I love short stories, but my love creates a problem for me. I read so many that I cannot remember which ones I've read, liked, loved or loathed. Sometimes I remember snippets of characters or themes from a story I've read but I have no clue where they came from. Though my memory is often reliable, I wanted to create a place for me to blog about the stories I read, make recommendations for other short story lovers and collect data about everything. I think it's important to mention that this is not a website for publishing my or anyone else's short fiction.
When I was searching online for short stories, I found many sites that solicit or publish short stories. I also found quite a few websites that collect public domain stories and make recommendations based on those stories. One of the issues I had with what's out there already is the limited coverage of stories that aren't in the public domain or from the last few years. (when reviewing sites became popular) Of course there are reviews of some anthologies/collections on Goodreads, Amazon, et cetera, but usually the reviews are for the whole collection and you have to do a bit of work to figure out exactly what stories are in the collection and what's special about each one.
Finding a great old (or new) short story is like finding hidden treasure. It's almost more special to me than finding a great book because I truly believe it takes amazing skill as a writer to make a memorable impact--be it through a character, theme or plot point--in such a short space of time. There are thousands of short stories published in collections and anthologies every year. Unless they are republished or available online, many stories just go by the wayside.
I thought for a long time about how to create a useful site for online searchers, but my skills are severely lacking (read: almost nonexistent) in data organization. I wish I knew SQL and could maintain a huge database that was easily searchable and filtered. However, life gets in the way for me. I know I can write synopses and include keywords for people hoping to Google their way to finding that long lost or next favorite short story. Hopefully it will help people as I compile more and more stories. Even if it never does, it will make me happy and help me remember what I've read!
When I was searching online for short stories, I found many sites that solicit or publish short stories. I also found quite a few websites that collect public domain stories and make recommendations based on those stories. One of the issues I had with what's out there already is the limited coverage of stories that aren't in the public domain or from the last few years. (when reviewing sites became popular) Of course there are reviews of some anthologies/collections on Goodreads, Amazon, et cetera, but usually the reviews are for the whole collection and you have to do a bit of work to figure out exactly what stories are in the collection and what's special about each one.
Finding a great old (or new) short story is like finding hidden treasure. It's almost more special to me than finding a great book because I truly believe it takes amazing skill as a writer to make a memorable impact--be it through a character, theme or plot point--in such a short space of time. There are thousands of short stories published in collections and anthologies every year. Unless they are republished or available online, many stories just go by the wayside.
I thought for a long time about how to create a useful site for online searchers, but my skills are severely lacking (read: almost nonexistent) in data organization. I wish I knew SQL and could maintain a huge database that was easily searchable and filtered. However, life gets in the way for me. I know I can write synopses and include keywords for people hoping to Google their way to finding that long lost or next favorite short story. Hopefully it will help people as I compile more and more stories. Even if it never does, it will make me happy and help me remember what I've read!