I'm reading Undertow Publication's excellent anthology Year's Best Weird Fiction Volume Two. It was there I encountered the following sentence, the first in the story Loving Armageddon by Amanda C. Davis: She presses her cheek to the center of his chest, listening to the beat of his hand-grenade heart. Now. Here's why I think this is awesome. There's … Continue reading The Best First Sentence of the Year?
Category: Short stories
5 Interesting New Markets for Short Stories
Here are 5 new publishers looking for your stories. They vary in the things they are looking for and how much they pay but they all look very interesting. 1.After the Happily Ever After (AHEA) Anthology Transmundane Press are looking for more stories for their After the Happily Ever After anthology. Do you think the … Continue reading 5 Interesting New Markets for Short Stories
The Magic of Short Stories
For the first post on the new setup, I give you a great quote on short stories from Michael Kelly, the man behind Shadows & Tall Trees and Best Weird Fiction anthologies. I love short stories. I love the way they whisk you away to another place. I love how compact short stories are. You … Continue reading The Magic of Short Stories
Sometimes the curtains are just blue
I've reached a certain milestone in my writerly career; my writing has been misinterpreted.
“Sit down. I’ll tell you”
I just read a great short story. It's a little disturbing and I don't think I'll ever look at sleepwalking the same way again. The story in question is Megan Neumann's It Must Feed, in the horror anthology Not Your Average Monster from Bloodshot Books. The story tells the tale of two sisters, Abby and … Continue reading “Sit down. I’ll tell you”
A Few Interesting Things
Just a quick note of a few things I saw today that I thought might interest you. First - Interective Novella / Wordy Game My writer-friend Barry Napier's interactive game/story Buried got a write-up in TIME magazine, no less. Bottom line seems to be that they liked the writing and the story but didn't find enough … Continue reading A Few Interesting Things
3 of the Best Short Stories I’ve Read This September
I read a surprising amount of short stories every month. I have so many anthologies on my Kindle that it is positively bursting. The bus I take to work allows me to read a short story on the way to work and on the way back. Two short stories per day. These days I'm mostly working … Continue reading 3 of the Best Short Stories I’ve Read This September
5 Magical Books by Women
Recently, some dust was thrown up regarding why women-only prizes should be a thing. While I think it unfair that the need for a separate women's prize in literature exists, I think the prize itself is a good thing. Also, the more literary prizes, the better, right? I don't choose books based on the gender of a … Continue reading 5 Magical Books by Women
Are Genre Short Stories Better Than Novels?
I just interviewed Ellen Datlow for Bookriot, and that interview will be posted sometime next week (probably). In the meantime, here is Ellen on the power of the supernatural short story versus the novel, a sentiment I agree with. "I think that fiction of the supernatural works better in the shorter forms for the simple … Continue reading Are Genre Short Stories Better Than Novels?
A Peek Inside My Kindle
Here's what's at the the top of my Kindle right now; the stuff I most recently added or read. It's interesting to see that of the fifteen items on there, only two are novels. These are Colin F. Barnes' gritty Artificial Evil and Barry Napier's Broken Skies, his latest book for Severed Press (that's the … Continue reading A Peek Inside My Kindle
