Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Armchair BEA (Wednesday) - “A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it.” - Edgar Allen Poe

Armchair BEA prompt for today:

Novellas/Short Stories

Now it is time to give a little love to those little stories in your life. Share your love for your favorite shorts of any form. What is a short story or novella that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves? Recommend to readers what shorts you would recommend they start with. How about listing some short story anthologies based upon genres or authors? 



You know who has a lot of short stories? Ray Bradbury. One ("I Sing the Body Electric") has even been made into a Twilight Zone episode. And if you're a Lana Del Ray fan, she also has a song of the same name. So I don't know if she's a Bradbury fan or she just heard the phrase somewhere and then wrote a random song.....
Stories of Ray Bradbury

A more modern author of fantasy (and an Armchair BEA favorite judging from a lot of different blogs) Neil Gaiman also has a short story collection:


Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
A fellow book blogger (Andi at Estella's Revenge if memory serves...) had a review for this book on her blog recently and I'm so intrigued by it! Also, such a fun cover!
Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day

Anyone else have any that they love?


Here's the other prompt:
Expanding Blogging Horizons 
What do you think about when you think about going beyond blogging or expanding your horizons? Is it a redesign of your blog? Have you branched out into freelance writing or even published a novel of your very own? Or, have you moved into a different venue like podcasts or vlogging? This is the day to tell us about how you have expanded on blogging in your own unique way. 

I was totally encourage by everyone's great author interaction stories yesterday. I'm going to try to expand my horizons by making more of an effort to talk to authors on twitter! I've had contact with Fr James Martin and Ben Winters and they were both great, hopefully I can add more to their number!

You will never see a vlog from this blog either. If you see one, assume that some kind of creature from Supernatural has taken over my body, find me and shoot me full of rock salt.

And on that note...

34 comments:

  1. You have almost the same exact short story picks as I do. We must be secret twins separated at birth. :-)

    --Brenda @DailyMayo

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    1. Ooooooobviously! You remembered I,Robot though and I spaced on that one. An excellent addition :)

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  2. Any David Foster Wallace shorts - I liked Oblivion.

    Capote's The Grass Harp

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    1. I haven't read anything by either of them. I'm embarrassed of myself.

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    2. You've never read anything by Capote? That's a bit of a surprise.

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    3. I told you, it's embarrassing! He's on my list, I'll get there eventually.

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  3. I saw that Ben Loory collection too (probably at Andi's) and I promptly added it to my impossibly long TBR list. I love that cover. I think I prefer Niel Gaiman as a short story author (after reading short and long from him). Hmm...

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    1. Isn't it fun? The cover cracks me up with the tentacle. The TBR list neeeeeever ends!

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  4. I like Neil Gaiman's works but have yet to read his short stories--will need to fix that! I've also only read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 but I like his writing, I look forward to reading more of his works in the future :)

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    1. Sometimes in Neil's full length stuff theres so much going on that I can't get my head around it, so his short stuff is nice! Ocean at the end of lane was good. I'm bias because he's my favoritest but Ray Bradbury is awesome. My favorite of his is "Something Wicked This Way Comes". Lots of beautiful descriptions, a little creepy, and one of the man characters is a brave librarian!

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  5. I would think Ray Bradbury had even more short stories turned into Twilight Zone episodes.

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    1. I swear that there's more, but that was the only one that I could find officially listing him as the author. Even if he didn't write them his fingerprints are all over most of the episodes I think!

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  6. Neil Gaiman has some really beautiful short stories. I still need to get Fragile Things myself some day, instead of hijacking it from a friend

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    1. I forgot he also wrote "Unnatural Creatures" which is another good short story compilation too

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  7. STORIES FOR THE NIGHTTIME... is excellent! So simple yet so deep. Great choice.
    Meaghan
    http://mwgerard.com/armchair-bea-2014-novellas-short-stories/

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    1. I'm really excited to read it! Good to hear it's got a fan!

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  8. Thanks for the shout out! I love love loved Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day. Check out The Last Girlfriend on Earth if you get a chance. Fun, short short, and quirky.

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  9. Why am I not surprised you mentioned Bradbury? ;-)

    You should totally reach out to authors. It's the best feeling!

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    1. It's a sickness! :)
      The two people I have reached out to were perfectly lovely. I need to make more of an effort on that...

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  10. I love Ray Bradbury, and I'm also intrigued by Stories for Nighttime. And I love the Supernatural reference! I will probably never feature a vlog either, but talking to authors on Twitter is a great idea I should try out too. Great post! :D

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    1. A Ray and a Supernatural fan, you obviously have wonderful taste in entertainment! :)

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  11. Like everyone else here it seems, I am intrigued by Ben Loory's collection. I haven't read Bradbury's stories, but I have read his terrific Zen in the Art of Writing.

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    1. Oh my gosh, zen int the art of writing is truly terrific! I just read it for the first time a few weeks ago and loved on it, even though I'm not a writer.

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  12. Haha, I should say that no vlogs will show up in my blog either. That had me chuckling! I need to make more of an effort to be in touch with authors too.

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    1. I'll watch other brave souls who make them but I'm not brave enough, haha!

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  13. Love the Poe quote. He would certainly know!

    The cover for Stories for Nighttime and Some For The Day is really intriguing. I've read a few of those Gaiman stories and he really deserves all the hype he gets. And Bradbury of course. He needs more hype.

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    1. Ray absolutely deserves more hype.And he's written so much that there's got to be something out there for everyone's tastes.

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  14. Great picks! I'll need to pick up Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman and more of his books!

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    1. So far I've enjoyed every book of his I've picked up!

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  15. How...HOW...you may ask, have I not read Neil Gaiman yet? I have absolutely no friggin' idea, I would reply.

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    1. I have no idea either! Get on that, would ya? haha

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Thank you so much for your comment. I'd love to talk books with you!