Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match: 50 Dialogue-Only Fictions

 

Synopsis option 1:
Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match: 50 Dialogue-Only Fictions takes the traditional genre of literary dialogue and interrogates the form through a fictional lens in our era of hyper-communication and viral misinformation. A product of a self-imposed, yearlong writing challenge, Greene’s book delivers a diverse collection of conversations. AI dating apps, serial killers, dancers at a masked ball, and men debating whose turn it is to cross a busy and blood-spattered road are just some of the characters you’ll meet in these philosophically charged and emotionally raw short stories.


Synopsis options 2:
Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match: 50 Dialogue-Only Fictions takes the traditional genre of literary dialogue and interrogates the form through a fictional lens in our era of hyper-communication and viral misinformation. A product of a self-imposed, yearlong writing challenge, Greene’s book delivers a diverse collection of conversations. Bigfoot, gods, AI dating apps, serial killers, and men debating whose turn it is to cross a busy and blood-spattered road are just some of the characters you’ll meet in these philosophically charged and emotionally raw short stories.

Historical synopsis: Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match is the product of a writing challenge Randal Eldon Greene gave himself in 2018. For every week of the year, the author wrote one dialogue-only story. In this collection you’ll encounter a variety of topics, tones, and experiments in presentation. Humor and heartbreak, philosophy and pulp are placed equally side by side in this collection that is sure to entertain any intrepid reader.

History:
Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match started when Randal Eldon Greene was contemplating two experimental stories he had written. The first of these was already a conversation—Expire. The second was an early draft of The Defining Attribute of a Woman, which was a monologue. Greene was wondering what to do with these two pieces when it occurred to him that the latter story would be much more interesting if rewritten as a dialogue.

After rewriting The Defining Attribute of a Woman, Greene began contemplating the possibility of a whole collection containing dialogue-only stories. So he brainstormed a few more fictional dialogue ideas and realized that it was something he could and would like to do. So Greene set himself a goal; he decided to write at least one dialogue for every week of 2018.

The first dialogical story listed in his writing challenge was Expire and the last was The Serial Killer Epidemic: Interview Transcripts, another story he’d previously written and decided would fit well into the collection. Including his rewritten dialogues, Greene ended his writing challenge with 53 stories—one beyond his goal. Though just one beyond his goal, Greene actually came away with extra dialogue ideas that he didn’t get around to writing during his year of composing dialogue-only fiction.

A few of his dialogues were published in 2018. The first of these was Tarnished Time, which appeared in The Creative Cafe on April 17th. This was followed shortly by Medea Naked on the Golden Fleece on April 30th in Lit Up. Greene began seriously sending out completed dialogues to publishers right before reaching the halfway mark of his challenge. Of these, Jonathan Knudsen came out on July 5th in Train Literary Magazine. Viagra for a Pariah was published in issue 3 of The Green Light Literary Journal. His story Everything in It’s Right Place appeared in both the Iowa’s Emerging Writers and America’s Emerging Writers anthologies from Z Publishing. A Lover’s Dwelling and Therapy were also accepted in 2018 for publication the following year. These appeared in the anthology Flash Fiction Addiction and in Public House Magazine respectively. 2019 also saw the publications of Demon Zone as the second place winner of Midnight Mosaic’s 13 Days of Dark Lore Contest, @ChefNipsNips in Defenestration Magazine, The Wave in Colp: Big (Gypsum Sound Tales), and Expire in Raw Art Review. Graffiti Field Research was written in 2022 during the revision stage of the collection and published in The Metaphysical Review in 2023.

Randal was not actively seeking publication when in 2023 Rick Harsch, the masthead of corona\samizdat, reached out him asking if he had any unpublished books or out of print books that c\s could publish. This correspondence, though wholly unexpected, wasn’t totally out of the blue. Randal had not only been an avid buyer of c\s books, but had also interviewed Zachery Tanner, one of their authors (who also happens to be their book designer) for his now defunct Substack Newsletter — Hello, Author. Apparently Rick had listened to Randal read a story of his on a livestreamed podcast and decided to offer Randal a publication deal. Offers before reading the book to be published is actually standard practice for c\s because they do not accept submissions; it is invitation only.

Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match: 50 Dialogue-Only Fictions was published by corona\samizdat on July 8th, 2025.

Publishers interested in reprints, anthology inclusion, or offering a new book deal for Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match may contact the author at wintergreenwriter@gmail.com

The only rights to the book sold are to the Slovenian-based publisher corona\samizdat. The author is free to publish with anyone else outside of Slovenia.
All other publication rights are still available.

Alphabetical List of Stories:

  • 88 “Spice Up Your Date” Shimmer Palette
  • @ChefNipsNips
  • About the author
  • A Lover’s Dwelling
  • A Man in the Snow
  • Baby Who
  • Chip You Away
  • Colonizer
  • Cup of Love
  • Cut!
  • Demon Zone
  • Digesting That Disillusionment
  • DigiSpouse.com Testimonial
  • Directionless
  • Discourse on a Date With a Big City Gal
  • Everything in Its Right Place
  • Expire
  • God Vomit
  • Graffiti Field Research
  • Hiss, Squawk, Bellow, Mutter
  • Illegal Turn
  • Jonathan Knudsen
  • Life Cycle
  • LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE
  • Maskenfreitheit
  • Medea Naked on the Golden Fleece
  • My Husband Was Killed by a Cryptid
  • Pocket Chicken
  • Rolling Stop
  • Scentless Dreams
  • Standoff with Bigfoot Deep in the Remote Woods
  • Tarnished Time
  • Terry Won’t Let It Live
  • The Bat-Cat God and Other Self-Reproachments
  • The Carnivore and the Vegan Sit Down to Dinner
  • The Defining Attribute of a Woman
  • The Ghost of Yesteryear
  • The Nihilist and the Strangler
  • Therapy
  • The Serial Killer Epidemic: Interview Transcripts
  • The Wave
  • Things I Thought My Mother Said
  • To Get to the Other Side
  • Two Conversations with Voices
  • Viagra for a Pariah
  • Vorchaoskampf
  • Weaves of Web and Cloth
  • We Toss ‘Em
  • What’s the Point of What Hayden Saw?
  • Wine Drunk Together Again

These stories or versions of them first appeared in the following publications:

  • Graffiti Field Research: The Metaphysical Review ; June 06 (2023). Read online.
  • Expire: Raw Art Review ; Spring (2019). Read or order online.
  • The Wave: COLP: Big – Gypsum Sound Tales ; July 08 (2019). Order online.
  • @ChefNipsNips: Defenestration Magazine ; April 20 (2019). Read online.
  • A Lover’s Dwelling: Flash Fiction Addiction : anthology – Zombie Pirate Publishing ; April 15 (2019). Order online.
  • Demon Zone: Midnight Mosaic : 13 Days of Dark Lore Contest (second place winner) ; April 07 (2019). Read online.
  • Therapy (published as Pissing Therapy): Public House Magazine ; January 28 (2019). Order online.
  • A Man in the Snow: Medium.com ; December 01 (2018). Read online.
  • Everything in Its Right Place : Iowa’s Emerging Writers : anthology – Z Publishing ; September 09 (2018). Order the anthology.
  • Viagra for a Pariah: The Greene Light ; issue #3, August 15 (2018). Read online.
  • Jonathan Knudsen: Train Lit Mag ; July 05 (2018).
  • DigiSpouse.com Testimonial: Medium.com ; May 19 (2018). Read online.
  • Medea Naked on the Golden Fleece: Lit Up ; April 30 (2018). Read online.
  • Tarnished Time: The Creative Cafe ; April 17 (2018). Read online.
  • 88 “Spice Up Your Date” Shimmer Palette: Medium.com ; February 06 (2018). Read online.

Below you’ll find the titles of the stories from the 2018 writing challenge and the dates that the story was listed as completed.  

  • Expire: January 10
  • The Defining Attribute of a Girl: January 17
  • Everything in Its Right Place: January 25
  • To Get to the Other Side: February 02
  • 88 “Spice Up Your Date” Shimmer Palette: February 06
  • Colonizer: February 16
  • Standoff with Bigfoot Deep in the Remote Woods: February 22
  • Baby Who: March 03
  • A Lover’s Dwelling: March 10
  • Hiss, Squawk, Bellow, Mutter: March 17
  • Therapy: March 24
  • Life Cycle: March 31
  • Rolling Stop: April 7
  • Tarnished Time: April 14
  • Jonathan Knudsen: April 21
  • Two Conversations with Voices: April 28
  • Medea Naked on the Golden Fleece: April 30
  • Directionless: May 09
  • DigiSpouse.com Testimonial: May 19
  • Viagra for a Pariah: May 26
  • Insults Two by Two: June 02
  • Wine Drunk Together Again: June 9
  • The Bat-Cat God and Other Self-Reproachments: June 16
  • Vorchaoskampf: June 23
  • Cut: June 30
  • LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE: July 7
  • Maskenfreitheit: July 14
  • Digesting That Disillusionment: July 21
  • About the author:July 28
  • The Nihilist and the Strangler: August 04
  • The Ghost of Yesteryear: August 11
  • What’s the Point of What Hayden Saw?: August 18
  • The Carnivore and the Vegan Sit Down to Dinner: August 24
  • Weaves of Web and Cloth: September 01
  • Chip You Away: September 08
  • Pocket Chicken: September 15
  • Scentless Dreams: September 22
  • @ChefNipsNips: September 29
  • Things I Thought My Mother Said: October 06
  • The River Flows in One Direction: October 13
  • Illegal Turn: October 20
  • Demon Zone: October 27
  • The Melania Dialogues: November 03
  • Terry Won’t Let It Live: November 09
  • The Wave: November 17
  • Cup of Love: November 24
  • A Man in the Snow: December 01
  • URBAN EXPLORING: Enchanted Castle: December 08
  • God Vomit: December 15
  • We Toss ‘Em: December 22
  • Ho Ho Ho, Mother-Fucker: December 25
  • My Husband Was Killed by a Cryptid: December 29
  • The Serial Killer Epidemic: Interview Transcripts: December 31

Please visit the publisher’s website to order a copy of Blabber, Chat, Shouting Match.