Re: New collection

Considering the hurry most people seem to be in, I find the lack of interest in short stories to be a little surprising. Sitting down to read a novel is certainly not as popular as it once was, so publishers might be shortsighted not to push the idea of a series of the "mini-novels" as a "new" paradigm of fiction for the time-pressed person. Perhaps a little imagination on teh part of some publishers could rediscover this genre.

Re: New collection

People continue to read and write (and even watch on TV) short stories because that's how life happens, in blips. Often our lives aren't sagas that end in epiphany and revelation like those of Jane Eyre or Stephen Dedalus; they are a series of events that, when put side by side, define us.

Janice Daugharty's short stories really get at the verisimilitude of the genre. If you’re looking for sensationalism or for stories cheapened by the addition of a too-dramatic climax, you won't find it in Janice's works. Characters are developed so fully that when they do act, the action needn’t be extreme. We understand where Velda is coming from when she tells the dead man “You should have eat what they brung you.” We also know why the boy doesn’t sell his glassy-eyed, inbred calves to the out-of-towner. The power of the word and of human emotion does not take a back seat in Janice's works.