  Short Stories
This week: It's Raining Men Edited by: Shannon  
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Welcome to the Short Stories Newsletter. I am Shannon and I'm your editor this week.
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How do you write the opposite sex? Are there traits, mannerisms, features you return to again and again? Gentlemen, are there certain things you like in a woman that you tend to include in your female protagonists? And ladies, what attributes do you look for, long for, in a hero?
On Saturday my best friend sent me a video. It was a short video, just 1:07 long, but I was enthralled and watched it like 35 (thousand) times. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but not much. The video is the All Blacks Sevens rugby team from New Zealand doing their traditional pre/post-game Haka war dance. In the rain. There was something about it (Captain DJ Forbes) that had me mesmerized. "Wow," I said. "Nothin' wrong with that." She replied, "Thought you might like that."
She knows me well, but the video got me thinking: what is it that makes one man more attractive to me than another? Some women like guys who wax their eyebrows and manicure their fingernails, but I've always liked the manly-man type. Always. I remember my very first crush. I was nine or ten years old and visiting my grandma. She'd tossed a magazine on the coffee table, and it fell open to a picture of Teddy Roosevelt. I couldn't stop staring. I packed it around with me the rest of the day. Yes, Teddy Roosevelt was my first crush. I've never told anyone that before.  It's a little embarrassing, but innocent and sweet, too.
I love masculine characters, whether it be in books, film, or real life. Take Eric Bana as Hector in Troy, for instance, or Sylvester Stallone as John J. Rambo in First Blood. Hudson Greathouse from the Matthew Corbett series by Robert McCammon comes to mind. Heck, I STILL have a crush on Hemingway! Of course I appreciate kindness, honesty, and integrity in everyone I meet, but when it comes to male characters I specifically prefer my protagonists physically strong, confident, muscular, courageous, tall, and intelligent with a take-charge temperament. I'm sure it has something to do with growing up in Alaska surrounded by burly, bearded males my whole life. I guess it's what I'm used to.
Are my stories predictable because of this tendency? Perhaps. Are my male characters boring cardboard cutouts? Not to me, and I've never had that particular complaint, but ... maybe. It really made me rethink (or rather, think) about traits I endow my male characters with and whether or not I should pay more attention to how I'm writing my men. After all, just because I find Russell Crowe as Maximus in Gladiator the epitome of enticing masculinity doesn't mean other women do  and I should take that into account when I'm sculpting my characters.
Tell me about your favorite character traits and how you determine who gets what. What attracts or repels you, inspires and excites you? I'll include your comments in next month's newsletter.
Thank you for reading.
P.S. Oh, and just in case your curiosity is killing you, here's a link to the All Blacks Sevens rugby team doing their traditional Maori Haka Dance of War in the rain. Enjoy!
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In last month's newsletter I challenged you, dear reader, to write me a story:
"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story based on the peanut butter cache contents: a lighter, a single Q-Tip, a pencil, a pen, one individually-wrapped sani-wipe, a tube of chapstick, a book of matches, a GMC car key, a spent 40-caliber Smith & Wesson shell casing, a tiny blue rubber ball, a miniature baseball cap, and a shot glass. The winning author will be awarded a Detective merit badge, and the story featured in the September 10, 2014 issue of the Short Stories Newsletter."
I have to say, reading these stories and seeing all the items incorporated into the plot was so much fun! I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but there can be but one winner, so without further ado, please join me in congratulating Shanachie  for writing this month's winning entry. Enjoy your Detective merit badge, Medie, and thank you so much for taking the time to enter my contest!
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Moving on, I hope you enjoy this week's featured selections. Please do the authors the courtesy of reviewing the ones you read. Thank you, and have a great week!
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Youth is lost forever as WWII trainees break their maidens as "Men o' War" on D-Day
#1553061 by DRSmith |
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
Don't forget to support our sponsor!
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The following is in response to "GC1F2XN" :
ANN Counselor, Lesbian & Happy  writes, "GC1F2XN Living in Oregon, I was hoping to start geocaching, the number did not show up as tracked. Thanks for the information of this newsletter. I have not heard of geocaching but it sounds like a million short stories around the world. Hmmmm would make a good Contest here at WDC." Ann, copy and paste GC1F2XN into the search window at geocaching.com and hit enter/return. Scroll down until you see the logged visits (there are 315 as of today, September 9, 2014, but you will only be able to see the five most recent entries). To see my entry (posted 7/29/14) click View Logbook, but you must create an account to see more than the five most recent logs. 
kevint writes, "Shannon, this Geocaching sounds awesome. I just checked out the web site and found that there are quite a few here in my area (we have a 2,200-acre forest reservation called Lynn Woods here in my town). I signed up for a GeoC account and am thinking of starting my own cache here. Perhaps a Write it Forward Poetry Or Story cache where the finders will not only have to leave an item but also write a line or two or paragraph to the already existing poem or story in the log or separate note book I'm getting all kinds of ideas here thanks so much for this news letter and the contest. I might just enter this contest...Again Thanks" That's great, Jillian! Have you started yet? What do you think? It's a lot of fun, huh? If you do start a contest based on geocaching, please send me the link so I can post it in an upcoming newsletter. In the meantime, happy hunting! 
Steven Alexander writes, "Very interesting.....geocaches?! Never heard of it. Good newsletter." Thank you, Doctor! I'm glad you liked it. 
Quick-Quill  writes, "I am LOL!! My sister is so into Geocache when she comes to visit the whole time she is on the computer looking for places to drag anyone out to look. I had no idea what this was but now just call it what it is. A worldwide treasure hunt. Treasure is whatever you want it to be. The story is in the journey. Who you meet at these meetings and the friends you make. I'm sure there could be a story there, but in every story you write you give the reader a hunt for the MC's goal. If you make the journey challenging the reader will go along with it. If it's too hard or vague (or someone takes the cache *smile*) the reader will lose interest. Keep the goal in the MC and the reader's mind. Remind them what is at stake if they don't find the cache and what the reward will be when they do." Exactly! Geocaching really inspires a lot of writing ideas. Thank you for sharing! 
scarlett_o_h writes, "I was highly interested and entertained by this week's newsletter. I took up geocaching this year here in England and am really hooked. Have only found thirty to date and most are micros containing only a log. Next week we're taking a trip to the USA and I'm looking forward to finding some there and have a bag of little swaps already packed. I hope you have an enjoyable and successful trip. I'd love to find a trackable and bring it back over the pond. Will check out your favourite on geocaching.com...a wonderful website. TFTNL!" Thank YOU, Scarlett!  So great to hear from people all around the world who also enjoy caching. I've only found four caches to date (work too dang much and I tend to search for the larger caches), but I have some time off coming up and plan to make up for lost time. Thanks for reading and responding!
The following item was submitted by its author:
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Short Stories: September 10, 2014 Issue [#6533]
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