It's Monday!

Yep. It's Monday again. How was your weekend? I got engaged! Yes. All so very exciting. We're going home for a visit this week and he wanted to make sure that I had the ring in time to show everyone. I'm still a little bit off kilter over it all. Very surreal. And folks are already asking when the wedding will be. One step at a time.

Anywho, back to summer reading recs. I'm in a short story mood this week. In fact, I've been stocking up. Short stories are beloved among writing circles, but they seem to have fallen out of readers' circles view lately. Anthologies and collections are, I think, a great introduction to an author you may never have read before or a really fantastic way for an author to spread their wings and show what they're capable of.

If done well, a short story can be very effective. If it's not quite your thing, there's always another one to try next that might be.

I know many of us think of Stephen King as the "King" of modern day short stories, and it's very true that he's been passionate about the art and does his part to keep it in the mainstream. His son, Joe Hill, has joined the club as well, winning awards for his first collection 20th Century Ghosts, and contributing to many new anthologies in the past few years, including the one I want to highlight today: Stories: All New Tales edited by Al Sarrantonio and Neil Gaiman. That's right, Neil Gaiman. See, Neil himself has been doing huge things for the short story. He has his own collections, Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors, and I'll bet if you pick up a handful of current genre anthologies, you'll find his name in a few.

With Stories, he's contributed as well as edited. The book features all new tales from the likes of Joe Hill, Joanne Harris, Peter Straub, Jodi Piccoult, Jeffery Deaver, and Roddy Doyle (just to name a few).

And for your viewing pleasure, I thought I would include this widget with Gaiman talking about the book and short stories: