1.This week is National Short Story Week….as well as finding out more about NSSW – HERE – you will also find some excellent resources:
- short stories like Katherine Mansfield’s Bliss read aloud,
- recommended reading lists – all collections chosen by writers and several anthologies from Salt including ‘Overheard: Stories to Read Aloud,’ edited by Jonathan Taylor
- a series of ‘how to articles’ on the writing of short fiction
- a list of magazines and websites that publish stories – and much more…
2. More great resources for short story writers and readers that I’ve recently discovered can be found here at ‘Thresholds – Home of the International Short Story forum.’ On discovering Thresholds I couldn’t resist stopping to read David Almond’s May Malone. The story is like the man, beautifully human. David is a consummate story teller, an extraordinary writer who manages to remain quite ordinary and down to earth despite his huge success.
3 To celebrate NSSW I’m posting my story Tokyo Dreaming first published earlier this year in Issue 8 of Structo Lit Magazine, for any of you who have ten minutes spare and would like to read it.
4. I had a wonderful, if initially daunting, evening reading Tokyo Dreaming at the Soho launch. I also had a great time at the Bristol prize – the short story has been good to me this year so I for one will be writing more, and if you missed them first time round here are my Top Ten Tips for Short Story Writing
