Blogging Circle: Who Likes Short-Shorts? (August)

Yes, I'm a bit behind.  Apologies for that and... I dunno.  I thought I had done this but I guess I hadn't.  So we're doing it now, quick and dirty style, because there's another post about it.  That post is over here and you can feel free to read it.  It talks more about tightening prose than what I'm going into here.  This is more focused on the stories themselves rather than the effort that goes into them.  Let's get to the questions.

• Do you write them?

From time to time, I do.  When it's fanfiction, I write a lot of them.  But, as I said last year, I'm a novel writer.  50K+?  I'm in.  It's kind of hard to do below that, even though I can, because I want to dig into everything and take everyone on a big journey.  So, yes, I write them.

Sidenote: I've been writing more of them this year because we did two competitions on WriYe.  I say competitions, but it's more like friendly stuff with good amount of feedback.  We did Last WriYe Standing (it's like Survivor, but with prose!) and Contrasts.  Of the two, I'm liking Contrasts more but I think that's because the feedback is better.  Or it's less competition and more writing for fun.  Maybe, after I clean up some of them, I'll post a few here and there.  We'll see.  :)

• Do you hate them?

Hate is such a strong word.  Strong dislike, but I'll write them.

• Do you think they're lovely but there's no market for them?

There's such a big market for them.  My library has a section that's devoted to just short stories.  Also, I keep on seeing new ones and people are buying them, so there is.  For people who say there's no market, I just think they're not digging hard enough.  You can find a market for anything if you Google enough.

• For those who wish to be published, many people tell you that short story publications get your foot in the door.  And while that is true, I'm not sure how many people really focus on the short stories.  So tell me your own views on them.  Have any been published?  Are you looking to publish some?

I've been published in Milestone (that's Volume 1; I'm also in Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, and Volume 6).  I'm not sure if I'm looking to publish more but that's now.  In the future?  Yeah, I'll probably look more into it if I can't get the novels published.

Bonus: What is your favorite magazine / anthology of short stories?

I really don't have one.  I'd love some comments on magazines / books to look into.  Neil Gaiman wrote Smoke and Mirrors but it's all his own work and not an anthology.  He also wrote Fragile Things.  Both are good to read, if you're looking into a different take on short stories, and he's one of my favorite authors.

Alright, that's it for August's blogging circle.  Tune in tomorrow, when I'll post September's.  Going to try to get on a schedule for posting, joining the amazing Ana with her weekly posts.