Looking for that perfect read, be it at the beach, poolside, in the park under a shady oak or even on your commute? Short stories have you covered. Instant gratification while your sunbathing with your SPF 100. In an hour or within minutes, you could have lived an entire reality, been enchanted by an idea or fallen in love with a quote. Short stories are packed with prose and purpose. Because of their length, they replace the heavy descriptions of a novel with condensed scenes crafted to tell the same story with more umpf! If you appreciate less drivel and more drama, then you will find it in a short story. This includes flash fiction as well. Even Hemingway admitted the story he'd written which he'd loved the most was one sentence in length. "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." You live a lifetime of grief in this six word novel, but you also realize the parents have overcome their loss and moved on. It is an extreme example of a short story/flash fiction piece, but you understand what happened - and are given a beginning, middle and ending.
There is a lot of thought put into shorts in order to simplify, understanding they are not summaries of a larger work, they function as their own stories, created for the genre.
You can purchase short stories on their own or you can find compilations such as
Waning Metaphorically which encompass several stories in multiple genres by one author. There are books of shorts with multiple authors as well available.
Don't let your summer escape without experiencing as many stories as possible. Look into short stories and squeeze a little more enjoyment out of your lazy summer days.
