Stroud Short Stories in May: Submissions Call

Now that the furious beating of our hearts has subsided after our Valentine's event, we are now open for submissions for our next short story night, on Sunday 27th May.  This will be be part of the Site Festival, which will again feature a wide range of Spoken Word events.

Stories can be between 50 and 1500 words and those selected will be read aloud by their authors on the night.  All subjects and genres are welcome, with a maximum of three entries per author.

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, 29th April.

Please email your stories to: stroudshortstories@yahoo.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

“Love and Other Blows of Fate”

Our Love-themed Valentine’s event “Love and Other Blows of Fate” took place on Sunday 12^th February, with another large and appreciative audience.  As promised, our ten authors read stories that ran the gamut of emotions, from missed chances and lost love, to consummated passion and one man’s quest for invisibility!  

 Laura Kinnear reading "The Proposal"

 

Teresa Moorey reading "Growing Things"

 Mary Omnes reading "Chaos"

 

 Rick Vick reading "The Artist and the Lover"

 

 Andrew Stevenson reading "The Invisible Dream"

 

 Kevlin Henney reading "Schroedinger's Pizza"

Rachel Beckett reading three short tales from Aurora's Spindle

 Tim Smith reading "Carrie"

Judy Newman reading "Brief Encounter 1961"

Jane Bailey reading "Eats, Cheats and Leaves"

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Many thanks to all our readers, and to everyone who came along to listen.

Our next event will be at the end of May as part of the Site Festival.  We look forward to seeing you there!

October event now online

Terry Mechan’s recording of our October Event, for his Stroud FM show “Voices Across the Valleys” is now available online here.  It features Helen Street, Brian Seabrook, Eley Furrell, Helena Petre, Juliet Chastney and Roshi Fernando reading their stories.

Many thanks, Terry!

"Love and Other Blows of Fate"

Stroud Short Stories is ready with a red rose between its teeth for the 12th of February and our first themed event "Love and Other Blows of Fate".  We have ten selected authors eager to share their tales of love and loss, passion and woe. With celebrity gardeners, steam-trains and pineapple chunks included.  Our headliner is Jane Bailey, author of Tommy Glover's Sketch of Heaven.

The event starts at 8pm and takes place at Stroud Valleys Artspace.

Stroud Short Stories in February: Submissions Call

Stroud Short Stories will be back on Sunday 12th February, with its first themed event. As befits the approach of Valentine’s Day, the theme will be:

“Love and Other Blows of Fate.”

If you have a story (however loosely) connected to this theme that you would like to have considered for the night, please email it to stroudshortstories@yahoo.co.uk

Stories can be between 50 and 1500 words in length, and will be read by the author at the event.

The deadline for submissions is now Sunday 22nd January 2012  (extended by a week to account for that sluggish Christmas period!)

We look forward to hearing your tales of bliss and woe!


 Un-themed Stories

Due to the Site Festival moving forward from June to May next year, our next event after February will also be in May. If you have any stories that are not based on the theme of “Love and Other Blows of Fate” that you would like to have considered for the May event, please feel free to send them in too. (The deadline for these submissions is Sunday April 8th 2012.)

Stroud Short Stories in October

The second Stroud Short Stories took place on Sunday 16th October at Stroud Valleys Artspace.  The night was once again very well attended and, as promised, our ten authors provided a night of dissatisfied children, used-car salesmen, daleks and, of course, the answer to everything (not to mention a bed in the forest and overwhelming lust in a coffee-shop).

The authors:

Helen Street reading "My Mother Never Did".

Brian Seabrook reading "A Drive in the Slow Lane".

Stephanie Smith reading "Romantic Fiction".

Eley Furrell performing "Marah".

Eleanor Holliday reading "Bedtime".

Helena Petre reading "Dapper Daleks" (a very short story indeed).

Anthony Nanson reading "Solitude".

Juliet Chastney reading "Children".

Diana Humphrey reading "Searching".

Roshi Fernando reading "Mrs Chatterjee's Indian Summer".

Many thanks to all who came, and most especial thanks to the ten authors who read for us and made the evening such a delight.
The next Stroud Short Stories will be in February.  I hope to see you there!

All photographs by Saskia Portway.

Stroud Short Stories on Stroud FM

Last Sunday's Stroud Short Stories was recorded by Terry Mechan for Stroud FM, and an hour-long edit of the evening will be broadcast on his show "Voices Across the Valleys" at 4pm on Wednesday 19th October.  The show will be repeated on Friday 21st October at 1pm.

Stroud FM is on 107.9 FM.  You can also listen online here.  The show will also feature on Listen Again, if you miss the broadcast.  Happy listening!