Ken Cartisano - Writer on Reedsy Prompts

I’m a compulsive reader.
I’m particularly fond of science-fiction, especially in short-story form. I shy away from ‘coming-of-age’ stories, young-adult, romance, inspirational, or fantasy, unless it’s funny.

I don’t really like to write, I like to spin yarns. Writing seems like a chore, more trouble than it’s worth. I’m more of an editor/comedian/spokesperson. It’s a horrible combination, I know, but generally speaking, I like to take incoherent drivel, and turn it into coherent drivel. (Anything else would be sheer alchemy.)

I'm still working on a novel I started in 2007, (Don't do the math, please.) I joined two writing groups in 2014, gravitated toward the less formal of the two, and participated heavily for nine years. (I say heavily, because everyone kept telling me to ‘lighten up.’) For instance, when a story had a shortage of commas, I would loan, or even give some to my fellow authors. I have an unlimited supply. This is the kind of good faith gesture that seemed to annoy some people.

The group started out writing one story a week, then scaled it back to two prompts a month. Over the course of the ensuing decade I wrote, on average, 15 to 20 stories a year. In the same span of time, the group distilled itself down to about 10 or 12 dedicated writers, (not to be confused with ‘desiccated’ writers…) Various newcomers and occasional participants could swell our numbers to as many as 20 writers for any given prompt.

Every two weeks, for nine years, I would read every story submitted, and every comment posted about those stories. I didn’t always feel creative enough to submit a story, but I appreciated those who had the time and the where-with-all, so I always voted. It was generally understood that it would be unfair to vote for any story if you hadn’t read them all, and I was dedicated to that proposition, reading every story posted. I don’t think I missed more than two votes in eight-and-a-half years. I did quite a bit of traveling at that time, and sent my vote in from hotels and motels in Montana, New York, Colorado, South Carolina, California, Virginia, Iowa and even Kansas.
That’s right—even Kansas.

One time—I was sitting in the parking lot of a closed diner in the middle of nowhere, half-past midnight, with the engine idling, reading the last few paragraphs of the last of the posted stories on my laptop, when I saw a moving light in the distance, followed a moment later by the distinctive whump-whump-whump of a descending helicopter.

I watched it through the windshield as it got closer, louder, and lower. The sound was deafening as it circled just overhead. A moment later, three sheriff’s cars and an ambulance came sliding into the gravel parking lot; no sirens, just their emergency strobe-lights illuminating all the dust and debris kicked up by the chopper’s rotors.

It landed about 60 yards away. Medics and sheriffs scrambling back and forth, carrying various things. The thumping of the rotors barely slowed down as they loaded a patient into the chopper, the pitch of the engines rose and it took off and disappeared over a mountaintop.

A uniformed sheriff came over and asked me what I was doing.

“Trying to read?” I said, politely, and nodded toward the diner. “I’m using their Internet.”

She nodded, satisfied, and they all left.

Is that the end of the story? Hell no. I still had to finish reading that last paragraph, pick my favorites, and vote! And then drive home.

***

It’s tough to nail down the precise number of stories I’ve written, (and there’s a perfectly good explanation for that.) It’s more than 150 but less than 300. Whatever the number, it’s dwarfed by the number of stories I’ve read in the last ten years, by at least a factor of ten: Stories just like yours. The enjoyment this has given me is immeasurable.

This will be my third year on Reedsy.
I have never been on Twix, Twitter, or X. (Not my choice, or fault.)
I rarely use Meta.
I do have a couple of ‘cobwebsites.’ (New word. I just made it up. I also invented ‘underwhelmed.’ You can look it up, it’s in the dictionary now. Thanks to me. I used it all the time before it was a word. Sure, I had to, someone pointed out, but the real point is, I didn’t get any credit for it.)
One last note: I think all writers may benefit from concise, critical and constructive feedback. They don’t, but they may.
If I give any advice, it may be given as a reader, or a fellow writer, but I try not to give any advice at all. At this stage I think most writers write the way they do because they want to. So, the less criticism there is in a critique, the better, but some writers need to be told when something (simply) isn’t working. I refuse to gush over every other story, either. That way, when I do, we all know it’s sincere. (I trust.)

If you compete on this site, you’re competing against some of the best free writing I’ve encountered, anywhere, lately. So don’t kid yourself, we are, collectively and individually, formidable competition.

Good luck, be of good cheer, and above all, don’t give up on your dreams, whatever they may be.