# SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS Thread - Give Recommendations



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS FOR KINDLE

Red Adept the other day mentioned how she reads a collection of short stories in one sitting. I know other people might read a few stories, go to another book for a while, then come back to short stories. Short stories are simply different than a novel. Many people prefer them because they are brief and fit into their lives. They can read a whole piece in one sitting.

I'm creating this thread to hear from readers on one or two things: Do you like short fiction, yes or no? Not everyone rushes to collections, after all. As one reader put it, short story collections aren't swept off of Kindle's virtual bookshelves. Second, do you have recommendations of short story collections (beyond your own, if you're an author).

I bring this up, too, because as I looked at the top 100 Kindle Short Story collections, many of them are by "classic" writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, and Mark Twain. I don't see a lot of contemporary authors I love. That's in part because there are no Kindle versions of, say, _Birds of America _ by Lorrie Moore, Tim O'Brien's _The Things They Carried_, or _The Collected Stories of Richard Yates._ There isn't even any Salinger. The following, however, ARE available for the Kindle. I offer a few that I've read or am reading, and a few that are still on my To-Read Shelf. 
I love great short fiction, so I'm offering my suggestions and await yours.

HAVE READ AND RECOMMEND:

_*Unaccustomed Earth*_ by Jumpa Larhiri http://www.amazon.com/Unaccustomed-Earth/dp/B0011UGLK6?tag=kbpst-20 This is a rare book in many ways. First, it won last year's Frank O'Connor Short Fiction Award, the most prestigious award for short fiction in the world. Second, it's a short story collection that sat on the New York Times bestseller list for a long time. It still sells well. Third, these are heart-rending stories about people pulled by two different cultures. It's #1 Kindle Store for short story collections, and #558 for all Kindle books.

_*At Close Range*_ by Annie Proulx http://www.amazon.com/Close-Range-Wyoming-Stories/dp/B00119QGMA?tag=kbpst-20. Proulx started publishing fiction late in life, in her fifties. She became the first woman to win the prestigious PEN/Faulkner book award, for her debut novel Postcards, and her short story, "Brokeback Mountain" became a movie. In this collection is one of the shortest and most perfect short stories I ever read, "55 Miles to the Gas Pump."

*The Maples Stories* by John Updike http://www.amazon.com/The-Maples-Stories-ebook/dp/B002JQK1I4?tag=kbpst-20. Updike wrote these stories over the years, often first publishing them in The New Yorker. They're funny, telling, and often moving. _Too Far to Go_ is a film made from them.

PLANNING ON READING:

*Moral Disorder* by Margaret Atwood http://www.amazon.com/Oblivion-Stories-ebook/dp/B000FC1RGE?tag=kbpst-20. I am a huge fan of Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and so I look forward to these stories.

_*Oblivion*_ by David Foster Wallace http://www.amazon.com/Oblivion-Stories-ebook/dp/B000FC1RGE?tag=kbpst-20. The man is an amazing writer, and, alas, he killed himself last year.

*No One Belongs Here More Than You* by Miranda July http://www.amazon.com/One-Belongs-Here-More-Than/dp/B000QCSA0O?tag=kbpst-20. July won the Frank O'Connor Short Fiction Award the year before Lahiri.

ON KINDLE:

If you want to see what the top 100 bestselling short story collections are on the Kindle, go here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/157087011/ref=pd_ts_kinc_nav?tag=kbpst-20


----------



## Selcien (Oct 31, 2008)

Do you like short fiction, yes or no?


I have never been drawn to short stories but I've been more open to trying them since I started reading my DX on lunch breaks (half an hour). So far I have to say that I dislike flash fiction 'cause while I like that they can be finished very quickly I just do not find them to be satisfying in the least bit. Not sure what I'll think of novelettes or novellas just yet but I think that I'll end up preferring to read small bits of large stories over reading large bits of small stories.


----------



## Lynn Bullman (Aug 16, 2009)

I like short stories, that's mainly what I write too.  For one thing, a short story is "much" more challenging to write than a longer piece where you have boo-coo pages to develop your storyline, characters, locales, plots, etc...  You just don't have all that space to do any of that in a short, so it takes some fair amount of skill and ingenuity to get everything that you need in there...and do it correctly...so that it makes sense and tell's the reader (s) of it everything that they need to know.

Heck, just about anybody can take twenty pages to describe something about his/her story, a character, an action scene, whatever...but "few" can do the same correctly and neatly in say, 10 or 15 pages...where those 10 or 15 (or whatever) is ALL that you've got for the WHOLE story!  lol!

So yeah, anybody that "can" do that, and make me like it...is sure enough a genuine Story Teller to me.  And that's important to me...cause that's what "I" strive to be too.  Not particularly a writer...but rather a story teller that can spin a yarn that will capture the reader's attention and imagination even if just for the short length of the tale.

I grew up listening to my ole Grand Dad tell his tall tales...usually short, but to the point (he was a Master story teller.)  And he could spin a yarn that would keep us kids buzzing for days.  Later, I got into the old fashioned "pulp" fiction books and magazines...Strange War, Action and Adventure Tales, etc...and really loved those shorts too.  Then still later, got into the short work of giants like Ray Bradbury...and others...and man could THEY spin a short yarn!

To me, these stories (short as they were...and some were REALLY short!) captured my imagination much greater than a lot of longer works.  Maybe because the writer (as stated above) had to really be on his toes and pack it chock-full of good stuff to do anything near what the longer writers could do with more space.  Anybody ever read the world's "shortest" Science Fiction story?  lol!  What is it, like one or two lines...yet it's POWER was tremendous!  And for weeks after I read it...I kept thinking...now if there was only "one" human left alive in the world...who could possibly have knocked on his door?  

Now THAT is power!

And the gift...of a short story.

Peeps that don't read them, don't know what they're missing out on.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Lynn Bullman said:


> Now THAT is power!
> 
> And the gift...of a short story.
> 
> Peeps that don't read them, don't know what they're missing out on.


Indeed, peeps are missing out. And Selcian, the fact you can read a whole story or more on your DX at lunch sounds fabulous.

While I'm focused on finishing a novel, I was compelled earlier this week to write a short story after I heard a three-minute short story challenge on NPR. The rules were simple. Within two days, write a story of less than 600 words that started with the sentence, "The nurse left work at five o'clock." Anton Chekhov and Raymond Carver would write stories on something as minimal as this. I had to try. My first draft was over a thousand words. I kept cutting and cutting. Just as I thought I could cut no more, I needed six fewer words. That's when I started seeing a few places were one word could replace two or three. It's a great exercise to write a story under 600 words, I realized. It forces you to consider every word, which those of us writing novels need to be reminded of.

At the NPR site, there's already one example of a story meeting the criteria. You can read it at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112107729.

--Christopher Meeks


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Lynn Bullman said:


> Peeps that don't read them, don't know what they're missing out on.


I've read a lot of short stories. I TOTALLY understand the entirely different skill set needed to write/tell a good one. And I can tell the difference between a good one and a bad one. All that said, I find that I simply prefer a longer form story. It doesn't need to be 1000 pages. . . .but I want it, I find, to be more than 10.

Just Me.


----------



## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

I don't like short stories as much as novels. But I came to write and read them because I wanted to be a better writer. I tend to like magazines rather than collections--it's been my luck that the magazines seem to have the type of stuff I like.

Blackgate is my favorite. Their PDF can be purchased (although I think it has to be converted to be read on a kindle, lots of people tell me they do such a conversion.) I read the PDF on my laptop. One thing to note: They include art--WONDERFUL art. I'm not sure how that would convert. Their stories tend to be high fantasy and/or adventure oriented. Rarely a stinker in the bunch (although one such does come immediately to mind that to this DAY I cannot understand how it got in there!) The issues run about 5 dollars. Subs are cheaper on a per issue basis.

I love www.towndrunkmag.com - one story per month with an emphasis on humor. I read on the laptop. Not sure if you can download or copy.

Baen's Universe - Going away next year, but all back issues can still be ordered. This magazine has EVERYTHING. Several sci/fi shorts, fantasy shorts, editorial opinions; large issues. They run about 6 dollars I think. Very high quality stories that range from VERY scientific to fun fantasy.

I've read a few collections: Criminal Tendencies if you like mysteries. There were a few too many noir stories for my taste, but it's a large collection. Alas, it is not available on kindle and likely never will be because it was done for a breast cancer charity drive. Personally, I think all anthologies should be online because that is the place I tend to read short stories.

Oh--another absolute favorite place of mine for anthos: www.AnthologyBuilder.com (full disclosure: some of my stories are available there!). BUT The cool thing about this site is you pick and choose the stories you want, build your book and order it--trade paperback only so far as I know. It's a little pricey: 14.95 per book up to 350 pages. I ordered 3 so far and the one listed in the library: http://www.anthologybuilder.com/view_template.php?template_id=217 (Dragon Wings) was the BEST. I loved the stories in this anthology. I picked them by reading samples and I think when I was done, I only deleted one story out of the book (I replaced it with something different. You can start with any anthology in the library and take stories out, add, delete or just start from scratch.)

Maria


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Ann, even though I write short fiction, when I come across a novel such as Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" or Sara Gruen's "Water for Elephants" or Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones," I love the long form completely. A reader can invest in the characters in a novel in a way that's nearly impossible in a short story. Yet that just makes short stories that much more challenging. When I think of some of my favorite short stories, such at Tobias Wolff's "Bullet in the Brain" or Lorrie Moore's "Terrific Mother" or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," so much sticks with me. I am in awe of how much can be packed into so little.

Maria, I had never heard of the make-your-own-book approach to short story collections, but I will go there to investigate, along with your other suggestions--fabulous!

--Christopher Meeks


----------



## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

You're welcome Chris!  I probably should have mentioned--for published short story writers--if you went through an editor and were paid for your work, you can submit to www.AnthologyBuilder.com (basically magazines online or print that pay writers for their work).  The work is out there on an non-exclusive basis; people can pick your stories and put in an anthology.  Artists--you can submit cover work for sale.  There are some lovely, lovely cover work out there.    So you can still have your stories on Kindle if you've republished them there and there is no conflict.


----------



## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

No idea if it's available for Kindle or not, but another great short story collection is A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler.

And yes, I like short fiction. 

But I like long fiction too.

And Lynn, I'm going to disagree and say that I don't think it's harder to write short -- nor is it harder to write long! They're just different, and each quite challenging in their own ways.

Kristan


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Kristan--

Pulitzer Prize-winning Robert Olen Butler is a favorite short story writer of mine. I've seen him lecture and read twice, and he's magnetic. His collection _*Severence*_ gives first person accounts of famous people beheaded--such Nichole Brown Simpson, Jayne Mansfield, and Marie Antoinette--each story done in less than a thousand words. They are virtual prose poems. That isn't available for the Kindle but you can get the book at Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Severance-Stories-Robert-Olen-Butler/dp/0811860981

On Kindle, you can get his collection _*Had a Good Time*_ at http://www.amazon.com/Had-a-Good-Time/dp/B00155EZPA. The stories are imagined first-person accounts as written on postcards.

I also happened to use his book about creative writing, _*From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction*_, in my most recent fiction class as UCLA Extension. Butler teaches creative writing at Florida State University, and the book is created from some of his lectures. My students happened to find he became a bit strident by the middle of the book, but I have to say Butler takes an approach I haven't seen anyone else use. He's not a huggy feely what-a-beautiful-creator-you-must-be kind of person, but someone who pushes what it takes to write. He also believes as I do that one taps into the subconscious mind, and his exercises aim to get you there. It's available for Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/From-Where-You-Dream/dp/B0015KGWEW.

--Christopher Meeks

P.S. Maria, that Anthology Builder site sounds fascinating. I will go there.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

I'm not sure what prompted this, but my book _The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea_ took a huge leap up in ranking today. I just found that the short story collection ranks thus on Kindle:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,336 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

#5 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Short Stories 
#43 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Humor 
#51 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Single Women

Thank you whoever or whatever prompted this. I'll also mention another short story collection from a fellow member of Backword Books: Kristen Tsetsi. Her new collection of short fiction_Carol's Aquarium_ was introduced last week. You can read about it at http://www.amazon.com/Carols-Aquarium-ebook/dp/B002NGO5NC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252781194&sr=8-1.

--Christopher Meeks


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

I found the source of what may have caused the wonderful leap in sales that has been going for a couple of weeks now. A friend sent me a link to an Amazon forum. I never noticed forums on Amazon before. There, Neil Shapiro wrote, "I happened to hear part of the BookChatter blog's live show tonight and was intrigued enough by author Christopher Meeks to look up his first book THE MIDDLE-AGED MAN AND THE SEA in the Kindle store. It was priced at only $1.95 so figured I would give it a try and all I can say is that's the cheapest way I have ever yet found a favorite author. If you enjoy stories that feature insightful characterization and a clear authorial voice I simply recommend this highly. Oh, and bonus, it's not DRM'd."

A number of people wrote after him, supporting him, and thanks to avid Kindle readers like yourself, things have been happening. Red Adept has been a great support, too, with her 5-star review.

If you're curious to see the thread, it's at http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref=cm_cd_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1D7SY3BVSESG&cdThread=Tx8ANGR0RGQKXC&displayType=tagsDetail

Cheers,
Chris

P.S. Red Adept gave a good recommendation yesterday to another short story collection. Check out her blog (which isn't at my fingertips right now.)


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

This is a good collection of stories and all the money raised goes to the Lambda Legal Defense fund to support gay marriage. So far they have donated more than $1500.











L


----------



## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

I have never been a particular fan of short stories, but with all the novels nowadays getting longer and longer and longer I am finding that they are good.  I need something between those lonnnng novels to break my living in that story before i start another, and sometimes I want to finish a book in a day not take a week to do it.  So guess I better go check out some of you guys.  I already know about Lynn and I absolutely recommend his, so that shows a more mature person can change


----------



## MikeD (Nov 5, 2008)

I don't read many short story collections, but here are 3 that I have read recently and found to be quite good:


----------



## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Thanks for sharing those Mike.  Those covers are great.  I especially like the one for the Tuttle.


----------



## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

I read this one recently and enjoyed it very much:










Some of the stories are absolutely fantastic!


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

If you're interested in short story collections, you might be interested in this idea-in-the-making:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,13964.msg267202.html#msg267202

Betsy


----------



## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

E.M. Forster has written some superb short stories. There's a collection (not available on Kindle, alas) of stories most of which were not published during his lifetime because, like the novel "Maurice," they are gay themed. Forster's style in the short-stories is quite different from his novels. The tone of many of them is very dark and pessimistic. In the novels there's always a sense of optimism, but some of these stories (most notably the title story and "The Other Boat") are very tragic and gloomy. Highly recommended!


----------



## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

I just noticed that apparently Kazuo Ishiguro has a new collection of short stories called "Nocturnes."


----------



## Kristen Tsetsi (Sep 1, 2009)

There hasn't been a mention, yet, of flash fiction (unless I missed it).  My husband makes fun of it, calls it writing for "lazy" writers (he's kidding, because he knows I enjoy writing flash fiction), but I think - like anything else - it has its more difficult, and easier, elements and is its own special form of storytelling.

(Having written screenplays, plays, short stories, flash fiction, and now into writing my second novel, I don't find any one form to be easier than the next. They are all simply different.)

I can't find the collection of flash fiction I was going to recommend formatted for the Kindle, unfortunately. However, I think if I owned a Kindle (a someday fantasy), flash fiction would be precisely what I would read on it. I'm a curl-up-with-a-novel kind of person, but for short-short fiction I think a Kindle would be perfect for me.

Has anyone else found any flash fiction (or looked for any flash fiction) for Kindle?


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Kristen--

I happen to love reading and writing Flash Fiction, which, if done well, is like any amazing poem. Bad Flash Fiction is lazy fiction. Good flash fiction, as you know, is the fin of a shark--the swift muscle and sharp teeth are below the surface.

I took your note as a challenge to find flash fiction for the Kindle. Here are some, starting with my favorite, Robert Olen Butler:

Had a Good Time by Robert Olen Butler (Author): http://www.amazon.com/Had-a-Good-Time/dp/B00155EZPA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1254603920&sr=1-3

Nano-Flash Fiction for Kindle by James Dillingham (Author): http://www.amazon.com/Nano-Flash-Fiction-for-Kindle/dp/B002CZQFTG/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254603311&sr=8-7

World's Shortest Stories: Murder. Love. Horror. Suspense. All This And Much More... by Steve Moss (Author). Kindle edition: http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Shortest-Stories-Suspense-ebook/dp/B001NXCXX0/ref=ed_oe_k

OVER IN A FLASH by Sunny Frazier (Author) Kindle Edition: http://www.amazon.com/OVER-IN-A-FLASH/dp/B001K7IIGU/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254603772&sr=8-19

---
Annie Proulx wrote one of my all-time favorite short stories, only three paragraphs long, called "55 Miles to the Gas Pump," which is in "Close Range: Wyoming Stories," where the longer short story "Brokeback Mountain" also is. Kindle edition: http://www.amazon.com/Close-Range-Wyoming-Stories-ebook/dp/B00119QGMA/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

This thread has been sleeping for a month, and I'm curious if anyone has any new short stories or collections to recommend?


----------



## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Here's another good one that I've read on Kindle:










And, of course, our resident authors' collaboration:


----------



## Snocket (Nov 7, 2009)

Not quite a traditional short story collection, but I've immensely enjoyed reading and would highly recommend _American Fairy Tales_ by Frank Lyman Baum (author of the Wizard of Oz). It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The stories are thoroughly entertaining and quite humorous. I got it on my Kindle using feedbooks.


----------



## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

MikeD said:


> I don't read many short story collections, but here are 3 that I have read recently and found to be quite good:
> 
> [/url]


I went to see how much this was on the Kindle and was sorely disappointed to see that it's not available on the Kindle.

I clicked the 'put this doggone book on the Kindle so I can read it' button. I would appreciate anyone else's clicks.  The squeaky wheel gets the geras and all that...


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

You can get it for the Kindle (mobi/prc format) at Baen.net, the link that was provided.
 It's $6.

Betsy


----------



## MikeD (Nov 5, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> You can get it for the Kindle (mobi/prc format) at Baen.net, the link that was provided.
> 
> It's $6.
> 
> Betsy


Correct. 

There were two books being published by Nightshade books that I was interested in - "Wastelands" and "The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" - and neither was available on Kindle. I wrote to the publisher and asked when I could expect them to be available. Their reply was that they do not publish eBooks on Amazon and have no intention of doing so. But they said that "Wasted" was available on baen so I bought it, and "The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" would be published in November and available at baen as well.

Thus the link on the pic in my post above takes one directly to "Wastelands" here. 

Edit:
BTW, "The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is an anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories (most previously published) written by modern writers such as Robert Sawyer, Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, Stephen King, Michael Moorcock and others.


----------



## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

I love fiction of any length, short fiction included. If done well, a short story can be just as powerful as a novel.

My two favorite collections are David Morrell's _*BLACK EVENING * _ and Jeffery Deaver's _*TWISTED*_. David Morell's collection is a must for anyone who likes their stories creepy and Jeffery Deaver is probably the best short mystery fiction writer around at the moment--IMHO.

And if I can pimp my own ride, I have two collections, _*Working Stiffs * _ and _*Dragged into Darkness*_.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Simon, Betsy, and others: the latest collections look fabulous. I'm madly trying to finish a book right now so I'm not reading books for the next few weeks, but I will come back to this thread to get some of these before Christmas.

Simon, I was also impressed with your signature. I spent far too long trying to get my three titles under the 750-character limit for adding code in the signature, and my titles are truncated and on one line, and you've made four lines and send people to a list of your books on Amazon and Smashwords. I'm impressed. (And your books look interesting.)

--Chris


----------



## Nathan (Nov 13, 2009)

Nicolai Gogol is one to check out...he's the pre-Poe Russian equivalent. Solid stories like _The Nose_ and the _Overcoat_. Cheap price here, but I can't tell who the translation was done by.


----------



## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

Chrismeeks said:


> Simon, Betsy, and others: the latest collections look fabulous. I'm madly trying to finish a book right now so I'm not reading books for the next few weeks, but I will come back to this thread to get some of these before Christmas.
> 
> Simon, I was also impressed with your signature. I spent far too long trying to get my three titles under the 750-character limit for adding code in the signature, and my titles are truncated and on one line, and you've made four lines and send people to a list of your books on Amazon and Smashwords. I'm impressed. (And your books look interesting.)
> 
> --Chris


One tries.


----------



## William Woodall (Jun 8, 2009)

I would have to say that I like any good story, and I think it should be told in whatever length is required to tell it properly, whether that's one page or a thousand. I don't really have a preference as long as it's done well. I think Stephen King in particular is bad about letting his books get bloated and much longer than they ought to be sometimes. So is James Michener.

On the other hand, I've also read stories that just weren't as satisfying as they could have been because the author chopped them too short. Choosing the right length for a piece of fiction is a fine art.

If anyone likes classic science fiction collections, I really enjoyed all of Neil R. Jones' stories about Professor Jameson. I believe they're available on Amazon, and they're well worth the price. Hardly anyone has heard of him nowadays, sadly, but I've collected all five of his books in paperback.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

William, my first favorite short stories were Ray Bradbury's, and I found that his top 100 stories are available in a single book, Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales .

I had the pleasure of dining with him a little less than a year ago in Los Angeles' Chinatown with a handful of my graduate students. The guy's still going strong in his eighties.


----------



## William Woodall (Jun 8, 2009)

That's very cool, Chris.  I've always enjoyed Bradbury very much and I have a couple of his collections on my bookshelf at home.  I hadn't heard of the one you mentioned, but I'll have to check it out.  It sounds like something I would enjoy.


----------



## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

William Woodall said:


> I would have to say that I like any good story, and I think it should be told in whatever length is required to tell it properly, whether that's one page or a thousand. I don't really have a preference as long as it's done well. I think Stephen King in particular is bad about letting his books get bloated and much longer than they ought to be sometimes. So is James Michener.
> 
> On the other hand, I've also read stories that just weren't as satisfying as they could have been because the author chopped them too short. Choosing the right length for a piece of fiction is a fine art.


Well said. Short fiction is an art and like all good fiction it's a balancing act over what stays in the story and what doesn't.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

My wife just read Unaccustomed Earth







. I realize it's getting plenty of sales as is and probably doesn't need a plug, but my wife loved it so that I've got to get to it myself sooner than later.


----------



## tommy jonq (Jul 28, 2009)

One of my short stories, "Ivy," won the 2005 James Jones ("From Here to Eternity," "The Thin Red Line") Award in Short Fiction. It's available for the Kindle in "Forty Days," a collection of short stories and poems, some previously published, others not.

"Ivy" is the story of a beautiful but lonely woman in Billings, Montana who has a one-night romance with a traveling comedian.

"Forty Days," "I," and "Sallie Mae" are humorous stories about a self-obsessed young narrator coming of age in the rural Illinois of 1984.

Some of my poetry has been published in Matrix and Grassroots literary journals, and some of these poems are included, along with some micro-short stories.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Congratulations, Tommy. Sounds great.

--Chris


----------



## William Woodall (Jun 8, 2009)

I recently picked up a collection of sci-fi short stories entitled "Explorations", written by Poul Anderson. Maybe I'm just indulging my taste for semi-obscure science fiction stories, but these were really excellent. I especially liked the story "Epilogue", which was about what would happen on Earth if all organic life died off and machines started evolving their own ecology to replace it. It was fascinating reading, and very believably done too.

One of the many wonderful things about older books is that they tend to be so cheap. This one is available in paperback for just 2.15, I believe. It's well worth the price.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

I happen to teach Introduction to Literature at Santa Monica College, and this week we discussed Ernest Hemingway's short story, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." I had not read the story in at least a decade, and now that I'm ten-years older, it hit me with a lot more meaning than I remembered. Contrasts abound in this story: young/old, loneliness/campanionship, religious faith/existentialism, something/nothing, and a few more pairs--all in a very short story that at first seems like a vignette. The whole section on "nada who art in heaven" I found playful, brilliant, and poignant. It made me wish I'd written it. It's my kind of story.

If you just want to read the story, here's a link: http://www.mrbauld.com/hemclean.html

If you want to get all of Hemingway's stories, here's a book, which comes in a Kindle edition:


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Any short story collections people received or read over the holidays that you'd recommend?


----------



## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

This isn't a collection, but it _is_ a short story and I really really enjoyed it. It's definitely worth the 99 cents. Don't let the subtitle fool you. It's a very easy and fun read and not techy at all for the most part.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

I happened to visit Savannah, Georgia, during Christmas, and there I ran into Flannery O'Connor's childhood home. Tours are given daily 1 - 4 p.m. Not only do I highly recommend seeing the home, but also, if you haven't read O'Connor's short fiction ever or in a while, it simply doesn't age. The humor and sharp cultural insights remain today. I only recently read her last story, "Parker's Back," published after she died from lupus in 1964. It's both touching and searing. Her collected works on Kindle (click on the cover above) are only $2.49.

TO MARIA: I went to www.anthologybuilder.com, as you suggested on an earlier post, and I'm trying it out by giving them two stories. Thanks for the suggestion.


----------



## MikeD (Nov 5, 2008)

Thank You For The Flowers by Scott Nicholson



> What happens when a star Little League player is a vampire, a city has secrets to protect, or a man's love for his wife is more powerful than death? Award-winning author Scott Nicholson answers these questions and more in Thank You For The Flowers, a collection of thirteen stories of suspense and imagination that covers a range of territory from a Civil War ghost story called "The Three-Dollar Corpse" to "Dead Air," where a late-night deejay has an open line to a female serial killer. A high school girl has a crush on her best friend's guy, but so does her best friend's ghost in "In The Heart of November." In "Thirst," a girl's tears are the key to ending a long drought. The collection also contains the Hubbard Gold Award winer "The Vampire Shortstop." In the afterwords, the author gives some background on the development of each story.


Not available from Amazon, but available in multi-format from Fictionwise. Good, kinda quirky horror/suspense. ($5.39)

I read The Red Church also by Scott ($1.99), and liked it, so looked for, and found, this collection of short stories.


----------



## kevindorsey (Mar 4, 2009)

William Woodall said:


> I recently picked up a collection of sci-fi short stories entitled "Explorations", written by Poul Anderson. Maybe I'm just indulging my taste for semi-obscure science fiction stories, but these were really excellent. I especially liked the story "Epilogue", which was about what would happen on Earth if all organic life died off and machines started evolving their own ecology to replace it. It was fascinating reading, and very believably done too.
> 
> One of the many wonderful things about older books is that they tend to be so cheap. This one is available in paperback for just 2.15, I believe. It's well worth the price.


I like stuff like that, thanks for the recom.


----------



## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

Hi - these may have been suggested already but

Dracula's Guest - http://www.amazon.com/Draculas-Guest-ebook/dp/B000JMKWX4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1263782657&sr=1-1

free

The Yellow Wallpaper - http://www.amazon.com/The-Yellow-Wallpaper-ebook/dp/B002RKRX06/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1263782751&sr=1-1

Free

and a creepy one - The Lottery - but I can't find it on Amazon


----------



## JennaAnderson (Dec 25, 2009)

Oh sorry - my suggestions are stand alone shorts not collections. Still very good.


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

This is a combination of the first two "Thieves' World" books, which were collections of short stories by various authors which take place in the same setting. I know I read the first book years ago, not so sure about the 2nd. I downloaded it anyway and started reading last night.


----------



## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

In general I don't like short stories as well as longer works, because it is (as mentioned) such a tough job to create a convincing situation and characters in the compressed space.  But some short stories are excellent.  Those who know me won't be surprised that I recommend Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes collections as a good read!

Larry Niven has some excellent science fiction short stories that are available on Kindle as individual stories.  Any of those about Beowulf Shaeffer will be entertaining if you like that sort of thing.


----------



## emalvick (Sep 14, 2010)

This is a topic I found thanks to Mr. Meek's thread on his two short story collections, and I thought I'd post here to revitalize it a bit.  I've been one to enjoy short stories here and there although my favorites tend to be of classic authors (Poe, Twain, Hemmingway).  However, I have used this thread and Meek's own books as a guide for my to read list. I also tend to read the New Yorker for short stories.

I find that Short stories provide a nice intermission between novels and they are great for short reading stints in general.  I have always enjoyed them, but only recently did I notice how good they could be including novellas even.  The example that really did this for me was Stephen King.  Growing up, my grandmother read his novels and I often tried only to feel lost in their length.  I read about 4 or 5 novels because I liked the plots but gave up because they seemed to run on and on sometimes (my own flaws as a reader).  I then discovered his short story collections and his collections of novellas, thanks to The Shawshank Redemption.  I discovered how good of a short story author he can be and have been hooked.

The only other thing I can state is that I am not strictly into horror or suspense as Poe and King suggest, but those seem to be the collections that hold up well for me.  I do find that I like collections to be consistent and good for the most part because it helps save on the effort of finding short stories.  It may sound lazy but I prefer to find a lot of good short stories than just one.  That's where in terms of contemporary stories my experience has been limited to mostly the New Yorker and some of the broad compilations that come up on an annual basis.  


I do hope this thread continues on in listing people favorite collections or authors.  It is a nice guide.


----------



## opuscroakus (Aug 7, 2010)

_*And Thereby Hangs a Tale*_, by Jeffrey Archer. EXCELLENT.


----------



## AlanBaxter (Sep 1, 2009)

This is a great collection of dark spec fic. Interesting group of authors writing in sci-fi, fantasy and horror, all with a dark edge.


----------



## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

A couple of good short story writers I've read recently is Scott Nicholson and Joel Arnold.  Both guys have multiple collections on Kindle.  I just finished Scott's Curtains (mystery stories) and Joel's Bait and other stories (horror).  Both writers know how to write a cracking tale.


----------



## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't read a lot of short story collections, but I quite liked Ursula Le Guin's Birthday of the World collection. It's a little spendy though...$10.99.


----------



## SuzanneTyrpak (Aug 10, 2010)

Not all of these may be on Kindle, but some of my favorite short stories writers include:

Raymond Carver 
Elizabeth Engstrom
Blake Crouch 
Flannery O'Conner


----------



## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

I have been hoping the ereaders would revive short stories. You can sell any length work online, and price it low enough that people will consider it easy to buy. Even better, I have been hoping that ereaders will revive the short story magazine. Publishers could even sell ads to support them. I have not seen either of those things happening, though. Short stories give a writer a way to explore ideas that aren't big enough for a novel, and they can be the training ground for new writers.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Amazon announced a new shorts section they'll be adding to their Kindle store, with prices lower than the current 99 cent threshold. I'm hoping that will be a big part of reviving the short story. Individual short stories, anyway. Anthologies do alright already.

David Dalglish


----------



## lorezskyline (Apr 19, 2010)

Short stories can be some of the mose memorable fiction to read authors who's collections I would reccomend:

Neil Gaimain - Smoke and Mirrors
Michael Marshall Smith - What You Make it

and finally my personal favourite Philip K Dick - There are numerous collections of his work the complete collected volumes are the best but not available on Kindle but the below is.


----------



## SimonWood (Nov 13, 2009)

lorezskyline said:


> Short stories can be some of the mose memorable fiction to read authors who's collections I would reccomend:
> 
> Neil Gaimain - Smoke and Mirrors
> Michael Marshall Smith - What You Make it
> ...


I'd second these suggestions. 3 great short story writers.


----------



## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

two for now:


----------



## LibbyD (Apr 28, 2009)

I love short stories.  My enjoyment of them has nothing whatsoever to do with time -- it's all about craft.  I think that writing a really good short story is a stunning achievement.

I never, ever read a collection of short stories straight through.  A good story demands attention. and both demands and deserves thought.  I read a story and then let it percolate for a while before going back to a collection and reading another.

Here are some collections I've enjoyed lately:

Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice, A.S.Byatt
The Matisse Stories, A.S.Byatt
Specimen Days, Michael Cunningham
A Multitude of Sins, Richard Ford
Women With Men, Richard Ford
Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
First Love, Last Rites, Ian McEwan
In Between the Sheets,Ian McEwan
After the Quake, Haruku Murakami
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Haruku Murakami
The Elephant Vanishes, Haruku Murakami
My Father's Tears and Other Stories, John Updike
The Maples Stories, John Updike
Our Story Begins, Tobias Wolff

I also like the Atlantic short stories for Kindle, and the magazines One Story and Electric Literature.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

marianner said:


> Here's another good one that I've read on Kindle:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## toj (Aug 2, 2010)

The last time I searched for anything by Flannery O'Connor on the Kindle, there was only biographies. Now they have a short story collection: A Good Man is Hard to Find

_http://www.amazon.com/Good-Hard-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B003PDMN18/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top_

If you like southern fiction with religious symbolism and odd characters, this is a good one to get. This one has my all time favorites by Flannery O'Connor in it: "The River", "A Late Encounter With the Enemy" and "Good Country People".

The Stories of John Cheever: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WUYQC8/ref=s9_simh_bw_p351_d0_i4?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=01K50ND9MZBT3GJ7AN70&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1265018442&pf_rd_i=1286228011

Most people I know seem to either like or strongly dislike John Cheever.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Thank you TOJ. I happen to adore Flannery O’Connor, whose work still often appears in college literature textbooks and in anthologies of best short stories. My own writing’s been influenced by her in that she’s a) funny b) scathing at times in her viewpoint of people and society, and c) still contemporary. She taught me to write what’s in one’s heart, humor and all.

She called herself a Catholic writer, influenced by the Church, but there’s nothing didactic in her stories. You don’t come away thinking she’s the least bit religious—yet you do feel all her stories are about something.

If you’re a fan of hers, and you think you’ve read a lot of her work, below is the table of contents. See if you know them all. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” you can get for free by just getting a sample. Ask yourself at the end who is the good man? Why’s he hard to find? Why is grandma looking up at the sky and smiling? 

“Good Country People” is often anthologized, too, but the others aren’t, and to have them on the Kindle may be your treasure. O’Connor has been dead forty-six years, yet she’s still selling well, even on the Kindle. If you’re ever in Savannah, Georgia, be sure to see her childhood home, where there are tours.

•	A Good Man is Hard to Find
•	The River
•	The Life You Save May Be Your Own
•	A Stroke of Good fortune
•	The Temple of the Holy Ghost
•	The Artificial ******
•	A Circle in the Fire
•	A Late Encounter with the Enemy
•	Good Country People
•	The Displaced Person


----------



## toj (Aug 2, 2010)

Christopher Meeks said:


> Thank you TOJ. I happen to adore Flannery OConnor, whose work still often appears in college literature textbooks and in anthologies of best short stories. My own writings been influenced by her in that shes a) funny b) scathing at times in her viewpoint of people and society, and c) still contemporary. She taught me to write whats in ones heart, humor and all.
> 
> She called herself a Catholic writer, influenced by the Church, but theres nothing didactic in her stories. You dont come away thinking shes the least bit religiousyet you do feel all her stories are about something.
> 
> ...


I first read all of O'Connor's stories and published letters while working on my English degree in the 80's. I had read just one of her short stories in high school. The collection of letters, "The Habit of Being", is an interesting read. My favorite letter is one to Maryat Lee, dated 20 May 58, where she talks about honesty.

_This thing of demanding honesty of people is in the upper reaches of extreme Innocence. The only people of whom you can demand honesty are those you pay to get it from. When you ask [someone] to be honest with you, you are asking him to act like God, whom he is not, but whom he makes some attempt to be like in giving you what you want, and it doesn't make him show up too well, of course. Never, above all things, ask your family to be honest with you. This is putting a strain on the human frame it can't bear. [A person's] honesty is only honesty, not truth, and it can't be of much value to you intellectually or otherwise. To love people you have to ignore a good deal of what they say while they are being honest, because you are not living in the Garden of Eden any longer. The last thing I find I want of my kinfolks is their honesty._

"A Good Man is Hard to Find", as a collection, expresses a lot about her views of honesty and none more than the title story. There is even a line where the grandmother is talking to the Misfit and tells him: "You could be honest too if you'd only try" and like she said from her letter above - "...you are asking him to be like God..." by being honest. Well, think about what the Misfit actually did and perhaps it can be said that the grandmother was smiling because she finally met her God. This is my take on it at any rate.

"Good Country People" was my first exposure to O'Connor and will always be among my favorite of her stories. The use of language is so direct in the first few sentences: "Besides the neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others. forward and reverse, that she used in all her human dealings. Her forward expression was steady and driving like the advance of a heavy truck." The youthful expectations of a baptism in "The River" make that one of the most hauntingly literal of her stories. The other extreme of the old man and the "black procession" in the final moments of "A Late Encounter With the Enemy" bring an almost frightening sense of finality in remembering the past. The images available in this one collection of 10 stories makes it a must have for me.

It is nice to see a genuine appreciation for Flannery O'Connor's work. I like that she is still in print. When I was reading her works in high school and college the writing seemed so dated I didn't know if it would remain in print. In retrospect, they don't seem as bad now, especially when compared to Eudora Welty's work. Shirley Jackson and Katherine Anne Porter are other short story writers I like from that era. Jackson and O'Connor both seem to make the ordinary and seemingly dimwitted characters oddly disturbing, which is why I link the two together in my head, while Porter is more slice of life stories.


----------



## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

Christopher Meeks said:


> Thank you TOJ. I happen to adore Flannery O'Connor, whose work still often appears in college literature textbooks and in anthologies of best short stories. My own writing's been influenced by *her*


Huh. Just learned something about Flannery O'Connor. Maybe I should read some of her stuff.


----------



## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

toj said:


> think about what the Misfit actually did and perhaps it can be said that the grandmother was smiling because she finally met her God. This is my take on it at any rate.


O'Connor's notes on the Misfit are very enlightening. She saw the Misfit as a heroic character not because he was a cold-blooded killer, but because the idea of Jesus - was the story true? - was his obsession - showing he was redeemable. In the old lady's rapidly advancing dementia, suddenly she believes he is 'one of her own children' (my read: family, human like the rest of us) and reaches out to touch him. (My read: He fears that her touch will turn him into a human being). He kills her (my read: instead of allowing this deluded expression of love to bring him into the human race.) O'Connor once wrote that a good novel doesn't solve the mystery of freedom, only deepens it. So it's perfectly fine that we have two different reads. To all interested in further insight into O'Connor as not only a writer but as a person, be sure to read her essay about raising peacocks, "King of the Birds."


----------



## farrellclaire (Mar 5, 2010)

Recent entertaining short reads:

Dating my Vibrator - http://www.amazon.com/DATING-VIBRATOR-other-fiction-ebook/dp/B003XYFN5M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A2HD1FRBBEUS3N&s=digital-text&qid=1288462200&sr=1-1

Lessons - http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-other-morbid-drabbles-ebook/dp/B0047T7F0S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A2HD1FRBBEUS3N&s=digital-text&qid=1288462292&sr=1-1


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

There are some great suggestions coming here, and I particularly love the thoughts on Flannery O'Connor's work.

I just stumbled across another great collection, Alone With You by Marisa Silver.


----------



## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Christopher Meeks said:


> Thank you TOJ. I happen to adore Flannery O'Connor, whose work still often appears in college literature textbooks and in anthologies of best short stories. My own writing's been influenced by her in that she's a) funny b) scathing at times in her viewpoint of people and society, and c) still contemporary. She taught me to write what's in one's heart, humor and all.
> 
> She called herself a Catholic writer, influenced by the Church, but there's nothing didactic in her stories. You don't come away thinking she's the least bit religious-yet you do feel all her stories are about something.
> 
> ...


My God, who ARE you! I've read every syllable she's written. I re-read stuff all the time by her. As awriter there is not a day that goes by that I dont think of hewr. My take on life, writing has been deeply affected and warped by her! Why am I telling you this? She is a great writer wholly original. Doubt you will find her winning any kindle popularity contests, tho. But neither does Faulkner.


----------



## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Margaret Jean said:


> My God, who ARE you! I've read every syllable she's written. As awriter there is not a day that goes by that I dont think of her. My take on life, writing has been deeply affected and warped by her! Why am I telling you this? She is a great writer wholly original. Doubt you will find her winning any kindle popularity contests, tho. But neither does Faulkner.


Ii corrected the most obvious hysterical grammatical blunders and finger-flops. Just so shocked to find this here.


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Margaret Jean, I'm thrilled at your reaction--that you can find surprise on the Kindleboards. There are many wonderful finds in this thead, and I'm still reading samples based on suggestions from two weeks ago. I see in your books' tags that Flannery O'Connor is how your own fiction is described, so indeed you've taken her stories to heart. She's truly inspirational. Have you been to her childhood home in Savannah?


----------



## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Christopher Meeks said:


> Margaret Jean, I'm thrilled at your reaction--that you can find surprise on the Kindleboards. There are many wonderful finds in this thead, and I'm still reading samples based on suggestions from two weeks ago. I see in your books' tags that Flannery O'Connor is how your own fiction is described, so indeed you've taken her stories to heart. She's truly inspirational. Have you been to her childhood home in Savannah?


 I've thought about going, but haven't because I don't want to be disappointed by the quotidian artifacts of her life or distracted by supposed relics, in the Catholic sense of the word as Flannery would use it, of her genius such as her old hairbrush, her crutches and and bouquets of salvaged peacock feathers. I spent years studying Emily Dickinson in graduate school and doing post-grad work (and as prep for teaching my collegeclasses). One fine day I finally made a pilgrimage to Amherst to pay my respecks and soak up the ambience. I found it had been commandeered by blue-stockings (a brigade of which patrolled the grounds during tours to make sure no one *touched* anything, holy Moses-God forbid!) and sanitized senseless. Both FO and ED, I believe, would be highly amused at the notion of literary tourists combing their their old stomping grounds for clues to their work and lives. I know many literati find it inspirational and entertaining. It's just not my cup of tea.


----------



## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

R. Reed said:


> I have been hoping the ereaders would revive short stories. You can sell any length work online, and price it low enough that people will consider it easy to buy. Even better, I have been hoping that ereaders will revive the short story magazine. Publishers could even sell ads to support them. I have not seen either of those things happening, though. Short stories give a writer a way to explore ideas that aren't big enough for a novel, and they can be the training ground for new writers.


 You hit the nail on the head here. Readers are willing to spring for good SS as "ebooks" for 99 cnts or so. I've recently put up a few of mine as a little test and they're doing well at that price.


----------



## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

This is a great collection:


----------

