H for “He Sees Everything”: #A to Z Challenge

Today, for me H is for “He Sees Everything” which is the name of my anthology of short stories, the full title of which is “He Sees Everything & Other Short Stories.” This was my first attempt at self-publishing and is available on Smashwords, Kobo etc.

The title comes from the first story in this collection. Man seeks to outwit the other, each thinking that they are smart enough not to get caught. A higher power sees what they are doing and they pay the price for their greed.  It was a fascinating experience writing this series of short stories. As you know the challenges of writing a short story are very different from writing a full length novel. Some feel that writing a short story is that much more difficult and I would heartily agree. The challenge here is to start the story, build it up and bring it to a climax within limited space

I wasn’t sure how to go up publishing this on my own. I contracted with a firm to do the formatting and the book cover. I then got it published in Smashwords. It was a satisfying experience. When I speak to book publishers I get the impression that short stories are more difficult to sell and acquiring editors prefer full length novels to collections of short stories. I am surprised that the market is limited for anthologies of short stories.

Some years ago, I had contributed another short story for an anthology of stories called, “Only Men Please” published by Unisun Publications. An interesting feature of this collection is that 35 writers ( all of us, men) contributed short stories in which the central characters were, without exception, men.  My contribution is called, ” Route 36″ and is about a bus driver in my hometown of Bangalore.

I remember as a kid reading and enjoying the short stories by O. Henry in  my grandfather’s house. Perhaps this was the impetus to develop a liking for short stories. What do you prefer to read ? What do you prefer to write?