A. F. Stewart at Red River Writers Blog Tour

 A Short Tale of a Writer:

I write stories, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, even an occasional odd romantic yarn. Some of these stories turn into books, many others end up as short fiction. Recently, I compiled this fiction into a collection called Passing Fancies, to celebrate the art of storytelling.

So, why do I write short fiction?

Simple answer, I need to get all my quirky ideas down on paper. Every spark of imagination, that word or phrase that snapped something in my brain, must find its way to the creative process.

I used to write short stories exclusively, but I have discovered short fiction has far greater depth, with flash fiction and micro fiction. It takes dexterity to tell a complete story in 1000 words, 500 words or 100 words (and if you think that is daunting, try Twitter-Fiction, where you have to tell a story in 140 characters or less).

Which brings me to the other reason I like short fiction; it makes me a better writer. Short fiction allows me to sharpen my prose, rid myself of that curlicue fluff that creeps in when writing longer works. If your word count is limited, you have to convey your vision, all your images, your atmosphere and character with only basic essentials. Extraneous matter is cut ruthlessly until the shining core remains; it’s self-editing at its best.

To summarize, my grand creative outlet led to a surplus of stories and to my book Passing Fancies, its pages bursting with my strange peculiar ideas.

 

A. F. Stewart was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, and still calls it home. She has been writing for several years, her main focus being in the fantasy genre, with themes of history and mythology working themselves into her books and stories. Her published works include two collections of short fiction, Passing Fancies and Inside Realms, a horror novella, Chronicles of the Undead and two volumes of poetry, Shadows of Poetry, and Tears of Poetry.  For more information on Ms Steward go to http://afstewartblog.blogspot.com/ or http://afallon.bravehost.com/

Comments

[Afstewartblog.blogspot.com]

Thanks for the opportunity to participate in this tour. I'm honoured to be in the company of the writers featured.