There are loads of websites promoting very short stories. The internet has enabled the very short story in an interesting way and it says something about the internet itself and how we use it, how we read on it, and about the hunger for stories in general. There is, of course, a Twitter hashtag (#vss) – go on, search it. Full of stuff. It’s endless. There’s a guy whose Twitter handle is @Veryshortstory and he’s done a great job of keeping the Twitter story alive. I am full of admiration for his efforts. I’m not going to list all the very short story sites, or short shorts or, well, there are more words for this type of fiction than are generally used in a typical entry in this genre. Here’s someone else trying it out. The lovely thing? She mentions me. As someone to read and check out. I get these shout outs all the time now but I never take them for granted. Each one is touching in its own way.
I should probably shave more often.
I also realize more and more (and this happened a long time ago, yes, I’m dense but not that dense) that this Twitter thing is what I’m known for, as a practitioner of a form, which makes me wonder what will happen when my novel is published, eventually, as it must some day. I’m sure it will (he says with confidence).
I also realize I should probably do a bit of an essay on the short short. Which will, by definition, mention the great Barry Yourgrau. His book of stories, Wearing Dad’s Head, opened my eyes to the short short, many years ago. When I was young young.
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