Anthologies!

I love an anthology of stories. I always read the list of titles first. They make a story in themselves. A story of intriguing possibilities. And not for me the start-to-finish approach like reading a novel. I prefer the chocolate box method, picking out what I fancy first. Sometimes I absolutely MUST find out what a particular story is all about or the title makes me imagine what the story’s theme might be. Or perhaps I recognise the author’s name. I often pick the shortest story as an initial taster then longer one to savour. Then I begin to wonder if someone had carefully put all these stories in a particular order …

So … I’m very pleased, thrilled even, to have stories in two anthologies that have been launched this month.

My flash, ‘Harps’ is in Jawbreakers, the National Flash Fiction Day Anthology, along with a whole collection of one-word-title flashes, some by writers who were commissioned and others who, like me, submitted. Harps is a mere 178 words long, fitting nicely on page 51. I’m especially proud to be in this anthology because two years ago I read some flashes by one of the commissioned writers, David Gaffney, and was inspired to write shorter short stories. Jawbreakers is available on Amazon for Kindle or in old fashioned papery versions (and very nice too) from National Flash Fiction Day 

The other anthology is out today. Called 100RPM, it features one hundred hundred- word stories all inspired by songs on youtube. Lots of interesting stuff and what looks like a wide selection of songs. I intend to spend some time listening to the song, reading the stories and finding music that is new to me. Many of the bands and singers i have never heard. very much stuck in the late seventies when it comes to music. My stories in 100RPM are called ‘Here’, inspired by Some Fantastic Place by Squeeze and ‘My Boy’ inspired by My Perfect Cousin by The Undertones 

100RPM has been put together, from initial writing challenge to finished anthology by writer Caroline Smailes (she writes about it here here) It has an introduction by Nik Kershaw and is being sold on Amazon for Kindle for just £1.02 in aid of a charity called One in Four that helps victims of sexual abuse.