OI! OI! OI!

[threemonkeys]

I got a bit carried away with Aussie published short fiction. I meant to just read ASIM 25 (edited by Nicole R Murphy) and New Ceres 1 (Alisa Krasnostein) but I didn't stop there and went on to read Encounters (Maxine McArthur & Donna Maree Hanson), The Outcast (Nicole R Murphy) and Ticonderoga 9 (Lyn Battersby, Russell B. Farr & Liz Grzyb). That is over 50 short stories and I'm still tempted to go read more.

I find myself in the position of not being a typical fan in this particular little corner of the literary world. I'm not a writer, an editor or a publisher. Nor for that matter am I an Australian. It has got me thinking about why I do like it. Most of the blame lies with Andromeda Spaceways - the pulpy fun goodness of ASIM 17 was the gateway drug for me. I have read over 20 issues now and the fun just has not stopped. Beyond that I have found myself drawn to the intimate personal scale that a large proportion of these stories are told with. They seem to be told from inside the skull rather than at a detached distance. It isn't just a matter of telling stories in the first person, although that seems to be a contributing factor in some cases, it is an approach to the telling of stories.

It is worth noting that all the stories in the above publications are quite short. Not many of them are much more than 10 pages long. For some reason I have always liked short stories at this shorter end of the spectrum more than longer ones. Something to do with keeping the focus on a single concept I think. If things are more complex then I would prefer to read a novel. If I look in the pages of a magazine like Asimovs (which I read fairly regularly), there are often more Novellas and Novelettes than genuinely short stories.

None of the above is a blanket endorsement of Aussie small press short fiction for its own sake - there have been some collections which didn't work so well for me at all. The stories have to be good and worth the reading. This is true for a good proportion of the ones this time with a few being very good. But there are some turkeys too. The thing is that as an overall experience I did enjoy getting carried away by the reading.

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

This is very good to hear. An argument has been raging recently about whether the Aussie short fiction game is worth the candle, but we get very few non-local views to help us decide. I am beginning to wonder if we don't market too much to each other (CSFG buying ASIM, for instance) and so develop our views based on narrowing parameters.

I was talking to a telephone guy yesterday (I had a 34 minute telemarketing call and it was mostly about fantsy fiction :) ) and he didn't even know that there were Aussie writers who wrote his favourite type of work. He reads Big Fat Fantasy with good battle writing, so we aren't even talking about small imprints or obscure but talented writers. Which means we have to somehow reach out to this wider community - and not just be being nice to telemarketers.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I have seen some of the argument in the last day or so. I don't think it changed the substance of what I wrote but it was there in the back of my mind.

With the higher profile Aussie writers, particularly fantasy, it is really quite difficult to tell that they are Australian. Unless you are in the habit of reading the biographical details you wouldn't know.

I can't believe you had a long conversation with a telemarketer. I have so lost my tolerance for them because they always seem to interrupt my evening meal. My conversations are usually "I don't accept calls of this nature - please remove me from your calling list". I am usually polite and say "please". Usually.

Strangely however, I am quite happy to chat to pollsters.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I normally try to dump telemarketers ASAP too. The one last night was from my old telephone provider and I got to delineate in great length why I had dumped them and why I should not have been rung because the last person I spoke to promised to remove me from the list (but hadn't, obviously). He was cool and told me that from May next year the legislation will have passed and I can get myself listed as not willin to receive calls from telemarketers. And then we segued to fantasy and etc. You know, telemarketers aren't at *all* annoying when they dissect fantasy battle scenes. In fact, they are fun. We need to train more of them to read fantasy intellgently and then I might decide I like the species after all.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

We already have legislation here that requires that telemarketers to remove you from their list if you request it.

Of course anybody who reads fantasy is automatically a superior person. :-)

I do *try* to be polite to telemarketers even if I don't engage them for long, because they are just people with a job to do and a script to read. I try to direct my ire at the organisations who employ them. Some of the insurance guys who are probably independent contractors are really annoying in their own right though.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I'm polite to them mostly. Occasionally I lose it, but that's when I've been provoked. The best example of provocation was when a guy form one of those Indian call centres didn't think I could make up my mind to refuse whatever it was he was selling without consulting my husband. When I pointed out I didn't have one and besides, I was quite adult, he wanted me to check with my family.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Now that is real provocation and justification for a response.

[cassiphone.livejournal.com]

You, sir, are the customer that small press editors and publishers think wistfully about.

Glad it was a fun experience!

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Perhaps not all small publishers would agree. (http://threemonkeys.livejournal.com/95109.html)

Actually, while you are here (so to speak), I should say that I did like what you did with your story in New Ceres. There was an awful lot of world building detail that you obviously wanted to include and you managed to integrate it with the story well. It isn't easy doing a big info dump while keeping the narrative going but you managed it.

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Where do we find more like you?

I mean, you're clearly ASIM's target audience. OTOH, you're about the only person like you I know who reads ASIM. :)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I know of at least one more locally. He bought a bunch of ASIMs at Swancon 30 last year and a few more at Continuum 4 recently. He does not have a presence in the blogsphere though.

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

I imagine there's a few around, but we're hard to get hold of.

If we had better distribution, we might expect to pick up more readers, but ... it's one hell of a gamble.

For the most part, I guess we have to rely on word of mouth.

So, you know, thanks. ;)

[cassiphone.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was actually commissioned on the basis of my worldbuilding skills, which was somewhat daunting, but I did try to put story first.

Of course, it helped that the world was so much in flux (and still is) at the time of writing that I could make stuff up and then add it as canon. :)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I do try to tell people about ASIM and other publications. By far the most common reaction I get is "oh I don't read short stories". I do remind them that once SF was virtually all a short story genre - it does not make a difference.

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

It's hard to get into the mindset, I think. It took me quite a while, and I still prefer writing the sods to reading them.

Then again, I very firmly write stories I'd like to read.

It's why I got involved in ASIM - it's the closest match for "what I like to read" that I've found.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

it's the closest match for "what I like to read" that I've found

Likewise as you know - thats why it sucked me into your world in the first place.

[punkrocker1991.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading TiconderogaOnline. Appreciated.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, although really I should thank you for putting it out there.

Short story reading

[littenz.livejournal.com]

I am the other reader Ross refers too.

I love short fiction, especially SF and fantasy. In fact I find fantasy much better in the short form as there is a greater willingness to explore different concepts.

I would love to expand my ASIM collection,but have self limited my buying until my book backlog gets below 100 titles.