Short Fiction

No one’s ever going to make a living writing short fiction for print magazines. About a decade ago, I was lucky and managed to get some of my stories published. They paid £50, and the most I could manage doing it the old fashioned paper manuscript, stamped self addressed envelope way was  a couple of stories a year, so you’re not exactly in it for the money are you? And that’s if you’re lucky and someone other than you, your sympathetic spouse and an unenthusiastic editor actually gets to read your work.

No. You’re in it because you’ve written something and you want other people to read it. You’ve had this idea, you’ve thought of these characters, and you want others to feel the same way you did when you were absorbed in the writing. You want to know if this scenario, this idea, this emotion is valid and worthwhile, because it came from inside of you and you really don’t know, and the only way you’re going to find out is by having people read what you’ve written – and granting you the tacit assent to continue thinking and feeling this way by their continuing interest in what you have to say. So, if a market comes along that offers worldwide distribution for your story and a guaranteed readership,  you’re  going to jump at the opportunity aren’t you? And then there’s this thing – this marvellous technology that cuts out the double line-width paper manuscripts, the stamped self addressed envelopes, and the six month turn-arounds from one faceless editor to another. You can publish yourself, freely, openly, widely,..

Sounds too good to be true?  Well, there’s just one small catch: there’s no money in it at all.  So do you do it?

Well, of course you do.

My short stories have been floating about all over the place for a while now but here they are all gathered into one volume called “Walking on the Sunny Side of Strange” available here – the download is free.