Martin Green is a retiree/free-lance writer living in Roseville, California. In 1991, the year after he retired, he started writing articles for a weekly alternative newspaper in Sacramento, Suttertown News.. In the same year, he began free-lancing for the Neighbors section of the Sacramento Bee, Since 2000, hes been writing for a monthly newspaper, the Sun Senior News, and currently does two monthly features, Observations and Favorite Restaurants. In addition to his journalism, Martin has had over 250 short stories published in online magazines and has self-published three collections of these stories (2006, 2007 and 2008) as well as a longer work, One Year in Retirement (2009), a collection of his Observations (2010) and a book called Potpourri, (2011), containing short stories, a year and a half of Observations, and Last Words, essays On Growing Old, On Writing, On Reading, and On Travel. This book contains a novelette, A Life: Phase One and 28 short stories published online since Potpourri. The novelette follows the adventures of a young man returning from the Army in the 1950s to New York, where he wants to get a job, find a girl and a place of his own to live in. Simple enough goals, but as he finds out, life is not that simple and complications ensue, including leaving New York and going West to San Francisco. Martin has been married to Beverly 47 years, has three sons (David, Michael and Christopher), three grandsons (Mason, Morgan and Logan), one granddaughter (Stephanie) and two cats (Bun-Bun and Shandyman). Martin Greens stories always ring true for me. His characters are real people. Whenever I finish reading one of Martins stories I feel Ive just spent time with an old friend. ---Julie Larson, Editor, Storystar

In this award-winning work of fiction, Ellen van Neerven leads readers on a journey that is mythical, mystical and still achingly real. Over three parts, van Neerven takes traditional storytelling and gives it a unique, contemporary twist. In 'Heat', we meet several generations of the Kresinger family and the legacy left by the mysterious Pearl. In 'Water', a futuristic world is imagined and the fate of a people threatened. In 'Light', familial ties are challenged and characters are caught between a desire for freedom and a sense of belonging. Heat and Light is an intriguing collection that heralded the arrival of a major new talent in Australian writing.

The short story was a commercial phenomenon which took off in the late nineteenth century and lasted through to the rise of television and film. Baldwin uses a wide variety of sources to show how economic factors helped to dictate how and what a wide variety of authors wrote.

The American short story has always been characterized by exciting aesthetic innovations and an immense range of topics. This handbook offers students and researchers a comprehensive introduction to the multifaceted genre with a special focus on recent developments due to the rise of new media. Part I provides systematic overviews of significant contexts ranging from historical-political backgrounds, short story theories developed by writers, print and digital culture, to current theoretical approaches and canon formation. Part II consists of 35 paired readings of representative short stories by eminent authors, charting major steps in the evolution of the American short story from its beginnings as an art form in the early nineteenth century up to the digital age. The handbook examines historically, methodologically, and theoretically the coming together of the enduring narrative practice of compression and concision in American literature. It offers fresh and original readings relevant to studying the American short story and shows how the genre performs American culture.

A new history of the origins of the American short story and its relationship to theatrical performance culture

If you are a writer of fiction, this practical handbook will teach you how to acquire your own writer's tool-box. Here you will learn all about developing your craft. The wide-ranging exploration of fiction-writing skills contains many unique features, such as the focus on reflective learning and tuition on advanced skills including foreshadowing, transitions and producing short story cycles. Throughout, the approach is centred on 3 kinds of activity: - Examining the theory of particular fiction writing skills. - Analysing the practice of these skills in examples of published work. - Practising the use of skills in fiction-writing exercises. What makes this guide so distinctive, though, is the way it consistently asks you to reflect on your work, and stresses the importance of being able to articulate the processes of writing. Packed with wisdom about the art of fiction and filled with writing exercises, How to Write Fiction (and Think about It) examines the work of today's finest authors to teach you everything you need to know about writing short stories or longer fiction. Whether you are a student, a would-be professional author, or a general reader who simply likes to write for pleasure, this guide will equip you with a portfolio of key fiction-writing skills.

Although the short story has existed in various forms for centuries, it has particularly flourished during the last hundred years. Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English includes alphabetically-arranged entries for 50 English-language short story writers from around the world. Most of these writers have been active since 1960, and they reflect a wide range of experiences and perspectives in their works. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes biography, a review of existing criticism, a lengthier analysis of specific works, and a selected bibliography of primary and secondary sources. The volume begins with a detailed introduction to the short story genre and concludes with an annotated bibliography of major works on short story theory.