THE SUNDAY SHORT STORY REPORT

Fat Cat is home for the long holiday weekend, so this week’s list is a little light.  Since he is leaving to return back to work tomorrow, I’m going to keep this short and sweet.

This week I cased Lightspeed Magazine, and I liked what I read.

6.  “Cucumber Gravy” by Susan Palwick ~  I’d have to say this one was my favorite this week.  I’m a sucker for desert hermits.  What can I say?  Palwick delivered a character that I really liked, and what a title!

7.  “The Silence of the Asonu” by Ursula K. Le Guin ~  This story is brilliant.  Go read it.

8.  “How to Become a Mars Overlord” by Catherynne M. Valente ~  Dense, rich chocolate poetry cake.  Got milk?

9.  “Jenny’s Sick” by David Tallerman ~  Love his world concept.  Two of the reader comments called it “haunting,” and I agree.

One of the things I love about reading short stories online is all the great resources you discover.  For instance, Christie Yant, an Assistant Editor with Lightspeed Magazine, blogs about writing and shares her experience as an “editorial minion.”

She has a wonderful post up right now entitled, “Lessons from the Slushpile:  Good vs. Great,” in which she writes the best writing advice I’ve read in a long while:  “As writers we get so accustomed to identifying what’s wrong with things. We read and we pick out the things we don’t like about a story, what we think the author did wrong. Maybe it’s time for a new approach: We can go read something great, and then identify what made it great, and how the author executed it.”

Amen!

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