This is a book I started writing about 12 years ago. I wrote the first story and it turned out to be a really long story. Then I was busy with other writing but this book of short stories was always there at the back of my mind.
My first book, “Seven Dedicated Lives”, came out in 2009. It was a compilation of several articles I had already written over years. So it wasn’t the same thing as writing a book and getting it published. Then the next three books were also in that same format: compilations of articles which I had already written and a few more that I write for that book. The idea of that book of short stories continued to live silently at the back of my mind.
I wrote short stories and had them published but as they were really short it did not add up to a word-count that could be enough for a book. The shorter the stories the more stories you need to make a book.
In the meantime I wrote a novel and after it was published I felt that the book of short stories just had to be finished. I pulled out all the short stories I had written over the years and wrote three more stories in order to have the right number of pages. And that is how it was ready for publication.
I have always had an attraction for short stories. They are like a miniature painting where the details matter a lot. Everything is in the details. In the last Lit Fest that I attended in London there was a session on short stories and one of the sentences that was prominent in that discussion was this; A short story is like an ice-berg. Indeed, much is suggested in a short story because the format is small. This makes a short story very intense.
This book will appeal to many readers because one can read one story at a time. One doesn’t have to read the whole book in one go. One can even read a few stories and leave the books for a few weeks or months and come back to it. I have myself done that when I get a book of short stories. A reader can read the stories in any order. So he or she can feel that he has read a complete story when that story is finished.
In this day and age when people don’t read books any more I hope I will be able to pass on my love of short stories to my readers. That much will be bring me satisfaction.
