Short Story News

My contributor copies of Tales of the Unanticipated arrived today; my short story, "When Shlemiel Went to the Stars," was in it. It's a science fictional Chelm story. In Yiddish folklore, Chelm was the town where the idiots lived; the town council, known as the "Wise Men of Chelm," were the biggest idiots of all, but were convinced (despite all evidence) that they were the wisest and cleverest people around.

This story took me a long time to sell. It's hard to sell humor, and it's particularly hard to sell culturally specific humor, though really, I think Chelm stories have a universal appeal. Look at the success of the Darwin Awards. Stories about people who make the rest of us feel smart -- those never get old.

I read it today and was delighted by some of the humor -- there are some great lines in there. It's always fun to re-read something I wrote so long ago that I don't remember coming up with the clever bits.

At the opposite end of the "lightweight fun" vs. "heavy stories about love and death" spectrum, I'm going to have a story published in 2009 (probably February) in Jim Baen's Universe. This story is called "The Good Son," and I wrote it after my mother-in-law died. It's about elder care, and about marriage.

Finally, this isn't really short story related, but I'll be appearing with the rest of my writers' group at an event this weekend at a grocery store. Why a grocery store? I'm honestly not sure; I wasn't the one who set it up. Lunds in Uptown at 1:30 noon, but we may be sold out (reserved out, really, I don't think there's a ticketing charge). I hope someone else has a list of questions or topics or something; if it's up to me to steer the conversation, it's not going to go in a productive direction, I can almost guarantee that right now.