‘Tis the season.
Nyarlathotep, I’m Breaking Up with You by Jason Henninger.
Ia, ia, ia, ia, ia! Ia, ia ia! (From Tor.com.)
Posts Tagged ‘short fiction’
nyarlathotep, i’m breaking up with you
Friday, December 18th, 2009[slushpilemag]: farmer’s almanac
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009Because it’s been a while since we’ve had any short fiction here. Hasn’t it? I can’t remember.
Farmer’s Almanac by Christopher James Klingbeil. (From slushpilemag.)
kindle the itunes of short fiction
Monday, December 14th, 2009The NYTimes reports that The Atlantic, formerly The Atlantic Monthly, will publish short stories on the Kindle at $3.99 a pop.
This is potentially really exciting news for short fiction, a form that used to be hugely popular (F. Scott Fitzgerald was considered to have squandered his talent writing short fiction for ready cash). Personally, I think the price tag is wrong–it should be $0.99, like an iPhone app.
It could be a great little money-maker for magazines who have enough reputation to give the experiment their editorial imprimatur, not to mention market it to their subscribers. It’s a good thing for authors too, as one author points out:
had she sold it to a small academic journal, it would have had “limited distribution anyway.”
It’s unlikely that unknown authors will be able to break into the Kindle on their own… for now. But if this is the first step towards an iTunes-like distribution model for fiction, then it could be.
In any event, it’s another market for short fiction and that ain’t bad.
foes, by lorrie moore
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009From the litfarm vault, mouldering away in my drafts list, here’s a new short story in The Guardian from Lorrie Moore. This was a much better post before Obama got elected.
[joyland]: 100% recycled materials
Friday, November 27th, 2009I haven’t been posting much since my son was born. And I didn’t read any of the Booker short list. I know, I’m fired. Anyway.
Lately I’ve been reading Joyland, an online literary journal that publishes high quality short fiction (on the internet! I know!). Here’s a recent story made up entirely of text salvaged from the purple prose spammers use to trick email filters. Clever.
the film-makers of mars by geoff ryman
Friday, June 5th, 2009against specificity, by douglas watson
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008Just something I found and liked. An excerpt:
The trouble: You want Thing A but are stuck with Thing B.
Shit, you say, turning Thing B around in your hands. Look at this thing, you say. It’s as dull as a bucket of dirt. It’s not half as interesting as a sculpture of a dog pissing on a dead man’s shoe in the rain, and you don’t have one of those. You don’t have Thing A, either.
I can relate. From the now defunct Backwards City Review.
six word stories
Monday, November 24th, 2008Riffing off Hemmingway’s classic, Wired got some famous science fiction authors together to write some very short stories. Six words each.
One of my favorites:
God to Earth: “Cry more, noobs!”
- Marc Laidlaw
Litfarm out.
20th annual literary writes competition
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Just in from the TWS mailing list: BC Federation of Writers is having a contest for short fiction. Any genre is acceptable, deadline is July 1, 2008, entry fee is $20, and prizes are from $150-500, plus publication in WordWorks and the chance to read at Word on the Street in September.
the short long-distance writing contest
Sunday, February 10th, 2008Geist is having a short fiction contest! Snail mail a short story, maximum 500 words, fiction or non-fiction, where the action takes place in at least two time zones within Canada, along with a cover letter and $20 dollars (includes a one-year subscription) by June 1st, 2008.
Prizes are $250, $150, $100 and swell Geist gifts. Winners will be published in Geist, geist.com and selected stories will be published the thetyee.ca.
Gory details at the link above.