Sometimes we need a do-over.

Anthologies and Short Stories
 
Short stories are finding homes in anthologies more and more these days. You remember short stories, don't you? You read them in literature classes. Many writers have a few on their computers and under their beds. Maybe you have one lurking on a closet shelf or in a file cabinet.  

Well, I do, too, and I plan to join the Indie authors who have put them up on Amazon and made money with them or offered them as free reads.  When I became an editor for Gilded Dragonfly Books I wrote a story for our anthology. The anthology has 9 stories that will capture your imagination and make you think.

In north Georgia there is an amusement park called Dancing Dragonfly Amusement park.
And in that park there is a magic carousel, Carousel Déjà Vu by name. 
And if you ride that carousel, you should reach for the brass ring.
And if you catch that ring... 

You didn't think I would tell all, did you?

Jackson Nighttraveller chooses people he thinks need to ride his carousel, and Dr. Alice is one of the nine riders in our anthology, Carousel Déjà Vu. 

    
Dr. Alice’s Ride
by Mary Marvella

Dr. Alice Compton couldn’t think of one reason she had stopped here this March afternoon, to sit alone on this bench across the way from Dancing Dragonfly Amusement park. Well, maybe one. She and her family had loved this amusement park when the kids were smaller. They had laughed and eaten their share of cotton candy and hotdogs. They had ridden the Déjà vu carousel and other rides and had enjoyed each other and cherished life. Her teenaged kids and her busy husband never wanted to come here anymore. She wouldn’t even be here today if they’d answered their cell phones this afternoon. Mack’s text that he would be working late had prompted her to send several angry responses. She needed her family, damn it! She sniffed, then swallowed hard.
 
Some force had drawn her out of her way and made her stop here on the way home from the hospital in south Gainesville.  Why today, of all days, hadn’t she gone straight home? A sob ripped through her throat as a part of her heart tore off. Little Lila Jones had never ridden a carousel or eaten hotdogs, and now she never would.

Do  you think Alice needs to ride? Are there days you might want a do-over?