AUTHOR GUEST POST: Estevan Vega

Today I have Estevan Vega here with us, discussing the magic of short stories. Please welcome Mr. Vega back to The Book Vixen!

A Glimpse for the Sojourner: The Magic of Short Stories By Estevan Vega

If you want to make a splash, write a novel. After all, that’s the typical caveat most writers hear while working on perfecting their craft. Of course, writing a novel has its benefits: longer plotlines that stretch tension between characters, more time to flesh out situations and dialogs, and more breathtaking moments where you, the master writer…get to figure out where your story is actually heading, because let’s face the music, most writers don’t have a clue until most of the book is already finished.

Writing a short story is different. You have a brief hiccup in time to capture the interest of your reader. To make them fall in love or to fear the future or to make the decision most people can’t make in the real, natural world. Often, short stories are four-course meals wrapped inside hors d’oeuvres. Like a bite-sized novel. Generally, you get one shot, one situation (or a series of micro-situations) that ultimately lead to a climax near the end. They say a short story is something that can be read and enjoyed in one sitting. So you have less than a half-hour to make the lives of your characters shine and to make your story light up the page. Easy, right?

Some revel in the thought of punching out short stories, and others may fear the very idea. I love short stories for their versatility. A short story allows a writer and a reader to connect on one pivotal moment in a character’s grand history, something palpable and meaningful, something that will make you think about your own life. And all of this happens in about thirty minutes. Even less time for the voracious reader.

Writing short stories has always been this sort of neat idea. But getting them published was often a grand tragedy, at least for me. Some writers excel at publishing short literary works, either poetry or brief narratives, but ever since I fell in love with a computer screen and began writing my first book, I was told that nobody really read short stories anymore. Yet all throughout middle school and high school, I was reading the short works of Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe, O. Henry, and many others who had become famous or excelled in their fame because of this literary enigma known as the short story. If writing had a caste system, and I still theorize that it does (though, it’s changing slightly), short stories would be somewhere near the bottom, next to poetry and bad pop lyrics.

But having said all this, I’ve had the pleasure of writing poetry and short fiction. My newest release, WHEN COLORS BLEED, is a collection of short stories. I spent years trying to get my stories in front of readers, get them published in magazines or online literary sites, but to very little avail. Thank God for the Kindle and the Nook. These devices enable my readers and I to connect in a different and unique way that just a few years ago was not even possible. I thought my stories were important but that nobody would ever get a chance to read them. I was wrong. And it turns out that people still do enjoy short stories and collections. These stories act as brief glimpses into other worlds for those who aren’t starving for a three-hundred page journey but rather a sojourn through a character’s life. A blink. And in that blink, magic happens.

WHEN COLORS BLEED is my first published collection of short stories, and it includes the stories Baby Blue, Vanilla Red, and The Man in the Colored Room. Available for less than a dollar, you could escape for however long you choose into these three worlds. There’s love. There’s loss. There’s regret. And there’s whatever else you want to see. These colors run for you. They bleed. They exist all around you. Maybe in a hundred years teachers and literary “generals” will still be saying that nobody reads a short story. But then again, maybe they’ll be wrong.

Thanks Mr. Vega for stopping by and sharing your standpoint on short stories. I loved the ‘four-course meals wrapped inside hors d’oeuvres’ analogy :) And as Estevan Vega mentioned, When Colors Bleed is available on the Kindle and the Nook for only 99 cents!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“Close your eyes. Close your eyes and picture this.” To a ten year old, the simple task of sitting still and closing your eyes is almost as complicated as summoning an imagination after a lengthy reprieve from the world of make-believe. But both were required in order to bring Estevan Vega to where he is today. These simple words forced a disinterested child into writing. And the good grades and attentive audience that seemed to follow didn’t hurt.

Vega was born in 1989 in Connecticut, where he currently resides. Growing up, he fell in love with sketching comic book superheroes, watching movies, and listening to rock music. While his passion for art still remains, he now focuses his time on creating rather than copying someone else’s work through a picture. When he was 12, he knew he wanted to be a writer, so he began Servant of the Realm, what would become his first published book. Though the book wasn’t a national best-seller, it became the catalyst for everything that was to come. The Sacred Sin, a dark, psychological thriller about a soul-stealing madman, was released three years later to considerable acclaim. These two published titles spawned a number of radio and television interviews, along with a blog tour and a book tour.

But still Vega felt there was a more important story lurking inside of him, one that wanted out.

His slow and intense rise into the literary world is rather fitting, considering the slow and intense burn that remains long after the final page of his latest and most personal novel to date, ARSON. Compared to Jumper, Twilight, even Stephen King’s Firestarter, there is no question that it will be the tour de force of the summer. Part realistic, part supernatural, it is a beautiful and breathtaking blend of regret and redemption.

Estevan Vega’s ultimate goal as a writer is to walk the red carpet at a Hollywood premiere…stay tuned.

Find the author online: website

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ABOUT THE BOOK

When Colors Bleed by Estevan Vega

WHEN COLORS BLEED is a collection of short stories by the author of ARSON. This collection features three unique stories with universal themes of love, loss, and regret. Watch the colors bleed.

BABY BLUE:
Casey never had any luck with men, even though she was employed by one of the finest clothing stores in New England and saw attractive, “sure kinds” strolling through her section every day like clockwork. At twenty-three years old, she has given up on her dreams of the spotlight, of finding love, and of ever getting out of the small town she reluctantly calls home. But one rainy afternoon, Thomas Rayford, a very unusual and kind stranger, stumbles into her life looking for an odd, baby blue suit. One thing is certain: Casey, the twenty-three-year-old dreamer stuck in a line, will never be the same.

VANILLA RED:
From his cold hell in Block C, a nameless man unfolds this twisted tale. This is the story of a man who becomes something else. A man who had a father once. A man who loved once. “They want to know why. They want a reason,” he confesses. “But nobody likes the reasons. They’re like unwanted children or cancers with no cure. A reason is a justification, an excuse so we can’t be blamed. But I know what it is I’ve done, and there is no reason that can take it back.” So begins Vanilla Red, a confession, a story, a prayer, or perhaps a drip of dark truth in the batter of humanity. Take a look inside and tell me what color you see.

THE MAN IN THE COLORED ROOM:
Colin awakens in a room, jittery, afraid, and confused. He knows not how he got here, who brought him, or why. And the only thing waiting for him is a hot cup of coffee and a seemingly flawless room that bleeds colors. As an architect, he understands that no room is perfect, but somehow this anomaly has crawled through the cracks and pushed the limits of perfection. No seams. No lines. No windows. Enter a bald man in a suit. Once he steps through the door, he makes the colors disappear with the push of button. His name is Jack, and he claims to be a friend. Still unsure of anything, Colin wages war with his mind, with a dark truth he isn’t ready to accept, and with Jack. In the moments that follow, Jack asks Colin a series of questions, questions that will reveal the where, the how, and the why of his arrival.