On the whole, compared to novels, short stories don't sell well. That's because we like to get absorbed in a story, and the shorter it is, the harder it gets to achieve that. It takes a special skill to get a reader absorbed in a couple of thousand words - you don't have the space to go into detail, but generalities weaken the narrative.
I've been reading a lot of short stories recently, submitted for two anthologies I've been editing. Nourishment is the theme of Second Taste, the third (and last) Book a Break anthology, while the stories in The Rabbit Hole are weird.
It wasn't easy selecting the stories. Sometimes a good story could be left out in the interest of greater variety - one thing I love is to see how a single word can give rise to so many interpretations. It's then that I'm struck by the diversity of the creative process. To which of course there needs to be added technique. When it comes to length, I tend to think in terms of novels, so I'm still learning myself - as in many things, it's easier to identify something good than to produce it. So reading these stories has been an education as well. Maybe if I wrote short stories, I could get through the backlog that's built up in my 'ideas' folder...
But that's enough from me - I'll let the books speak for themselves.
Humour, fantasy, tragedy, drama, romance... Startling and original, the stories selected for this mouth-watering anthology are guaranteed to satisfy your appetite for the unique pleasure of reading.
From a sad tagine to vintage blood, bottled light to luminous water, the theme of nourishment lets you sample a spread of excellent writing which will only make you want to come back for more. Let the feast begin!
Second Taste is available here.
How do you like your weirdness? A subtle nudge towards the untoward? A quick zap of zany? Or a full-on assault of aberration? Whatever your taste, you’ll find it here, and many more strains of strange that you didn’t suspect existed. From magic rain to a talking (severed) head, extraordinary eggs to belligerent birds, the stories in this collection enter the rabbit hole to explore its hidden corners and winding ways. Through all the variety, what they have in common is originality, creativity and fine writing. Are you ready to go in and see for yourself? The door to the warren is open...
The Rabbit Hole (still at a pre-order discount) is available here.
I’m the opposite of you Curtis, I have never attempted to write a novel and instead concentrate on short form. I also think that in these fast-paced modern times, people are less willing to invest a lot of time into a novel and that’s why I think short stories actually do sell better, at least in some places. .
Given that apparently we have the attention span of a goldfish, the future may lie in flash fiction!
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