Midnight Symphony

Lately there have been a rash of ebook bundles, those ubiquitous "box sets" you see on all the bestseller lists, and I thought to myself: I'd like to do something like that too. But not with novels. Novels are great and everything, but everyone is doing novels. Why not novellas instead?

Personally, I love novellas. They're that sweet spot between short stories and novels. Not too long, not too short. The perfect length. The only problem is, for the longest time there wasn't really a market. Most magazines wouldn't take novellas because they were too long. Most mainstream publishers wouldn't publish novellas because they were too short. Only speciality publishers would have the guts to take them on, and almost always they were done in limited editions. But with the rise of digital publishing, it seems novellas are finding a resurgence, and for that I want to celebrate them with something I'm calling Midnight Symphony.

Midnight Symphony contains 10 novellas, all reprints, and will be available only for a limited time. And the best part? It's just 99 cents. That's 10 novellas for less than a buck!

You can grab it on Kindle (US or UK), Nook, or if you don't have a Kindle or Nook, you can buy directly from Ganxy. You can also add it to your Goodreads bookshelf here.

Again, this will only be available for a limited time, so grab it now and happy reading!

Analysis On Seven Items

One of my favorite short stories that I've written is "Seven Items in Jason Reynolds’ Jacket Pocket, Two Days After His Suicide, As Found by his Eight-Year-Old Brother, Grady," which originally appeared via PANK and was a runner-up for the Micro Award. Recently it was also translated into Turkish. And now it has been given a very in-depth analysis by Anaea Lay, who makes me sound much smarter and more talented than I really am. Here's part of what she has to say:

This story is brilliant and beautiful and full of things I adore in my fiction (Sibling love/protectiveness! Suicide! Creepiness!) but the thing that stands out about it and makes it worth pulling apart is its sheer, relentless efficiency. Genuine efficiency, though, not the pruned and constrained soullessness or lack of development you get with inferior flash. This story chooses its moments carefully, but having chosen them, gives them lots of space to breathe and grow.

Read the rest here. And hey, if you haven't read the story yet and don't want to read it on PANK (though I can't imagine why, as it's free), you can check it out in my very short fiction collection Phantom Energy -- which is currently 99 cents for a limited time!

Would You Like To Be "Normal"?

I've been reading The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida and it's a fascinating look at a person with autism. Most of the book is structured as questions and answers. One of the questions is "Would you like to be 'normal'?" The last paragraph of the answer was just too good not to share:

To give the short version, I've learned that every human being, with or without disabilities, needs to strive to do their best, and by striving for happiness you will arrive at happiness. For us, you see, having autism is normal -- so we can't know for sure what your "normal" is even like. But so long as we can learn to love ourselves, I'm not sure how much it matters whether we're normal or autistic.