Catch-up

A belated Happy New Year from us at Tonto Press. We've been very busy preparing for our next creative writing course and receiving submissions for More Tonto Short Stories.

The 5-day course takes place in Newcastle from 19th to 23rd February (half-term week) and at the time of writing there are just 3 places remaining. You can book a place here.

The deadline for short story submissions is 31st January. You can see full submission details here.

1,500 people downloaded our free Tonto Christmas Short Stories anthology, and we've heard many tales of people passing it around to friends and family either via email or as a printout. We hope everyone enjoyed it.

Tonto is currently featured in Laura Hird's Best of 2006 list.

There was an interesting piece in Saturday's Guardian by Zadie Smith on what makes a good writer, titled Fail Better. Smith argues that, while she has "no objection to books that entertain and please, that are clear and interesting and intelligent, that are in good taste and are not wilfully obscure... writers have only one duty, as I see it: the duty to express accurately their way of being in the world." Yes, but if writers are not writing to entertain and please, what right have they to expect readers to spend hard-earned cash on their books?

BBC Radio 4 are this week running a series of classic short stories in their Afternoon Reading slot. You can listen to them for seven days after broadcast here, although the website's content listings have not been updated. The featured stories are:
Monday: The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe
Tuesday: The Gypsy's Baby by Rosamond Lehmann
Wednesday: The Gardener by Rudyard Kipling
Thursday: Cathedral by Raymond Carver
Friday: Heavy Weather by Helen Simpson