By John Ramsey Miller
The truth is I forgot all about New Years, and it was around five PM on December 31 when I was returning from a trip to see close friends in Apex, NC that I remembered. My mind is rapidly turning to liquid soap with an A1-sauce center. We kept two of our grandchildren New Years Eve and were in bed asleep by nine o’clock. Am I getting old? God I hope so, because if I’m young, its all over for humanity.
It was nice taking a break from the blog. I turned in a short story, which readers will be able to purchase as a download along with a short story by each of the other bloggers here. Until recently I didn’t think of myself as a short story writer, but a short story is no harder to write than a good chapter in a novel. Truthfully I was tempted to publish the opening chapter of a book I’m writing now. It worked well as a short story and that got me to thinking that perhaps most opening chapters in novels would make stand-alone stories. I’m reading a book right now by a first-time novelist that will be published in a few months and the first chapter would make a great short story. It’s the assassination of Tsar Nicholas and his family from the Tsar’s POV.
I have truly loved all of the Arkady Renko novels by Martin Cruz Smith: GORKY PARK, RED SQUARE, HAVANA BAY, STALIN’S GHOST, and WOLVES EAT DOGS. I truly love Russia in the Winter, although I never intend to be there then. In fact I do not ever intend to visit the Soviet Union ever. Not my sort of place even though it’s a successful socialistic model of Utopia.
God, I love a good story, long or short. My favorite book of short stories (of late) is Laura Lippman’s HARDLY KNEW HER. What a brilliant collection of stories. THE CRACK COCAINE DIET stunned me and I went rollicking through the book and couldn’t set it down. I don’t read a lot of short stories, but when I hit a great collection like Vonnegut’s classic, WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE, Stephen King’s NIGHT SHIFT… It’s great. Feel free to make recommendations for your favorite great short story collections here under comments.
I love a good short story. The emotional impact of it can be greater than a novel, in the right hands. I studied the form under Raymond Carver, in college, and let me tell you that was setting the bar pretty high. IMO, it’s the most challenging form of fiction.
My favorite short story collection is My Name is Aram by William Saroyan. Then the stories of Hemingway. For pure fun, the two Twisted collections by Jeffery Deaver. He challenges the reader to outguess him, so have at it.
Just catching up with everyone’s posts because I was sans satellite connection all week in Vermont (ya never appreciate the cybercomforts of home ’till they’re gone)…I’ve been reading and rediscovering a lot of short stories over the holiday. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy them!
I do like occasional short stories as they are an easy quick burst of entertainment. There are more in my mind than I can remember to link them to who put them there but one of my favourites was a book by Frederick Forsythe titled “No Comebacks”. Intriguing and entertaining.
I gave a go at some myself a while back and posted series of ten shorts as audio stories on iTunes. Titled “In The Shadows”. Search the title or my name if you like. If you get a chance to listen, let me know what you think.