Guest Post: Lisa de Nikolits on Writing Short Stories

Please welcome one of our newest members to the blog today, Lisa de Nikolits. Her short story, “Fire Drill” appears in the soon to be released anthology, The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories Of Mystery & Suspense published by Superior Shores Press.

I’ve always believed we were born poets, novelists or short story writers. This sweeping statement may be met with some scepticism but I’m sticking to my guns! I’ve tried my hand at all three forms and I admit I’m a natural-born novelist.

I write long, I can’t help it! I’ve written dozens of short stories and here are a few of them that have made it into publication. Flash fiction in the Jellyfish review, Ms. Pacman Don’t Love Me No More in PAC’N HEAT (a Ms. Pacman-inspired noir anthology edited and published by A.G. Pasquella), Trouble Times in Thirteen O’Clock (the Mesdames of Mayhem), Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon in Thirteen Claws, Hit Me With your Pet Shark (forthcoming in In The Key of Thirteen, Fall 2019, The Mesdames of Mayhem). Tour Guide was published in the Sisters in Crime anthology, The Whole She-Bang 3, Postscripts to Darkness featured Eve Ago about an obese art instalation public figure later eaten by her ravenous siblings and, most recently, there’s Fire Drill in The Best Laid Plans (forthcoming by Superior Shores Press on 18^th June).

All of these are mystery short stories, noir suspense thrillers and they’ve all proven immensely helpful, not only for the wonderful pleasure of being published in an anthology but for sowing the seeds for novels. And if not the exact story, then at the very least, the characters. I’m a meticulous bookkeeper when it comes to characters, plot and storylines. And if I lose track of one – you know that horrible feeling of ‘where is that idea, I knew I wrote it down somewhere’ and you can’t rest until you find it again? Well, that’s me! And I mine each character, plot and storyline until I’ve wrung them dry.

When it comes to short stories, I respond best to calls for submissions, I love working towards a goal, with a theme in mind.

When Judy Penz Sheluk put out the call for The Best Laid Plans, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I’m a freelance magazine designer by day and I was called into a rather arduous meeting about a year ago. Let’s just say that the meeting wasn’t going too well and less than kind thoughts were milling around my brain, thoughts that only stepped up in tempo when the fire alarm sounded and my boss refused to let me leave. I was forced to sit there, bludgeoned by the noise and my boss was in my face, way too up close and personal. As we left via the stairwell, we were the only two people left in the building, high up in the empty stairwell, I thought “well, imagine if…”  

I immediately wrote down my observations of the meeting, how I had felt, how the sound had felt, almost a physical pounding. A character had been floating about in my brain and Judy’s call created the perfect stage for the marriage of my experience and this character, giving the story a focus and a theme.

Anyway, I’m really happy to have joined the Short Mystery Writers Society and I look forward to reading a bunch of other people’s stories and hopefully to contributing to more anthologies. Anthologies and groups like this are a great way to learn about new writers  and make new friends and I’m very glad to be part of the Short Mystery Writers Society!

Lisa de Nikolits ©2019

Photo by Bradford Dunlop

Lisa de Nikolits is the award-winning author of eight novels: The Hungry Mirror, West of Wawa, A Glittering Chaos, The Witchdoctor’s Bones, Between The Cracks She Fell, The Nearly Girl, No Fury Like That, and Rotten Peaches. No Fury Like That was published in Italian in 2019 by Edizione Le Assassine under the title Una furia dell’altro mondo. Her ninth novel, The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution, is also scheduled to be published in 2019 by Inanna Publications.  Her short fiction and poetry have also been published in various anthologies and journals across the country. She is a member of the Mesdames of Mayhem, the Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and the International Thriller Writers.  Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits came to Canada in 2000. She lives and writes in Toronto.