Author interview: Daphne Coleridge

How did you become interested in short stories?
I became interested in writing short stories after I was invited to contribute a short horror story to the The KUF Book of Halloween Horrors on Kindle Users Forum (UK). I loved the challenge of developing characters and a dramatic scenario sufficiently to engage the interest of the reader in a short piece of prose.

As an author, do you think writing short stories is worthwhile? Why?
Short stories, at their best, are little jewels capable of introducing a diverting story, a moral dilemma or an informative narrative in a small package that will attract even readers with very little time. The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a good example of a classic short story with a powerful impact.

What types of short story promotion have worked for you?
Even more than my romantic novellas, I have found my short mystery stories have established a momentum of their own: readers enjoy an engaging short story.

What types of short story promotion have not worked for you?
To date, no negative experiences. I have put up banners on Kindle Boards promoting my short stories and they have been followed by steady sales.

Do you consider 99 cents to be a fair price for a standalone short story? Why or why not?
Very short stories (I have read and enjoyed some of only a hundred words) should be put in a little collection at this price. A longer story of perhaps 12000 words would stand alone. When it comes to writing, size definitely isn’t everything: if the stories are entertaining or thought provoking the reader will be enjoying value for money.

Check out Daphne's short stories:
Three Mysteries on Amazon
The Claresby Mystery on Amazon

Comments

  1. Alain GomezMarch 30, 2011 at 12:28 PM

    " I have found my short mystery stories have established a momentum of their own: readers enjoy an engaging short story."

    I am so glad that you added this. It's very refreshing to see. So often, I think, authors get caught up in a whirlwind of advertising. Often we forget to just let some natural growth occur.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Hundred Eyes

There is a "Netflix Original" tv series called Marco Polo.  I'm a sucker for historical shows, especially if they feature martial arts.  Since this show had both I couldn't resist! As a short story writer, I really love this day and age we live in with TV series.  I love  how so many of them now tell sprawling tales with complex character development serial style.  This style of storytelling is something that short story readers have known about since forever but only now does it seem to really be hitting the mainstream media. Marco Polo took that serial style one step further by creating a spin off short film (about 30 minutes long) that told the backstory of one of the reoccurring side characters, One Hundred Eyes.  In the series, One Hundred Eyes is the kick butt martial arts master.  What makes him even more hard core is that he's blind.  Nothing is cooler than a blind kung fu master who can hear the enemy coming from a mile awhile.  The short spin off fil
Read more

Review of "Ferryman" by Nigel Edwards

Summary: "A mythology grew up around the Ferrymen, fostered by a mystique which they wrapped around themselves. Some thought them amoral servants of a ruling elite, sanctioned to undertake work beyond legitimate resolution; others with more fanciful imaginations – or who were more devout, depending on your point of view – believed them emissaries of Evil, with a capital E." Could the Ferrymen become real in your lifetime? Should they? Read this thoughtful and disturbing near-future science fiction story and decide for yourself. Review: This was a fantastic short story.  "Well-written" doesn't even begin to describe Ferryman ; it's engrossing.  The simple, clean style perfectly highlights our precise  protagonist.  If this future Edwards presents to us does in fact become a reality, the character he describes is exactly the type of person who would become a Ferryman: highly competent with the hint of a god complex. What's  especially clever abou
Read more

Interview with Author Hugh Howey

Welcome to Book Brouhaha! Why don't you start out by introducing yourself and telling us a little about "Wool." Thanks for having me, Alain! I suppose I'm just this normal guy who just wrote a little story called Wool. It's about a group of people who live underground. When their society turns on itself, it threatens all of mankind. In a way, it poses the conundrum of every revolution: How do you destroy an unjust social structure without the collateral damage being worse than the injustices were? I suppose the most interesting thing about me, personally, is that I lived on a sailboat while I was in college. This led to a career as a yacht captain, which sent me all over the Caribbean and the East Coast. I didn't start writing in earnest until my wife dragged me away from the sea and into the mountains. I've always loved the short form. I've been told that it isn't as marketable, even though science fiction has a long and glorious history of c
Read more