Arrived in the post
Today I received my copy of You, Me & a Bit of We, edited by S Phillip and published by Chuffed Buff Books. It’s an anthology of 42 short and flash stories told in first or second person.
One reason I have the book is that it includes one of my stories, and this is the first time my work has appeared in a book.
I know what my story says, but finally I get to read the others (the publishing process has taken months). I’ve only had time to read a few of the stories so far, but I’m thrilled to be in such great company. All the pieces I’ve read have been striking and original and I’ve already had several of the ‘I wish I could write like that’ moments.
One thing that surprises me is that women contributors hugely outnumber men. Is the short story a female genre? Does the editor prefer women’s subjects? Are men not submitting their work? With Alice Munro the new Nobel Laureate for Literature, the short story is coming to the fore big time. I hope the men aren’t going to miss out on the opportunities for getting their work noticed.
e a m harris 
Columns and pages – a different look and feel
For National Short Story Day, Chuffed Buff Books put a series of short story extracts on their website. They are from their recent anthology, You, Me & a Bit of We, and included an extract from my story, Last Funeral but Two.
Natch I went to the site to read the extracts. When reading mine, for a moment I thought they’d changed it. Then I realised that this feeling came from seeing it in a wide column instead of a whole page.
I’m used to seeing my work in pages on screen and on paper, but I’ve never seen it in column form and I was surprised at what a difference that made. The whole feel of the story changed for me – it felt more abrupt and ‘temporary’ and the short lines meant I read it faster but more superficially than usual.
What sort of difference would it make to have it appear as an illustrated manuscript, on a tiny mobile screen, in multiple columns on a scroll one unwound while reading like the ancient Romans had? Is the kind of literature written partly a response to the kind of layout and materials available? I doubt if I’ll ever know, but it’s interesting to speculate that I could make an undying classic just by writing on papyrus.
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