Holiday Escapes

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Spotlight on Short Stories

I occasionally hear people say that they don’t like short stories. I love them. I acknowledge that they’re a different art form to a novel, or even a novella. But when life is rushed and there’s little time for reading, there’s nothing like the mini-escape — the micro-holiday — of a shorter form of fiction.

Even novels are only part of a story–they have a beginning and an ending, which real life lacks (even conception and death being but punctuation points in the larger story of a community or a family). In a novel, though, the author has time to draw out the motivations and history of the main participants, maybe to follow several plot lines, to allow characters to develop and change, and to solve complex problems and untwist complicated knots. This gives novels their fascination, and the larger and more complicated the novel, the more some people seem to like it. A series with an overarching plot is a wonderful thing, allowing three, six, ten–even fifteen (in some cases) individual full stops within a larger story that spans the entire series.

Novella–that is, 20,000 to 40,000 words of story–are animals of quite a different description. When writing them, I’ve found it best to limit the cast of characters and reduce the plot lines to one major and maybe one minor. Novellas still allow for a problem to be solved, a character to grow, a relationship to be formed.

Short stories, though, are vignettes–paintings of a moment in time. The past is hinted at; character development is minimal; motivations are brushed on in broad strokes; only the main characters stand out and the rest are reduced to background. The shorter the story, the harder the craft of making a satisfying read. And I do love a challenge.

A well crafted short story may leave you wishing it was longer, but is also satisfying. The end is leaves you free to catch that bus, pick those children up, pack up that lunch and return to your desk, turn off the light and go to sleep. Short stories are fun.

So what do you say? Short, novella, short novel or long novel, series or stand-alone? Or (my answer) “Yes, please,” to all.

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This Christmas, I have a novella and a short story in the Belles’ 2020 Christmas collection Holiday Escapes, published in November and comprising four novellas and two short stories. I’ve also just published eleven short stories in Chasing the Tale. I hope you enjoy them.

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Spotlight on Dangerous Nativity

A Dangerous Nativity is high up the list of my all time favourite novellas. Meet the wonderful Will Chadbourn, Catherine Wheatley–the intriguing neighbour with the same surname as his ducal nephew, who lives on a small holding next door to his nephew’s estate, and three of Caroline Warfield’s signature children. You’ll chuckle at the nativity that Catherine’s brothers, aided by Will’s nephew, plan to stage with their farm animals. You’ll be as keen as Will to discover what lies behind the animosity between the two Wheatley families. You’ll love Will’s patience and his kindness. A Dangerous Nativity is a Do Not Miss This book. If you read no other Christmas stories this year, read this one.

It’s the fourth novella in Holiday Escapes, a collection of stories republished from the Bluestocking Belles 2015 box set, which has long been out of publication, and is now available again.

Read more about the box set and get it from one of the buy links here.

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Tea with Henry

Eleanor poured Lord Henry another cup of tea. With the continuing war, he seldom had time away from the Horse Guard to spare an hour for an old friend of his dear deceased wife, and she was enjoying catching up on news of Susana’s children. Eleanor often saw her goddaughter, Susan, now married to a naval officer, and with small children. But the boys had all followed their father’s footsteps and were overseas with the army, or their maternal grandfathers, into the navy. Harry and Alex, the soldiers, were on foreign soil fighting for King and country, and Jules, the youngest, was doing the same far away on the other side of the world with the navy.

Rick was Henry’s main concern today. Invalided home, he had undergone painful medical treatment to be able to walk again, and had recently left town, much to his father’s and sister’s dismay. “He is going to Portsmouth, where he thinks the naval doctors may be able to get him back to full health more quickly,” Lord Henry said. “I wish he hadn’t chosen to ride, Eleanor. He says he will stop early and often, but I worry. We thought we would lose him, you know.”

“Yes, Susan told me. She has been very anxious about him.”

Lord Henry sighed. “That is part of the problem. My dear daughter has been hovering over him constantly, and I believe he has run away from her care as much as to his naval doctors.”

“It is hard not to fuss when those you love are in pain,” Eleanor commented.

“I can only hope he finds what he needs, and not trouble,” the concerned father said.

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Rick Redepenning finds trouble and what he needs in the form of his former admiral’s daughter, in Gingerbread Bride, now available as part of the anthology Holiday Escapes.

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Gingerbread Bride on Spotlight on Sunday

 

After sailing the seven seas with the King’s navy for most of her life, admiral’s daughter Mary finds London hard to take, and her grasping aunt and nasty cousin even worse. A trip to find other relatives to live with brings dangers aplenty, but also Rick the Rogue, once a midshipman on her father’s ship, riding once more to her rescue.

The plot includes brides made out of gingerbread, runaway carriages, a pair of wicked cousins who almost deserve one another, a chaotic household in the midst of Christmas preparations, and one of the sweetest proposals I’ve ever written. It is the first story (chronologically) in the Golden Redepennings saga.

Gingerbread Bride is the third novella in Holiday Escapes, a collection of stories republished from the Bluestocking Belles 2015 box set, which has long been out of publication.

Read more about the box set and preorder from one of the buy links here.

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The Ultimate Escape in Holiday Escapes

On the eve of her wedding, Julia overhears a conversation that gives her doubts about why Oliver wants to marry her. Needing time to think things through, she uses a family secret to flee to the future. Oliver thinks her mother mad when Lady P. explains what Julia has done, but he follows her anyway. It’s his fault Julia is distraught. Besides, he cannot imagine life without her.

Two people from Regency England find adventure in modern London, but the greatest adventure will be learning one another’s hearts.

This delightful novella is the first story in Holiday Escapes, a collection of stories republished from the Bluestocking Belles 2015 box set, which has long been out of publication.

Read more about the box set and preorder from one of the buy links here.