I have been reading for many years but writing for really little time and I am convinced that in this writing thing, as in everything in life, the best way to improve is by practicing.
For this reason, I decided to start writing what I could and where I could and I found a page that has helped me, it is called Diversidad Literaria. Here you can compete by sending micro-stories, the rule is that they are super short stories of five lines in Arial 12 font. If your story is selected it is included in a book that is put on sale, without profits for the author but it is a good way to practice and see what you write captured, which for me, who until now writes as a hobby, is sufficient.
So far I have sent five stories and although until now I have not won any contest, all have been selected 🥳! So there are already five books out there that have a small text of mine. I want to share the five stories here, I hope you like them. Each contest is on a particular theme that I mention before the story, for example “Nocturnal inspirations” must mention something related to the night, “Them (females)” must mention something related to women, etc.
If you click on the theme you can see where it competed and the book where you can find it. And as a plus, I include an unpublished story that is currently competing, the theme is “Vampires” 🧛♂️, if you already read my book El sonido de la noche it could be that you recognize a character 😉, I hope you like it.
Ana ran terrified, it was the time of sunset and there was not a soul on the street, although she saw shadows watching her from the windows, Taylor Swift’s “Exile” sounded somewhere, time had run out and she knew he was coming for her, she regretted making that deal a year ago, she reached the house at the end of the street and knocked on the door looking for help, when it opened she knew it was her end.
When she woke up the sun had already set, she touched her head and felt pain where she had hit herself falling on a bed of gravel beside the river, she was thankful that some ferocious animal had not approached, she returned to the forest and noticed something strange, there was no sound whatsoever. She didn’t give it importance, crossed a line of willows and saw a lake that hadn’t been there before and that reflected the moon in all its splendor.
“How many books do you have?” he asked astonished, the rows of books reached the horizon “I have them all” she replied, he opened his mouth with surprise “except one, the Spanish version of A Treasury of Fairy Tales”, “I remember it, I read it as a child, but I don’t think it’s that difficult to get, I imagine you have rarer books here”, “Yes, but this one has eluded me, I think we are not meant for each other”.
“Goodbye mom” I said saying goodbye already from the street and waving goodbye, while she, from the door of what had been my home for so many years, gave me her blessing with tears hidden in a grimace of a smile “God bless and take care of my boy” I could read on her lips. I was leaving to seek success and my destiny elsewhere, without knowing that I already had it all at home.
Everyone had been walking aimlessly for days, there was no hope, the age of man was coming to an end, it had been fifty years since the last woman had left, they didn’t want to understand until too late, they even rejoiced when they perfected cloning, they believed it would be the solution, it was not, man lacked the most important thing, they were missing them.
Vampires
They approached the old woman with caution, she seemed just a simple little old lady, sitting waiting for the soup to be ready, but Atuq knew, knew what she had done, knew about the lost and never found babies, about all the spilled blood, no, this was not a simple little old lady, she was a Tlahuelpuchi, a major vampire, and there was not a more dangerous and ruthless one in the entire kingdom than this one.