We've not blogged for a while, partly because we're moving office and partly because we couldn't figure out this "New Blogger" thing, but now we're back with a big post and big news, namely the results of our More Short Stories contest.
We received hundreds of entries, so thanks to everyone who took the time to write something and send it in. We've chosen 16 stories to be published in the anthology, and they are:
ERIK GLAMBIK-BOE'S ANGEL by LOUISE HUME
THE DAY OF THE DEAD by DANIELA I NORRIS
GUESSWORK by ROBIN MARSDEN
BREATHE REVEREND BREATHE by AMY OLIVE
VIOLET by NIKKY JORDAN
THE ADVENTURES OF ANNA HALDORSEN by NICK MONTGOMERY
SEAHOUSES by ROSALIND WYLLIE
EXECUTIVE SAILS by PETER PARRISH
LOST AND FOUND by SAM MORRIS
BOLTED BUT NOT LOCKED by KEVIN BROOKES
MY BROTHER DIED AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT by KEN PISANI
THE REMAINING HALF by JOLENE HUI
SLAPSTICK AND TICKLE by SIMON ELLINAS
JOE'S ARK by KATIE-ELLEN HAZELDINE
BECOMING FRIDAY by SARAH JANE MARSHALL
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME by STEPHEN SHIEBER
More Tonto Short Stories will be published on 21 May, but readers who have pre-ordered the anthology can expect to receive it several weeks in advance of that. You can pre-order More Tonto Short Stories
here.
And now you can meet the authors...
Kevin, Simon, Katie, JoleneKEVIN BROOKES was born in Birmingham in 1958. He has written for many years but has only recently tried to get published. He used to be a science teacher, but took early retirement. Now he wants to spend much more time writing. He loves music, reading and nature.
Half-Irish, half-Greek SIMON ELLINAS was born in London during the 20th Century. Afflicted with the need to make people laugh (there's no cure), he works as a cartoonist and occasionally ambushes comedy clubs. He lives in London with a family, a dog and a goldfish. His blog is at humorousarts.wordpress.com.
KATIE-ELLEN HAZELDINE is originally from Durham City, and now lives in Lytham St Annes in Lancashire. She is 43 and married, with two daughters. She has rheumatoid arthritis and works from home as a professional tarot reader. She is seeking publication of a completed first novel and is working on her second.
JOLENE HUI is a writer/actress with a severe addiction to sugar. She's a horror buff who writes a column for TheFleshFarm.com. One of Tonto Press's first authors in 2006, she has also been published by a variety of newspa-pers, magazines and Cleis Press. She is based in Los Angeles.
Louise, Nikky, Robin, Sarah JaneFrom Wakefield, LOUISE HUME lives in Brighton where, for a living, she is a guide at the historic Royal Pavilion and Museum. She has just written and directed a short film, and co-wrote with eight others, a feature length script about 24 hours in Brighton. Easily distracted by shouty guitar music, much of her writing energy goes into articles for the Wedding Present fanzine. Seven years ago, she started, very slowly, to write a novel.
NIKKY JORDAN lives in the West Midlands with her part-ner, son and a nomenclatively dubious cat. After a varied ‘career' she studied English and Creative Writing at university. Fun includes reading, yoga, making soap and frighteningly competitive bouts of Monopoly. She is currently working on her first novel.
ROBIN MARSDEN's first short story appeared in Tonto Short Stories in 2006. Since then, he has published pieces in the UK and USA, and his work has been long listed for Fish Short Story Prize. Robin lives in London, where he is currently working on a novel, Why the City Never Sleeps.
SARAH JANE MARSHALL lives in London writing reports on public health for the government. She has worked as a journalist for The Sunday Times and news editor for the United Nations. She is currently writing a novel inspired by her life in Kenya managing a livestock ranch and wildlife reserve. She is due to complete an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck later this year.
Nick, Sam, Daniela, AmyNICK MONTGOMERY graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, before joining the band Microdisney, a John Peel favourite. After receiving a Doctorate on Virginia Woolf from Newcastle University, he is currently working on a novel, two screenplays with artist Tracey Tofield and a music project with composer and producer Ema Lea.
SAM MORRIS lives in the UK and started writing fiction some years ago to fill those long grey Sunday afternoons. He soon became immersed and now tries to write at least once a day. First published in print in the original TONTO SHORT STORIES, he is currently at work on his first book.
DANIELA I NORRIS is an ex-diplomat, ex-editor and now a writer. She was born in Romania in 1971 and had since lived and worked in Israel, Canada, Angola, Peru and France. She currently lives near Geneva with her husband and two young boys, and works as an adviser to one of the Permanent Missions to the United Nations. She has recently written a novel, which she is hoping to publish.
AMY OLIVE was born in 1980. She spent the first years of her life in a cottage by the Grand Union Canal, and the rest of her childhood in Mayenne, France. She started her working life as a journalist and now works for a charity. She is about to finish a degree in English and German at the University of Northampton. She will then continue to study whilst working on the second draft of a novel. She lives in Northamptonshire with partner, Alan, and cat, Pablo.
Peter, Ken, Stephen, RosalindPETER PARRISH does not pick pecks of pickled pepper, unless you ask him nicely. He has been a music writer since 2004 and regularly gets over-enthusiastic about goth records for stylusmagazine.com and emusic.com. This is his first appearance in a published anthology of fiction. He is 24, lives in North Yorkshire and usually needs a haircut.
KEN PISANI has written and produced a variety of televi-sion programs, including sports (where he met many famous athletes only to wish he hadn't) and comedy (something that was not always evident by the time those shows aired). He currently lives in Los Angeles with his lovely wife, Amanda, the yang to his yin. Ken hopes to publish his unpublished novel, finish his unfinished one, and then find some other un to undo.
STEPHEN SHIEBER lives in Newcastle and, in his real life, teaches in a local school. When he writes, Stephen prefers short stories, although his burning ambition is to write a first-class gothicky crime novel. A number of people have kindly published him, but Tonto Press have been particularly generous. His collection Significant Others is currently looking for a benefactor.
ROSALIND WYLLIE lives in Newcastle and has an MA in Creative Writing from Northumbria. Her short story Freshers was published by Tonto in their Tonto Short Stories anthology and led to readings for Pulp.net and to her story Departures being showcased on Laurahird.co.uk. Her first stage play Green Beans was staged in 2006 to critical acclaim and she is currently working on a film script, novel and a new stage play.
Thanks again to everyone who submitted stories or pro-ordered More Tonto Short Stories. We hope you'll enjoy reading it.
Paul
One of the best books I have read in a long time was by Arundhati Roy and was called The God of Small Things, it is not religious like the title implies, but is set in an Indian town called Ayemenem and tells a very poignant and tragic story of a pair of twins and how their lives are torn apart through traumatic childhood experiences. This book is beautifully written, perfectly evokes the climate that is described and made me cry several times! This book also won the Booker Prize in 1997 and I always look out to see if the author has written anything else, but as yet she hasn't!
The dvd that I am going to recommend is called Overboard and stars Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. This is a slightly dated film but is absolutely hilarious and is very firmly one of my favourite films. Both Hawn and Russell act their parts brilliantly and it is a typical slushy romantic film, but it's also very funny! It's one of those films that you can actually watch again and again so I would say that it's not only worth watching, but also worth buying, here's a link to Amazon so you can do so now!
At the moment I have Snow Patrol's album Eyes Open in my cd player so I'm going to recommend that cd to you today. I think the lead singer, Gary Lightbody has a fantastic voice, really smooth and easy to listen to. In particular I really like the third song on the album 'Chasing Cars' and also the sixth song, which I can't remember the name of but it's lovely and the start of it sounds like a lullaby. I also like the fact that all the songs don't sound the same, which can happen with a cd from only one artist.
Students tackle a group writing exercise on the last course
You can read more about Johnny Lonely and pre-order a copy here.
Jamie, Hannah and actor Phil Hoffmann stopped by to offer support, eat our food and drink our beer
Thanks for supporting Tonto Press in 2006. You can read about what we got up to over the year here.
Stu from Tonto gets to know the dog
The winning team, clearly delighted with their Geordie hamper
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