I’m happy to welcome back award-winning author M. H. Callway. Today, Madeleine shares interesting facts about short fiction and her new release,
Snake Oil and Other Tales.
Here’s Madeleine!
1. Short stories are easier to write
Writing short fiction for me is the difference between training for a 5 km race and a marathon. Both require a lot of work, but work of a different kind. And the marathon/novel is a whole other kind of scary beast!
Perhaps because I started out writing short stories – and had my first professional publication that way – I find them fairly easy to write. Also, I’m an inveterate “pantser” rather than a plotter. I’ve started many novels and gotten hopelessly lost in the middle. Fortunately, some of these misadventures have turned into some of my favorite stories, like “The Seeker”, the last story in Snake Oil and Other Tales.
2. Short fiction allows me to create many new worlds
One wonderful advantage of writing short fiction is that I’ve been able to create many different characters and many weird and wonderful worlds for them to live in. The downside is that I have to leave these characters and their worlds behind when I reach the end of the story.
Belatedly, I’ve realized that Sherlock Holmes was the hero of many short stories and only a handful of novels. Why not follow my friends’ suggestions and write a series of stories with the same hero? That’s how I came to write the novella, Amdur’s Ghost, which was a follow-up to my comic mystery, Amdur’s Cat, starring beleaguered civil servant, Dr. Benjamin Amdur.
3. Short fiction is easier to get published
Short fiction offers many opportunities to get published. There are some well-established crime fiction markets like Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Mystery Magazine as well as many calls for anthologies, not to mention writing contests. Many leading crime fiction conferences like Bouchercon, Malice Domestic and Left Coast Crime publish an annual anthology of short stories every year.
4. Short fiction reaches readers more quickly
Every novelist knows that it takes a long time to write a novel and even longer to get it published. Even after the publisher accepts your manuscript, it can be several months, even years, before your book becomes available to readers.
It took me an entire year, working full-time, to finish my first and only novel, Windigo Fire and more than three years after that before it was published and released by Seraphim Editions. By contrast, short stories are usually accepted or rejected within a few weeks and appear in print or on-line after two to three months.
5. Short fiction has a great writers’ community
One of the best things about being a short fiction author is the wonderfully supportive community. The Short Fiction Mystery Society is a free on-line group that welcomes both Canadian and American writers. Together we writers share and discuss many issues facing us today. Serious ones like the use of AI and warnings about scams and more positively, new markets for short fiction. SMFS also has regular Zoom meetings and at major conferences, we always meet up for lunch, dinner or drinks in the real world. It’s a great way to meet some truly interesting and creative people.
6. Short fiction allows me to explore new genres
All authors have an idea that sits in the mind like a sliver. The idea bothers you until you get it out on paper. When my husband and I visited Vancouver a few years ago, we walked past the apartment building where I’d lived as a graduate student. To my enormous surprise, we discovered that the bakery where I’d grab breakfast on the way to the university, was still there. It had the same kind of baked goods on sale and even the same tables and chairs for customers. That got me thinking: what if a bakery stayed constant in time and place? That idea led me to write my speculative fiction story, “The Eternal Bakery of the Fractal Mind”.
7. Short fiction can still surprise you
At a recent When Words Collide conference, I was asked to join a panel on horror fiction. Horror fiction? I knew that some of my stories are noir, but horror? I don’t read much horror fiction and stay away from scary movies. That said, I did write Snake Oil, a novella about snakes and unscrupulous sales people. After a Noir at the Bar reading, this tough-looking tattooed “bro” approached me and told me I was a scary lady. Me? I thought. Turned out he had a snake phobia. So there are some benefits!
Turns out, your writing can stray into another genre without you even being aware of it, if you simply follow your muse.
8. Short fiction can help to get your writing get recognized
In my talk, How to Get Published, I always tell emerging writers, that their goal should be to get their manuscript to move to the top of the publisher’s slush pile. One great way is to show that they’ve been published already. One or more published stories can help build your credibility as a writer and may encourage the publisher to take a closer look at your submission.
9. Short fiction builds confidence in your writing
Getting a story published really helps to build your confidence in your writing. It’s not easy pursuing this isolating creative activity. It can be easy to get discouraged. A new publication, even better an award nomination or win, helps to keep going in this mad activity!
10. In the end, short fiction can become a book!
When I put my 10 most recently published stories and novellas together, I realized that had a big enough word count to make a book. That’s how Snake Oil and Other Tales came to be. This way my readers can find all my work in one place. And my family, including my grandchildren, know that I have put my retirement to good purpose!
Blurb
Welcome to the second collection of my published short fiction. These dark tales include strange guardians, mysterious bakeries, faithful dogs and yes, the slithery reptiles that strike fear in even the toughest bro’s heart. Many were finalists for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards for Excellence. They stretch from traditional mysteries to thrillers to speculative fiction and even to horror. What unites them are the characters struggling for justice – or their own warped perception thereof.
Danny Bluestone and Corazon Amorsolo, the protagonists of my novel, Windigo Fire, return in the thriller, Last Island. And Dr. Benjamin Amdur, the hero of Amdur’s Cat, has a second adventure in Amdur’s Ghost, a finalist for the 2023 CWC Best Novella Award.
Buy Links
Amazon CA | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU
About the Author
Margaret Cannon, crime fiction reviewer for the Globe and Mail, called M. H. Callway “a writer to watch”.
Many of Madeleine’s stories and novellas have won or been short-listed for leading awards, including the Bony Pete, the Derringer and the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence. In 2023, her work was nominated in two CWC categories (Best Short Story and Best Novella), the first time for a Canadian crime writer since the late Peter Robinson.
Her novel, Windigo Fire (Seraphim Editions, 2014) was a finalist for the 2015 CWC Award for Best First Novel and was a Huffington Post “Book for Book Clubs” selection. Under different titles it was a runner-up for the Debut Dagger and the CWC Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript.
In 2013, Madeleine co-founded the Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem collective, with Donna Carrick, author and head of Carrick Publishing. Today the Mesdames number 25 crime writers, publishers, editors, film makers and bookstore owners. They are the subject of the CBC documentary, The Mesdames of Mayhem, which you may view on GEM and YouTube.
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BRENDA MARIE SMITH is attracted to stories where everyday characters transcend their limitations to find their inner heroism. She lived off the grid for years in a farming collective where her sons were delivered by midwives. A lifelong community activist, Brenda has managed student co-op housing, produced concerts, and raised a small herd of boys. She and her husband live in Kyle, Texas. They have more grown kids and grandkids than they can count. 
Katie Groom grew up in rural Pennsylvania, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Business Management from PITT and her master’s in Employment and Labor Relations from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 2016, she decided to move to Alabama in order to avoid as much snow as possible (and to advance her career in Human Resources).
Joanne Guidoccio 