Paul Blaney's Blog

Brief, whimsical new story of mine provided for reader relish at:
http://cafeirreal.alicewhittenburg.co...

God Bless Café Irreal and all who sip-sup in her!

What's this? you ask. Another fine and enticing review for that slimmest of slim novellas, The Anchoress?

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3ABAITR...

In the generous spirit of the season, The Anchoress has been knocked down to £0.99 in the UK and $1.99 in the US on Amazon Kindle, Kobo and the iBookstore.

They wouldn't even let you into Starbucks for that, never mind a coffee!

A new review of The Anchoress at:

http://booksandotherstories.com/2013/...

Yes, of course it's a nice one!

Available now from Guide Dog Books
The Irreal Reader collects the best fiction from The Cafe Irreal

Order direct or purchase from Amazon

The Cafe Irreal: International Imagination, a pioneering web-based literary magazine, first went online in 1998 with the intention of publishing a type of fantastic fiction most often associated with writers such as Franz Kafka, Kobo Abe and Jorge Luis Borges. To this end, it has published more than 250 authors from over 30 countries. In the course of the past fifteen years, it has also seen its editors nominated for a World Fantasy Award and been named by Writer’s Digest as one of the Top 30 Short Story Markets.

In this anthology, Edited by G.S. Evans and Alice Whittenburg, Guide Dog Books presents a selection of the fiction and essays from The Cafe Irreal that take us most definitively into the realm of the Irreal. These include pieces by Diploma de Honor Konex winner Ana María Shua (Argentina), Michal Ajvaz (winner of the Magnesia Litera prize in the Czech Republic), Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Simic, and Pushcart Prize winners Bruce Holland Rogers and Caitlin Horrocks.

The Irreal Reader: Fiction & Essays from The Cafe Irreal

Short (but sweet) review of The Anchoress at: http://lattin-rawstrone.com/read-and-...

Rebekah makes a good point about small publishers. In my experience, the smaller the publisher, the higher the likelihood of their publishing a book that's offbeat or quirky.(Of course they're not all brilliant.)

We can safely rely on the mainstream industry to produce well-packaged, readable, competent novels (as we can rely on Hollywood for movies). But the mainstream industry is risk-averse. Risk-aversion may be a good business strategy, but it's not the most exciting strategy for readers.

Length is a strange thing. I've always been drawn to writing short stories but 'short' used to mean 8,000 or 10,000 words. Then it was 5,000. More recently, I've hardly written a story that's longer than 1,500 words. Many are under 1,000. Is my concentration span shrinking with age? Or along with the culture's? I like to think not. It may in part be work-related. I have less time, so I like to work on a story where I can get in and out. I also like to be able to polish every word. To feel that every word is just right, the rhythms too.

I just received a copy of Flash Fiction Funny, an anthology that has one of my stories in it. And I'm loving it. Reading the stories there, I sort of wonder why anyone would want to read, or write, longer ones. But that's silly, of course. Or maybe it's just me.

A project I've considered from time to time is writing three versions of the same story: one 5,000 words, one 500, and one 50. As a way of seeing what's lost and gained by brevity. I'll do it one day.

Lovely new review of The Anchoress from a well-respected, UK-based book blogger.

http://bookemstevo.wordpress.com/2013...

It's thoughtful reader responses like these that make all the writing seem worthwhile.

Encouraging reviews starting to appear on Amazon either side of the Atlantic, but clearly The Anchoress is going to be more of a slow burner than a shooting star.

As an author I'm not always sure which I prefer: not being reviewed, or being reviewed unfavourably (or even a mixed review). Would I rather be criticized and my book found wanting, or plain old ignored? On balance, I'd say, I'd rather be reviewed, so long as criticism remains constructive. One might learn something, and there's nothing worse than publishing one's work only to be met by utter silence.

A thoughtful review posted by one of the Byte the Book reviewers:

http://www.bytethebook.com/recommenda...