It’s October, and that means it’s time to read some scary stories (though, really, when is it not?). But while writer Eric LaRocca says the ones in his short story collection The Strange Thing We Become And Other Dark Tales (paperback, Kindle) are “mainly horror stories,” he also says in the following email interview that they’re driven by sorrow and grief.
The New Yorker is known as much for its literary content as it is for its cartoons. And with them running only four mini reviews every issue, you know a book must be special to be included. Though what caught my attention about their review of Eley Williams’ Attrib. And Other Stories (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) — so much so that I wanted to do the following email interview with her about it — was the opening of that review: “Mischief runs through this collection…”
If a writer cites Monty Python And The Holy Grail as having influenced one of their stories, you’d probably expect that story to be something in the historical or fantastical realms. But in the following email interview about his sci-fi short story collection Written In Light (paperback, Kindle), writer Jeff Young explains that the Python’s iconic Arthurian comedy was an inspiration to one of these genre tales as well.
While some short story writers find a genre or subgenre they like and stick to it, sci-fi and speculative fiction author Alaya Dawn Johnson has, by her own admission, “…played a lot with genre over the years.” Though that’s not all she had to say in the following email interview about Reconstruction (paperback, Kindle), her first short story collection.
Despite what the title suggests, the tales in Keith Rosson’s new short story collection Folk Songs For Trauma Surgeons (paperback, Kindle) are not musical musings for doctors who perform emergency surgeries. Though as he explains in the following email interview about it — in which he discusses how this collection came together — he does point out why it’s a much more fitting name than Country Songs For Cardiothoracic Surgeons.
Ever since I read Kurt Vonnegut’s Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction in 1999, I’ve believed that reading an author’s short stories is a great way to get to know their writing.
Which is why I’m excited to read Eugen Bacon’s The Road To Woop Woop And Other Stories (paperback, Kindle). Doubly so after doing the following email interview, in which she discusses how this collection came together, what inspired and influenced these stories, and which of her other books I, uh, I mean you should read after you finish reading Woop Woop.
Like a lot of people, the only thing my college friends and I ever do together is have a drink and reminisce. But grad school pals — and fellow writers — Eric M. Bosarge [Sky Is Over] and J.M. McDermott [The Fortress At The End Of Time] have decided to upstage all of us by starting their own publishing house, Vernacular Books. In the following email interview, Joe and Eric discuss Vernacular’s first release, the sci-fi short story collection The Way Of The Laser: Future Crime Stories (paperback, Kindle).
Thanks to social distancing and “stay at home” orders, some people are finally reading that really, really long novel they’ve been putting off for years. But for people who still can’t find the time, or the inclination, might we suggest a short story or two. In the following email interview, writer Kathe Koja discusses her new short story collection Velocities (paperback, Kindle), as well as the upcoming reissue of her 1991 novel, The Cipher (paperback).