Monday, April 6, 2009

In Praise of Shorts

When I first started this blog, I said I wanted to put my blog where my mouth was. In other words, I wanted to point people in the direction of short stories and give a bit of advertising and praise to both writers and zines. Over the months, I think I've accomplished that on some small level. In that spirit, here's some links to check out.

Patti Abbott is sponsoring forgotten short stories this Friday in place of her usual Forgotten Books series. This is something every short story writer out there should participate in. If we don't take pride in short stories why should anyone else? If you'd like to participate, drop on over to Patti's blog and leave her a message in the comments, then on Friday she'll link to your blog and your review. http://pattinase.blogspot.com/ And if you don't have a blog, Patti hosts reviews on her blog. If she runs out of room, with her permission, I'd be more than happy to host any overflow reviews on my blog. Help tell the world about the joys of short stories.

Back a week or so ago, Rafe McGregor asked if the short story was dead. I think the response to that post surprised him and this week he's hosting two blog posts by Michael Bracken, short story writer extraordinaire. Michael's first post is up now and if you want to learn how to make a living at short story writing, head on over and have a read. http://rafemcgregor.blogspot.com/2009/04/short-fiction-is-my-life-part-1.html

Over at BookSpot Central, Brian has posted this week's Short Thoughts on Short Fiction. This post is more about the links to short stories than reviews. The stories he's put up were runner-ups to the top ten for the Spinetingler Awards. And I've gotta say, they're a WOW! bunch of stories. Head on over and click those links for some great reading. http://www.bookspotcentral.com/2009/04/short-thoughts-on-short-fiction-5/ My favorite of the group was Nicole Fix's "Jello's Escape" published at Thieves Jargon.

And a couple of Snoopy Dances for friends of The Corner who've had stories published.

Cormac Brown found Flash Fire 500 through the links on the left and had his story "Recalculating" published there. This story shows a different side to Cormac's writing than most of you are familiar with. Go have a read. http://flashfire500.blogspot.com/2009/03/recalculating-by-cormac-brown.html

And Gary Dobbs has a new story up at A Twist of Noir, http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/ But be forwarned, if cannibalism isn't your cup of tea, you'd best pass on this one, but you'll be missing one heck of a story.

And leading up to Friday's Forgotten Short Stories, expect to see more links and thoughts on short story writing this week.

6 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

Thanks, Sandra.

David Cranmer said...

Keeping us informed. Thanks.

sandra seamans said...

Truth is, I love finding all these links and sharing them. I used to post this stuff to the SMFS list but someone always had to go on about the non-paying markets like someone was twisting their arm to submit there. Made me want to crawl in a hole and cover my head. At least here, I've got all the links where I can find them and anyone else who wants to use them are welcome. Works for everyone.

Cormac Brown said...

Thank you for the plug and more importantly, thanks for pointing out Flash Fire 500 to me. As some micro-fiction sites are on the verge of a stylistic redundancy, I found this site to be a real breath of fresh air.

sandra seamans said...

Glad you liked the site, Cormac, and it was a pleasure to plug your flash piece.

Barbara Martin said...

Thank you, Sandra, for providing this information including the websites for short stories. It's been a real boon to me.