Paul Stansbury is a lifelong native of Kentucky. He is the author of Inversion-Not Your Ordinary Stories; Inversion II-Creatures, Fairies, and Haints, Oh My; Inversion III-The Lighter Shades of Greys; Inversion IV-Another Infusion of Speculative Fiction; and Down by the Creek-Ripples and Reflections. Over one-hundred and thirty of his works have been published. His speculative fiction stories have appeared in a number of print anthologies as well as a variety of online publications.

Paul is also a poet, a Kentucky Monthly Penned winner, and the Scheduling Coordinator for The Jeanne Penn Lane Celebration of Kentucky Writers. His short play, Nana Toby, was selected for the Union Commonwealth University of New Plays. He is the owner of Sheppard Press.

Paul will speak to us about short story writing. Be sure to read the Sci-Fi short story he has provided. He will use it to illustrate his points. It will be sent as a separate email attachment.

Chapter Meeting Details

• Date:  November 8, 2025
• Time: 

Business Meeting: 11:30 am

Guest Speaker:  Noon

This meeting will be zoom only. Please use the following link to register. 

Zoom Registration Link

Carol Preflatish

Carol’s screenplay, The Witch’s Descendant, was named Best Feature Screenplay at the Chicago Women Film Fest.

Carol noted: “I am honored to have won in this most prestigious competition.”

Congratulations!

Meet Frances Gossen

I can’t remember the first time I used writing as a form of creative expression, but by the time I entered middle school, I had already discovered an easy love of poetry. Perhaps it was the influence of my early years as a theater kid and young love affair with Shakespeare, but using descriptive language to encapsulate intense to me, unnoticed to others experiences greatly appealed to me.

I still remember some of those early works: seeing an otter off the docks of Prince Edward Island, the sensation of waking up from a dream. The way letters, syllables, syntax, and stanzas could express patterns of beautiful meaning fascinated me as did the idea of treating language as an equation not to cheapen but expand understanding.

Unsurprisingly, I went on to obtain an English degree from Boston University where I spent two years as chief poetic editor for Clarion literary magazine and worked as an copy editor for Pen and Anvil press both before and after graduation. My writing grew as well as I began to experiment more with prose and fiction, especially world building.

In my late teens, I developed my first fantasy world, which now has its own phonetic alphabet, detailed trade routes, five distinct cultural traditions, and three storylines that will eventually become series, although I’m only about one hundred scattered pages into the first book.

During my twenties, I completed my first collection of poetry, Conversations about the Weather, as well as early drafts of a collection of short stories tentatively called Rose’a’sharn, which explored the line between magical realism and fantasy. Currently, I’m developing a new collection of science fiction shorts as a fun experiment in a different kind of world building, and particularly to work on dialogue and concise storytelling. Regardless of the project, I always have more ideas and inspiration than time to write them down.

— Frances Gossen