Whatever Happened to Fun Short Fiction?

I tend to read a few different blogs of writers and professionals. One of them is Storyhack which is also the name of a pulp action magazine (and one that I think is awesome). The guy who runs it—Bryce Beattie—also writes a blog and on one of his posts he talked about how boring the commercial fiction market has gotten.

I have to say, I agree.

Thing is, while he can shrug it off, I can’t.

Because I lost years to trying to please these magazines. I had read up on Stephen King’s and George R.R. Martin’s advice to start with short stories, to try and get these editors to like me, to prove I had the chops to make it. I lost years to boring stories because of it.

There are two caveats I should make to this. I two years submitting without reading the magazines (DUMB) and then reading them and shaping my stories to what I thought would sell (EVEN DUMBER). But two of my literary heroes were telling me this was how it was done and they wouldn’t lie to me on purpose, right?

Right. At least, I think so. I believe their hearts were in the right place. Problem is the world has changed since they had to send out their stories with the hope of being purchased so they haven’t seen the evolution of what short fiction has turned into or how devoid it is of colorful new voices that don’t fit within the lines.

See short fiction used to be the place new and upcoming writers were discovered. Now it’s the place where short fiction authors who write stories lacking in action, romance, and humor, make their meager paychecks. It’s not the place for fun-loving fans who want stories with heroes, heroines, Twue Wuv, and maybe a little God if we’re feeling rebellious.

It’s why I finally, after years of trying to make it work in the traditional sense, came up with Fantasy on the Run. Short chapters with good people and action, and good and evil, and tons of dragons. Because I didn’t see it out there and I was sick of listening to bad advice.

My whole point of this diabtribe? Go buy yourself some Storyhack. It’s cheap and it’s got a ton of different genres. Some of the people in there have written novels (others haven’t) but the stories are fun, romantic, funny and do what storytelling is supposed to do; make you forget about life for a while.

Heck, issue 0 is ninety-nine cents. Can’t beat that.