Storyworks Monthly #1 In this varied collection of new work, Stephen J Carter has fashioned an interesting series. In the tradition of Dean Wesley Smith (Smith’s Monthly), he presents a handful of stories, a novella, a serial novel and a piece for writers on inciting incidents in movies. Being a fan of Dickens, I liked…
Category: Short Stories
‘Single Chicas’ by Sandra Lopez
Single Chicas A sister who can’t accept her sibling’s choice of wife, a woman whose plan to avoid being hit on by guys leads to unforeseen complications, and how a series of strange phone calls prompts a singleton to doubt her own sanity. Short stories are like buses – if the first one doesn’t happen…
‘The Lights Went Out and Other Stories’ by Fiona Cooke Hogan
The Lights Went Out and Other Stories Taking the ordinary and everyday, Ms Hogan weaves her fictions around seemingly unexciting people and commonplace occurrences, creating recognisable and occasionally extraordinary stories, that reflect the feelings and obsessions we all encounter from time to time. From the petty arguments and disagreements in ‘Table By the Window’ and…
‘Dead Dogs and Splintered Hearts’ by Tom Ward
Dead Dogs and Splintered Hearts In this collection of 24 short stories, writer Tom Ward drops us into a world of love, death and dancing. Though held together by the book’s general theme (pooches and broken hearts), the subject matter ranges from Parisian cabaret and a house disturbed by the ghostly presence of Norman Mailer,…
‘Sandlands’ by Rosy Thornton
Sandlands From ghostly whisperings in a run-down Martello Tower (‘Whispers’) and the solemn toll of Old Jack’s bell in ‘Ringing Night’, to the unearthing of a strange talisman in ‘The Witch Bottle’, Rosy Thornton tells ordinary stories tinged with more than a hint of the odd and the unusual. In this magical collection of sixteen…
‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The twelve short stories collected together as ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ were first published in The Strand Magazine, beginning with ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’. Arthur Conan Doyle’s first two novels featuring the consulting detective (‘A Study in Scarlet’ and ‘The Sign of Four’) hadn’t made much of an impression…
Night Shift by Stephen King
Night Shift Though some of the short stories in Stephen King’s first collection were familiar to me, I’m amazed I haven’t read this book before. Some (like ‘Strawberry Spring’), were first published in the late Sixties, but most appeared between 1971 and 1978. Only four, including ‘Jerusalem’s Lot’ and ‘Quitters Inc’ were previously unpublished. While…
Colin Garrow 