Good morning everyone, and Happy Cyber Monday! While you’re doing your holiday shopping (or maybe just shopping for yourself), I wanted to let you know of another flash sale I’m having on (Mostly) True Tales From Birchmont Village. Beginning on December 1 at 8 AM EST, and running up until midnight on December 8, I’ll be reducing the price to 99 cents. But it’s for this limited time only. So tell your friends and neighbors – and have a great week y’all!
Writing is also my therapy, so when I set out to write today, and all I could hear was the sound of an industrial-strength leaf blower outside, I channeled my annoyance into creativity, and wrote this, um, haiku I guess. Happy Monday!
Ceaseless din humming.
How many leaves can there be?
Fall in the suburbs.
Happy Friday! We made it through another week, and to celebrate, I’ve posted another story on my Medium page – “IV” – which is from my chapbook of flash, Three in the Morning and You Don’t Smoke Anymore. If you don’t have that already, why not pick up a copy – and while you’re at it, pick up my latest collection, (Mostly) True Tales From Birchmont Village. Anyway, that’s my little spiel, and have a great weekend y’all!
Hello my friends, and Happy Monday! I’m excited to share with you that my short short “Ten Something in the Morning” – which, by the way, also appears in my chapbook, Three in the Morning and You Don’t Smoke Anymore – has just been re-published in Issue Ten of one of my fave lit mags, Fleas on the Dog, to commemorate ten issues. And I don’t mean to brag, but they refer to this piece, as well as the other stories in this issue, as “The Fabtastics – selections of some of the best stories published in past issues,” which I’m really proud of because they publish so many good stories. So give it another read if you like – here’s the link – and have a great week!
Hello my friends, and I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. I just want to share with you another review of my short story collection, (Mostly) True Tales From Birchmont Village, this one from LEO Weekly which calls it “a sequence of exercises in stylistic voice.” You can check out the entire review HERE, and if you still haven’t picked up your copy yet, now is the perfect time of year to read this around a fire pit, and of course with some s’mores!
Fleas on the Dog is one of my favorite lit mags, and in November they’ll be putting out their 10th issue. To celebrate this milestone, they’re republishing some of the best work from earlier issues, and I’m thrilled that included among this will be my short story, “Ten Something in the Morning,” from my collection, Three in the Morning and You Don’t Smoke Anymore. I’ll post a link when it comes out, but if you have the time, you should check out all the fine writing they showcase!
Hot off the press, here’s the description for my new novella – coming soon …
A first-person account of one young man’s quest to make his high school basketball team, navigating the challenges of punch drills, and a belligerent Coach, and countless “suicides” to earn his spot among the finalists – but will his training, his perseverance, and his faith be enough to help him prevail?
Based upon the author’s own experiences, this coming-of-age story takes the reader day by day through this “hell week” and the attending range of emotions, from the highest and purest of expectations, to steadily tumbling into discouragement and disillusionment and a hopelessness of being trapped with no way out, before ultimately ending in redemption.
As Peter has described it, “I wrote this piece some forty years after my encounter with high school basketball tryouts, during an equally difficult period for me in which, even as an adult, I found myself relying on those same lessons learned way back then – and, in so doing, everything about that earlier time came back to me as vividly as if I were living through it all again.”
Tryouts is about never losing sight of who you are, and appreciating that a difficult journey could lead to a place you perhaps belonged all along.
Hello, my friends, and Happy Monday! I want to give you all the inside scoop on something. To celebrate the 2-month release of my chapbook, (Mostly) True Tales From Birchmont Village, I’m having a FLASH SALE. This Wednesday, October 13, from 8 AM EDT until midnight, you can purchase the eBook here, for the low, low, low price of 99 cents. But it’s only good on this date, and after that, the price goes back up (to the still reasonable $4.99). So tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and if you haven’t bought a copy yet yourself, now’s the time!
Coming soon …
The reviews continue for (Mostly) True Tales From Birchmont Village! The latest is from BigAl’s Books & Pals, which states, in part, “If you’re a fan of Mayberry or Lake Wobegon, odds are you’ll enjoy a visit to Birchmont Village as well.” To read the full review, click here – and if you haven’t picked up a copy of my book yet, what are you waiting for?!!!
Peter J. Stavros 