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Showing results for tags 'short stories'.
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Book Review: Showtime 2020: The Collected Works of Newham Writers
Drew Payne posted a blog entry in Words, Words and Words
This anthology is a collection from a writers workshop in East London. As such is has been designed to showcase the writing coming out of this workshop, and so is a very mixed anthology. This isn’t just a collection of short stories only, or just poetry or only essays. This collection contains many different styles of writing. There are short stories here, but also poetry, essays and even drabbles (100 word stories). The strength here is this collection’s variety. If you don’t want to read poetry or an essay, then the next piece is something different. And there is a lot of variety here, there’s twenty-eight different pieces of writing in this collection. There are certainly highlights here. Belgin Durmush’s short story is a surreal satire on dysfunctional committees, while George Tsappis’s story finds the humanity in less than a glorious time for the British occupiers of 1940’s Cyprus. The poems here span many different styles. Frank Crocker’s poems are pithy and humorous, revolving around one subject or another. George Fuller’s poems paint lyrical pictures of different events and places. Dharma Paul’s poems engage the mind and emotions. But the standout poems here are Deborah Collins’s, both lyrically and memorably, captures the strange and disjointed world of East London during lockdown. And there are Paul Butler’s drabbles. He uses 100 words to tell his concise and sharply funny stories. This anthology is full of different and new writing, it is a chance to find some new authors from East London, and is read that can be dipped in and out of, or read in one or two sittings. Find something original here. Find it here on Amazon- 3 comments
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Book Review: The Fallen Curtain by Ruth Rendell
Drew Payne posted a blog entry in Words, Words and Words
Ruth Rendell was known for her dark psychological thrillers, but she also wrote many short stories, throughout her career. This was her first collection of them, many of which had been previously published in different magazines. At her best, she always had a feel and understanding for character, especially people caught up in events greater than themselves. Here are several short stories that showcase that ability. She captures characters both on the edge of society and those who are bastions of it. These are also the best stories here, were Rendell writes about a character caught up in a situation, with tragic ends. Rendell uses the twist-in-the-tale format for some of these stories, unfortunately it only sometimes works, other times the twist is so obvious that it is a wonder she completed the story. This collection was originally published in 1976, with the stories all written before then, and many of the attitudes in these stories haven’t aged well. Attitudes to mental illness, child abduction and sexism depicted here do creek with age. The pleasure of this collection, though, is in Rendall’s understanding of character, and at its best it is fascinating. Find it here on Amazon-
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My short story, Even a Monkey Can Fall from a Tree, can be read in this, new anthology, Showtime 2023, but there’s more to it than just that. Every year, Newham Writers Workshop publishes an anthology of its members work, and I’m member of them and this is the fourth anthology I’ve had work published in. But I’m also now part of the editorial team that published it. I had the easy job. My fellow writers, Belgin and Paula, had the hardest task. They proofread and edited all the submissions and they did a wonderful job of it. They captured those annoying repetitions, corrected those silly spelling mistakes we all make and helped the writer to clarify what they were writing. Editing is not my strong point and I’m so grateful for those who can do it well. My role was the formatting of the manuscript, uploading it to Amazon and promoting it online (Which this blog is the first stage of). I had to format it into eBook and paper back book formats. This wasn’t too difficult, except the writer who had their work in a strange format and screwed half the book’s formatting (!!). Martin, my partner, helped me with the cover. The cover picture is Alphabetti Spaghetti by Alex Chinneck. This is a series of sculptures, of post boxes tied into a knot, placed across the country. There is one just down the road from us, its also a piece of public art in the London borough of Newham, which is a theme we kind of fell into for our cover illustrations. The anthology is a showcase of our members work, hence the name, and it contains so much good writing, a chance I got to experience formatting it, and that writing is so varied. There is poetry, short stories, memoirs and a memorial essay. A lot of current poetry I find dense and difficult to understand, but I’m happy that I can’t say that for my fellow writers here. Many of the poems here are lyrical, painting wonderful images with their words, others use words to take an aim at their subjects. Beautiful-Words by Deborah Collins, Noise by Paul Butler, The Tankard’s Mahogany Bar by George Fuller and Resignation by Catherine Daniels are all fine examples of the poetry here. There is a richness of prose here too, and on such a diverse range of subjects, challenging subjects, not simply cosy and safe. Ros Allison gives us another short story about female friendship. Sarah Winslow, Nicola Catton, Dharma Paul and Belgin Durmush all have written short stories that use fantasy themes, ranging from light and whimsical, to dark and memorable. These stories include meeting your hero, strange events in a coffee shop, through meeting yourself and a very dark story about a house that suddenly appears on a hill. My own story, Even a Monkey Can Fall from a Tree, is about a young man who catches Monkey pox (Mpox). Through this infection he finds himself on the receiving end of a world of judgment and homophobia. The inspiration came from reading about different men’s experiences during the outbreak of Monkey Pox in the summer of 2022. As I read their experiences, I felt such an echo of the homophobia circling around HIV in the 1980s & 1990s. It was disturbing to hear all that homophobia resurfacing again. It shouted out to me to write about it, to explore the cost of it. There is also non-fiction in this anthology, personal essays that draw on universal experiences. Dave Chambers’s essay, Uncle Bob, is about how he moved away from and then left the Catholic Church through his relationship with his uncle. Frank Crocker’s essay is about loss, first experienced as a child and then much later as an adult. The last piece in the anthology is also one of the most poignant pieces here. It is a memorial essay about our former treasurer, Margaret Griffith. Margaret died suddenly and unexpectantly in August 2022. Her death had surprised and shocked us all, she had been our longest serving member. This essay, drawn from the eulogies at her funeral, is a way of us remembering such a prominent member of our workshop. This anthology is a showcase of the work coming out of our writers workshop, the original and different voices producing work in East London. You can get a copy of it here. Happy reading Drew
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In the lead up to what is already being called, in our household, The Big Move, I am focusing on editing and preparing manuscripts, rather than writing. This is because it is hard to write when you feel guilty for not packing your life into boxes, and secondly because whilst Cowboy Summer waits for covers and one last read-through, I have no finished the 17 tracks of the American Songbook. Yes people, I said 17 tracks. There are two tracks "Sandbar" and "Marshallville" which will only be available on the deluxe album version (both digital and print). Current word counts look to be around 150,000 which is going to make this a pretty hefty tome probably some 450-500 pages long. Should keep you busy! we are hoping for a release date this side of the end of May, if all goes to plan, and I'll let you know how things progress. The contents of the 'album' stands thus: 1 - All Over The Road All Over The Road - Easton Corbin 2 - Great-Grandaddy's Gun Grandaddy's Gun - Blake Shelton 3 - Home Grown American Beautiful - The Henningsens 4 - Nothin' Town This Nothin' Town - Jason Aldean 5 - Country Girl Fresh Off The Farm The Farm Inc. 6 - The Boy Who Was Summer Sunny and 75 - Joe Nichols 19 You+Me - Dan + Shay 7 - Tailgate Hangout Ready, Set, Roll - Chase Rice That's My Kind of Night - Luke Bryan 8 - Payback's a Blast Get Even - Brad Paisley 9 - Bright Thunder Blown Away - Carrie Underwood 10 - Drunk Last Night Drunk Last Night - Eli Young Band 11 - Our Song Play it Again - Luke Bryan 12 - Worth the Drive See You Tonight - Scotty McCreery 13 - Instantly State of Grace - Taylor Swift Crickets - Joe Nichols 14 - Ladies' Man God Made Girls - RaeLynn 15 - Lonely at the Top Hope You Get Lonely Tonight - Cole Swindell 16 - Sandbar (Deluxe Album Version) Wish I Had A Boat - Tyler Farr 17 - Marshallville (Deluxe Album Version) Water Tower - Jason Aldean
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Anthologies can be interesting reads and, in the past, have introduced me to writers I might not have found in other ways. If it’s by one author then it can be an interesting introduction to an author’s work or else it is a way to see how an author handles writing short stories, which are different form from novel writing. If it’s an anthology of different writers then there is a chance to discover new authors. Unfortunately, this anthology did not provide any of this. I found this anthology so frustrating because none of the stories developed any of their themes. None of the stories had any character development or even led anywhere. After finishing each story, I was left with the feeling, “Was that it?” None reached any sort of resolution. Now, short stories are not novels, I don’t expect complete character story arcs or resolution of big themes, but they are stories and stories do need to take the reader somewhere. All the stories here left me feeling frustrated because they didn’t go anywhere. Some of the stories had an interesting premise but did not follow through on that premise, ending too soon or just not exploring that premise. One story, which illustrates my frustration with this anthology, was about two work colleagues sharing a car to a team-building event. They bought coffees; they argued over what music to play in the car; the car got a flat tyre; they waited for the breakdown van to arrive; they restarted their journey and it started to rain, but they didn’t reach their team-building event. The characters didn’t share anything, they didn’t get to know each other, they didn’t contact in any way; they were just the same at the beginning as they were at the end of the story, nothing had changed or been challenged. What was the point of this story? It was just a catalogue of their morning. For an anthology to have one story as frustrating and pointless as this is one thing, but to have a whole collection of stories like that is another thing. It had to be a conscious decision by the editor, but why would someone collect together a group of stories that all left the reader feeling so disappointed? I don’t know. My advice is not to waste your time with this anthology, I wish I hadn’t. Find it here on Amazon
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Book Review: Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie
Drew Payne posted a blog entry in Words, Words and Words
Miss Marple is probably the most famous female detective in English literature, she was certainly an original character when she first appeared in print, using psychology and character observation rather than searching for physical clues to solve crimes. This collection of stories was published posthumously after Christie’s death and brings together the remaining Miss Marple short stories that hadn’t been published in book form before, plus two supernatural stories that didn’t feature Miss Marple. This is certainly a mixed bag of stories. Sanctuary and Greenshaw's Folly are fully formed stories, with plots and characters that work and carry the reader to the end at a readable pace. Strange Jest is much more a puzzle story than a mystery and suffers from not being a Christie mystery. The other Marple stories here feel rushed and not fully formed, like first-draft stories that were squeezed into a tight word limit. These stories far too often tell the reader what is happening rather than letting the characters and events show the reader what is happening. So often they felt rushed. They weren’t to the standard of other Christie stories, especially the original stories in the very first Marple collection, The Thirteen Problems. In Miss Marple Tells a Story Christie shows her ear for dialogue, the story is written completely in Miss Marple’s voice, solely her voice speaking. It shows how well Christie knew her character; unfortunately the story itself is too short and slight to build any plot. The two non Miss Marple stories here are examples of Christie’s supernatural stories that she wrote periodically throughout her career. The Dressmaker’s Doll is overly long, dragging out the situation and distracting from the ending. In a Glass Darkly is a much darker story in tone, but the neat ending, where order is restored, is a let-down. Christie’s short stories were best when she gave herself time and space to develop plots and characters, thus making her longer short stories often the better ones. This is very much the case here. This is a collection for committed Miss Marple fans who want to read all the stories she appears in. If you’re new to Miss Marple fiction there are much better places to start. Find it here on Amazon- 1 comment
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I have regularly been published on AwesomeDude.com where I am able to embed photos in my stories. The photos include permission and attribution from the photographer if I can find out who he or she is. Is it possible to include photos in the stories I submit to Gay Authors? Thanks for letting me know. John
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It's already that time! I don't want to get too close to Halloween, so that's right, it's only August and I'm already preparing you for the Halloween-themed short story challenge. This one is going to be sooooo fun. There's a central theme for everyone, so the stories will have a certain similarity, but how you will choose to write it, or where in the plot you come into the storyline, and just who the characters will be... now that is where you can get creative. The game particulars as far as length, time frame, etc... will follow in a week or so once I get some feedback from members first. Which leads me to the poll. The POLL! There's a poll for members to answer about the villain they might want to read or write about, and it'll also help decide just which villain each author will have to elude... if they can! Will you get your choice? Hmmm... Of course, I'm hosting the game so there will be a twist! How will YOUR villain be decided. Well, first you have to decide to play, vote, and wait to see. Muahahahahahaha 👹 Update to add: Comment with the list of rules for the game: https://gayauthors.org/forums/topic/45682-halloween-hunt-short-story-game/?do=findComment&comment=978443 Comment with the list of villains: https://gayauthors.org/forums/topic/45682-halloween-hunt-short-story-game/?do=findComment&comment=978959
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Since it's becoming clear that I am so far from finished with these two, I've decided that this collection of shorts deserves its own thread. To make things simple, all stories posted about in this thread carry a mature rating and contain copious amounts of gratuitous swearing and most of them also contain a bit of a masochist kink. You have been warned. They are all betaed by the wonderful Sasha Distan. The Jacob & Marcus Tales The F*cking Trilogy: Part One: Soft Marcus is the maladjusted, borderline sadistic and really quite brilliant editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, and Jacob wants him. The only problem is that Jacob is just about as maladjusted and out of touch as the object of his desire. Part Two: Hard Marcus manages his stressful life by being in control of, and on top of, everything at all times, including his lover, Jacob. But everything becomes just a little bit too much when Marcus has to deal with his dying father, the man who made his childhood a living hell, and in the end there's only one person Marcus can turn to. Part Three: Weak Marcus and Jacob have been at it for four months, but now people are starting to figure it out and it's threatening the delicate balance of their relationship. Marcus is preoccupied with writing his dissertation, and Jacob is even more angry than usual. Epilogue: Strong Ten years have passed since editorial meetings and the Student Union. Ten years since angry sex and verbal abuse. And everything is different now. Everything. Contains gratuitous swearing and angsty revelations. Firsts Jacob doesn't really like Oliver, but somehow he seems to be his first for almost everything. Marcus hates his life, and his dad, and pretty much everything in his dreary industrial town, but makes a go at trying out new things anyway. Two short stories set before The F*cking Trilogy. Then Things Happened After meeting again after ten years, Jacob comes to visit Marcus, and, in their thirties now, both men are forced to examine their feelings and consider what their futures will hold. Contains gratuitous swearing, and some domestic fluff. Sex, Booze & Consequences They're no good without one another. They both know that, deep down. Because when they're apart, they make some really stupid decisions. Contains gratuitous swearing and a whole lot of booze. What Meg Said Meg loves her parents. All three of them. But maybe, in the end, especially Pa. Contains some swearing. Moments A few missing moments in the lives of our dysfunctional heroes. Contains gratuitous swearing and a lot of domestic fluff.
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So this seems a little bit self-serving... I have began to post my first made-for-GA story on the site and thought people might like to talk about it. Who knows. Bad Stereotypes is about a young man named Bay, who after having his friends and family assume that just because he's come out of the closet he wants to be camp now, runs away to the city on the sea where his Godfather owns a rock and metal bar and club. The story is told is short chapters with numerous flashbacks of Bay's past and history, which help to explain why an out gay guy "hates queers". How Bay gets from his repressed but out point of view to being happy involves a cast of interesting work-mates and one very special man. Four chapters currently available with a new one posted each day. Current length is 13k, and i would project anywhere between 20 and 30k when it's finished. Also, quite randomly, disability themed undertones. Though i'm not quite sure why that is. so, let me know what you think. and yes, some of the chapters are very short. i'm sorry.
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This is a collection of short stories about supporting characters and antagonists from my novel Nemesis. It's probably not necessary to read Nemesis to enjoy these, but if you intend to read Nemesis you should probably do so first, as this contains spoilers. Hubris can be found here. And the first story has been posted! Alan Summary: Finding out that the boy he's been secretly in love with for years is together with his best friend whom he thought was straight, leaves Alan Bradford confused and angry, and still unwilling to admit to himself or anyone else that he's gay. However, an evening in the company of Matt Taylor might make him change his mind. Warning: Contains a fairly graphic sex scene.
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I thought instead of cluttering the forum with a separate thread for each of my short stories, which there's likely to be a lot of, I would just make a master thread for potential discussions. Pretty Boys Rating: Mature Summary: 'I collect pretty boys. Whenever I see one—slight and effeminate, with long lashes and rosy lips—I want to own him. I want to make him want me. Adore me. Love me.' A rather odd young man's life, summed up in less than 2000 words. Brighton Rock Rating: Mature Summary: Kevin has been out for years. He's attractive, outgoing and flirty, and thrives in the liberal community of Kemp Town in Brighton. For his best friend Jeff, however, coming out is not as easy, particularly since he's in love with Kevin and not at all his type.