Avoiding Failures?

Visiting a western North Carolina shooting range to learn safe gun-handling with my new Smith & Wesson semi-automatic prompted me to write a commentary on gun ownership, the NRA’s instruction programs, and local gun culture. This non-fiction essay, “Avoiding Failure,” appeared recently in Causeway Lit, the online journal published by graduate students of the Fairfield

Published in Winter 2021 issue of Sixfold: “Playing Chess with Bulls”

Very excited! My latest short story, “Playing Chess with Bulls,” was selected as one of five finalists for the 2021 Doris Betts Fiction Prize, which honors the late novelist and short story writer Doris Betts. The contest, which drew 126 entries, is sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network, the state’s oldest and largest literary arts

So many stories, so little time…

“Where do you get your ideas for stories?” or “Where did you get THAT idea for THAT story?” Writers get asked this many times, over and over and over and… My response is, “OMG, there’s a story idea in EVERYTHING. My problem is picking out the best ones, and then finding the time to write

NC Writers Network

I’d like to give a quick shout-out to the NC-writers.org, which—among many other valuable services—offers a critiquing and editing service for writers of all stripes (essayists, poets, fiction writers, screenwriters). I’ve used this service a few times for short stories that felt a little “off.” When I’m having trouble with dialogue, or feel that I’m

Write that Story! Spring Fiction Class at UNC-A (OLLI program)

The fall fiction-writing class was well received, so I’m teaching it again in spring 2022. In person (yay!) at the Reuter Center, for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) program at UNC-Asheville. Write That Story! Elements of Short Fiction runs for eight weeks on Mondays from 2 to 4 pm, beginning March 21. The course

May 3: “Writer Talks!” Interview

Here’s a link to my Writer Talks interview on May third by Elizabeth Ann Atkins at Two Sisters Writing and Publishing. We talked about the craft of writing, the challenges, and the inspiration for the story “Fathering,” published on the Two Sisters website at ttps://www.twosisterswriting.com/winners-1/fathering-by-sarah-blanchard YouTube link to the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvzSYygKLs4 I also read a

“Rift Zone” on PenDust Radio

“June sits in half-lotus on the edge of the mattress and narrows her eyes against the volcanic glow. She finger-combs her short, dirty hair off her forehead and watches him load the gun, sliding a single shell into the chamber.” Rift Zone When Kilauea volcano erupts in May 2018, back-to-the-land farmers June and Lani must

Lizzy Baby – a novella

Lizzy Baby has received a five-star review from Readers’ Favorite. “A somber coming-of-age novella…a gripping story that made my blood run cold in one chapter and made my blood boil in the next.” –5 stars, Trix Lee, Readers’ Favorite “…an authentic look at the active childhood of a shy ten-year-old girl… [whose] parents have unwittingly allowed

Fathering

She leaves the ice cream shop early and drives to the school at the designated time, with her white shirt and black jeans still reeking of sugar and cream. Picking up their son isn’t usually her job, but right now all the jobs are hers. She speeds, just a little, on the empty straightaway past

Unfinished Business

“Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well.” Ernest Hemingway uses these words to describe the writer Harry, the main character in The Snows of Kilimanjaro. As Harry lies dying, stranded in the remote African bush, he remembers many incidents from his