D
Deleted member 4700
Guest
Just ordered them for my summer holidays, only £13.00Have you read the Shattered Sea trilogy by Abercrombie yet? It's well up to his usual standard.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Just ordered them for my summer holidays, only £13.00Have you read the Shattered Sea trilogy by Abercrombie yet? It's well up to his usual standard.
The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima 9/10
I hadn't read any Mishima since I was in my teens and got interested in his work after seeing the biopic by Paul Schrader. Really enjoyed this one, which, unlike many of his books, doesn't have masochistic/fascistic undertones.
Logon or register to see this image
I'm a massive fan of the short story format. When done well, a short story can be truly masterful. Most authors write them as unfulfilling, meandering waffle, however, often without a real point or conclusion. When treated like a condensed story with a beginning and actual end, I really enjoy them.
I'm going through Forbidden Colours at the minute. It's a pretty good exploration of the Japanese gay scene post-war, it's pretty obvious that he's taken a lot of influence from Wilde's Dorian Gray for it.
I find a lot of Mishima camp as hell tbh. Semi-naked samurais getting buff and declaring their love to the Emperor, I mean come on. I just find it funny when I come across nationalists who deny the gayness and take it seriously.
I tried to post a few of mine a few days back, but I couldn't from my phone for one reason or another so I'm doing it now. Here's a link to some of my stuff on my Goodreads account. Quality varies a bit between them, but I'm still proud of them all in my own way.I love writing short stories - have had a few published. You can't waste a word.
Have you read anything by Francis King? He's largely forgotten now, but I think he's one of the greatest short story writers the UK has ever produced. Another favourite is the South African writer Herman Charles Bosman. One of his best stories is here (there're also a couple of mine in the archive): Starlight on the Veld by Herman Charles Bosman | Narrative Magazine
I'll give them a read later. I don't write a lot of short stories and the ones on my website are mainly ones that I don't intend to do anything with.I tried to post a few of mine a few days back, but I couldn't from my phone for one reason or another so I'm doing it now. Here's a link to some of my stuff on my Goodreads account. Quality varies a bit between them, but I'm still proud of them all in my own way.
How do you go about trying to get stories in anthologies?I'll give them a read later. I don't write a lot of short stories and the ones on my website are mainly ones that I don't intend to do anything with.
I've been in a couple of anthologies including being Highly Commended in the Crossing The Tees anthology for The Wicker Man, my tale of a man who dressed as Alan Whicker and lived in a house made from wicker baskets. Only wrote it for a laugh and it's my most successful one yet.
me too, same pack. Came yesterday nearly finished the first one already!Just ordered them for my summer holidays, only £13.00
Wow, that's some going. What do you think so far?me too, same pack. Came yesterday nearly finished the first one already!
First one I was asked to submit something. It was a retelling of the Cauld Lad and in hindsight, I probably wish I hadn't.How do you go about trying to get stories in anthologies?
First one I was asked to submit something. It was a retelling of the Cauld Lad and in hindsight, I probably wish I hadn't.
Crossing The Tees was a short story competition as part of the Crossing The Tees Writing Festival. It's quite a professional production, a lot better than I expected.
A lot of writing festivals have competitions attached to them, some better than others. I refuse to enter ones that charge an entry fee but some of the more established ones may be worth it.
Short story comps were really good to me when I started entering four years ago. I had some success in some of the big ones: BBC, Writers & Artists, Bath, Fish etc But in the past 18 months it's been very noticeable that the shortlists, and sometimes the longlists, are often entirely female.
Seem to remember there being a kick off about one of the major ones (Possibly BBC) last year where all of the shortlist were women. When challenged they insisted it was blind but then had to admit that the longlist was but the shortlist wasn't. Doesn't prove wrongdoing but didn't paint a good picture.Short story comps were really good to me when I started entering four years ago. I had some success in some of the big ones: BBC, Writers & Artists, Bath, Fish etc But in the past 18 months it's been very noticeable that the shortlists, and sometimes the longlists, are often entirely female. In part it's wrapped up in the 'MeToo' thing, but when a comp is open to all and there's supposedly no restriction on subject matter, it's wrong to take entry fees off people who have no realistic chance of winning. For that reason I've largely stopped wasting my money. That said, when I tally up entry fees against winnings over the past four years I'm still healthily quids in.
Sadly, the days of writers like Somerset Maugham being able to buy a house from the earnings of a single story are long gone. The occasional competition success and publication in literary magazines and anthologies is about the most you can hope for. But once the stories are out there in the world, new opportunities can crop up. I got a story published in the Saturday Evening Post (the US mag that was one of the main outlets for the short stories of Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut etc) purely because they read it elsewhere.
Seem to remember there being a kick off about one of the major ones (Possibly BBC) last year where all of the shortlist were women. When challenged they insisted it was blind but then had to admit that the longlist was but the shortlist wasn't. Doesn't prove wrongdoing but didn't paint a good picture.
At least I know my stories are only discriminated against on the basis that they aren't good enough.
I sort of know TC Boyle (may have mentioned it on here before), and we've chatted about my own travels on the Niger - he's never been, and wrote the book entirely from his imagination. He imagined a river flowing through jungle; the reality is it flows through semi-desert. But it's probably my favourite of his books, written with remarkable freedom.
It'll be interesting to see the forthcoming TV series of The Singapore Grip, out later this year.
I read today that only 24 of the National Gallery's 2,700 collection are by women, which seems incredibleI don't know why the writing community is on the frontline of the gender war (the old war that is, fought in the binary trenches. God knows what will happen when male writers start identifying as female; that'd give the woke brigade a dilemma). Last year both the BBC and Sunday Times Awards shortlists were all female, this year's Commonwealth Prize shortlist is all female (and last year's, I think), and female writers dominated most of the other major short story prizes last year, as well as having several prizes that are women only.
Mostly I keep my head down and just keep writing. I've made a living out of it for more than 30 years, and it's only since I've begun to dabble in fiction that the gender thing has become an issue (in fact, in my career, almost all of my editors have been women - odd, given that we're reliably informed that the industry is totally male-dominated).
I have a literature blog and every year I put on the list of books I've read, usually to no comment. Last year there was a brief flurry of Twitter controversy when a woman took issue with the fact that of the 160 books I'd read 'only' 30% were written by women. Honestly, if we get to the point that instead of reading what we like we must conform to quotas I'm done.
finished the shattered sea trilogy. Thought the second book was the best, really good. I enjoyed the last one but not quite as much. Didn't feel quite right although that could have been Abercrombie purposely making me re evaluate characters I'd previously loved in the series and generally doing his subvert the genre thing.Great page turner. Cos it's been labelled young adult I had always been wary of the series despite loving the first law stuff. The character development is a little light but the plot moves at such a furious pace that it doesn't matter that much.