List of Stories
DEAR MR. SHAKESPEARE (Copyright©Arliss Ryan, 1993) was written more than a dozen years before I started my novel The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare, yet the possibility of having some fun with the Bard was already on my mind. The story is from my collection SUICIDE NOTES and was originally published in Journal 500, Fall 1993.
SEXY BABES – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – MARCH 2012
SEXY BABES (Copyright©Arliss Ryan, 1999) is one of my favorite short stories, my own “Ode on a Grecian Urn” set in a modern shopping mall. It was published in The Amherst Review (Volume XXVII, Spring 1999).
OATSY – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – FEBRUARY 2012
OATSY (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1994) is the only one of my short stories to be published twice, first in Edge City Review (January 1994) and then in Crone’s Nest (Summer 1995). Must be good, right?
CYGNET – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – JANUARY 2012
CYGNET (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1994) is based on a suicide that was rumored to have occurred in the neighborhood where I grew up, though we kids were shielded from any of the details. Thirty years later it came back to me in the form of this short story, published in Santa Clara Review, Winter 1994.
COOKIES – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – DECEMBER 2011
COOKIES (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1999) is set in 1962, before the advent of Girl Scout Cookie order forms. In those days, in my neighborhood at least, each girl estimated how many boxes she could sell, the troop put in its order, then the girls were responsible for making their projected sales. Though not a Girl Scout myself, I had several friends who were, and my parents always helped out by buying a box from each of them. COOKIES was published in Emrys Journal (Volume 16, Spring 1999).
TEAM SPORTS – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – NOVEMBER 2011
TEAM SPORTS (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1992) was published in Bellowing Ark (May/June 1992). It is dedicated to everyone who has ever been the last person called when choosing sides for a team.
OTHER OTHER WRIST – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – OCTOBER 2011
THE OTHER WRIST (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1995) is possibly my shortest short story—944 words including the title. It’s from my collection SUICIDE NOTES and was published in Onion River Review, Fall 1996. Famous as a member of the Algonquin Round Table of writers, critics and wits (aka “The Vicious Circle”), Dorothy Parker made several suicide attempts during her lifetime. I had shelved my first draft of this story as being DOA. Months later I was giving it a last read-through before chucking it into the recycling bin when Dorothy started talking.
THE TIGER LEAPS – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – SEPTEMBER 2011
THE TIGER LEAPS (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1990) was published in Pulphouse (Issue Six, 1990). It was inspired by a photograph in a National Geographic book about zoos that I used to read to my children. The picture showed a Bengal tiger pacing in its enclosure, an open, grassy area with an elaborate temple building in which the tigers slept at night. There were no bars; a ditch separated the big cats from the gawking humans on the other side. Yet all this appearance of freedom in a natural habitat mattered not. Something in the tiger’s expression said, “You have robbed me, and I will kill you.” This story, with a nod to William Blake, is the result.
JUMPER – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – AUGUST 2011
JUMPER (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1995) is from a collection of my short stories titled SUICIDE NOTES. It was published in Nexus (Volume 30, Winter 1995). I seem to recall that when I read this story to my writers’ group, the general response was, “How do you come up with these people?” The answer is, I don’t; they find me.
AFTER THE BALL – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – JULY 2011
AFTER THE BALL (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 2011) is my twist on the classic Cinderella tale. It was written about fifteen years ago and has not previously been published.
A ROADSIDE VISION – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – JUNE 2011
A ROADSIDE VISION (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1994) is from a collection of my short stories titled SUICIDE NOTES. Some of the stories are purely fictional, while others are based on real historical people. Not all the stories end in a death; some characters choose life. This story was published in Santa Clara Review (Volume 82, Number 1, Fall/Winter 1994-95) and was inspired by a news snippet of an actual event.
THE BIG MAX – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – MAY 2011
THE BIG MAX (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1989) was published in Ellipsis (Volume Three, 1989). Although I took the setting for this story from the California apartment complex in which my husband and I lived for a year, I hasten to say that all of our neighbors there were perfectly sane and friendly people. My only explanation for “The Big Max” is my fondness for oddball characters.
FORGIVING LYDIA – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – APRIL 2011
FORGIVING LYDIA (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1998) was published in New Orleans Review (Volume 24, Number 1, Spring 1998). It was one of those stories that come out of thin air. I saw these two characters in a room in a charming little house, and as they began to talk, it became clear that nothing about their situation was charming at all.
STAMPS FROM FOREIGN PLACES – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH -MARCH 2011
STAMPS FROM FOREIGN PLACES (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1989) is probably my husband Eric’s favorite of all my short stories. Cruising on our 27’ sailboat Duprass from England to California in 1977-78, we sometimes met characters like the protagonist of this tale. The story was published in a shorter form in Stories & Letters Digest (Fall 1989).
THE FIRE – SHORT STORY OF THE MONTH – FEBRUARY 2011
THE FIRE (Copyright © Arliss Ryan, 1986) was my first short story to be published. It appeared in Amelia (Summer 1986) and was actually featured as the cover story. Amelia called it a “belle lettre” rather than a short story, a belle lettre (French: belle, fine + lettre, letter) being a piece of literature noted for its style and aesthetic qualities rather than for its practical or informative content. I frankly didn’t care what they called it. I was published!
