Friday 25 March 2011

Infinity

Thanks to Claire Massey for another short story metaphor from a blog post by Jeff VanderMeer
which talks about short stories being like baby sea turtles:

'Short stories (and novellas) endure a different fate, one more akin to the process by which sea turtles reproduce. Hundreds of eggs are laid
and eventually hundreds of baby turtles hatch and frantically make for the sea, many of them getting picked off by birds or crabs. Once they
reach the sea, even more get eaten by fish and other predators. Some run afoul of fishermen’s nets after they reach maturity. Short stories, by
dint of their initial appearance in magazines or anthologies, are more like sea turtles than ships. Some never make it out of the shell. Those that do frantically seek publication, but only a few make it that far. Of the ones that do, most are destined to be ignored and never heard from again. Only a handful make it all the way to some kind of prominence of recognition.'

The photo by Tim Power has nothing to do with turtles. It's the cover image for the new journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice.