On this blog, I write short stories and flash fiction about the soulful people in my life, trying to capture the bits of soul I prize in them. I post a new story just about every weekend, both here and on the palm tree in front of my house.
Really, though, this is a blog about people we all know. Sign up for a story a week, and you’re bound to read things here that remind you of the soulful people in your life, too.
And yes, I realize it should read “Just Somebody Whom You Used to Know.” I’ll try to get it right next time.
Friday, September 13, 2019 – OPEN MIC –
Host: Carrie Danielson
When: 6:30 p.m. Sign Ups; 7:00 Readings
Where: San Diego Writers, Ink; Liberty Station
What: 3-minute prose read by the author
Why: Supportive, fun, fascinating!
How: Show Up!
Cost: $5 Donation at the Door
Bio: Josh Baxt is a science writer, novelist, stealth Haikuder, tomato maven, petulant parent, unrepentant backseat driver and bratty only child. He’s the little brother you always wished for.
6:30 p.m.Sign Ups; 7:00 p.m. Readings; San Diego Writers, Inkspot, Liberty Station
3-Minute Prose, read by the author.
Congratulations to our July DimeStories StandOuts!
He can’t even leap tall buildings in a single bound.
But what Dime Stories’ July host, Bernie Nofel, can do is write, teach, and act.
A proudly long-suffering member of San Diego’s writing community, Bernie has perplexed, annoyed, and sometimes entertained fellow wordsmiths at Dime Stories, Wednesday’s Write Real Early, and Thursday Writes. Bernie recently published his first novel, a psychodrama called “Mirror Mirror. A Mystery”, and was honored to have a piece selected in this year’s Best of Dime Stories Anthology.
Bernie is an ensemble cast member for the Dinner Detective, and teaches public speaking for four local colleges. He has been a grant writer and secured important funding for non-profit charities throughout the community.
While he may not be stronger than a locomotive, he says his wit is indestructible and bullets do bounce off his chest.
He invites everyone to shed their alter egos this month and come to the microphone to share their story….and, never, ever, fear the Kryptonite….
“Look! Up in the sky!”
Congratulations to our June StandOuts! John Shaw, Kevin Hennessy, Nick Angello! Audios Coming Soon!
Location: San Diego Writers, Ink, Liberty Station
Time: 6:30pm Sign ups; 7:00pm Readings
$5 Donation at the Door
THREE MINUTES ONLY!
June Cressy has been writing since her early days in Brooklyn. A Year in Ink is the fifth anthology in which she is published. She has also been a co-editor of two anthologies. Currently she is working on a memoir.
6:30 Sign Ups; 7:00 Readings San Diego Writers, Ink 3-minute prose: memoir, fiction, creative nonfiction, personal essay, experimental
In the early ‘60’s Dick attended the U. of Iowa on a jock scholarship. This experience consisted of majoring in English and mostly jocking out, drinking beer and appraising the coeds.
His senior year, due to an encouraging rejection letter from a fiction editor at the New Yorker, he got into the vaunte
d graduate Iowa Writers Workshop, basically through a service entrance as it were.
Most of his classmates were from prominent families, Ivy League legacy or Stanford grads with trust funds. This meant that on the first of every month many pitchers of beer at Donnellys were provided by newly replenished remittance bank accounts. Being a street kid from the projects, Dick was way out of this league, but saved a lot of money on beer.
The story went that Robert Lowell had backed out of a workshop teaching position at the last minute so an author was found to take his place who had only four original paperbacks, some sci fi pulp and women’s magazine stories to his credit. No one had heard of Kurt Vonnegut but he was a better instructor than the often hung over Nelson Algren (Man with the Golden Arm/Walk on the Wild Side) and
Richard Yates (Revolutionary Road NBA 1960) who suffered a harrowing nervous breakdown during his second year.
Finally armed with a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction writing, Dick got a teaching and coaching position at a tiny jock farm junior college in southern Iowa. In 1980, when his agent finally dumped him, he wrote a grant and started a reading and writing lab at the U. of Montana with 20 Apple IIe computers. A year later he was offered venture capital to start his own educational software company and he never looked back
Now retired from Twenty-First Century Research, a local area network company he owned in San Diego for 25 years, Dick is writing stories and memoir fragments and doing standup – when he can stay awake long enough. He also ha
s been getting on stage at Moth StorySlams in L.A. and Santa Monica.
3-Minute Prose, Some fiction, some fact, all true.
6:30 pm Sign ups; 7:00 pm Readings
San Diego Writers, Ink; Liberty Station; San Diego
Bio: Rick Ochocki is a novelist and storyteller living in San Diego. A National Novel Writing Month winner ten years in a row, his contest-winning flash fiction was included in the e-book Fiction 101: The Anthology from the San Diego CityBEAT weekly magazine. In 2018, an excerpt from his novel Out of the Fire was published in A Year in Ink, Volume 11. A PRO member of Romance Writers of America, Rick was the 2018 Romance Writers of America San Diego chapter President. He is an active member of the Los Angeles Romance Authors, staff Associate with the Southern California Writers’ Conference, and a proud alumnus from Thursday Writers.
CONGRATULATIONS! March DimeStories StandOuts!
Achi Michla – Alcoholics Anonymous
Don Ryan – Anatomy Lesson
Bernie Nofel – Happy Endings
Cheryl Sonstein – Let’s See What They Think of This
NANNIGA by Ed Coonce!
Listen to the audio for an explanation of Ed’s NANNINGA which we will feature here after every DimeStories.
Bring:3-Minute Prose: fiction, non-fiction, essay, experimental
Location: San Diego Writers, Ink - Liberty Station
Time: 6:30 Sign Ups; 7:00 Readings
6:30 sign ups; 7:00 readings
San Diego Writers Ink, Inkspot
Guest Host! Our very own Tim Calaway
Bio: Tim is a writer living in San Diego. He writes poetry, novels, short fiction and commentary. He has had several poems published in local anthologies, including A Year in Ink. He is a regular contributor at Dimestories.
Congratulations to our February Standouts! Their work was honored by those attending our last Open Mic. We applaud their creative efforts
Featured Blog! When: 6:30 p.m. Sign Ups; 7:00 Readings Where: San Diego Writers, Ink; Liberty Station What: 3-minute prose read by the author Why: Supportive, fun, fascinating! How: Show Up! Cost: $5 Donation at the Door
Join us, San Diego!
THREE MINUTES ONLY!
Dick Cummins
Join Us! 
Join Us for our next Open Mic! March 8, 2019
Guest Host! Our very own Tim Calaway