3:am publish Frames

3:am have published my tiny tale “Frames”.

Actually it’s more of a short story but don’t let that stop you from reading it.

www.3ammagazine.com/3am/frames

I am somewhat ecstatic to be in 3:am so a huge thank you to them (and a smaller thanks to here where I stole the clip frame from)

3 tiny stories published by Scarecrow

Scarecrow is a litzine occasionally published by Lee Rouke. He’s a busy man, also being editor at 3AM, literary reviewer at The Guardian, author of two books ‘Everyday’ and ‘The Canal’, blogger, with his stories appearing on several other sites.

The infrequent arrival of new writing is hardly surprising then, but what he does post is always superb, my favourites are there: Tom McCarthy, Chris McKillen, Will Ashon, along with great work from Stuart Evers and neo-noir writer Tony O’Neill.

So I am rather humbled and taken aback that three of my tiny fictions have just been published there. Thank you Mr Scarecrow.

Daisy Chains

Called off play

Snow comes early

Note to self: when an editor requests a photograph, think carefully about which one you send, and don’t expect them to resize or use Photoshop.

Foundations story permanent link

My tiny tale ‘Foundations’ was pick of the week at the Matchbook Story site and now has been given a permanent home there. Read it at:

matchbookstory.blogspot.com/2010/01/pick-of-week-archive-january-2010.html

Enjoy.

Foundations published by Matchbook Story

One of my submissions to Matchbook Story has been made pick of the week on their blog.

‘Foundations’

Head on over to matchbookstory.blogspot.com to read it. There is a touch of absurdity in this post probably being longer than the actual story…

Matchbook fiction

When I first mentioned using social media feeds like Twitter to publish fiction or poetry the standard practice was to post a link to the latest episode. An obvious solution to the limit of Twitter’s 140 characters or a 160 letters for SMS. (Ever wondered what the Hillebrand number is?)

Since then authors like Will Ashon have attempted to subvert Twitter’s form and create an episodic tale through it, such as his twitter.com/trundlespike. Others try to stay within the character limits to produce a single self-contained story in the same vein as short shorts (my favourite generic term for flash fiction and it’s ilk).

But for me short publishing has been usurped by an idea so simple and brilliant you wonder why no-one has thought of it before, and it doesn’t utilise a digital platform, it uses a warmly familiar media…

www.matchbookstory.com

Nestling between Twitters letter count and the 100 word limit of a drabble it promises the writer 300 characters in which to forge their tale, to be printed on the inside flap of a match book cover. It’s creator Kyle Petersen plans to strike out with the first edition in March, a man who deserves to become a leading light in the publishing world.

OK, enough of the puns already but it is a fantastic idea, and it’s being self financed by Petersen so he deserves a round of applause and hugs, and I’m not just saying that to win favour in the hope that one of my submissions graces the inaugural book. Please.

He’s blogging the project’s progress at matchbookstory.blogspot.com.

6Sv2 available from Amazon

I have two tiny fictions “Marriage” and “Minicab driver” in the second anthology of very short stories from Six Sentences.

You can buy it from Amazon or Createspace

I’d go for Createspace but those of us in the UK may find Amazon’s postage cheaper.

In fact, until the failamazon issue is satisfactorily explained I’d rather you did buy it from Createspace regardless of postage costs, I am.

You can read one of my stories and lots by other people at the six sentences site.

2s in 6sv2

Curiosity got the better of me, and bowing down to the pressure of my internal voices (you are just jealous because they don’t talk to you…) I asked Robert McEvily, editor of Six Sentences, which of the two stories I submitted were chosen for the second anthology.

I’ve received his reply and can now decode the cryptic headline to this post – both stories are to be included in the new volume of six sentence long tales. Particularly pleasing as one of them, “Wedding” was especially written for the collection, the other one is “Minicab driver”.

There’s more, the industrious Mr McEvily who deserves thanks and praise from writers everywhere for his hard work in providing such a splendid platform, has set a publication date – March 31st.

Volume 1 is still available from Createspace or Amazon.

Published in 6SV2

Today Six Sentences announced the initial list of authors chosen to be included in the second anthology of stories, all six sentences long.

And yes, they chose one of mine… rather happy.

I would like to tell you which story is being publishing, but at the moment all I know is that I’m in (and that’s good enough for me).  I sent two, I’m hoping it’s “Marriage” as it was written especially for the collection, wonder if I’ll get to find out before seeing it in print? All the stories featured in it are previously unpublished and not available on the splendid site, so you will have to buy a copy if you want to read them.

It should be out in March, in the meantime why not buy a copy of volume 1 from Createspace or Amazon.

Robert McEvily who runs Six Sentences announced the author list in rather unusual fashion: in a Youtube video featuring the names of those chosen matted against theatre curtains. You can watch here. I am a little red-faced to say I air punched when my name went by.