Liars' League readings and Short Stories on House

I'm back home in Israel now after a week of traveling - from Belgium to London, London to Jerusalem. I tripped off the Eurostar for a lovely meet-up with Vanessa in St Pancras on Monday involving cupcakes and much short story discussions! More news on that to come.

The Liars' League event on Tuesday night was great fun, five stories on the theme of Art & Science. My story, The Painter and the Physicist, was beautifully read by Susan Crothers. Follow the link to read the story online or listen to it - highly recommended! A wonderful thing the Liars are doing, a wonderful boost for the short story and for live story-telling (I am still thinking about the story with the zombie mice). Thank you to Cynthia, Elaine and Susannah for coming and for the great discussions before and after.


Now, you know that short stories are experiencing that renaissance everyone's talking about when they are mentioned on one of the most popular programs on television (and a personal favourite of mine): House.

The episode began (no spoilers, I promise) at a book launch, where a reluctant bestselling novelist was forced to make a small speech. He alluded to the new book and hoped it would also be a bestseller - at which point his publisher interruped to say something along the lines of

"Of course it won't be a bestseller, it's a short story collection, everyone knows short stories don't sell."

And then he "explained" without mincing his words that this book was only being published because the novelist's agent wanted to keep him happy, not because anyone thought it would do well.

This... wait for it... was the first sign that viewers were supposed to understand that this man was suffering from... Frontal Lobe Disinhibition, which meant that he said whatever was on his mind! Short stories were being beaten up on in the service of medical diagnosis! There are some of us who would say that his statement was evidence of something else entirely (publishers' insanity? great-writing-blindness?), but I was pretty amused that this was the TV writers' choice to first indicate something was very, very wrong!

One day, maybe, the great Dr House will be glimpsed perusing a copy of The White Road and Other Stories. Even if he flings it away in disgust or throws it at 13's head, I would be happy. An authoress can but dream...