#LoveOzYABlogger: Short Stories

#LoveOzYABloggers is a meme to fuel the conversation providing themed prompts that bloggers or anyone on social media can respond to fortnightly.
#LoveOzYABloggers is hosted by #LoveOzYA, a community led organisation dedicated to promoting Australian young adult literature. Keep up to date with all new Aussie YA releases with their monthly newsletter, or find out what’s happening with News and Events, or submit your own!

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 Short Stories

This week we’re looking at Australian YA short stories and I’m excited to share!

Of course I have to mention one of my all-time favourite Australian YA authors, Garth Nix, because he’s actually got a heap of short stories that have been published in various collections over the years, and most (but not all!) are bound in two volumes that a both related to the Old Kingdom world Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, Clariel and Goldenhand are set in.

 

You can find the complete listed works in the books on Nix’s webpage.

Truth be told, I really love pretty much every short story in these collections, and I’d be hard pressed to name a favourite. However there’s one story I’ve never been able to forget, and it’s called Vampire Weather, the second story in To Hold the Bridge. It was just so creepy and atmospheric with a great twist that I found really affected me, and I still remember it fondly all these years later.

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I can’t write a post about Australian YA short stories without talking about the LoveOzYA anthology Begin, End, Begin.

I have to admit, I haven’t actually read my copy of Begin, End, Begin , although I did buy it only a couple of day after release. I even thought that because I’ve had such a bad reading year and am so highly stressed out about my whole life, that a short story collection would be really great for a few reasons:

1. I’ve read a couple of short story anthologies before and really enjoyed them, even though I generally prefer my fiction in long form.
2.  It’s a great way to ‘degustation’ (taste test) or ‘try before you buy’ or even just try a sample of an author’s work to see if you gel with their writing style and discover new authors you’ve not read before.
3. A short story collection doesn’t require as much commitment as a long form novel because you can stop after each story, have a think about them, find out about the author, and feel satisfied that you’e read a complete story without much time commitment.

I do plan on reading it at some point, and I feel bad that I haven’t done it yet, but I’ve barely read anything this year at all. I do know it’s got a fantastic list of talented Aussie YA authors, some f whom I’m familiar with and some of whom I’m yet to discover the joy of reading, so I believe this will be a great chance to expand my Aussie YA horizons.

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