I’m a short fiction tragic. I read for enjoyment and relaxation but also to learn how to write better. This year I discovered Jane Gardam’s ‘Stone Trees’, a story about loss which uses rhythm and repetition (in The Penguin Book of Modern Women’s Short Stories). The story begins, ‘So now that he is dead so now that he is dead I am to spend the day with them.’ The phrase is repeated and evolves into, ‘Now that you are dead’ ‘Oh my darling now that you are dead’ I like the way the information gradually unrolls; the situation perhaps becomes clear to the reader before the protagonist is consciously aware of it. The story ends, ‘Now that you are.’ I wish I had written it! I started to read other stories by Gardam looking for another as inspiring. I was browsing in Gleebooks with Hilary Hewitt, a friend and writing mate, when we found two new editions of Gardam’s short stories. Imagine our excitement and how it turned to mutual disappointment when no story was as good as ‘Stone Trees’, and many were predictable and formulaic.

For almost a year I’ve Skyped with Mark Vender, an Australian writer who lives in Columbia, South America. We critique each other’s short fiction in progress. We also discuss broad writing issues, especially what we’ve been reading. Our discussions have been returning to a collection of short stories by the American author, George Saunders, The Tenth of December.