My Ebook for Serious Writers

In 2005, while I was still a graduate student in the fiction writing program at the University of Pittsburgh, I wrote a book titled, Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories.  I invented the term “Compressionism” because of how tight the stories were.  Much of the meaning of the stories was in the subtext which was implied.  Or in other words, much of the meaning took place in the imagination of the reader.  I was pretty proud of Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories.  The stories in the book were the reason why I won a fellowship worth more than $60,000 that paid for three years of graduate school.

As a graduate student at Pitt, I taught undergraduates my theory of writing flash fiction.

Two local newspapers gave the book very flattering reviews as did a well known online flash fiction magazine.  I even did an interview on the local public radio station.  Over the years an occasional paperback copy of the book would sale through Amazon or one of the other online outlets, but I never really knew how to promote the book.

Well, now it’s 2010.  I’m retired.  I have plenty of time on my hands.  In 2005, I knew little about the Internet and even less about computers.  Back then, sending an email was an adventure.  Now I publish a dynamic flash fiction blog (50,000 hits in two years), I’ve made money as an online ghostwriter, and I’m an active content provider for Triond.  What a difference five years make.

I’ve also decided that now would be the time to see if I can do better at promoting my Ebook for writers.  Everything I know about writing flash fiction is in the Ebook.  The show-don’t-tell writing technique I developed is on full display.  These are literary stories.  The reviewers kept pointing out how “Hemingway-like” the writing was.   The stories and the novella were written long before I started writing erotica.  The in depth essay on Compressionism explains why the show-don’t-tell method of writing works.

These stories were not only written to entertain, but were also written to illustrate the power of the show-don’t-tell method of writing, a method of writing that every serious writer of fiction of any length would benefit from learning.

The blurb on the back of the paperback format of the book reads: “Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, a local college bar scene and the neighborhoods of Pittsburgh uncoils the story of men and women struggling to find love in this postmodern, apocalyptic world we all live in.”  In 2005 I wanted to be taken seriously as a writer.  Now, I can laugh at myself.

If you decide to download the Ebook, be sure to save the file on your computer and you will have it permanently.  You can download the Ebook here: Compressionism: The Pittsburgh Stories.