It’s not often that I have the opportunity to speak with you about one of my writing passions, and that’s creating short stories.
Short stories have always interested me. Authors like Shirley Jackson and Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft and M. R. James, they create intricate worlds within a matter of a few pages, they introduce characters and set up scenes, and then they go for the throat!
The goal in each of my short stories is, first and foremost, for you to understand the fear and shock of what the characters are going through. When you get right down to it, short stories are a way for me to exorcise some personal demons.
You see, I have these old fears from my childhood that I haven’t quite been able to shake. And so, I take these fears, and I put them into my short stories.
What would happen if someone went for a swim when they shouldn’t? Is there something watching you from the cemetery, or that small clump of trees at the end of your street? Did you really see someone at the foot of your bed, or was that some sort of leftover from a dream?
Short stories let me dig deep into my past, ask a question, and then answer it in new ways.
Can a young boy kill a vampire? Can a house really have deadly ties to the past?
Come on, look at my questions, and see if you can find out the answers.
See you in the shadows,
Ron Ripley
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