The Short Story?

chuck · Post by **chuck** » Sat January 22nd, 2011, 4:49 pm

Currently reading Elmore Lenard's "Complete Western Stories"...A series of short stories.....While reading and enjoying a break from HF novels, I'm rediscovering how much I enjoy the "Short Story".....Some questions come to mind.....In college; I remember listening to lectures and later reading assignments regarding famous short story writers IE...O. Henry, J.D. Salinger, John Updike, Edgar Allen Poe, etc....Today the Novel seems to reign....Is there no market/sales/publishing for the Short Story?....Are Short Stories more difficult to write and I can't remember reading any Historical Fiction short stories.....I realize Pulp Fiction is famous for their Short Stories..... Mystery,Westerns,Romance, Horror and Sci Fi.....As a avid reader...I'm interested in HFO folks and their thoughts and opinions.....

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Sat January 22nd, 2011, 5:00 pm

I've written short fiction and novels and wouldn't say one is harder than the other...just different. I haven't seen print collections of historical short stories, per se, but have seen the occasional one in anthologies and magazines. There are dedicated outlets for short stories on line, The Copperfield Review: A Journal of History and Fiction and Lacuna: A Journal of Historical Fiction, but don't know of any print magazines dedicated to HF. I've been thinking of writing a series of linked stories based on my family's history. I don't think I have the energy for a family saga! Maybe that's the difference...stamina.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Sat January 22nd, 2011, 5:40 pm

The short story seems to be alive and well and underpublicized. There are certainly contests for short story writers. Haven't seen anything specific to HF short stories though.

I'm working on F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories. Big book. I'm about halfway through.

Madeleine · Post by **Madeleine** » Sat January 22nd, 2011, 8:20 pm

Barbara Erskine has a couple of short story collections - "Distant Voices" and "The Sands of Time" are their UK titles. I'm not a huge fan of the short story myself, and only bought these as BE is one of my favourite authors. Some of them have a historical aspect to them.

marklord · Post by **marklord** » Mon October 28th, 2013, 12:10 pm

[quote=""fljustice""]There are dedicated outlets for short stories on line, The Copperfield Review: A Journal of History and Fiction and Lacuna: A Journal of Historical Fiction, but don't know of any print magazines dedicated to HF. I've been thinking of writing a series of linked stories based on my family's history. I don't think I have the energy for a family saga! Maybe that's the difference...stamina.[/quote]

I thought I'd just mention another publication (Disclaimer: I edit it!) called Alt Histhttp://althistfiction.com/ that publishing historical short stories it appears in ebook format and printed format.

DanielAWillis · Post by **DanielAWillis** » Tue October 29th, 2013, 11:42 pm

I have recently discovered short story writing and rather enjoy the format. I have an alternate fiction short being published in a forthcoming anthology of Rocky Mountain writers.

Several up-and-coming authors I have met recently have short stories in among their published credits.

When I made the decision to change my 5-part series into a trilogy, it left a few story bits out that I would like to develop into short sorties and possibly do a collection of shorts from the same universe as my trilogy.

I have other ideas for similar same-genre/same-universe type of collections as well.

One of my all-time favorite anthologies was a horror one called "Under the Fang" which featured series stores was well-known horror authors centered around the concept that vampires have taken (or are about to take) control of the world. This was written well before the Sookie Stackhouse books. I understand there is a 2nd anthology "Under the Fang 2" but I have not tracked it down yet.