2014 Armchair BEA - Novellas/Short Stories

Novellas/Short Stories 
Now it is time to give a little love to those little stories in your life. Share your love for your favorite shorts of any form. What is a short story or novella that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves? Recommend to readers what shorts you would recommend they start with. How about listing some short story anthologies based upon genres or authors? 

It really depends on what you like just as when you choose a novel. When looking at my short story collections and novellas I found that they mostly fell into one of 3 categories: fairy tale related, scifi/fantasy, or horror. There were exceptions of course, but these were the main categories. 

Of my anthologies, I found that I tended to go for some of the same editors over and over again. They seemed to pick some of the best stories and authors. The editors I picked most were Martin Greenberg, Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, and Paula Guran. 

Many people who read my blog have expressed interest in retellings. So, I am going to list some anthologies of retellings here first: Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling did a whole series of books starting with Snow White, Blood Red where some of the tales are just like retellings and others are on the horror side of things. They also have another series that  includes books like Coyote Road which is trickster tales and The Beastly Bride which includes tales about shapechangers. Paula Guran has a book called Once Upon a Time which again is retellings of various tales. 

As for horror, Datlow and Windling edited the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror for several years. Much of the fantasy included was dark fantasy. Currently Paula Guran edits the Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. 

As for novellas, the only genre I have any listed in is horror. There is The Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman. And there is Turtle Boy by Kealan Patrick Burke.

If these interest you, I wish you Happy Reading!