“You never know when luck will strike, so all you can do is be ready with a body of work. Control what you can, and forget about the rest.” -Tonia Ransom

“Time is a like a container for a short story. How much time you want to represent will guide how you tell the story.” -Chaitali Sen

“Send your work out, and send persistently–even to places that reject you five, ten times. I wouldn’t be where I am now if amazing people didn’t encourage and mentor me along the way. Don’t be afraid of mistakes, and don’t be afraid to declare what you have done.” -Meg Eden Kuyatt

“Liberate yourself from the idea of quality. I have to tell myself this every day I work on a first draft. That perfectionism is hard to shake!.” -Stacey Swann

“Dig deeply and convey what you find with objectivity. Be Chekhov, who said his only job was to know what questions to ask.” -Nan Cuba

“I started writing when I was a kid, mostly because I loved books.  But it took many years of dabbling with short stories before I decided to devote myself to writing, which meant taking the time, making the space, and learning the tools to tackle every form.” -Sherri L. Smith

“I go back to the original reason I got started: I love stories and how they can pull me into other worlds and other perspectives.” -Charlotte Gullick