Fiona Smith's Blog › Christmas Guest Editor…

Christmas Guest Editor Picks

Published 1 year ago

According to everyone’s favourite crooner Andy Williams, it’s the most wonderful time of the year and he’s not wrong. But here at Shortbread it’s not because the kids are jingle-belling or all those people telling you to be of good cheer- it’s because our birthday is in December and this year we became the grand old age of Two. 

And what a year it has been! Not only did we reach the 1,000 story bench mark, we also launched a creative writing school in Spain and saw the publication of our very first anthology. So for our 24^th Guest Editor spot we’ve decided to ask someone very special indeed to choose.

This month our Guest Editor is…..

Drum roll…….

US! 

The whole Shortbread team have been scouring the site over the past few weeks to look for our favourites and here are our recommendations:

Robin Pilcher (Smoking Bees by Davey Spens): I like the way this story gives the impression that it's swinging about quite randomly, but in fact is really tight and well paced. It took me a couple of times reading it to understand the impetus that led him to watch that lone bee take flight at the end - but it's a great connection. Davey Spens knows how to write a short story.

William Thomson (No Promises Were Ever made by Alan MacKay): An honest and startling piece of writing in which Alan explores the personal journey of a retired war photographer. Searching for solace in a garden in Provence, he struggles to come to terms with the horrors he has witnessed. Recently recorded by Shortbread this story is a beautifully narrated tale, and is an excellent choice for audio.

Fiona Smith (Dear Santa by Joanna Fitzgerald): When thinking of a typical Christmas story, a half-naked drunk female writing to Santa for a perkier bosom, while wearing remnants of a santa suit in Taiwan, does not typically spring to mind… However this is everything a Christmas story should be. It’s funny, endearing and leaves you believing that Santa might just deliver the goods after all. 

Gary Duncan (On a Park Bench by Irene Haggart): I occasionally get the chance to read some of the stories on Shortbread and I really enjoyed this one (as well as Irene's other two 'On a Park Bench' stories)... Anyone would find the monologue hilarious in its own right: the old lady's thought process is pure comedy - her thinking his AC/DC t-shirt was advertising some sort of electrical company is one of my personal favourites. It was also quite nice to see her natural suspicion of the character proven wrong though in the end - never judge a book by its cover. A cracking little story and I look forward to reading more of these in the future... providing our old lady isn't frozen to the park bench this Christmas!

Red Barn Studios (On the Move by J.P Creton): We had the pleasure of recording this story with narrator Peter Drummond Hay a few months ago. A lot of fun to record and a lot of fun to read. On the Move really captures the atmosphere of Dundee, during what many would argue was it’s heyday, a time when the city was famous for the three J’s; Jute, Jam and Journalism.

Molly-Rose Smith (Bye Bye Blackbird by Joe Allison): I had the pleasure of editing this story during the summer when I was an intern at Shortbread, and it has occupied a place in my heart ever since.  Bye Bye Blackbird tells the story of a young coffee shop worker who has abandoned university and who befriends a solitary blackbird. It sounds sentimental, and it is, but the sweetness of the story isn’t cloying and Bye Bye Blackbird is a cute, light-hearted tale, a particularly uplifting read during the dark winter months. 

Finally we’d like to thank all our members for their continued support and wonderful stories though out 2010. And we wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

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