Stories

This section contains what I call short stories. They may not be short stories by anybody's definition but mine. After studying numerous texts and how-to's about the art and craft of short-story writing, and trying and failing to apply and make sense of all the nonsense, I finally just threw the rules out the window. My method is messier than the textbooks prescribe. I begin with whatever sparks the story idea--a character, a setting, a situation, a snippet of conversation--and I keep writing and massaging and changing until something in my heart or brain says that I am finished. When it feels right, I stop. Not a very precise definition or method, but it takes a lot of the anxiety out of writing stories.

Some of these stories are all fiction, and some are not. I am finished with some, and I am still tinkering with others. Some are better than others, but they all seemed worthwhile at the time I was writing them.

**Contents**
The Great October Possum Massacre	The Shooter
How Shall I Kill Thee?	Sea Story
A Cloud Story	The Crowd
Dickie Stories	Works in Progress
The Pilgrim