Tag: short stories

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Books The writing process

How Long is a Short Story?

I’ve had two short stories published recently. The first, Train Trouble, is in the Dark Paris anthology from darkstroke. It has 4,459 words.

The second is called A Sticky Interview, and is in the collection called Appointment at 10.30 from Pure Slush. It has just 392 words.

Appointment at 10.30 and Dark Paris

Both are valid as short stories, although the latter would also fit under the flash fiction label.

Train Trouble is long enough to include two main characters, a minor character and some walk-on parts. It also contains several descriptions of places, indoors and out, and a number of scenes.

A Sticky Interview has two characters and two scenes. Descriptions are sparse and concern themselves with nothing more than the particular topic of the story. Yet, its very length led me to experiment. Where else would I write a sentence like:

The blushes lap at his throat, burning his words.

I haven’t written anything quite like that in a longer short story, and certainly not in a novel. Perhaps I should try it, but would I be able to maintain the style in a longer piece?

I won’t know if I don’t try…

Categories
Books

Dark Paris Theme Park

The last day of 2021 sees the publication of eleven dark and compelling stories set in the French capital.

Bravely, we looked down from the top of the roller coaster of stories, searching for themes in six of them, and came up with three:

An Unusual Offer
Hiding
Ignoring a Warning

An Unusual Offer

A Sacrifice Fit For a King by Cathie Dunn
The Marquise de Montespan strikes a deal with the Devil to become King Louis XIV’s maîtresse-en-titre, but it comes at a high price.

The Camera Never Lies by Sue Barnard
The narrator’s coffee arrives with a free glass of cognac and a madeleine, which she accepts even though it’s a bit early in the day for spirits…

Train Trouble by Miriam Drori
The narrator, though wary of returning to France, can’t resist the offer of a free luxury holiday in Paris.

Hiding

Lost and Found by Mary Kendall
A little girl in a red sweater hides in the edges of the Catacombs.

The Rose of Montmartre by Christopher Stanfield
A serial killer, believed to be dead, has been living a quiet life in Paris under a fake name.

Ignoring a Warning

The Corpse in The Grave by Val Penny
A soldier comes to the rescue when a girl falls and warns her to be careful, but she doesn’t heed the warning.

Charities

Two charities will benefit from sales of darkstroke’s upcoming Dark Paris anthology:

  • The Restaurants du Cœur (literally Restaurants of the Heart but meaning Restaurants of Love), is commonly known as the Restos du Cœur. Its main activity is to distribute food packages and hot meals to those in need across France. It does not only target homeless, but also all those with a low or very low income, and helps people to find housing and supports other projects.
  • The Fondation Brigitte Bardot fights against all forms of animal abuse in France and abroad. It participates in projects of reintroduction into the wild and the creation of sanctuaries and rehabilitation centres for wildlife.

Over to You

What do those themes mean to you? Do they remind you of something you experienced or heard about? We’d love to hear your stories.

You can write here in the comments, or on social media wherever you saw the link to this post.

And remember to pre-order Dark Paris now or wait for the paperback.

Categories
Books

Bored? Not Me

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been bored at all since lockdown. In fact, I’ve had more to do than usual.

I miss going out to folk dancing, which won’t take place for another month, and that date, of course, relies on the coronavirus figures going down. Fortunately, they are, despite the gradual relaxation of the rules.

What have I been doing all this time? It’s hard to remember. There have been a lot of Zoom meetings of different sorts. I’ve written, and edited, and submitted. Lately, I’ve been trying to keep afloat in a vast sea called Self-Publishing. (More about that, later.)

What I want to tell you now is that this book:

Dark London Volume OneDark London Volume One

is available for pre-order from Amazon and will be released by Darkstroke on 25th June.

This is a collection of short stories from authors across the world – Miriam Drori, Jess Popplewell, Ted Bun, Anne-Marie Ormsby, Kate Braithwaite, Donna Cuttress, Sue Barnard, Sam Hall and Cathie Dunn – with a special foreword text from international bestselling London author, Alice Castle.

Yes, that’s me up there.

All monies received will go to two London-based charities – The London Community Foundation and Centrepoint.

If you pre-order now, the book will land in your e-reader on launch day and you’ll have helped those charities. Here’s the link again.

UPDATE: Volume Two can also be pre-ordered now from here.

Categories
Books

May Report

At the beginning of this month, I pledged to:

  • Read 1 book
  • Write 2 short stories
  • Write 3 poems
  • Do 4 submissions
  • Write 5 blog posts

How did I do with that?

I read more than one book. In fact I read two whole books (although one was very short). I also finished the one I’d been reading before May, I gave up on one book part of the way through because I wasn’t enjoying it, and I started another that’s interesting but heavy-going. Not bad!

I wrote one short story and two poems.

If you count two submissions to the same competition separately, then I managed four submissions.

And this is my fifth blog post this month.

I also did quite a lot of work on my WIP. And I gave my first ever author talk, which went well and led to a lively discussion. So altogether I’m very pleased with what I’ve achieved this month. I think, in general, goals are good, as long as they are realistic and you allow yourself some leeway.

Next month I will mostly be preparing for an exciting time ahead.

Flyer for author talk

Categories
Books

Crooked Cats’ Tales

The people at Crooked Cat (who are going to publish my novel, NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, in 20 days’ time) have produced an anthology of 20 short stories written by 20 Crooked Cat authors.

The wonderful thing about anthologies is the way they are so varied. Each story is written by a different author in a different genre with a different theme and set in a different place. And all of these are interesting, well-crafted stories.

I came to a decision about short stories: they need to be read in one go. Fortunately this is not hard, because each story takes only a few minutes to read. But it’s no good starting a story last thing at night when sleep will probably take over before I’ve reached the end. When I pick it up again in the morning, or later, it’s hard to remember what went before. Short stories are great for bus or train rides, as long as you’re going further than one stop.

Anyway, this anthology is free from Crooked Cat Books and Smashwords, and definitely worth a download.