Finding New Short Fiction -- Author Blogs

Last week I recommended some specific authors and stories and collections. They were almost all classics, and nearly all to be found in traditional permanent book form.

This week I wanted to give you an overview of places to find new fiction, but the subject is really too broad, and I'm trying to get a book done, so I'm just going to tell you about one small corner. Well, not such a small corner, really. It's actually huge and difuse.

Author blogs.

There are a lot of magazines on the web -- both formal print magazines and small webzines -- but one of the more interesting places to find short fiction is on author websites.

What I like about blogs is that they're like magazines or newspapers. I read them for the regular non-fiction content, and when a story pops up -- especially if it's a flash fiction -- I just naturally read it without even thinking about it. With longer stories, I usually want to set aside time to read it properly, and that time never does come. Of course, sometimes you get lured into reading a longer story without even thinking about it....

This is all just beginning, and I have barely started finding these sites myself, so I'm not going to try to give yo a "best of" -- I'm just going to tell you a few sites I've found. (And I'll continue to do so every Tuesday.)

Dean Wesley Smith

I've mentioned elsewhere that Dean Wesley Smith is in the middle of a short story writing challenge, and he's publishing stories on his website as he finishes them. Each story expires when the next one is put up, however, so you have to read regularly to catch them all. The stories are off-the-cuff and sometimes quite odd-ball. (For a while he was holding back stories which were suited for commercial publication, but he's behind on the challenge, so some of those are also creeping onto the roster.)

Kris Rusch

Kris (who happens to be married to Dean) is an award winning author/editor who also writes like a fiend, and she puts up a story on most Mondays on her blog Kris Writes, and also does a book excerpt once a month.

Morgen Bailey

Morgen Bailey's author site has started doing "Flash Fiction Fridays." These are not her own stories, but those of people who submit.

Karen Wojcik Berner

Karen's Bibliophilic Blather page also does flash fiction on Fridays, also stories submitted by other authors. She usually has a theme, but has some open periods too.

And there are so many others, and many who will start in the future. Keep your eye on your favorite author's blogs.

Tomorrow I report the progress on my Round of Words in 80 Days effort.

See you in the funny papers.