Category Archives: short stories

Professor Groovy, short stories, Writing

A Change of Heart

It’s healthy to be flexible. For me that means letting go of ideas and sometimes, possessions.

First, I am happy, thrilled really, that four short stories that have been languishing in my computer were published this week on Kindle this week via Professor ProfGroovy_CoverGroovy and Other Stories. Versions of two did appear in magazines, but I want the greater world to read them.

Being new to this type of publishing, I struggled with pricing. Really, what is something you write worth? Do you devalue it by selling it cheaply? But, hey, I am not a household name.

So I dropped the original price from $1.99 to 99 cents in a matter of hours. My royalty on each book will be about 35 cents. Why settle for so cheap? Well, the four-story collection is only 10,000 words. And I have an ulterior motive. This book is bait for the novel Peace, Love, and You Know What.

Then, there is my office. I am in one of those clean and purge moods. Friday night I took everything out of the office that I could — the living room looked like a bomb hit it — and then washed, waxed (furniture and the floor) and sorted as needed. I did windows. I will admit I went a bit nuts.

And I took a good, hard look at the books in that room. Several I bought in a whim in a secondhand bookstore or online. I thought I liked the authors. But did I love them anymore? Not enough to hold onto their books. They’re in a bag to donate.

There was other stuff set aside for the recycling center and drop-off boxes.

I finally finished Saturday evening.

My friend Teresa emailed me: “We call that a “ranfla moñuda” sort of spring cleaning, very inclusive… out with everything that is not useful anymore! Very good to move energy and shake things up.”

Move energy and shake things up: I like that idea very much.

LINKS: If you are so moved, here are the links for my books: Professor Groovy and Other Stories and Peace, Love, and You Know What

ABOUT THE PHOTO ABOVE: That’s one of the robust zucchini plants in my garden.

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books, Fiction, hippies, New release, short stories

Professor Groovy, Class Is In Session

I just got word Professor Groovy and Other Stories is now available on Kindle. How much fun is that?

As I’ve mentioned before, the four stories are a prequel of sorts to Peace, Love, and You Know What. Michelle Gutierrez designed the cover you see above that reflects that relationship in a creative way. (Thanks, Michelle.)

Lenora Dias, one of the novel’s main characters, is the prominent figure in each story. We get a taste of the late sixties via her point of view.

For those who haven’t read the novel, Lenora is the first of her Portuguese family to go to college at the fictional Westbridge State. She goes hippie big time, but is levelheaded enough to stay out of too much trouble and to graduate on time. A serial romantic, she falls hard in love and suffers for it. She is the queen of her little tribe of hippie friends.

In one story in this collection, Lenora has an encounter with a professor who enjoys having no boundaries with his students. Yes, you could call him a dirty professor.

In another, Lenora reveals a secret and in another, a liar. Then, there is her raucous summer fling with a guy back home.

Yes, these stories were inspired by my experiences long ago, but they are strictly from my imagination. I wrote them before I started Peace, Love, and You Know What. I guess you could call them practice runs although two did get picked up by publications.

I opted at this point to go with Kindle only because the short stories total 10,000 words. In the future, I may incorporate them with other stories to make a heftier book worth printing.

The price to read Professor Groovy is 99 cents, which I believe is fair.

Don’t have a Kindle? You can download the free app to your computer, phone or tablet. Anyway, here is the link on Amazon Professor Groovy

Thanks for reading my fiction.

 

 

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