➤ scifi short story translated from chinese; originally published in 2021
➤ it's a fascinating outside-outside pov, a nephew telling the story of his aunt, whose story is that of her famous physicist-astronaut husband
➤ the multiple layers of abstraction work well for this story -- and the narrative loops around itself in how it's told too, wandering forwards and backwards in time to circle around the heart of things
➤ which is really a story about family and about place and about how you decide what to prioritise in your life
➤ it's lovely and thoughtful and wistful. I really liked it!
“Of aal the fish there iss in the sea,” said Para Handy, “nothing bates the herrin’; it’s a providence they’re plentiful and them so cheap!”
Neil Munro (1863–1930) – journalist, novelist, short-story writer, & poet – was born #OTD, 3 June. Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of Herring discusses Munro’s PARA HANDY stories, as well as giving the full text of the tale “The Herring – A Gossip”
David Robb discusses James Hogg’s short stories “Mary Burnet”, “The Brownie of the Black Haggs”, & “Strange Letter of a Lunatic” at our 2017 Schools Conference
During the Peninsular War a wounded soldier recuperates in a remote location. He falls in love with the daughter of the house, but her family hides a terrible secret…
Given how many #writing contests, anthologies and magazines are currently struggling with a flood of #AI / #LLM -generated spam, have you heard about anyone trying to fight the problem by asking specifically for stories which AI cannot easily write?
Even the best models I've tried cannot easily use #solarpunk themes, symbols and structures - they always come out unnatural.
Are there any specific limitations, formats that can work similarly?
I published a short story to my dark fiction journal this morning, a story that was originally published with Quail Bell, a Canadian journal. (I am providing the friend link, no paywall.) If you are interested in publishing a dark fiction story, be it a horror story, a tale of unease, a ghost story, an original folk or fairy tale, please keep A Dark Wood in mind as a possible venue. 🖤 💀 #darkfiction#ghoststory#shortstory#writingcommunity
Alice Munro, the Canadian writer, has died at age 92. In 2013, she became the first Nobel winner cited exclusively for short fiction — an achievement that came after her retirement from her 60-year writing career. Prior to that, she had won Canada's Giller Prize twice, then disqualified herself in 2009 to make way for younger writers. Ms. Munro “brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels,” the jury of the Man Booker International Prize declared in 2009, awarding her the prize for her overall contribution to fiction. Here's a tribute to her from the Globe & Mail. [Story may be paywalled]
This may be a silly question, but how does one actually read short story collections? Is it the same as if reading a novel? Do you put the book down between every story? Do you look for connections between the stories? Am I supposed to read them linearly?
#writing mastodon, could you recommend any good resources on organizing a #shortStory#contest, especially in context of optimal text length / jury size / time?
Jenny Erpenbeck opens #Spring 2024 with Sloughing Off One Skin, a haunting #ShortStory that explores truth and identity, translated by Michael Hofmann.
2027: Das Landgericht Hamburg entscheidet, dass das vorsätzliche falsch beantworten eines CAPTCHA ein schwerer Eingriff in die Verkehrssicherheit ist. Die falschen Trainingsdaten können bei selbstfahrenden Autos zu Unfällen führen.
Der Angeklagte wurde zu einer Freiheitsstrafe von 3 Jahren und einem Schadensersatz von 5 Mio. € an den Kläger Tesla Inc. verurteilt.
Subscribe to @InterzoneMag to read my new story, SIBILANCE, a queer homage to classic #sciencefiction set in outer space. Dr Hodei is in love with two spheres: 1) A gas giant called Jupiter & 2) his deceased nonbinary lover turned SEAX drone: Amaranth (both depicted in the magnificent cover art by @carlydraws ). 🪐🚀🇵🇷🏳️🌈
For The She-Wolf of Baker Street, I wrote a section where Audrey first met Ruby Stockton, the love of her life, to flesh out their relationship and the things that Audrey gained from knowing Ruby. It got edited out as it didn’t quite fit the flow, but here it is as a taster for The She-Wolf of Baker Street!
Was out today and had unexpected free time but no book!
I opened my @omnivore app on my tablet and read the short story "The Mausoleum's Children" by @aliettedb in @UncannyMagazine. It was so good!! I'm so glad I discovered both the story and the magazine here. Moral of the story - do your best to always have something good to read!
Reading for the Locus Awards? Try the novelette "The Year Without Sunshine" by Naomi Kritzer! It is on the Locus Recommended Reading List and is a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards! Click on the link here!