Short Stories 366:11 — “Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure,” by Courtney Milan

Every now and then you bump into a novella that collides with you at just the right moment for it to be read. I read this one last year, during some pretty frustrating times with organizations devoted to romance who seemed to be going out of their way to actively make many of us feel …

Short Stories 366:4 — “The Pursuit of…” by Courtney Milan

The first of (likely many) novellas during this project to talk about short(er) fictions every day, The Pursuit of... by Courtney Milan does something pretty damn amazing: it juggles really heavy, really depressing realities of history alongside two incredibly engaging characters and ends up telling a really delightful, funny, and uplifting story. Full disclosure: I've …

Sunday Shorts—Summerfield’s Angel by Kim Fielding

I listened to this holiday novella a while back, and honestly, it was mostly a feel-good from step one. The performer did a fairly solid job—I will admit initially the Xeno voice did make me think he was sort of snide, but it was the accent, not the dialog, so it passed quickly—and I didn't …

Sunday Shorts—Lava Falls by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Lava Falls is the novella for which Lucy Jane Bledsoe's collection is named, and I while I mentioned the first story in the collection (Girl with Boat) way back in January as one of the best opening tales in a collection I've ever read, this novella? Masterful. I'm not sure I can do the narrative …

Sunday Shorts—Home by Nnedi Okorafor

I read Binti a couple of years ago, I loved it, which told such a brilliant story. I'd sort of squirrelled away Home, the next novella in the series, for some unknown "later" when I'd need a novella I knew would be amazing. That time came in mid-winter this year, when I hit a wall of …

Sunday Shorts—Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole

Ohmigosh I really enjoyed this. First, I want to talk format. This Sunday Shorts series lets me take a moment to focus on shorter fictions, be it short stories, novelettes, short plays, or novellas, and this book was a perfect reminder why I wanted to take time every week to focus on those formats. I …