A Few Suggestions for National Short Story Month

     So.  May.  National Short Story Month.  And that's been going on for a few years now.  And if I noticed in previous years that May was National Short Story Month, I'm bleeped if I remember...
     So.  National Short Story Month.  And is there a ton of good stuff out there to load up your Kindle?  Jeez, is there ever.  For instance...

     One of the best deals out there at the moment is Irwin Shaw's SHORT STORIES: FIVE DECADES, Shaw's own selection of his best short work; Shaw is perhaps best remembered for his best-selling novels such as THE YOUNG LIONS, VOICES OF A SUMMER DAY, and RICH MAN, POOR MAN, but if memory serves Shaw's short stories were regarded more favorably than his novels.  In long form or short, Shaw was a terrific story-teller, and SHORT STORIES: FIVE DECADES is an excellent collection.  Some of the stories, like "The Eighty Yard Run" and "Girls in Their Summer Dresses," will probably be familiar already, having been standards in literature classes for some time now, but many of them will not.  There are only a couple of things wrong with this collection -- first, it's too bad it didn't include the introductions Shaw wrote for the books in which the stories were first collected, and second, it would have been nice if Open Road Media had gathered all of Shaw's short fiction for this ebook rather than sticking to the contents of the original print edition of the title.  But those are extremely minor quibbles.  This book is $2.99 this month, and believe thee me, for the amount of good reading included, it's an absolute steal.

     If you're into classic short fiction, Delphi Classics is a name to watch for -- this publisher tries to put an author's complete works into a single ebook.  In some cases, US copyright terms keep later work out of the volume (a few of the last Kipling titles, for instance), but usually it's all there.  And their prices are delightfully low, usually under $4.00.  All of Henry James, all of Dickens, all of Hawthorne, all of Chekhov, and many more.  And Delphi includes extras: for example, the Henry James collection includes not only his short fiction (as well as his novels, criticism, autobiographical writings, a selection of his letters), but also a number of short titles about James by other writers.  Finally re: James -- if you couldn't get through his novels, try his short stories.  He's one of those writers who gets better as you get older.  Some years back I went to a library conference and the schedule left me with nearly a full day at the hotel in Wichita waiting for my bus to leave late the next morning.  I settled back with a couple of collections of James' short stories -- high point of the trip.

     They're not ebooked, but a while back the Library of America put out a nice set in three volumes of Isaac Bashevis Singer's short stories.  The New England Science Fiction Association has been doing complete-stories sets of major sf and fantasy writers for years, among them Poul Anderson, William Tenn, Roger Zelazny, and C. M. Kornbluth.

     I've already mentioned some of the collections by Robert Silverberg, Jack Finney, Ray Bradbury, and Gerald Kersh in previous posts.

     To return for a moment to Open Road Media: the company recently acquired E-Reads and is reissuing E-Reads titles under its own imprint.  Included are nearly all of Fritz Leiber's titles -- Leiber was equally adept at science fiction, heroic fantasy, and horror, and if you've missed stories like "Smoke Ghost" or "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes" you should stop reading this post and grab yourself a whole bunch of Leiber (if you don't snatch up everything available from Open Road, go for the Night Shade Books SELECTED STORIES volume with the Neil Gaiman intro).

     Also formerly from E-Reads and now from Open Road is the work of Harlan Ellison.  Even if you don't know his name, chances are you've noticed his work.  The best episodes of the original OUTER LIMITS, "Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand," were his.  The best episode of the original STAR TREK, "City on the Edge of Forever," was his (and Ellison's original script was much stronger than the version that aired).  The best episodes of the 1980s TWILIGHT ZONE series, "Shatterday," "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty," and "Paladin of the Lost Hour," were adapted from his stories.  Novelist, essayist, screenwriter, short story writer, editor -- he's one of the writers who can do it all.  I can remember a time when finding many of his titles required a LOT of scrounging through second-hand book stores; E-Reads and now Open Road have made most of his backlist easily available.  I've started to write a post on Ellison for this space half a dozen times and trashcanned it every time -- Ellison's work has been important to me since I was in high school nearly fifty years ago and found a copy of I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM on the drug store spinner rack, and I just don't know how to do even a little bit of justice to the subject.  The title story of that book, and the even better stories that followed in other collections through the years, blew this kid away.  If you'd like a good sample of fiction from one of the absolute powerhouse short story writers of our time, try the following: DEATHBIRD STORIES, I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM, SHATTERDAY, GENTLEMAN JUNKIE, SLIPPAGE, and LOVE AIN'T NOTHING BUT SEX MISSPELLED;  ANGRY CANDY and MIND FIELDS are also must-reads, but they're not available as ebooks.  Many of his stories are fantasies, but you'll find he's a terrific writer of mainstream fiction as well -- check out "Daniel White for the Greater Good," "No Fourth Commandment," "Neither Your Jenny Nor Mine," "All the Lies That Are My Life," and "The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie."  A writer not to be missed, and if you've not read him before, what better time to discover his work than during National Short Story Month?

Ebook Releases of Work by T. S. Eliot, Russell Kirk -- and More Gerald Kersh and Shirley Jackson

Can't get enough Shirley Jackson?  Well, there's more coming next year.  Here's a link to The Guardian's Alison Flood on a new collection (stories, lectures, essays, drawings) called GARLIC IN FICTION that should be out some time in 2015 from Random House.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/apr/18/shirley-jackson-back-garlic-in-fiction

And coming from Valancourt in 2014-15, four more Gerald Kersh titles, among other goodies.  The Kersh titles are the novel THE GREAT WASH (aka THE SECRET MASTERS) and the short fiction collections ON AN ODD NOTE, CLOCK WITHOUT HANDS, and NEITHER MAN NOR DOG (a collection worth the price of admission just for the story "Gomez").   In addition to the Kersh titles, Valancourt's releases will include Alex Hamilton's BEAM OF MALICE, A. E. Ellis's THE RACK,  F. L. Green's ODD MAN OUT, and more.  Find the announcements at:
http://valancourtbooksblog.blogspot.com/

Valancourt is the publisher of two other Kersh titles -- the novel FOWLERS END, and a short story collection called NIGHTSHADE AND DAMNATIONS (a terrific selection of Kersh's shorter work, with an equally terrific intro by Harlan Ellison).  Other Kersh titles have recently been reissued by Faber, and I believe Faber may have more Kersh scheduled for late this year.

Russell Kirk, author of THE CONSERVATIVE MIND, THE POLITICS OF PRUDENCE, and ENEMIES OF THE PERMANENT THINGS, also wrote a long study of T. S. Eliot called THE AGE OF ELIOT; that book has just been released in a Kindle ebook edition, and the release is nicely timed.  A number of Eliot's titles have also been released as ebooks during the last couple of months, including his SELECTED ESSAYS, CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE, THE COMPLETE PLAYS, and others, with Eliot's COLLECTED POEMS due for ebook release in May.

If you're a fan of strange stories, watch for more Robert Aickman coming soon from Faber; his collection DARK ENTRIES will be released as an ebook in June and a later collection, COLD HAND IN MINE, will be reissued in July.

And speaking of strange stories, the above-mentioned Russell Kirk wrote ghost stories as well.  His ghost story collections have not been released as ebooks yet, but it's well worth checking your local library for them.  Look for ANCESTRAL SHADOWS or for the two-volume set of Kirk's ghost stories from Ash-Tree Press, OFF THE SAND ROAD and WHAT SHADOWS WE PURSUE.  If you enjoy ghost stories, you don't want to miss Russell Kirk.

The Other Iron River -- Print Edition Now Available

And if I say so myself, it doesn't look bad (Thanks, CreateSpace).

Fifteen stories, trade paperback, for $7.99 list price (though Amazon discounts it a bit).  The stories included are mostly short ghost, horror, and fantasy stories, and I like to think that some of these pieces have a nice Twilight Zone/Jack Finney feel to them.  Check the book out if you get a chance, and I hope you'll enjoy it.

And here's the link to the print edition in the US Amazon store:
The Other Iron River, and Other Stories - paperback

The Kindle edition remains available (and cheaper, too).  Link for the US Kindle edition is:
The Other Iron River, and Other Stories - Kindle edition

The print edition should be available soon, if it isn't already, in other Amazon stores besides the US as well as in the CreateSpace store.

Ebooks by Roger Zelazny, Dennis Etchison, and a Huge Collection of Time Travel Stories Edited by the VanderMeers

     iBooks has released an ebook edition of Roger Zelazny's short story collection THE LAST DEFENDER OF CAMELOT.  This one includes some terrific mid-career and later work from Zelazny, including the title story, award-winners like "Home Is the Hangman" and "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai," and more.  No reader of science fiction and fantasy should miss Zelazny's work -- he was one of the finest writers ever to come out of the field.  You'll find the best of his earlier short fiction in the collection THE DOORS OF HIS FACE, THE LAMPS OF HIS MOUTH; that collection includes the classic "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" (described by Theodore Sturgeon as "one of the most beautifully written, skillfully composed and passionately expressed works of art to appear anywhere, ever"), the title story, "The Man Who Loved the Faoli," and others.  The earlier collection isn't available for the Kindle yet, unfortunately, but you can get it in trade paperback (a bit pricey, but worth every penny and more).


     Also available now for Kindle is another collection of short horror stories by Dennis Etchison, THE DEATH ARTIST.  This one includes gems like "The Dog Park" and "No One You Know."  This is the third of his short story collections to be ebooked by Crossroad Press; the others are THE DARK COUNTRY and RED DREAMS.  All three are brimful of grim dark delights.


     And finally, we have THE TIME TRAVELER'S ALMANAC, edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer.  This is a big (close to a thousand pages) collection of time travel fiction, and there is a LOT of good reading gathered here.  That said, I'm of two minds about this one.
     The quibble first.  The strange thing about THE TIME TRAVELER'S ALMANAC is what it omits -- for instance, Heinlein's "All You Zombies" is absent, and there are no selections from Fritz Leiber's Change War stories, ditto Alfred Bester's "Disappearing Act" or "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed," and nothing from Jack Finney, whose "I'm Scared" and "Where the Cluetts Are" (among others) would be ideal selections.  Not only are these writers omitted, but unless I missed a long passage somewhere they go unmentioned in the preface and introduction.  Strange gaps these, in an anthology meant to demonstrate the full range of the time travel story, and I'm surprised to see no recommended reading list on the contents page to fill those gaps.
     End of quibble -- after all, no anthology includes everything and most of the omissions I mentioned will already be familiar to the sf audience.  As I said up front, there's a LOT of good reading here -- classic stories like Kuttner & Moore's "Vintage Season," Matheson's "Death Ship," Sturgeon's "Yesterday Was Monday," and Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" are present, as well as work by writers like Connie Willis, Karen Haber, Gene Wolfe, Joe Lansdale, Norman Spinrad, Nalo Hopkinson, George R. R. Martin, Pamela Sargent, and many more.  The VanderMeers have put together just the kind of great big grab-bag anthology I described a few months ago, and if you like time travel stories you should buy this book immediately; you'll find familiar classics and chances are you'll find quite a few good stories you'd missed reading before.  A must for the sf shelf.
     And in case you missed it, the VanderMeers put together an essential collection of weird fiction a couple of years ago.  Titled, appropriately, THE WEIRD: A COMPENDIUM OF STRANGE AND DARK STORIES, the book covered a century of weird fiction with selections ranging from Lovecraft to Borges, and if you like dark fantasy this one too is a must.



Get the books mentioned here:

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Defender-Camelot-Roger-Zelazny-ebook/dp/B00J39D86W
http://www.amazon.com/Doors-His-Face-Lamps-Mouth/dp/0743413296

http://www.amazon.com/The-Time-Travelers-Almanac-VanderMeer-ebook/dp/B00FCQS2LQ
http://www.amazon.com/Weird-Compendium-Strange-Dark-Stories-ebook/dp/B006TXZD3G

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Artist-Dennis-Etchison-ebook/dp/B00J49UX28
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Country-Dennis-Etchison-ebook/dp/B00FWBJLB6
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dreams-Dennis-Etchison-ebook/dp/B00GYOJCIC

The Other Iron River, and Other Stories -- Expanded Edition

Just a brief commercial announcement:

I've just added quite a bit of material to my short story collection The Other Iron River, and Other Stories.  The original ebook release contained three stories -- it now has fifteen, three of which are new to this edition.

If you're one of those who'd already bought it, Amazon should be sending out either the update or an email notice so that you can download the newer version some time in the next few weeks.  If you haven't already bought it, now's the time.  The Other Iron River will be left at its original price of 99 cents for a week; next Saturday (Mar 8) I'll be raising the price to 2.99, so grab it while it's cheap.

The pieces included are mostly short ghost, fantasy, and horror stories, and I like to think that some of these stories have a nice Jack Finney/Twilight Zone feel to them.  Check them out if you get a chance, and I hope you'll enjoy them.

And here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Other-Iron-River-Stories-ebook/dp/B0045JLQKA

Don't like ebooks?  After I've played a bit more with formatting for CreateSpace, there will be a print edition of this title; once it's available, I'll announce it here.

And bests to all.

Submitted for Your Approval: Rod Serling Ebooks

   If you think of Rod Serling, you think first of The Twilight Zone.  Chances are you think of Night Gallery next.  And if you're old enough, or if you're one of those who pays more attention to the writing credits than to directors, you may think too of the film adaptations of Seven Days in May and the original Planet of the Apes, and of Serling's earlier works for television such as Patterns and Requiem for a Heavyweight.

   You don't think books; Serling wrote television (and when he was at the top of his game, there were few writers in the medium who could equal him).

   But yes, he wrote some books as well.  Not many, but there were a few, and they're available again as ebooks.  With one exception, those books were collections of short stories he based on his television work.  Three of them were adaptations of some of his Twilight Zone episodes; two were adaptations of some of his scripts for Night Gallery.  The exception was a collection of three novellas called The Season to Be Wary.

   When I started buying paperback books, his collections of short stories adapted from Twilight Zone episodes were on the racks and I grabbed them immediately.  To my mind, the TZ books suffered a little from what might be called Novelization Syndrome, in which a story written for one medium is translated to another and loses some of its energy in the translation.  (If you've read playwright William Inge's first novel, Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff, you can see something similar operating there -- Inge's narrative sometimes reads more like stage direction and director's notes than prose fiction, as if he'd originally imagined the work as a play rather than a novel.)  Serling had already conceived these stories and told them properly as short films and it seemed to me that they lost something in the move to narrative prose.  But those books included adaptations of some of Serling's finest work for the series, among them "The Shelter," "Walking Distance," and "A Stop at Willoughby," and they retained enough of their impact to make the books well worth the time.

   Serling didn't walk away from short fiction after doing the TZ adaptations.  In 1967, he published a book of three novellas, The Season to Be Wary.  The novellas were not adapted from television scripts, but they had the energy and the feel, the themes and the twists, of Serling's best work for Twilight Zone (and two of the three were adapted a couple of years later for segments in the pilot film that launched Night Gallery); these novellas show a writer becoming as comfortable working in narrative prose as he was working in screenplays, and as Mark Olshaker notes in his introduction to the recent ebook edition they offer a tantalizing glimpse of the future Serling might have had as a novelist.

   Six Serling titles are currently available as ebooks; they are: Stories from the Twilight Zone; More Stories from the Twilight Zone; New Stories from the Twilight Zone; Night Gallery; Night Gallery 2; The Season to Be Wary.  You can find all of them in Amazon's Kindle store; if you're not a fan of ebooks, you can get the three TZ titles as trade paperbacks at this time and chances are trade paperbacks of The Season to Be Wary and the Night Gallery collections will soon be available too.

   If we're lucky, these volumes will be followed by ebooks gathering some of Serling's other work for television.  In the late 50s, a collection was published that included Patterns, Old MacDonald Had a Curve, The Rack, and Requiem for a Heavyweight, and Serling's comments on each -- it would be nice to see that one available again.  Ditto some of his other scripts, such as A Storm in Summer and Slow Fade to Black.  (And I for one would pop instantly for an ebook containing both the television and the feature film scripts of Requiem for a Heavyweight with any available notes from Serling.)  Contemporary audiences know Serling mostly through Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, but there's a lot of terrific work by Rod Serling that doesn't get as much air time these days as it should; here's hoping that we'll see some of those scripts restored to print as well.

Some Recent Short Story Releases

     Every so often, book discussion threads take up the popularity (or unpopularity) of short stories.  And there's no doubt that novels sell better, and take up far more space on the store racks.  There's no book store in the town where I live; the local racks are at Wal-Mart and one of the large grocery stores, and when I scan them I seldom find any books of short stories at all unless one of Stephen King's collections has been reissued.
     It wasn't always like this.  When I started buying paperbacks, there were plenty of collections to be found.  Among the writers whose short story collections graced the racks then were: Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Fredric Brown, Richard Matheson, Stanley Ellin, C. M. Kornbluth, Jerome Bixby, Fritz Leiber, Damon Knight, Theodore Sturgeon, Henry Kuttner, Isaac Bashevis Singer, John O'Hara, Cornell Woolrich, Irwin Shaw, Richard Yates, J. G. Ballard, Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates, and others.  You couldn't move in the paperback aisle without tripping over anthologies edited by Hitchcock, Ellery Queen, Judith Merril, Frederik Pohl, or Damon Knight.  And that's not considering volumes from publishers like Signet Classics offering collections from classic writers like Poe, Hawthorne, James, Twain, Kipling, and others.  As I noted in an earlier post, this was the kind of selection to be found on the racks at one of the neighborhood pharmacies.  To find large selections of short stories these days, you'll have to hit a good-sized bookstore.
     But the advent of the ebook reader means that short stories are easier to find in ebook formats than they often are on most of your local racks.  Among recent ebook releases, you'll find: The Best of Joe Haldeman, which includes a wonderfully creepy Vietnam War horror story called "Graves," and this story alone is worth the price of admission; Jack Finney's About Time, which gathers most of the best stories from his two earlier collections -- several of these stories would have made fine episodes of the original Twilight Zone, and while a few of its selections like "The Third Level," 'I'm Scared," and "Of Missing Persons" may be familiar, there's a lovely lesser-known short fantasy here called "Where the Cluetts Are" which is one of Finney's best; The Horrible Dummy and Other Stories, Nightshade & Damnations, and The Best of Gerald Kersh, all by Gerald Kersh -- Kersh is having a nice revival at the moment, with Faber Finds and Valancourt bringing back several long unavailable novels and short story collections as print and ebook releases; E-Reads has published two collections of John Brunner's short stories, From This Day Forward and Out of My Mind -- the latter includes some of Brunner's best dark short works, such as "The Totally Rich," "The Last Lonely Man," and "The Nail in the Middle of the Hand;" Dennis Etchison's first collection of short horror stories, the award winning The Dark Country; John O'Hara's New York Stories; James Everington's new collection of weird stories, Falling Over; two more volumes of Robert Silverberg's collected short fiction, Hot Times in Magma City and We Are for the Dark.
     Novels may sell more copies, but there's a LOT of fine short fiction out there and it's easily available on any ebook reader.