Short On Words.

People regularly ask me where they can buy my book. Which is great, because it means the people I meet and have contact with are genuinely interested.  The problem is, of course, that I don't have 'a book' as such.

As a short story writer, my stories appear in anthologies and magazines along with a bunch of other writers. And so I have to explain this to the person asking. Usually it makes little difference, as they ask where they can get hold of ones of those books.

In the past week I've had four or five people mention to me just how much they've enjoyed not only my story, but the others in the book. They mentioned how it was nice to read something that could be digested in a single sitting. It's as though they've never really read short fiction before.

It's true that we don't teach enough of the short form in school (and there are explanations for that), but a colleague and I have made a concerted effort to try to introduce more into our classes.

And it seems as though the students, although puzzled at first by the brevity of text, are starting to enjoy and appreciate these stories.

Long live the short form!