3 on a Theme: Song

Strange Sweet Song by Adi Rule

Sing and Other Stories by Dan Szczesny

Sing Me Forgotten by Jessica S. Olson

3 on a Theme: Live Free or…

Live Free or Sci Fi: Mindbending Tales of Speculative Fiction edited by Rick Broussard

Live Free or Die: A Granite State Mystery by Jessie Crockett

Live Free or Undead: Dark Tales from the Granite State edited by Rick Broussard

Book of the Week (1/28/2019)

A Cathedral of Myth and Bone by Kat Howard (Saga Press, 2019).

New Hampshire author Kat Howard debuts a new collection of fantasy short stories.

In these stories, equally as beguiling and spellbinding as her novels, Howard expands into the enchanted territory of myths and saints, as well as an Arthurian novella set upon a college campus, “Once, Future,” which retells the story of King Arthur—through the women’s eyes.

Captivating and engrossing, and adorned in gorgeous prose, Kat Howard’s stories are a fresh and stylish take on fantasy. “Kat Howard seems to possess a magic of her own, of making characters come alive and scenery so vivid, you forget it exists only on the page” (Anton Bogomazov, Politics and Prose). -- Publisher's blurb.

Join Kat Howard at The Toadstool Bookshop in Milford, NH where she will discuss her new book on Saturday, February 22nd, 2019 at 2 pm.

3 on a Theme: Weather

• Snow Island by Katherine Towler
• Rain Brings Frogs: A Little Book of Hope by Maryann Cocca-Leffler 
• Fog: The Jeffrey Stories by Christopher Brookhouse

Book of the Week #12

Love Free or Die: Twenty-three Tales of Love from the Granite State, edited by Elaine Isaak (Concord, NH: Plaidswede Publishing, 2013)

This is the latest volume in the New Hampshire Pulp Fiction Series and it offers stories by 23 different Granite State writers (including Amy Ray).

"Welcome, dear reader, to the fourth volume of the New Hampshire Pulp Fiction Series, in which we're all about love. But this is not your mother's romance anthology. Yes, you'll find at least one bodice ripper, and a wide variety of first kisses, along with some sexy encounters and sordid affairs. However, you'll also find suspense and tragedy, married love and some unusual relationships that could only happen here, in the Granite State.
...Some of these authors will be familiar from other volumes in the New Hampshire Pulp Fiction series, while others appear here in print for the first time." -- from the Introduction by Elaine Isaak.

Short Story Month

A post from Books on the Nightstand brought it to my attention that May is National Short Story Month. To get you started with a reading list consider the half-dozen short story collections that have been books-of-the-week over the years. (Clearly I need to make an effort to feature more story collections!)
You can find more stories through the Library of Congress' Story of the Week project.

Do you have a short story that you love? Or a collection that you would recommend for someone wanting to read short stories? Please add a comment and tell us about it.

Book of the Week #2

Leah, New Hampshire: The Collected Stories of Thomas Williams, introduction by John Irving. (NY: William Morrow, 1992)

Thomas Williams taught at UNH for most of his career and published 8 novels in his lifetime. This collection of his short stories was published posthumously. Novelist Ann Joslin Williams is his daughter. (This makes 2 father daughter book-of-the-week pairs to-date.)

In this excerpt, the author tells us about the place where these stories occur:

"Leah is an imaginary town in the State of New Hampshire, a state that can be cruel, especially to its poor, or sick, or old. In its public, or collective stance, it can ast as a skinflint and a buffoon among its neighbors. Its people, however, like most Americans, can be decent and generous if, for a moment, they forget dogma, forget 'conservatism,' and sanctimony, and the myths of an imaginary history. ... Right now, at one o'clock in the afternoon, I see the mountain, the lake, the wild brook in the woods, the October light that is nearly level as it crosses the valley. The famous colors have gone, and the old golden ones are going. Then, in a week or so, the hills will be the color of gray branches tinges by purplish winter buds, wiht green-black pyramids here and there meaning spruce or white pine, balsam fir or hemlock. The names of the trees are still known in Leah. In the fall the deer are the color of the spaces between the trees." (from the Author's Note)

I selected a short story collection this week because Ann, at Books on the Nightstand (BOTN), has declared 2013 to be the "Year of the Short Story." (I love that book bloggers have that level of authority in the world!) During the year BOTN will be having a read-along of a short story each month; posting a weekly roundup of the stories they are reading (Ann has challenged herself to read a short story every day); and doing monthly features on publications that feature short fiction. If you love short stories, or if you feel like it is an area where you would like to expand your reading, this project is a great place to connect with other readers. I am planning to try and keep up with the monthly read-alongs. I don't often read short stories, but it is a great literary form that I want to read more of.

Book of the Week #9

Dead Calm: Best New England Crime Stories (Somerville, Mass.: Level Best Books, 2011)

Level Best Books is an independent publishing cooperative which produces an annual anthology of Crime Stories by New England Writers each November. This is their latest collection, it was reviewed at examiner.com late last year, and it includes 27 original stories about the dark side of New England. Among the contributing authors are several from New Hampshire who will be part of the Crime Stories Anthology Night at Water Street Bookstore starting at 7pm on March 20, 2012.

Book of the Week #43

Live Free or Undead by Diverse Hands and edited by Rick Broussard (Concord, NH: Plaidswede, 2010)




From the press release:

"An anthology of short fiction in a horror vein written by local authors and set in the familiar locations of New Hampshire will appear in bookstores just in time for Halloween. “Live Free or Undead: Dark Tales from the Granite State” is being released by Plaidswede Publishing of Concord and should be available across the state by Oct. 14. The book presents 20 spine-tingling tales, some by first-time writers and some by such well-known New Hampshire authors as Rebecca Rule, Brendan Dubois, David Elliott and Hugo Award winner James Patrick Kelly. The book cover is illustrated by Dover artist Marc Sutherland and the whole project was edited by New Hampshire Magazine Editor Rick Broussard."

Last Friday night I attended a reading for this book --as part of the Concord Literary Festival-- where many of the contributing authors were in attendance and read to us from their story. Becky Rule and James Patrick Kelly both read their entire stories, everyone else left the audience at a cliffhanger. Luckily the books were available for sale at the event so I didn't have to wait long to find out what happened in the various stories.



If you weren't able to be there Friday, you have several more opportunities coming up to hear the stories read by the various authors:

• Double Midnight Comics, Manchester, is planning a double dose of zombie fun as the creators behind the hit comic anthology Zombiebomb join some of the creators behind the new NH short story anthology Live Free or Undead to sign their books!
  
• A horror-fiction reading event at Rye Public Library, Wednesday October 27th, 2010 at 7 pm
  Selections from the new collection Live Free or Undead with guest authors Brendan DuBois, Michael DeLuca, Elaine Isaak, and Andy Richmond.
  
• On Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 11am Toadstool Books, Peterborough will host a reading from this brand new collection of spooky tales edited by Rick Broussard and featuring a story from local author Seth Blake and stories from Joyce Wagner, Kristopher Seavey, & Lorrie Lee O'Neill who will be there to read and sign.
  
• At 7pm on Saturday, October 30, 2010 Toadstool Books, Milford will host Lorrie Lee O'Neill, David Elliott, David O'Keefe & Gregory L. Norris reading their contributions to Live Free or Undead.

Book of the Week #47

Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories by James Patrick Kelly (Golden Gryphon Press, 1997)

Another book by James Patrick Kelly recently received the NH Literary Award for Outstanding Book of Fiction. At the award reception I asked Mr. Kelly which of his books was his favorite and he identified this one, the title story of which won the Hugo Award, as a sentimental favorite.

"Standing in Line with Mister Jimmy" (c1991) is also in this collection and is a variation on the theme of "Live Free or Die." It also presents a bizarre vision of the future where people wander around wearing earbuds that feed music and chatter into their brains.

Book of the Week #18

Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love and Money by Rebecca Curtis (NY: Harper Perennial, 2007)

Rebecca Curtis grew up in Gilford, New Hampshire and this collection of stories includes many that are set in the Granite State. The author describes -- in the about the author section at the back of the book -- how she wrote these stories:

"... when I wrote the stories in this book, each began with the desire to describe a place in New Hampshire that I knew, even if it was an ugly place. The setting for 'The Alpine Slide' is based on a local water park where I worked as a slide attendant, as did a bunch of other teenagers. That was the best job I ever had, working in the valley among the mountains, riding the slide; in writing the story, all I wanted to do was describe the park."

Also included in the back of the book is a compilation of some of the truly great highlights of New Hampshire, many of which are mentioned in the stories.

Ms. Curtis teaches creative writing at Columbia University and has been interviewed by Gothamist and Sunspinner. Twenty Grand won the New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Work of Fiction, 2006-7.

Book of the Week #30

Fog: The Jeffrey Stories by Christopher Brookhouse (Safe Harbor Books, 2004)

This collection of stories introduces us to the residents of Jeffrey, New Hampshire, a town of eleven hundred people, practically in Canada and with barely two months of good weather a year.

"The stories in Fog are not only intelligent and sexy (as readers have said), but also elegantly written, stories that consider the varieties of love and affirm the beauty of the places we see around us and geographies we can only imagine."

In 2005 Christopher Brookhouse, a former resident of New London recieved a New Hampshire Literary Award for this book.