How do you describe a book like Her Body and Other Parties to people? The book is a collection of long short stories and the collection as a whole is perhaps best summed up by the two quotes Carmen Maria Machado puts at the beginning of the book. My body is a haunted house that … Continue reading Book Review – Her Body and Other Parties
Check. This. Out. Garden of Fiends is an anthology of addiction-themed horror stories from some of the genre's best and most promising writers (only slightly marred by including a story of mine). It's out in ten days but there's a discount offer available for pre-orders (or so the publisher tells me). Authors in the anthology … Continue reading Coming in Eight Days…
I don't remember what the first story I read by Michael Swanwick is. But I do remember the feeling I got as I read it. It's the same feeling I got when I first read stories by Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link and Lucius Shepard. That amazing, wow-this-is-talent feeling. Michael Swanwick is one of many authors … Continue reading The Wonderful World of Michael Swanwick
Nightmare Magazine is one of the better things you can infect your Kindle with every month. This month was no exception. In the current issue of Nightmare Magazine, there are four stories; two reprints and two originals. The originals are The Old Horror Writer by Adam-Troy Castro and Sawing by Lisa Goldstein. The reprints are … Continue reading Nightmares by Subscription – A Review of Nightmare Magazine Issue 44
While I thought that widespread Kindle ownership would lead to more people reading short stories I'm not sure it has. Do you, for example, (if you own a Kindle that is) read more short stories? Whether you do or not, here are three recent short stories that are simple excellent and I highly recommend. (They … Continue reading 3 Awesome Recent Short Stories
When was the last time you read something truly disturbing? Well, I have a story in an anthology out in a few days from Bloodshot Books, Not Your Average Monster 2, that I think is the creepiest thing I've ever written. The anthology is a collection of monster short stories, but without vampires, werewolves and ghosts. … Continue reading Monsters, Monsters Everywhere.
Richard Thomas is starting a new magazine. It's ambitious. The current state of publishing, for those of you who may not be in the trenches daily, is that most magazines pay about 1 cent per word for short stories. The good ones pay 5 to 6. Gamut, the magazine Richard Thomas is kicking up funds … Continue reading 10 Stories Richard Thomas is Soooo Tired of Reading
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
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
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”
