 Short Stories: August 23, 2017 Issue [#8466] |
  Short Stories
This week: Where Are They? Edited by: Leger~  
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The purpose of this newsletter is to help the Writing.com short story author hone their craft and improve their skills. Along with that I would like to inform, advocate, and create new, fresh ideas for the short story author. Write to me if you have an idea you would like presented.
This week's Short Story Editor
Leger~
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Is It Short? Is It a Story?
I've run into this disturbing trend, and I'd like your opinion on it. I read. I read a lot. So when I go to my Kindle store, I type in my genre choice and "sort by price". It's not that I can't afford a book. But why pay for a book when there are ones out there for free? Plus, if the writing is horrible, the grammar ucky, or the plot isn't of interest, I don't feel bad about deleting it. I know you will all write saying I should pay for literature to keep writers writing, but free is free.
Often before I scoot off on a trip, I'll download a bunch of books to read, since hotel internet can be iffy and if I'm visiting my parents who like a quiet house, I'll need a few. In working my way through these books, I've noticed a trend. While the author presents the story as a "book", it's not - it is a first chapter, for free. If you want the rest of the story, you have to break open the piggy bank and obtain the rest. I get it, bait and switch.
So now, when I'm downloading, I look at the size of the "book" and skip the ones smaller in size. 24 pages isn't going to give me what I need for my literature fix. But in doing so, have I effectively eliminated any short stories out there in the offerings? I can't be the only person doing this. I like short stories, don't get me wrong. But my concern is if everyone skips shorts while searching the apps for stuff to read, have we effectively killed the short story? I know it is hard to get short stories published, but are they now dead even when offered for free?
I'd like to know your reaction / response. Please send it your comments below.  And thanks for your feedback!
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Excerpt: William slid a round into his rifle and smiled at him. "It could be worse, you know? It could be this cold and raining. At least the snow gives us a little time before we feel it."
Excerpt: I was 18, a girl whose taste in guys was definitely not mainstream. While my classmates were hanging off the muscled arms of football meatheads, or idolizing the lean, cocky soccer stars, or drifting around after the skinny artistic types, I adored the big, the fat, the hungry guys. And my feelings came close to worship when it came to the biggest and hungriest, those citadels of avoirdupois, the supersized guys.
They got my devotion.
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Excerpt: "Lizbeth is going to love you!" Brian, my maker, grinned in appreciation and pride at his newest creation, me, a unicorn carved from a chunk of sentang tree.
While Brian carved me into existance, I had gotten to know a lot about this Lizbeth, or rather how he imagined her to be. As he carved into the wood, he spoke his love for her into my fibers. I absorbed his words and grew to love her too, although neither of us had met her. Now that I was completed, I wondered when we would meet her.
Excerpt: A good writer WRITES until they have extracted every bit of juice from their creative selves. Only then, does a good writer stop to edit.
Excerpt: I squeezed my eyes closed tighter than they already were. I tried not to move under my duvet and found myself holding my breath in the fear Michael would come in. I could hear him singing from my parents room at the bottom end of the landing.
“Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me…”
Excerpt: Her anxiety increased as a man emerged from a door halfway down the hall. He approached, putting his arms through the sleeves of his white coat and adjusting his tie. As he neared where she stood, he extended his hand. The metal buckles on her coat collided when she moved forward to greet the doctor. His hands were large and warm to touch and it seemed as if it ushered a thaw within her.
Excerpt: You're probably not old enough to remember, but in the 1930's thru the 1950's pulp magazines were all the rage. Many of the great authors we hold dear today got their first paying jobs writing for pulps like Weird Tales, Astounding Tales, and True Detective, just to name a few. Speculative fiction writers like Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, H.P.Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard all began submitting their stories and honing their skills.
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https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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I'd like to know your reaction / response. Please send it your comments below. And thanks for your feedback!
Last month's question: Send in your best cultural recipe! I'll share it in my next short story edition.
Azrael Tseng  sent: Do you mean like an actual food recipe? If so, here's a link to one of my favorite local hawker dishes nonya laksa http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/malacca-nyonya-laksa-malaysian-noodle...
If you mean like a method for writing about another culture, I almost always start by googling a list of travellers' must-sees/dos to get a sense of the best sights. Then I use Google Earth to get an on-the-ground view of the area, and some sense of the people and activities. Next I move on to research about the local foods and festivals, and finally I'll counter-check all the little tidbits of information I've gleaned on Wikipedia or another secondary source. That's how I go about crafting my Around the World in 52 Week's entries anyway!
Thanks for featuring my story in your newsletter.
Thanks for sharing! Leger~ |
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Amazon's Price: $ 12.99
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