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Short Story Anthology Latest

Monday, 25 July 2011

So I've been thinking about which stories to reprint in my planned short story anthology. The current plan is here if you want to take a look. I've obviously excluded stories that are on submission at the moment, or which I won't have the rights to in the immediate future.

All told, the stories I've pencilled in come to 111,000 words. I'm pretty sure I'm going to mix genres and just reprint the stories I like. I've also included my favourite Twitter-length stories : the plan being to interleave the longer stories with these microtales.

I'm still thinking about titles. It has to be something cool and not "Collected Short Stories" or something. Once I've got a list of candidates I'll open up the voting and see which people like the most!

I also had the idea, by way of marketing, to embed a hidden puzzle in the book somehow : a trail of clues across the stories that leads to some reward/prize. Not sure yet if this is madness or genius ...

10 comments:

  1. You're well on your way, sir. If it's available for Kindle, count me in! A Parliament of Owls would have to be my favorite title option -- and the cover art would be so cool...

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  2. Milo,

    Many thanks. It will definitely be available on the Kindle. Once it's ready I'll email a copy straight to Gizmo!

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  3. Have you changed the look of your blog!?!? It's all red! LOL!

    Anyway!!! What about: "[Favourite short story title] and other tales" by Simon Kewin!

    Oh wow!!!!! How exciting. Please make your story collection IN PRINT too please, thank you, just for the non-kindle owning technophobe population who like a good read on paper. Ahem.

    Hey, I say madness is genuis and vice versa! Take care
    x

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  4. Old Kitty,

    I should hope my blog is read! I mean red!

    I'll certainly make sure there's a paper option.

    Thanks for the suggestion. I thought about that but I have no idea which is my fave story ...

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  5. OMG. You have so many stories. It's going to one cool anthology. As for titles, I shall think on it awhile. Maybe pick one of your short story titles?

    Ellie Garratt

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  6. Ellie,

    Thanks - yes, that's another good idea. I thought about Museum Beetles but it's not quite right. Please feel free to suggest!

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  7. That's so exciting, Simon. My feeling is that you could consider making it two books.

    The whole indie thing is so up in the air, that nobody (especially me) knows, but I thought that you might appeciate a suggestion.

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  8. I kind of like the idea of the trail of clues, etc. but I think it could go either way - it could detract/distract from the stories themselves or it could make the reader focus even more on them.

    Oh, and I'm glad it will be in print, too. :)

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  9. Deborah,

    I do very much appreciate your suggestion. Two volumes - now there's a thought. Hmm. Thinking to do! Thanks.

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  10. Madeline,

    Thanks for the input. Yes, I see what you mean about the clues. And I must admit I have no idea how it would work. But it might be a fun thing to do.

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I'd love to know what you think.