2018 Short Story Advent Calendar Unveiling: December 11 and 12

I don’t like to post more than one article a day because I know y’all got lots on, so here are the videos from yesterday and today’s advent calendar unveilings!
So, I don’t normally review ‘coffee table’ books but I made an exception for this one because it’s a picture book of cats on outdoor adventures. Yes, you read that right, cats are in canoes, hiking mountains and perching on paddle boards in the great white north that is the Canadian wilderness. Bolt and Keel…
It’s with a heavy heart that I write this: our beloved Pearl has passed away, and because she played such a large part in this blog, I thought it best to alert all of you that you will no longer be seeing photos of her in my future posts. Pearl lived a good life, she…
I haven’t actually read a book by Chuck Palahniuk since his 2010 release Tell-All, which is also the year I met him, and helped organized his event here in Calgary. His writing memoir Consider This, Moments in my Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different features many stories of his various book tours because they…
While on vacation I indulged by reading my favourite author of all time, David Sedaris. I picked up this quirky little collection of animal-themed stories Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk at the Calgary Reads book sale a few months ago, and because this is a departure from his typical books of essays, I was excited to read…
So I feel quite foolish that this is the first Karin Slaughter book I’ve ever read. She’s an America superstar thriller writer that everyone but me is familiar with, as she’s sold over 35 million books and even has a section of her website dedicated to selling t-shirts with her name on them. Where have…
As the economy continues to take a nose dive here in Alberta, I’m becoming more and more determined to read local and encouraging others to do the same. When possible, buying locally-authored books from an independent book store is even better because it keeps the money in your community PLUS it helps the publishing industry…
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Now that’s a chocolate bar!! I’d have assumed it was a mum too, I think, proving it’s not only men who are sexist! 😉 How was the white chocolate snowman?
the white chocolate snowman was delish! It was filled with chocolate prailine which is one of my favs
December 11, Mister Elephant: I liked the no-name, anonymous approach of the story. The part where he hit the girl on the head with the pop can and left her on the ground was very strange. The seemingly random thoughts reminded me of when I first wake up in the morning and the brain starts whirring.
Cutest interview with the author at http://open-book.ca/index.php/News/Meet-our-September-2018-writer-in-residence-short-fiction-wizard-Jessica-Westhead
P.S. I had the exact same thoughts regarding gender at the beginning. Weird!
Jessica actually responded to me on twitter and said she did the gender switcheroo on purpose!
December 12, A Clean Break: OMG, again with the footnotes. I swear, if I ever edit anything with footnotes that isn’t an academic paper, I will be advising them otherwise. So annoying, and really breaks up the reading of the main story. Other than that, it was a pleasant story about a family…and bagels.
P.S. I, too, had trouble keeping track of the various family members throughout.
ok footnotes need to be banned! I hope the publisher is listening for next year LOL
I also hate footnotes in stories because so many of them will appear in the MIDDLE of a sentence! Then you HAVE to re-read the sentence from above or it makes no sense. Honestly, the footnotes I’ve seen done well in fiction are in Dietland by Sarai walker. The character is remembering her youth and there are footnotes that are quotes from another book that the character is reading at the time that she’s remembering. They’re inserted well and easy to follow, heightening the story instead of dragging it down.
Hmm yah that doesn’t sound so bad, but it’s so hard to find footnotes that are well done!
Yeah, this is my only example. David Foster Wallace books can go float in a river. He’s the master of the annoying footnote.