Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction By Damon Knight

When I was teenager, I read a lot of short stories and even outlined an idea for a novel. I’ve published one short story here on my blog. And I’ve considered doing more. In fact, I have quite a long list of books about writing. I have found this one to be the most informative and useful so far.

The author takes the reader through the steps of writing a short story (or any story, really) from developing your talent and turning ideas into stories to beginning, controlling, and finishing a story. I took a lot of notes that I expect I will be referring to as I start to write more. The tone of the book is very conversational. It feels like the author is there at your shoulder, coaching you through the process. Many helpful exercises are included.

I read almost exclusively on my ereader. To read this one, I needed to borrow a physical copy from the library. Before I was even half way through it, I knew I would want a copy for myself to refer back to. So I bought the ebook and finished reading it there. If you have any interest in writing stories of any genre, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this classic.

My rating: 5/5

Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman

When this book came out, I learned that it was essentially a collection of his newsletters published as a book. I wasn’t interested. But over the ensuing months, I kept hearing people talk about it and praise it. So I finally decided to read it after all. I’m glad I did.

The book is divided into four parts corresponding to weeks and the chapters are titled by days out of the twenty-eight days in four weeks. In the introduction, the author suggests strongly that the reader consume only one chapter a day and let the content settle and simmer. Following this advice made the book not just a good read but a wonderful experience.

Essentially the book tells you to take it easy on yourself, experience the world. This would at first seem to be a way to disengage with the world and not get much done. But the pressure most of us put on ourselves keeps most of us from success as well. Following the advice here leads to a middle ground that feels just right.

My rating: 4.5/5

How Football Began: A Global History of How the World’s Football Codes Were Born by Tony Collins

A little less than a year ago, I became a soccer referee. Since then, I have refereed all ages from ten up to adult, in club games and high school. I love the beautiful game, but I didn’t really know where it came from. After doing a little research, I found this short history. The full text of the book is available for free online here.

It covers from the beginnings of football in the mid-nineteenth century in England through the mid-twentieth century. The focus is on the early part of the history, the first fifty to seventy years. When I picked up the book, I knew about the relationship between soccer (or association football) and rugby football. But I didn’t know much about how those games evolved separately into all the varieties we have now like American football, Canadian football, and Australian Rules football. This book is a great introduction to the development and relationships between all those football rules.

The writing, however, was not the best. It might be a cultural thing. This book was written and published originally in England. Regardless, I found much of the writing stilted and some of the sentence construction would just yank me out of the narrative. That said, the stories and information, including the extensive notes and bibliography, are so valuable I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in any variety of football.

My rating: 3.5/5

How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion by David DeSteno

I am in the midst of a six week run of refereeing in soccer tournaments every weekend. I listened to this book while traveling to and from one of those tournaments this past weekend. Since moving away from any religious belief in a supernatural god, I have found myself missing many of the community-based aspects of religion. So when I learned about this book many years ago, it piqued my interest.

How God Works is an exercise in what its author calls “religioprospecting”. By this he means looking at the world’s religions and their rituals so see how they have served humanity through the millennia. After all, if they have lasted to today, there must be something valuable there. This isn’t unlike the scientist who goes searching for healing concoctions in the Amazon with the hope of finding some healing aspect of a local remedy that could be repurposed for a new pharmaceutical cure. And I found the author’s exploration to be fascinating and insightful.

The text starts with birth, steps through the different aspects of aging (youth, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, etc.) and ends with death and grief. In each chapter he sets out specific examples of rituals that serve the religious through those aspects of life, exploring why they work based on scientific research. As I read these chapters, I was a little disappointed he wasn’t giving the reader tips for how to incorporate what was learned outside of the specific religious context. Turns out I was just a little ahead of the author. His epilogue does just that. Rather than giving specific examples, he provides thoughtful ideas for how the reader can take what they have learned from the book and create their own rituals to support themselves and those they love, regardless of religion or even the lack of any faith at all.

My rating: 4.5/5

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

My book club read this in January, the month in which we read science fiction. I ultimately chose this one for the club as the voting for what to read was tied. I chose it because it is a classic of the genre published in 1974 that won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

The main character Shevek is from Anarres, one of two sister planets. Many years before the plot of the novel, the settlers of Anarres fought a revolution on the other sister planet, Urras. The revolutionaries left Urras to found their anarchist utopia on Anarres. These many years later, things have devolved somewhat from their revolutionary roots and Shevek goes back to Urras in part to exercise his freedom as an anarchist. Things naturally don’t all go as expected.

This is a very philosophical novel, and I found it a bit slow. Still, it was engaging and interesting, if a bit dry at times. Unlike most utopias, this one is not perfect. In fact, much of the book explores how the revolution on Anarres devolved over the centuries. It was also fun to experience what it might be like to live without laws.

My rating: 4/5

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

I’ve kept a journal on and off throughout my life. And of course I’ve kept notes while going to school. I now find myself keeping notes on all sorts of things that interest me, especially what I read. So when Austin Kleon recommended this book in his weekly newsletter, I added it to my reading list. But I didn’t read it right away. It was so good, I wish I had.

When my partner asked me what I was reading and I told her about this book, she naturally thought that it sounded boring. And to some people, it might be. But for those interested in the history of thought, this is a brilliant book. Here are just a few of the subjects covered.

The invention of accounting
Sketchbooks in Renaissance Italy
Ships’ logs
Travelers’ notebooks
The development of calculus
Diaries and journals
Police notebooks
Recipe books
Bullet journaling
Patient diaries

That list may still come across as dry, but the author writes in a very conversational style that tends toward modern narrative nonfiction. He reports conversations he had with experts and dives into the lives of those in the various notebooks. Instead of being dry reporting, it immerses the reader in the lives and the “whys” of the keepers of the notebooks. This is a fascinating history of thinking on paper.

My rating: 4.5/5

Wolf Moon, Antler Moon by A.C. Wise

As part of my starting to read more short fiction again in the new year, I decided to read the original fiction published online by Tor in the their *Reactor* magazine. It is free and stories are published intermittently throughout the year at https://reactormag.com/fictions/original-fiction/. This story came out on Monday, and I read it while eating breakfast Wednesday morning.

When a tragedy befalls an unnamed resort town in the woods, a teenage girl is forced to come to terms with who she is and what she needs to do to preserve her town. Saying much more than that would spoil the experience of such a short work of fiction (14,080 words). It is dark fantasy with a foreboding feel. It takes place in the spring and the sense of potential jumps from the page. It is ultimately a coming of age story with the heaviness of decision and responsibility.

The writing is very evocative, dripping with emotion throughout. A very atmospheric tale where spring almost feels like a character.

My rating: 4/5

Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow

This book has yet to be released. I received a copy through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I was on the lookout for this book as i had read the other two in this trilogy. This one is due to be published on February 18. You can purchase a copy from the author here.

The trilogy has been a reverse chronology. This final book in the series is Marty Hench’s origin story. In it, we learn how he came to flunk out of MIT, start a company with his roommate, and move to Silicon Valley to start his career as a forensic accountant. Once there, he is hired by a trio of religious leaders (a rabbi, a priest, and a Mormon bishop) who are taking advantage of their customers by selling them computers and accessories only from them. The bulk of the story is how he and a group of women who used to work for the Reverend Sirs fight to free their customers from this lock in.

It doesn’t sound that interesting when I write it out. I mean, Marty is a forensic accountant for crying out loud. Can you get more boring than accounting? But somehow the author makes forensic accounting exciting, cool, and intriguing all at the same time. The book really does have the feel of the early computer revolution and the optimism that went with it. A thoroughly enjoyable ride and fitting conclusion to the saga of Marty Hench. I will miss him.

My rating: 4/5

Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 220 (January 2025)

I decided to add a bit of short fiction back into my reading life this year. Two years ago (2023) was my year of short fiction, which I read almost exclusively. At the end of the year, I stopped as I found that there was no easy way to find good short fiction without getting subpar stories as well. But last year, I found myself missing the timeliness of short fiction magazines. So I did a bit of research on my reading in 2023 and decided to subscribe (again) to Clarkesworld magazine in 2025. This is my review of the first issue of the year.

“When There Are Two of You: A Documentary” by Zun Yu Tan (2,130 word) – In a near future world, citizens can get a copy of their mentality/personality called a Sentience. It’s kind of a snapshot of who they are. One character makes one of himself and puts it into his clone. We follow what happens with that clone after the original dies. The other main character is a woman who has her Sentience within herself. It’s kind of like the voice in your head on steroids. This is a wonderful exploration of identity and the way we talk to ourselves. (My rating: 4/5)

“Child of the Mountain” by Gunnar De Winter (2,890 words) – Taking place on a mountain in an unknown place and time, a young girl is caretaker for her genetic sisters. When they die, she extracts a “soul seed” and resurrects them. This is her purpose in life. But the ritual vultures that eat the flesh off her sisters’ dead bodies seem to be suggesting a different path altogether. A haunting tale of life, death, and hard decisions. (My rating: 3/5)

“Never Eaten Vegetables” by H. H. Pak (15,170 words) – A corporation sends a sentient ship filled with suspended embryos to a planet previously prepared for their arrival. But when something goes wrong, the ship has a tough decision to make on her own. The corporation won’t answer her questions as to what she should do as she keeps bumping into parts of herself that she has no access to. Very well written. The story just flows and it is easy to empathize and root for the characters. (My rating: 5/5)

“The Temporary Murder of Thomas Monroe” by Tia Tashiro (11,900 words) – A young man wakes up to find that he has died… again. But this time instead of being at his own hand, he has been murdered. But he doesn’t recall who killed him. At least not at first. And as he starts to remember, things get odder and odder. Another propulsive, well-written read that kept me turning the pages. (My rating: 5/5)

“Beyond Everything” by Wang Yanzhong translated from Chinese by Stella Jiayue Zhu (9,750 words) – In a future world devastated by never-ending war and environmental collapse, a new envoy is sent to seek help from extraterrestrials after all but one of the previous envoys never returned. After talking to the only returning envoy, the new one sets out to learn from the aliens, presumably more advanced than Earth, what the Earthlings can do to save themselves. The story feels muddled a bit and the writing felt clumsy to me. The author is going for something big and difficult to communicate. It didn’t quite work for me. (My rating: 2/5)

“Autonomy” by Meg Ellison (3,100 words) – A woman meets her best friend, as she regularly does, and hears about a confrontation with a man who sat on the hood of her robo taxi and the mysterious code someone gave her to use in similar future situations. Later, on her way home, the woman is assaulted in her autonomous taxi and finds out what happens when she uses that code. Has some gore and a feel of a short horror story. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring “what if” in a world with fully autonomous vehicles. (My rating: 4/5)

That’s all the fiction in the issue. There are two interviews each with a writer/editor as well as an interesting essay about termites and consciousness. The issue is rounded out by Neil Clarke’s editorial reviewing happenings with the magazine last year and a brief bio of the artist of the cover art. My average rating for the fiction comes out to 3.83 out five stars. A solid start to the new year that leaves me grateful for subscribing again. I’m looking forward to reading the next issue!

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly

Two days before Christmas, I was chatting on the phone with my sister. She was telling me about a book that she had read. She mentioned that she had bought me a copy and asked if it had arrived yet. It had not, but while I was talking with her Amazon delivered it. As soon as I finished the book I was reading, I picked it up as my first new read of 2025.

This is a middle grade book about a boy named Michael Rosario. He lives alone with his mother in an apartment complex in 1999. He is concerned about the Y2K problem. While talking with his babysitter (which he thinks he doesn’t need and who he has a crush on), they notice a strangely dressed young man who seems out of place. Something just seems “off”. The reader learns pretty quickly that this young man is from the future. Michael and his babysitter decide to befriend and help him, even though they aren’t sure they believe him.

I really enjoyed this book. It is an easy, quick read. The characters feel realistic. There is a touching relationship between Michael and the apartment complex’s handyman. Michael and his mother are close, too. In fact, as so often happens with single moms and sons, Michael feels the need to take care of her in some ways. It is sweet. And the time travel aspect reminded me a bit of Back to the Future but has its own clever twist on the dilemma of time paradoxes. Well done and worth the time to read.

My rating: 4/5