You Have Time For This

You Have Time for This

Contemporary American Short Stories

Edited by Mark Budman & Tom Hazuka

These contenders for the title of “world’s best short-short stories” are by among the best micro and flash writers I know of, such as Katherine Weber, Bruce Holland Rogers, Sherrie Flick, Deb Olin Unferth, Bruce Boston, and Aimee Bender. How can they do it in less than 500 words—suspense, revelation, a twist of metaphor, or plot, or character, and sometimes all, before you can turn the page? It’s like levitation—I’m skeptical, but seeing is believing. A good book by two editors who are excellent flash fiction writers themselves, Tom Hazuka and Mark Budman; Budman also edits the Vestal Review, which is one of the best of the flash journals, and where many of these stories come from.

- Robert Shapard, editor of “Sudden Fiction International”, co-editor of “Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories” and “Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories”

Love, death, fantasy, and foreign lands, told with brevity and style by the best writers in the short-short fiction genre. You Have Time for This satiates your craving for fine literature without making a dent in your schedule.

This collection takes the modern reader on fifty-three literary rides, each one only five hundred words or less. Mark Budman and Tom Hazuka, two of the top names in the genre, have compiled an anthology of mini-worlds are as diverse as the authors who created them. Contributing writers include Steve Almond, author of My Life in Heavy Metal and Candy-freak; Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt; Robert Boswell, author of five novels including Century’s Son; Alex Irvine, author of A Scattering of Jades; L. E. Leone who writes a weekly humorous column about food and life for the San Francisco Bay Guardian; Justine Musk, author of dark-fantasy novels including Blood Angel; Susan O’Neill, writer of nonfiction and fiction with a book of short stories Don’t Mean Nothing; Short Stories of Vietnam; Katharine Weber author of several novels, her most recent is Triangle.

From Buddha to beer, sex to headless angels, there’s a story here for everyone. In You Have Time for This you will find:

* Flash fiction from forty-four authors
* Works from across the globe
* Highly regarded authors from all types of genres
* Fresh work from emerging writers
* Fifty-three stand alone pieces that tie the world together

Enjoy. You have time for this.
To order go here or here.

Stalin blogs here

Stalin blogs here.

Do you like English?

I bought "Doing Our Own Thing. The Degradation of language and music, and why we should, like, care" for the title alone.

The author, John McWhorther, argues: "To be a modern American is to lack a native love of one's language that is typical of most humans worldwide. I suspect that many Americans reading this do not consider themselves as feeling much of anything about English pro or con--and that is exactly the point."

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NEO magazine

I had a story (not from MLAFT) accepted by Neo magazine, a university press at Portuguese Azores. They usually publish more than one story from an author so they want me to submit more.

The New Yorker

I have always considered a submission to TNY as a waste of time, but one day I decided to try. I followed the guidelines to the letter. Guess what? A month or so later the acknowledgment e-mail arrived: TNY has deleted my sub without reading it. I inquired. The reply? Drum roll! They sent me the guidelines again. Apparently, the subs to TNY are read by a robot.

Congrats to Sarkozy

Now, I hope, the freedom fries will turn back into French fries.

Cat Haiku

The same market that gave me the 11 minutes rejection, bought my three cat haiku. I don't know what the payment is yet, but at least I will get a copy of the anthology.

Tamarack Award

Tamarack Award is open [only] to residents of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

I live in Far Eastern North Dakota (New York). Does that count? I hate it when they exclude people for any reason, most of all geography, gender and age. What if New York magazines and publishers start excluding non-residents?

11 minutes rejection

11 minutes rejection from "Cat Tales" anthology. My personal record. The editor actually read the sub, judging by his reply.

The worst thing an editor can do

The worst thing an editor can do is to refuse to reply to a query.

Marketing and publicity

I wonder what other authors do for publicity?

Book reviewing magazines

A couple of book reviewing magazines have agreed to see my novel when it comes out. One editor told me: "we get between 20 and 80 books a day to my attention." Wow.

Will they remember the promise when the time comes? Only time can tell.

New Cat

Our new cat.

Negative publicity

A blogger made some negative comments about me. I was surprised to see how many people came to my defense. Thank you, friends.

The new crop of edits

Sent the new crop (I hope not crap) of edits to Counterpoint today. Working with a book publisher is unlike working with a magazine editor. Firstly, it's a lengthier process. Secondly, it's done both by phone and e-mail. Thirdly, the payout is greater. I love it.

It's funny that I recently received a form rejection from an agent whom I queried back in October. Their fist reader is sleeping at the wheel.