But with the rise of electronic fiction, the roadblocks against middle-length fiction are falling away. It is just as easy to buy an individual short-story as it is to buy a novel. So why not be able to buy stories that fall between the two traditional lengths?

One of the challenges that remain is helping the reader understand what the length of a story is. In printed media, we could look at the number and size of the pages and know how long the story is. But with electronic fiction, the number of pages varies depending on font and reader size (e.g. Kindle, Nook, iPod).

One solution to this is letting potential buyers of fiction know the number of words. Thus the reader will know whether the story is a short story, a novella or a full-length novel.

Of course, pricing of e-fiction is all over the place. You can get a decent e-novel for free or buy one for $14.99 or more. So where do short stories and novellas fit into this? Who knows? There doesn’t seem to be a per-word price point. But there is nothing to suggest that short and medium-length fiction can’t be a equal player in this twenty-first century world of literature. If the story is told well, it will sell.

One of the titles was “Sappho”, which Tina confessed she had put in just for me. No pressure, right? So I agreed to write a short story for the contest.

My first thought was that the main character would be a girl living in present day Arizona and that her parents had named her Sappho after the famous Greek poet. And naturally, her parents were lesbians who thought naming their child after a lesbian icon (Sappho the poet herself was bisexual) was a brilliant idea. What they failed to consider, of course, was how cruel kids can be.

So the story begins shortly after Sappho’s world lit class studies Ancient Greek poets, including Sappho’s namesake. Now everyone assumes that their classmate Sappho is a lesbian. And that’s when the harassment and bullying begins. And it is around this issue that the story revolves.

One of my goals as a writer is to illustrate the challenges faced by the gay and gender variant communities. One of those challenges is being bullied in school. This isn’t exclusively a gay or transgender issue. Kids are bullied for any number of reasons including ethnicity, body shape, skin color,  and for no reason at all. However, many educators tend to turn a blind eye when kids are harassed based on their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

I’ve thrown a few surprises into the story, too. I’ve had many readers literally gasp when they read it and tell me later, “I never saw that coming.” So I hope you have that same reaction. It’s one of the fun things about reading and writing stories.

“Sappho” is in essence a story about identity and loyalty, and what happens when loyalties are violated. It’s about making choices and having to live with the consequences of those choices. I feel proud of how the story turned out and I hope you enjoy it.

“Sappho: A Short Story” is available in Kindle edition at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003FGWUZ4. But you don’t need a Kindle in order to read it. I enjoy reading Kindle-format books on my iPod touch using the free Kindle for iPhone app. You can also read Kindle books via the free Kindle for PC and Kindle for Blackberry programs.

In my short story “In Between”, Martina Glover is in the process of transitioning from male to female. But she’s not a girly-girl. She identifies as a butch lesbian. This leads to problems with her therapist who has strict standards about who should be allowed to get sex reassignment surgery and who shouldn’t. What’s a girl to do?

I want to thank Mila and Jayna Pavlin of the Trans-Ponder podcast for discussing the issues of self-determination and the control of the medical community over trans-identified individuals.

I hope you enjoy the story. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes. And please, leave me feedback!

Today, I’ve been working on another short story. This one is set in a fictional town in southern California. It’s been like pulling teeth today, but it’ll get easier. Maybe I need another latte.

If you haven’t already done so, please take a listen to “Sappho” and let me know what you think.

You are welcome to download the story onto you computer or MP3 player. You’re also welcome to forward it to your friends. Just don’t change it or sell it.

A little background on the story–This is my first short story in twenty-five years. It was originally written for a contest which gave me the title. My first thought was what if a zealous lesbian parent named her child Sappho. What would life be like for that child? This story is my answer to that question.

I hope you enjoy it!

Sappho is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at dharmashanti @ gmail. com.