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Archive for the ‘Canadian Content’ Category

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 25, 2023] “So Much Heart”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Drew Buxton.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 25. To officially conclude the 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar, here is a story about family, friends, and mysterious suitcases stuffed full of cash.

This story features both Bigfoot and D.B. Cooper.

Set in Oregon, two young kids Collin and Shelley go into the woods with a film camera looking for Bigfoot. (more…)

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SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 24, 2023] “The Burglar’s Christmas”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Willa Cather.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 24. Willa Cather, author of O Pioneers! and My Antonia, died in 1947. “The Burglar’s Christmas” first appeared, under a pseudonym, in Home Monthly in 1896.

Yesterday was grifters, today it’s burglars. (more…)

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SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 23, 2023] “Holiday”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was David Ryan.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 23. David Ryan, author of Animals in Motion, would like to open a chequing account.

I happened to be listening to an audio book about a family of grifters–something that I feel like I don’t hear about all that often.  And yet here was a random short story in this collection that is also about a grifter.

Jeremy and Sophia are in bed together.  They have been a couple for a short time, and Sophia has just told him the Lost in the Bank story (her parents lost her in a bank).  Jeremy: Were they high?  Sophia: Probably. (more…)

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SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 22, 2023] “Boys”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Anton Chekhov.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 22. Anton Chekhov, one of the greatest Russian writers of all time, died in 1904. His story “At Christmas Time” appeared in the 2016 Short Story Advent Calendar, among other places.

This story was translated by Constance Garnett (who died in 1946). (more…)

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SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 21, 2023] “The Gift of the Magi Revisited”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Binnie Kirshenbaum.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 21. Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of Rabbits for Food, can’t find the receipt, so will settle for store credit.

I was concerned when I saw the title of this one because it’s a lot to reference a stone-cold classic in the title of your story and then say you are revisiting it.  I feared the worst: either Kirshenbaum would try to improve on the story or she would make a kind of anti-Gift of the Magi, which would be negative and nasty. (more…)

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SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 20, 2023] “The Skull”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Leopoldine Core.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 20. Leopoldine Core, author of When Watched, steers clear of Facebook Marketplace.

This was a short story about, yes, a skull.  (more…)

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SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 19, 2023] “Private Hands”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Michael LaPointe.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 19. Michael LaPointe, author of The Creep, has a line on a shoe once worn by Jerry Garcia.

I’ve read a lot of short stories over the years and I keep this blog as a way to remember them.  But it’s cool when I can start a story and recognize it.  I read this story over two and a half years ago in The Walrus, but it rang familiar after the first few paragraphs.  Interesting that i didn’t remember how it ended.

Harvey has a lot of rarities that he sells.  He is trying to sell a 1963 Fender Strat that Jimi Hendrix played at the Juggy Sound Studio.  He asks $500,000 but he knows it’s too much (Harvey overpaid for it and wants to make some money back). (more…)

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SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 18, 2023] “Ghost Mountain Island Murder Mystery”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Colin Winnette.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 18. Colin Winnette, author of Users, isn’t sure that the snake is part of the experience.

(more…)

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SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 17, 2023] “Swanee”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Sara Lippmann.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 17. Sara Lippmann, author of Jerks, removes her shoes before entering the ball pit.

I really liked the tone of this story, and I liked a lot of the content.  But I felt a little confused by the story in a few points. (more…)

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SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 16, 2023] “The Kit-Bag”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Algernon Blackwood.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 16. Algernon Blackwood, a prolific English author of ghost stories, died in 1951. His story “The Glamour of the Snow” appeared in the 2018 Short Story Advent Calendar, among other places.

Algernon Blackwood wrote a spooky story for the 2018 Short Story Advent Calendar.  It held up very well.  As does this one.

The story opens with the end of a court case.  A murderer (the defense attorney knew he was guilty) was found not guilty.  But the defense attorney was not pleased by the result.  He just wanted the case to be over. (more…)

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