About Ian Hocking:Ian is the author of the bestselling e-books, the SF novels Deja Vu and Flashback. He describes himself as an "accidental bestselling author" and has written two non-science fiction novels, Proper Job and now a short story collection A Moment in Berlin. Ian blogs extensively over on This Writing Life.
My first proper novel, called Whirlwind, had too many words. Not that it was overlong. The entire manuscript came to no more than 110,000 words. Its problem was pace. The book was meant to be a horror-scifi-thriller extravaganza but the prose was the equivalent of slow motion. I was yet to learn that each word is a jab, and you need to knock out your opponent in the fewest rounds.
Then I started writing short stories.
They weren't terrible; they weren't very good. Besides the pressure for space, which heightens the need for exact, precise, no-pussy-footing-about-it wordage, I felt there was a greater role for each word to play. A short story can conjure an impression that persists in the reader longer than that of novel. It's not a protracted swordfight. It's a cheeky pistol shot from the hip.
Of these dozens, I selected four and put them in a collection called 'A Moment in Berlin'.
I tend not to write short fiction these days. Partly, I have my work cut out with novels. And the novel is an easier form. There's also a sense that fewer people will read a short story.
I think on my short fiction career with some nostalgia. However, that may not be the exact, precise word. A tweet from m'colleague Paul Graham Raven yesterday reminded me that nostalgia is a psychological condition in which the sufferer yearns a for place to which he can never return. I intend to return.
Ian's short story collection, A Moment in Berlin is available on the UK Kindle and US Kindle now. Please see here for more details.
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