The Ten Authors and Stories for our 10 November Event + Ticket Information + Podcasts

Tickets, priced at just £8, are now available from the Cotswold Playhouse website. 

The event is on Sunday 10 November at 7.30 (doors and bar 7.00) at the comfortable and spacious Cotswold Playhouse in Parliament Street, Stroud, GL5 1LW. Please note the earlier start time.

We sold out the 150-seat Playhouse well in advance for our first event there in May this year - and, of course, the previous 12 events at the SVA were also sold out, so best not to tarry in buying your tickets.

The Cotswold Playhouse is a five minute uphill walk from the Parliament Street car park opposite the police station (car park post code GL5 2HL). Or you may be able to find street parking near the theatre.

Seats are allocated so you can choose where you sit when you book.

This event is part of the Stroud Book Festival.

The Ten Authors and Their Stories

I am delighted to announce the authors and titles of the stories for our 19th event at the Cotswold Playhouse on Sunday 10 November. 

84 Gloucestershire/South Gloucestershire writers submitted 115 stories. We have shared with those authors our Long List of 33 stories and then our 16-strong Short List. 

These are the ten stories which my co-judge Chloe Turner and I have selected for this event (in librarians' alphabetical order) -

The Art of Job Security - Sallie Anderson (Cheltenham)
A Box of Skin - Peter Adams (Edge, nr Stroud)
Choose Love - Georgia Boon (Stroud)
The Day I Took my Zombie to Alton Towers - Sarah Hitchcock (Rodborough, Stroud)
Household Management - Nimue Brown (Stroud)
Mazurka - Rick Vick (Stroud)
Saving Grace - Sophie Flynn (Moreton-in-Marsh)
Science, Steve and the Real World - Philip Douch (Stroud)
Snowbird - Ali Bacon (Emerson's Green, South Gloucs)
The Truth and Several Lies about Butterflies - Kate Keogan (Gloucester)

Huge congratulations to these authors.

The event will be called 'Mazurka and Other Stories'.

As is usually the way with our events, we have newcomers to SSS. I am delighted to welcome Sallie, Georgia and Kate, all of whom are new to us. They will be the 109th, 110th and 111th authors to read at an SSS event.

I'm just as pleased to welcome back everyone else, notably SSS 'veterans' Nimue, Peter, Philip and Rick, all of whom, in my opinion, have been away too long.

Commiserations and my gratitude to everyone who submitted but didn't quite make it this time. Remember that judging events like ours and competitions is subjective. Your efforts will be rewarded if you keep writing.

Story Podcasts
We now have two stories from our new series of podcasts available to you. Following Jason Jackson's 'Fat Man in Neon', is Alex Clark reading a newly recorded version of her story 'The Thief' originally read in the October 2016 SSS event.

Listen where you normally hear podcasts or check out our link here.

John 

Oct/Nov 2019 Stroud Short Stories Podcasts

While we all await the decisions on the ten stories to be read by their authors at our event on 10 November, why not fill the time by listening to the first of our new Story Podcasts?

These story podcasts are available from your normal podcast provider - iTunes, Spotify, Sound cloud etc - by simply searching for 'Stroud Short Stories'. Or you can use the link below.

We'll be having stories by Joanna Campbell, Steve Wheeler, Alex Clark and Alwin Wiederhold - all newly recorded for your listening pleasure.

But the first podcast is a new recording of Jason Jackson reading his story 'Fat Man in Neon' from the May 2019 SSS event 'Incendiary!'. Jason, from South Gloucestershire, is a much published, much decorated short fiction author and here he is at his stunning best with a story both dark and surreal. Not for the faint-hearted!

Here it is - http://stroudshortstories.blogspot.com/p/podcasts.html

John 

We are now closed for submissions for our 10 November event. Thank you for your submissions.

A huge THANK YOU to the 84 Gloucs/South Gloucs writers who submitted 115 stories for our 19th event. Our third highest number of submissions ever.

We are reading them now. 

The titles of the ten stories selected and the names of their authors will be published here by Thursday 10 October.

TICKETS, priced at £8, go on sale from the Cotswold Playhouse website from Friday 11 October.

The event, which is part of the Stroud Book Festival, is on Sunday 10 November at 7.30 (doors 7.00) - PLEASE NOTE EARLIER START TIME - at the Cotswold Playhouse, Parliament Street, Stroud, GL5 1LW.

If you haven't already, why not subscribe to SSS newsletters so you don't miss a thing?

We are open until 23.59 on Sunday 29 September for your submissions to the next SSS event on Sunday 10 November 2019 

We are open for short story submissions from Gloucestershire/South Gloucestershire-based writers to our 19th event. 

We will close at the end (23.59 ie one minute to midnight) of Sunday 29 September.

Our event will be on Sunday 10 November 2019 at the Cotswold Playhouse in Stroud. (There's a new start time - 7.30. Doors open at 7.00).

This event is part of the Stroud Book Festival, so if you want to read to an audience of 150 people at the Festival you know what you have to do...

It is an open theme this time. Let your imagination be your guide and write about anything you like - so long as it's a short story up to 1,500 words.

As usual we will select ten stories to be read by their authors on the night.

It's free to submit and we accept both unpublished and published work.

Check out the Rules and How to Submit here.

I have a new co-judge this time. The brilliant short story author Chloe Turner, who has read four times at SSS, is making the decisions with me. Chloe's first collection of stories Witches Sail in Eggshells, has just been published by Reflex Press. 

More info on the judges here.

All stories are read by both judges and the judging process is undertaken 'blind' ie without knowing the identity of the authors of the stories until after the final decision is made.

Check out the Rules and How to Submit here.

Don't miss a thing about submitting or buying tickets by subscribing to SSS newsletters here. It's free - and easy to unsubscribe.

We can't wait to start reading your stories.

NB Tickets, priced at £8, for the 10 November event will go on sale from Friday 11 October on the Cotswold Playhouse website. Our last 13 events all sold out in advance.

John

Stroud Short Stories Anthology 2015-18 is mentioned in Best British Short Stories 2019

I interrupt our promotion of the next SSS event (details on how to submit below), to tell you that we are absolutely thrilled that Nicholas Royle, the editor of the annual publication Best British Short Stories, has referred to our anthology in the newly-published Best British Short Stories 2019.

He also specifically praised the stories 'The Thief' by Alex Clark (p.83) and 'The Journey to Everywhere' (p.222) by Joanna Campbell. Praise indeed.

Encouraged by the publication of a story by my co-judge Chloe Turner in BBSS 2018, I sent Nicholas a copy of our anthology on publication. Given how many hundreds of anthologies are published each year I am chuffed he liked it enough to refer to it in his forward.

The anthology is still available. More about it here.

Our next event - 10 Nov 2019 + Dates for your Diary + New Judge + New Start Time

Our 19th event will be on Sunday 10 November 2019 at the Cotswold Playhouse in Stroud. It will start earlier than usual - at 7.30 (doors 7.00).

This event is part of the Stroud Book Festival, so if you want to read at the Festival you know what you have to do...

We will open for submissions (free as usual!!) on Sunday 18 August and close on Sunday 29 September.

It will be an open theme this time. Let your imagination be your guide and write about anything you like - so long as it's a short story up to 1,500 words.

As usual we will select ten stories to be read by their Gloucestershire/South Gloucestershire-based authors at our event.

I will have a new co-judge this time. The brilliant short story author Chloe Turner, who has read four times at SSS, will be making the decisions with me. Chloe's first collection of stories Witches Sail in Eggshells, has just been published by Reflex Press. More info on the judges here.

Check out the Rules and How to Submit here.

Don't miss a thing about submitting or buying tickets by subscribing to SSS newsletters here.

We can't wait for August when we can start reading your stories.

Tickets will go on sale from Friday 11 October on the Cotswold Playhouse website.

John

Author Snaps from Incendiary! our 19 May 2019 Event + Info about our November 2019 Event

Thank you to everyone who came along to our new venue, the Cotswold Playhouse in Parliament Street, Stroud, which was completely sold out for our 18th event.

Special thanks and congratulations to the ten brilliant authors (see snaps below) whose work we selected and who read/performed so wonderfully. There was general agreement that the quality of story and performance made this one of the best ever SSS events. I am so pleased that we were able to share it with a supportive audience of 150 short story lovers.

Our next event will be on Sunday 10 November at the Cotswold Playhouse, and will be part of the Stroud Book Festival. Please note that, for the first time, it will start at 7.30 (doors 7.00). There will be no theme and we will open for your story submissions from late August. More info will follow.

Here are our authors from Sunday 19 May in the order in which they read. (Because of our legendary Rule 11 none of these authors will be reading again in November.)

Huge thanks to Charlie Bryan for the photography -
https://www.charlie-bryan.com/

Steve Wheeler aka Steven John - Burning the Stubble

Louise Elliman - Something About Me

Michael Hurst - Mobbed

Alwin Wiederhold - Echoes

Emma Kernahan - The Slip

Chloe Turner - Is It My Hammered Heart?

Robin Booth - Marcie

Jason Jackson - Fat Man in Neon

Joanna Campbell - Aurora and the Book Trolley

Geoff Mead - Raku