Short stories: exit, pursued by a bear

the Tall Girl # # #

I’m done.

While the “read a story a day” experiment was interesting, I’m ready to draw it to a close. I think I’ve read more stories in the past three weeks than I’d read in the past year — and while I’m pleased with that accomplishment, I have to be honest: a lot of these stories are pretty depressing, and that’s not a quality I want in my reading right now.

Here’s the list of what I read for week three before calling things to a halt on Saturday:

  1. I Want to Be a Lioness, by Chuck Wendig; Liberty: Seeking Support for a Writ of Habeas Corpus for a Non-human Being, by Samuel Peralta; and Help Summon the Most Holy Folded One!, by Harry Connolly (all from Help Fund My Robot Army!!!, edited by John Joseph Adams)
  2. Fulfill My Destiny–and Save the World!, by Matt Forbeck; and LARPing the Apocalypse 2: The Nano-Plague, by Tim Pratt (from Help Fund My Robot Army!!!, edited by John Joseph Adams).
  3. Phoenix Rising, by Malia Robin Kawaguchi; and Items Found in the Pocket of a God Who Abandoned His People, by Andrew Kaye (online at Daily Science Fiction)
  4. Another Will Open, by Jamie Lackey (What Fates Impose, edited by Nayad Monroe)
  5. Off The Map, by Liz A. Vogel; and The Alien Tithe, by Eric Brown (online at Daily Science Fiction)
  6. Dipping into the Pocket of Destiny, by David Boop (What Fates Impose, edited by Nayad Monroe)

My favorite this week was Help Summon the Most Holy Folded One!, by Harry Connolly, both for the humor and the surprising subject. Runner-up was Items Found in the Pocket of a God Who Abandoned His People, by Andrew Kaye, for its brevity and the unique structure.

I do think this experiment was worthwhile and I would like to repeat it… just not during the gloomy winter-y months.

In other news, I’m seriously thinking about tackling the novel again. Given that it’s NaNoWriMo, it’s certainly an appropriate time to do it. Wish me luck!