SALT PUBLISHING's TOP 20 BEST SELLERS THIS CHRISTMAS - SO FAR .. .. ..

Nice Chrismas pressies all round. Both Short Circuit and Words from a Glass Bubble are in the Salt Publishing Top 20. Yippee iy ay or summat. And it's a real party of good friends too - There's Tania and Elizabeth (with two entries!) and Nuala. Fab.

Here is the list, from front page of Salt Publishing's website, and links to the books, for those last minute extra Chrissie pressies you know you want to give - or get!! (My choices are the Shop Girl Diaries, and Contourlines (see below!). Both of which I will get tomorrow - as Emily is coming to the Ride the Word event, and Jen is hopefully bringing down Contourlines for me.

1. Emily Benet, Shop Girl Diaries
2. Neil Wenborn & M.E.J. Hughes (eds), Contourlines
3. Vanessa Gebbie (ed), Short Circuit
4. Chris Agee, Next to Nothing
5. Siân Hughes, The Missing
6. Elizabeth Baines, Too Many Magpies
7. Tony Williams, The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street
8. Jasmine Donahaye, Self-Portrait as Ruth
9. Paul Magrs, Twelve Stories
10. Karen Annesen, How to Fall
11. Anthoy Joseph, Bird Head Son
12. Tania Hershman, The White Road and Other Stories
13. Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Nude
14. Olivia Cole, Restricted View
15. Eleanor Rees, Eliza and the Bear
16. Luke Kennard, The Migraine Hotel
17. Elizabeth Baines, Balancing on the Edge of the World
18. Vanessa Gebbie, Words from a Glass Bubble
19. Shaindel Beers, A Brief History of Time
20. Tom Chivers, How to Build a City

And we're off...

And Short Circuit romps into the top 100 reference books, sub-section 'writing skills', on Amazon. On pre-orders! Amazon, HERE but, but....

If you want one, pleeeeeze buy it from the Publisher. See link in post below this one? It may cost a tiny squisdge more, but you will be doing the world of independent publishers a favour...Thank you sooooo much peeps.

Acherley... WAIT!!!
STOP!!!
Look right, look left....
IRRESISTIBLE!!! I’ve been bundled already! For £35.00, for a limited period, you get FOUR of Salt’s best reference books: HERE

Short Circuit Edited by someone or other
101 Ways to Make Poems Sell by Chris Hamilton-Emery
Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh Edited by Rupert Loydell– a fantastic collection of poetry and prose-poetry, seeking to answer the question ‘what is poetry, and who is it for?’ (answer – everyone, sillies!)
Don’t Start me Talking . Edited by Tim Allen and Andrew Duncan. 20 poets nattering, and stuff.
Get over HERE before they run out of bundles…

It's TRUE!!!!! Everyone at Salt Publishing is MAD.

SEND IN THE MEN IN WHITE COATS....
Finally, I can reveal the exclusive news that everyone at Salt Publishing is totally mad. I have sent the truck to pick them up, but check out THIS TOUCHY-FEELY EXPERIENCE before the truck gets there and carts them all off to the Asylum for the Utterly Bewildered. SEND IN THE NICE NEW UNIFORMS..
Short Circuit is back from the printers... YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
And I bet you don't get THAT SORT OF THING from ordinary publishers. Oh no.
Bring back the waxed moustache, the corset and the hyper-gusset. And stop having FUN. This is a TEXT BOOK. It is NOT FUNNY. And certainly NOT TO BE ENJOYED. Writing short fiction is a dry, serious, painful passtime. You do NOT enjoy learning to write short stories. STOP NOW.

(If you insist on finding out more, you could click on THIS LINK to the publisher's SHORT CIRCUIT webpage, but you'll have to put up with a gigiantic and irrelevant photo of the Editor.)

SHORT CIRCUIT - now available for pre-order

Short Circuit is now available for pre-order. On Salt Publishing's website, HERE (Look, I'm sorry about the photo of moi on the website there - really. It is a poser's paradise, that pic. Just concentrate on the BOOK!)
I would like to visit as many blogs as would like to invite us,... to talk short stories, about how this book came together, about the amazing generosity and passion of the contributors - and to share some writing fun with your readers. A few writng ideas... a different one invented specially for each blog!
Because it IS. It's hard work, but it is fabulous when it goes well - and this book is aimed at opening up that magic.
Email me, blog owners - vgebbie AT gmail DOT com

An essential read. Short Circuit is a collection of essays from writers who are passionate (and successfully!) about short fiction. A real gold mine of insights and ideas for aspiring writers and for those seeking a refresher. The Bridport Prize

SHORT CIRCUIT A Guide to the Art of the Short Story

Draft cover, Short Circuit.

Yikes, it is a year since I was walking round Cork with Jen Hamilton-Emery, Director of Salt Publishing and guru/midwife to their great short story collections, and I muttered something about Salt having a poetry ‘How-To’ book but not a short story one. ‘Gap in your provision,’ I muttered.
And it is just over a year since I had an email from Jen: ‘About that How-To book. Good idea. Do it…’
There are some extraordinary writers out there, people who have not only won the top competitions, but are generous too, and love the short story. They gave freely of their knowledge and their words, and are all utterly amazing. THANK YOU.

Here is the contents list:

Graham Mort: Finding Form in Short Fiction
Clare Wigfall interview: “I Hear Voices”: Voice, building character and much more
Alison MacLeod: Writing and Risk-Taking
Nuala Ni Chonchuir: Language and Style
Chika Unigwe: Settings. A Sense of Place.
Alex Keegan: ‘24’: The Importance of Theme.
Lane Ashfeldt: Building a World
Adam Marek: What my gland wants. Originality in short fiction.
Catherine Smith: Myth and Imagination.
Tobias Hill interview: Character, dialogue, and much more.
Sarah Salway: Stealing Stories.
Elizabeth Baines: True Story, Real Story – Good Fiction?
Marian Garvey: On Intuition. Writing into the Void.
Tania Hershman: Art Breathes from Containment. The power of the short short story.
David Gaffney: Get Shorty. The micro-fiction of Etgar Keret.
Elaine Chiew: Endings
Paul Magrs: Thoughts on Writing Fiction, at the End of Term
Vanessa Gebbie: i) Leaving the Door Ajar: On Opening the Short Story
Epilogue: Carys Davies, Zoe King, David Grubb, Linda Cracknell, Jay Merill, Matthew Licht.


I would appear to have nearly, but nearly done it. What think of the cover??