Call Me a Dreamer

I've been reading a number of short stories recently, mostly online. Only recently has it occurred to me that I should keep a list,* or at least share the links. Here's what's open in my browser, right now (Yay! for tabbed browsing).

Silent As Dust by James Maxey (I just finished this. It was fun.)

Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction by Jo Walton, aka papersky (I haven't started this, yet, so I can't say anything about it from a personal perspective, but it's slated for inclusion in Gardner Dozois Year's Best Science Fiction.)

Tam Lin Balladry: Comparing Tam Lin to Other Stories (Okay, so it's not a short story, nor is it even a single story, but I decided to stick it in, anyway. I love fairy tales and I'm constantly collecting links to fairy tale pages.)

The Only One He Ever Feared by Patty Jansen, aka mikandra (This is another I haven't started reading. I don't think I've ever read any of her stories and I always look forward to reading something by an author new to me, or, in this case, whose stories are new to me.)

Matchless: A Christmas Story by Gregory Maguire (I was about halfway through when I was interupted; I may have to start over, in order to get the full effect,** but I was enjoying what I was reading. At the same time, I have to admit that I'm not sure why I started reading this (other than the novelty of finding a fantasy story on NPR's website). Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" is one of my least favorite stories, and Maguire's works tend to leave me filled with doubts, maybe because his view of the tales that inspire him are so good at turning things on their head. But, then again, I suppose that's why I read him. Hmm.)

Some of these have been open for several days, without my getting back to them. I often open pages to be read later, for various reasons. Fortunately, my browser will remember what I had open, even if it's closed.

I also checked out Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition from the library this afternoon, simply because I happened to notice it on the shelf. I'm a fan of the Datlow et al Year's Best collections; I first started reading these when Ellen Datlow (ellen_datlow) and Terry Windling (t_windling) were co-editors, which was a fabulous combination. This is by another editor, Rich Horton (ecbatan). I don't know his work as well, so this will be an adventure.***

The other short story activity I've been engaged in recently started at Pima Community College, in the Learning Center where I volunteer. The last week was very quiet, so while I was sitting in the writing area to be available to students, I pulled a copy of Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama by Ann Charters and Samuel Charters from the shelf and started reading and taking notes. I'll have more on that to say later, after I figure out what I did with all my notes.

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* Well, that's not exactly true. I suggested a long time ago to Goodreads that they add short stories to the listings.

** I'll be discussing this at greater length when I discuss my notes from Literature and Its Writers, but accoring to Poe, short stories should be read in a single, uninterrupted reading in order for the reader to get "the immense force derivable from totality."

*** It's amazing how many writers and editors are on LiveJournal. I love the sense of community this creates. I hope I've found everybody, especially the ones on my friends list.

ETA: Added links to Wikipedia pages for Ann and Samuel Charters.

My husband, Karl, and I are very pleased to announce the upcoming publication of our story, "Ship's Daughter," in the anthology Space Pirates, edited by David Summers and published by Flying Pen Press. This is our first collaboration on a story and we're very excited about it.

The book should be available in August of this year, but in case you'd like to pre-order a copy, contact me and I'll email you a PDF form which gives you a 20% discount from now until July 31st. We'd be honored and delighted to sign your copy for you at the first opportunity; if you prefer to send us a copy to sign, please contact me to request details on how to do this. If we haven't seen you before then, look for us at TusCon 2008 in Tucson next November.

P.S. My apologies to those of you who received my email announcement, which I sent out before deciding to post here, as well.

P.P.S. Yes, I suppose it's a little silly to make such a big deal of a short story, but it's our first! *g*

Edited to add contact info: pdlloyd at gmail dot com