Across the Spectrum

[sartorias]

Book View Cafe celebrates its fifth year by publishing an anthology of members' stories chosen by themselves. Mine was an easy one as I've only written one short story that wasn't a result of an anthology invitation. As it happens, if you go to the link above, it's the one you can download for free as a sample

Comments

[sartorias]

:-)

[temporus]

I just had the image of being the sort of person that tends to write novels and series as a primary means of expression like the kinds of artists that created those huge, wall sized paintings you can find in the Louvre. To ask such a novelist to write a short story must be like asking such a painter to create one of those tiny portraits about the size of a 3x4 index card. Of course it can be done, but after working on such large canvases all the time, it must be some effort to hold oneself back trying to organize a composition into such a small space.

And I love the idea of your women in their 60's Get Powers. I would totally read that. I had a recent inspirational moment in a similar vein, that I hope to be able to write. That one is still percolating at the moment.

[sartorias]

Oooh, go for it!

Yeah--I tend to be as intensely interested in the side-roads as the straight journey, and so much short fiction I can predict, I guess because I've been reading so long, that I recognize many patterns. I have to be enjoying something to read on anyway, and too much short fiction I come across is earnest, even lugubrious in Making Its [Shocking] Point . . . and I already know the point, have known it, have no investment in it.

[temporus]

I wonder if that's a result of what people want, what people buy, or what people do when they focus on a short.

Do you feel much the same when you read shorts written in other eras/generations? Just curious if this is more due to a modern trend/take on the short or is it a byproduct of the form in general.

[sartorias]

It's pretty general: I have collections of award winning literary and mainstream fiction from various decades, which is interesting to me in how much it reflects its time, rather than being innovative. There is short fiction that I read to smile--Wodehouse--and some that I read to admire the heck out of, like Rudyard Kipling's, which often reads to me like novels distilled to a sere, almost frightening degree.

[barry_king]

WHAT? You don't write SHORT fiction? Who knew?

[sartorias]

I have--even written some flash fiction, but rare!

[breathingbooks]

Love the idea of 60+ women getting powers!

[sartorias]

:-)

[bondo_ba]

Interesting... I've never given much thought to whether I sometimes clip novel ideas into short form. I think I'll do so now!