MIKE SMITH continues his explorations of the stories of H.E. Bates: ‘I recently stumbled upon a copy of H. E. Bates’ 1955 short story collection The Daffodil Sky & other stories. On the cover is a quotation from a reviewer: “contains some of the best tales he has written”.’
MIKE SMITH examines the role of men in H.E. Bates’ short story ‘The Mill’: ‘With such stories it is easy to focus exclusively on what we might call ‘the victim,’ and on the outcome, but it’s worth also looking at members of the ‘supporting cast’ whose lives, behaviours and attitudes enable and create the events in which the protagonist is enmeshed…’
MIKE SMITH has a close look at Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s short story ‘Captain Knot’: ‘Q is a straightforward writer in many ways, but his simple, accessible language carries subtleties of meaning that raise questions we, rather than he, are to answer…’
MIKE SMITH compares two stories from James Salter’s collection Last Night: ‘The trajectories of both narratives, although not quite parallel, run close enough for the reader to be aware of the similarities between them. It is as if the author has been testing the same theory under alternative conditions…’
‘A Fitlow is not a Whitlow, no more than a Dunky is a Harvey…’ MIKE SMITH explores the importance and meanings of character names by looking at those used in the short stories of A.E Coppard.
‘He was a grand old man of letters when James Joyce was still the up-and-coming kid on the block’: MIKE SMITH looks at the career of Irish novelist and short story writer George Moore, and calls for a revival of his work.
Continuing his exploration into the way stories work, MIKE SMITH looks at how the protagonist’s view of the world changes.
‘Reading other writers on writing is one thing. Reading theorists is another.’ MIKE SMITH finds that theory, too, can offer practical advice to short story writers.
Must stories be read slowly and deliberately in order to appreciate them fully, as CHARLES E. MAY suggested in a recent post, or can they be skimmed and read quickly as entertainment and still be valued? MIKE SMITH argues that they can.
CAROLYN THOMAS takes a brief look at shorter short story competitions and encourages us all to get writing!
