Welcome to Authortrek.com, the home of author profiles and interviews, reading guides and reviews. Here at Authortrek, we endeavour to walk in the footsteps of authors, and to search for new literary talent. Visit our homepage:
http://www.authortrek.com/
If you would like to submit a short story, please read our submission guidlines:
http://www.authortrek.com/short-story-submission-guidelines.html
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Download: $0.91 This is an excellent, hardboiled story from Canadian author Steve Wheeler. Jimmy McFarlane, an ex-con, gets more than he bargained for when he drives a rig full of illegal beer down to Florida, as he encounters an unwelcome stowaway… It does not help that it is Harley Week in Daytona, as there are loads of Hells Angels around…
To find out how you can submit a story to Authortrek.com, check out our submission guidelines:
http://www.authortrek.com/short-story-submission-guidelines.html
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Download: $0.91 I recently visited the creative writing section of Gumtree.com, to see if there were any writers suitable for inclusion in this series of new short stories online. Almost immediately, I saw an advert by Shermaine Williams for her writing. I followed the link and was most impressed by what I read. I was not surprised to discover that she had already had a couple of short stories professionally published. Shermaine Williams is such a tremendous storyteller, that I had to invite her to contribute.
Sense of Achievement is a great story that really delighted me - it even had me laughing for joy in places. The plot, the pace, and the characterisation are perfect. It is exactly the kind of story that I was hoping to find and publish. She first began selling stories to her family as a child, and while it is incredibly difficult for any author to make a living solely from writing, I believe that Shermaine Williams is so talented, that she may one day achieve her dream of doing this.
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Download: $0.91 Fran Tracey is exactly the kind of writer that I want to encourage by publishing this series of online short stories. She’s already had success in short story competitions elsewhere, and I know from previous experience that such a great track record can lead to a professional publishing contract. Despite her previous success, Fran is very open to listening to constructive criticism of her work, and this makes her a delight for any editor to work with, and this is perhaps why she is so successful. I am certain that Hiding in the Dark will chime with many readers, as unfortunately, I am sure that many of us have had to suffer one very bad teacher from our schooldays…
You will need Adobe Reader to view this story, which you can download for free from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
If you would like to send a short story to Authortrek.com, please check out our submission guidelines:
http://www.authortrek.com/short-story-submission-guidelines.html
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Download: $0.91 This is an exquisite and subtle short story by the novelist Siobhan Curham. It’s ideal to kick off Authortrek.com’s new series of short stories, because it’s a fun and very humane tale. Terrible Beauty does deal with a very serious issue, yet Siobhan Curham’s treatment never becomes ‘preachy’, because her imperative is always to entertain us, rather than to lead us off on a moral crusade. Furthermore, its fantastical premise could never really work anywhere outside of the medium of the short story. Terrible Beauty’s a slight tale, stretching only to 3 pages, but they're full of drama! And although the tone is light, Terrible Beauty does work on several different levels, and so deserves several re-readings. Siobhan Curham is so excellent at characterisation that you really get to empathise with the character of Ray ‘The Geezer’ George, who’s not quite the man he used to be…
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Download: FREE The Necklace has a classic twist ending, something which all short story editors usually hate. Then again, when you're choosing short stories for a competition, you often read 15 short stories in a row, so it's not surprising that short story judges often end up jaded. As editor of Authortrek, my approach will be different, as I seek to nurture new writing talent. However, given that the public will be paying for these short stories, I will still maintain high standards by editing submissions to make them better if need be (a lot of entries to short story competitions fall by the wayside because they only have something minor wrong with them).
Of all de Maupassant's short stories, this has stayed with me the longest, due to the quite unnecessary suffering that Mathilde and her husband put themselves through. This story still has lessons for us today, as consumerism is even more rampant now than it was then.
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