May

I realize we're almost a full week into the month, but I wanted to mention that May is Short Story Month.

As I'm currently poor and temporarily out of work (baby-leave), I've been reading fiction online. I have to tell you, though I enjoy and support online journals and I've been published online myself (even found out yesterday that Word Riot will be using one of my newer short stories in their June issue), I've found that catching a readers attention online is hard. Harder than if there is a book-in-hand.

I'm a very clicky person. Case in point: I've clicked to and from this blogging tab at least twenty times since writing that first paragraph. And so, while reading fiction online, if something doesn't grab me within in the first sentence or two, click, I'm gone. But, if I'm holding a gently worn paperback in my hands, I'll give the story a few pages before giving up on it. Or, I won't give up on it at all.

So, I'm using this month as a challenge to read more of these emerging voices from start to finish. It's good. Good to read new voices, good to see what other writers are doing, and also good to learn, to pick up on things that I'd like to be doing better...and things I'd like to avoid. Click.