We’re winding down the Fresh Ink Group Authors’ Blog Tour with Beem Weeks. Comment on his post here or at Contest@FreshInkGroup.com to enter for one randomly awarded free book trailer or one of seven (7) daily free books.
About Beem Weeks
Beem Weeks is an author, editor, blogger, blog talk radio host, video producer for Fresh Ink Group. He has written many short stories, essays, poems, and the historical fiction/coming of age novel entitled Jazz Baby. Beem has also released Slivers of Life: A Collection of Short Stories and Strange Hwy: Short Stories. He is a lifelong native of Lansing, Michigan.
Beem’s Social Media
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeemWeeks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBeemWeeks/
Blog: https://beemweeks.wordpress.com/
Website: https://beemweeks.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beemweeks/
Read Beem’s Books
Beem’s Post
Why Short Stories?
Why write short stories? The answer is really quite simple: Short stories offer instant gratification for both writer and reader. A short story can be written in a day or two. It can be read in a matter of minutes. I love the work and research that goes into writing novels, but the short story is probably my favorite form of writing.
I began writing short stories when I first learned to construct a proper sentence—which goes back to about age eight. I’ve written nearly a hundred pieces over the course of my life, though some of those have been lost to time.
Anything can inspire me: An experience, a memory, an overheard comment. Our world is awash in ideas and inspiration—if only we choose to look for them. Often, I’ll be doing some mundane chore, like mowing the lawn, when a glimpse of a scene will enter my thoughts. This is how the idea for Lost Boy came to me. “Lost Boy” tells the story of an old man bothered over the noise created by the trampoline belonging to a little boy next door. The idea came to me while mowing the lawn. Some children in my former neighborhood have a trampoline, which, at times, can be quite noisy. I added the twist at the end, which led to the old man missing that sound of the squeaking springs once they ceased. I won’t give away that ending, but I am happy to say it is just fiction.
A short story can cover hours, days, weeks, or years in the lives of the characters. It can also be a single scene, a moment caught in time. One of my stories in Strange Hwy, entitled “Dodging the Bullet,” consists of a meeting between two characters in a diner, a former couple, recalling lives shared decades earlier. The shortest pieces can sometimes say as much as any novel. Here’s a famous quick-fiction piece: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” That simple line opens up all sorts of possibilities. I imagine a young couple that never had the chance to dress their new baby. These are words that convey devastating events in individual lives.
I jot down ideas on scraps of paper and Post-It notes that are stuck all over my desk. When time allows, I begin working on one of those ideas. Some stories are written in a single afternoon. Others germinate over a few days. With the internet at our fingertips, getting those short stories in front of readers across the world is relatively easy these days, especially if you publish with Fresh Ink Group.
I enjoy writing about all sorts of subjects in my short pieces: quirky characters, dark intentions, real-life situations, souls lost, lives found, and the just-plain-made-up stuff. In “Peepers Creepers,” a story from Slivers of Life, a shy girl wanders her neighborhood late at night, peeking in windows—but not for perverted reasons. This is just her way of getting to know people. In the story “Rave On,” a simple trip to a rave party reveals something very dark about one of the attendees. In “Mr. Woodlick,” an old man divulges a long-kept secret to the kid next door—a secret that could change the boy’s life. “When Jesus Left Birmingham” is based on real-life events surrounding the early 1960s civil rights movement.
The idea of publishing collections of my short stories came from readers. Those suggestions planted the seed that grew into Slivers of Life, an assembly of twenty pieces written over a fifteen-year period. Strange Hwy, containing nineteen new tales, represents a particularly fruitful four years of writing.
Do I have personal favorites? Though these creations are indeed like my children, I do have those I prefer above others. “Forget Me (Not Fade Away)” is one I am really proud to have written. It deals with loss on many different levels: loss of a child, loss of dreams, loss of a marriage, loss of memories through Alzheimer’s, loss of faith. But in the end, the main character finds a little scrap of hope onto which to take hold. Another favorite is “A Life Lived (In Under 600 Words)”. It began as an exercise and became a short story of boy-meets-girl, boy-marries-girl, boy-loses-girl, all under 600 words.
I try to inject reality into each story I write. However, from time to time, the otherworldly has crept into a few pieces: a girl vampire, a reincarnated boy, a girl/woman guardian angel, a thief from the sky that just cannot be explained. Fiction allows for these digressions into the unreal. With the short form of storytelling, there doesn’t have to be a standard beginning, middle, and end. It can be a simple scene, a dialog between a mother and her daughter on why boys are no good. The key is to just have fun with it.
Beem’s Book: The Thing About Kevin
Four very different people find their very different lives intertwined as they put down roots in the city by the Bay. Catherine is the withering transplant who learns to compromise her very soul for a budding career. Amanda reaches for the light with one man while another shadows her with darkness. Matthew grows the reputation of Immaculate University, but his secrets poison the very well sustaining too many people’s worlds. Brad thrives on success in business and casual sex until love dares try to root in his heart. The vernal promise of springtime blazes in glorious color even as hope and faith die in the inevitable autumns all must strive to survive. Greed, exploitation, hatred, and somehow love shape the everyday. But might possibility and hope somehow endure amid new beginnings?
Hi, Bernard. Thank you so very much for hosting me on your blog today. I am humbly grateful for the kindness and support you've given over the past few years. I am honored to consider you my friend.
Posted by: Beem Weeks | 02/27/2020 at 07:02 AM
I love seeing Beem promoted on your site, Bernard! Thank you so much for hosting! Beem, so many things you've shared in this post go right along with my own thoughts. Starting out early in life, finding inspiration anywhere... I'm even getting more into short stories, both reading and writing. Having already finished 2 of your books, I look forward to the diving into the next.
Posted by: Mar | 02/27/2020 at 08:43 AM
You are most welcome, Beem. What greater purpose in life is there but to support one another for our quest to better ourselves.
Best wishes and enjoy your tour, my friend.
Posted by: Bernard Foong | 02/27/2020 at 08:46 AM
Congratulations, Beem, on the launch of another book. This collection of short stories sounds like a fantastic read. I am so in awe of your imagination - something I am sorely lacking. It fascinates me that you can be inspired by random things around you and new stories are born. I look at the beautiful expanse of my back yard, for instance, and never seem to get to a thought much beyond, "Oh yeah. I've gotta get that mowed soon." Anyway, congrats and thank you for sharing the fruits of your active imagination with us! Thank you to you, too, Bernard, for hosting for Beem! :) ~Stephanie
Posted by: Stephanie Collins | 02/27/2020 at 01:10 PM
Hey, Bernard! Thanks for hosting Beem Weeks today. I highly recommend The Thing About Kevin. It's a cool story with a surprise or two. You have a great blog. I encourage everyone to keep paying attention, even after this tour. Thanks again. Go, Beem!
Posted by: Stephen Geez | 02/27/2020 at 05:00 PM
Thank you, Stephen Geez. You and Beem are very kind. I will definitely check out The Thing About Kevin.
Best wishes!
Posted by: Bernard Foong | 02/27/2020 at 05:09 PM
Congratulations on The Thing About Kevin. Your story ideas and inspirations was a very interesting read. Thanks for sharing, and Thank you, Bernard, for hosting.
Posted by: Linda Mims | 02/28/2020 at 05:31 AM