Author interview: Beth Mathison
How did you become interested in short stories? I loved the short story form when I was younger, especially Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams stories. The language was concise and descriptive, which I appreciated even back then. When I started writing in earnest as an adult, I started writing novels. In between novels, I'd write short fiction to "re-set" my thought process so I could move on to the next project. When my current publisher (Untreed Reads) sent out a call for a short story submission in 2010, I gave it a chance. I had fun writing it, they loved it, and they asked for more. As an author, do you think writing short stories is worthwhile? Why? Absolutely, on many levels. As an author, shorts force me to write precisely and with a level of focus that I don't always have when I'm writing longer works. Every word counts, and each word carries a lot of meaning. As a reader, I like shorts when I don't have...