Who likes Short Shorts

by Pete Sortwell

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  WHO LIKES SHORT SHORTS

  By Pete Sortwell

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  All stories copyright © Pete Sortwell 2013

  Please note: all of the characters and events in this book are fictional. All rights are reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the author.

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  Introduction

  I first started writing short stories back in 2010, shortly after I’d written the first three chapters of my first novel, So Low, So High. I’ve always been a fan of Adrian Mole, brilliantly written by Sue Townsend, and I remembered how he thinks he is a brilliant writer and spends years working on the most dire novels, only to discover much later that they’re rubbish. I didn’t want to do that and during the first four months of my writing I was in the stage that I think most people go through – I was doing it in private and not daring to tell anyone. I still wonder why we all do that, but I suppose it comes down to confidence, not that writing is some dirty activity that you must take to your grave. The fact is if you want to be successful then people need to read your work and, crucially, like it.

  So, what I did was stalk my favourite writer, Danny King, on Amazon one day and I found some books that he’d featured in as a short story writer. The books were called Radgepacket and published by Byker Books, who had also published one of his novels. I think I looked at their website and saw they had an open submission for the next in the series of short story collections. Not knowing anything about the writing process at all, I assumed ‘editor’ meant ‘general dogsbody’, someone who would completely tidy up the short story I’d written and probably want to talk to me over the phone to tell me how brilliant I was.

  Wrong.

  I got a reply thanking me for my submission, but suggesting I take the time to look at the technical side of writing. ‘Ed’ as I came to know him also suggested a website – Chapter79 – that I could go to to learn this stuff, which I did. I went over, put the short story up and got some feedback from my peers.

  My mistake had been to assume that all stories needed to be in third person. This wasn’t the style I’d written the first three chapters of my novel in and it isn’t a style I am comfortable with now. Shortly after that I also posted those first three chapters, albeit in a very rough state, and a guy called Ian Ayris posted to let me know how much he’d enjoyed reading them and said that I definitely had a voice that made him want to read more.

  It was a few months into my membership of C79 that I realised I still had a month left before the deadline for Radgepacket 5, so what with having done a lot of exercises, found my style and also gotten a few more chapters done, I decided I would write a story using the main character from the book, Simon Brewster.

  The rest, as they say, is history, I spent a month on the story, I made it as good as I possibly could myself, I got a friend, Hannah, from C79 to proofread and edit it for me, and I sent it off to Byker Books with a day or so to spare, although I didn’t put my phone number at the bottom this time. That was September 2010. It was January 2011 that I heard I was in.

  Now, I’ve signed contracts for books, I’ve sold over twelve thousand of my self-published books, and I’ve enjoyed other achievements in my writing ‘career’, too, but I can honestly say, nothing has beaten that feeling of being published for the first time. I finally realised I was worthy of someone else’s time and money. To be honest, it is probably the thing that helped me gain the confidence to carry on with the novel, and then spend a fair amount of money getting it properly edited once I was done. I can’t thank the guys at Byker Books enough for the boost they gave me back in the early days and I know it isn’t just me they’ve supported. There are several guys I know who are now signed up to publishing contracts and/or doing well in their self-publishing. So thanks, Byker Books, for that.

  In case you’re wondering, the original short story was eventually re-written and is now the backdrop to a sub plot in So Low, So High; it’s featured here under the title ‘One Flew Over The Policeman’s Bonnet’.

  That’s about it for now. I hope you enjoy what you read here. As well as the short stories I’ve also included samples from my other books, so you can follow my writing journey from the very first story right up to my latest self-published book.

  All the best,

  Pete

  Contents