiday-based SEASON’S READINGS has twenty-one stories from its members and from winners of its 2023 and 2024 short story contests.

Here’s the information about these anthologies from their Amazon descriptions. Please consider adding them to your “to-be-read” lists!

Farm to Foul Play: 2024 Capitol Crimes Anthology

 

Edited by Jennifer K. Morita. Forward by Tori Eldridge: “. . . if you want to understand a community, home cooking and agriculture is often the best place to begin.”

 

Sacramento, California, lies at the heart of the largest agricultural producer in the nation. Known as the Farm-to-Fork Capital of America, this beautiful region produces hundreds of crops each year and has become recognized as a great restaurant city thanks to the chefs who use locally-grown, locally-sourced ingredients.

 

Fifteen amazing authors — William Bishop, Sarah Bresniker, Chris Dreith, Susan Egan, Elaine Faber, Karen Harrington, Debra Henry, Virginia V. Kidd, Karen A. Phillips, Brian Shea, Linda Joy Singleton, Darrell Smith, Joanna Vander Vlugt, Nick Webster, and Dänna Wilberg — have captured the bounty of all Sacramento has to offer … with a little mayhem thrown in.

 

Expert judges selected fifteen stories by Capitol Crimes members, who captured the bounty of all Sacramento has to offer … with a little mayhem thrown in.

 

 

Season’s Readings: More Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales (A Sweet, Funny, and Strange Anthology)

Edited by Marianne H. Donley and Carol L. Wright.

 

In this new addition to the “Sweet, Funny, and Strange”(R) series of anthologies, the multi-award-winning Bethlehem Writers Group, LLC, returns to its roots. As denizens in and around Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (also known as “Christmas City, USA”), we were happy to make our first anthology a collection of holiday tales. But one volume just wasn’t enough. Now, in our eighth anthology, we’re returning to the theme to bring you twenty-one new stories that span the holidays from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve.

 

Emwryn Murphy’s sweet tale tells about a chosen family’s “Friendsgiving,” crashed by a blood relative who might, or might not, be happy with what he sees in “As Simple as That.” Jerome W. McFadden once again reveals his humorous side in his story about a would-be Santa who gets into trouble in “Flue Shot.” A. E. Decker shares an intricate Christmas fantasy about “The Goblin King’s Music Box.” And Paula Gail Benson gives a new twist to a traditional symbol for the New Year in “Star of the Party.” Beyond these holidays, Diane Sismour writes about Krampusnacht, Debra H. Goldstein about Pearl Harbor Day, and Peter J Barbour about Hanukkah. Other favorite BWG authors, including Jeff Baird, Ralph Hieb, D.T. Krippene, Christopher D. Ochs, Dianna Sinovic, Kidd Wadsworth, and Carol L. Wright, also share their holiday musings.

 

In addition, this volume includes the 2023 and 2024 award-winning stories from the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Awards. Sally Milliken, the 2023 first-place winner, presents “The First Thanksgiving.” From 2024, we have our top three winners with first-place winner Rhonda Zangwill’s “Oh! Christmas Tree,” second-place winner Bettie Nebergall’s “Just Ask Santa,” and third-place winner Mary Adler’s “Narragansett Nellie and the Transferware Platter.”

One more note: Loren Eaton is again hosting his Advent Ghosts 100-word stories beginning on Saturday, December 14 and connected through his blog I SAW LIGHTNING FALL. If you are interested in contributing, here are the rules:

  1. Email Loren at ISawLightningFall [at] proton [dot] me if you want to participate. (Please note that this is a different email address from previous years.)
  2. Pen a story that’s exactly 100-words long—no more, no less.
  3. Post the story to your blog anywhere from Saturday, December 14, to Friday, December 20. Hosting on ISLF is available for those without blogs or anyone who wants to write under a pseudonym. (Don’t worry, you’ll retain copyright!)
  4. Email the link of your story to me.
  5. While you should feel free to write whatever you want to, know that Loren reserves the right to put a content warning on any story he thinks needs it.

If you haven’t read the collected stories, here’s the link to check them out: https://isawlightningfall.blogspot.com/

Advent Ghosts or Who Can Write the Most Frightening Drabble?

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by Paula Gail Benson

For thirteen years, Loren Eaton has hosted an event called Advent Ghosts to celebrate the tradition made famous by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which is to entertain readers and listeners with holiday stories featuring the paranormal. Scary, spooky, or simply speculative fiction is welcome — with one required element — each story must be a “drabble,” or exactly one hundred words.

I joined the fun in 2016 with “Ever Here,” about a spouse lost in a flood who is commemorated by the remaining spouse at Christmas. During 2019, I experimented with a number of fairy tale drabbles. In 2020, I contributed “Tribute,” where an undecorated tombstone is pitied by the living and adorned by the dead. For 2021, I relied upon Icelandic legend with “The Yule Cat’s Fury.” This year, I dealt with family loss and a neglected Advent calendar in “Traditions.”

Moriah Richard’s Writer’s Digest article, “What is a Drabble in Writing?” explains: “The term itself is said to come from Monty Python’s 1971 Big Red Book, which describes a game called Drabble where players compete to write a novel. In the 1980s, the Birmingham University SF society is credited for setting the story’s length at 100 words.”

Richard goes on to note that other short forms have developed from drabble, including the dribble (55 words), the double drabble (200 words), the trabble (300 words), and the pentadrabble (500 words). She also directs readers to 100wordstory.org to read excellent examples of drabbles.

Meanwhile, I recommend that you go straight to Loren Eaton’s ISawLightningFall.blogspot.com to read a series of delightfully sinister holiday drabbles. Contributors may publish their drabbles on their own blogs and Loren will provide connecting links, or they may send their stories for Loren to post.

Reading these terrific shorts is a great way to spend an evening curled up with some hot chocolate and cookies. You can even gift the authors by providing some immediate feedback in the comments!

Better yet why not join the fun by offering your own drabble next year!

Happy holidays!

Holiday Story Traditions

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by Paula Gail Benson

Stories have always been part
of the holiday season. Whether from reality, like the newspaper response to
Virginia O’Hanlon’s letter from the editor of New York Sun (often called “Yes,
Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”); or Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from
Saint Nicholas,” also known by its first line “T’was the Night Before
Christmas;” or Charles Dickens’ frequently presented in different contexts A Christmas Carol; or movies like It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Christmas Vacation, and Elf.
They have all found their way into our hearts so that we long to rehear them or rewatch them during this time of the year.

1947 Version

One of my favorite stories is
Miracle on 34th Street. When
I first saw the 1947 version with Maureen O’Hara, Edmund Gwenn, and Natalie
Wood, I felt it encapsulated all the elements that had become important in my
life. The location: New York City, where I loved to travel to see Broadway
shows. The idea: a child suspicious of Santa, particularly in stores (personally,
I always preferred believing in the unseen Santa). The courtroom: since law
became my profession, it only seemed right that it should be the forum for
determining the “true” Santa. The Post Office: I come from a family of postal
workers. It seemed perfectly normal to me that the Post Office should save the
day.

I also enjoyed the 1974
televised version with Jane Alexander, Sebastian Cabot, David Hartman, and
Suzanne Davidson, and the 1994 movie with Elizabeth Perkins, Richard
Attenborough, and Mara Wilson, even though it moved the story from New York to
Chicago and deleted the Post Office.

This year, through Amazon Prime,
I located a television adaption from 1955, which was presented for The 20th Century Fox Hour,
and featured Teresa Wright, Thomas Mitchell, and MacDonald Carey. The shortest
of all the versions I’ve seen, this one is very close to 1947 film, containing
much of the same dialogue and situations. Thomas Mitchell speaks very quickly.
I wondered if that was to help fit everything into the program timeframe.

1955 version

If you are looking for more
recent stories to add to your holiday reading list, please let me recommend two
online sources. Since Thanksgiving, the authors at Writers Who Kill have presented
short stories for their readers. They include offerings from the following writers
beginning on the dates in parentheses: Annette
Dashofy (11/28), E. B. Davis (12/3), KM Rockwood (12/8), Korina Moss (12/13), Tammy
Euliano (12/18), Warren Bull (12/23), and myself (12/28). These tales have some
familiar characters and some mysterious and paranormal elements. Please stop by
and check them out.

On Saturday, December 18, 2021, Loren Eaton
hosted his Advent Ghosts 2021, where he invited writers to contribute 100-word
stories (drabble) that celebrated a scarier aspect of the holidays. He links followers
to each author’s blog or presents the stories on his message. Authors from all
over the world participate. Here’s the link to share the fun.

So, take a few moments away from the hustle-bustle,
find a favorite holiday beverage to sip, and enjoy being transported fictionally
into another place and time. Don’t forget to let the online authors know you’ve
enjoyed their work.

Happy
holidays, everyone!

1995 version