The Story a Day May Collection by Morgen Bailey – Blog Tour

A huge thanks to Morgen Bailey for allowing me to read her brilliant collection of stories in return for an honest and unbiased review and to Sarah Hardy for organising this blog tour.

Synopsis

This collection was written from a variety of prompts supplied by storyaday.org and originally published on Morgen’s blog (morgenbailey.wordpress.com – where you can still read the list of prompts), during May 2011, 2012, and 2013.In this book there are stories of revenge, overcoming obstacles, newfound and lost love, shopping, chocolate, legends of history, and the occasional alien or two.   We have crimes afoot, writer’s block, characters with and without friends, homages, humans and non-humans, scratches, squeaks and barks.From Chelsea buns to casseroles, we share the highs and lows, but the stories all go to show what can be done with a prompt, a few hours, and a colourful imagination.

My Thoughts

Morgen Bailey is such an enjoyable and  quirky writer to read and this clever collection of very short stories is no exception.  These short stories are so easy and light to read that you can pick them up at anytime when you just have a quick minute to spare.  They are great for filling in a few moments of bliss whilst having a coffee, waiting for an appointment or just wanting a 5 minute break from the kids.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that short means shallow and uneventful as every one of these stories carries impact and meaning.  The very clever thing is that Ms Bailey packs a punch into every story but leaves most of them open ended, making the reader work hard on reflection and self questioning after each one.  This quality would make these stories the perfect discussion fodder for a book club without putting pressure on readers to commit to extensive reading time.

The theme and genre of the stories varies throughout the book and the titles don’t giveaway where it is going – making each story a little surprise gift.  A few of my absolute favourites were the chilling Threadbare Girl, the heartwarming May the Fourth, Norman the Conqueror as it resonated with me personally and the completely open ended The Big Game where I had loads of fun with myself predicting what may happen.

Finding out that these were written from prompts has given me inspiration to attempt to write my own short stories (although I am sure that to write as effectively as Ms Bailey does is no easy feat).  In August I am reviewing her book which gives writing prompts and I am seriously contemplating having a go.

Such a brilliant collection that I highly recommend to anyone.

Author Bio – Morgen Bailey

Morgen Bailey (Morgen with an E) is an author (of novels, short stories, writing and editing guides), freelance editor (for publishers and indie authors), writing tutor (in person and online), Writers’ Forum magazine ‘Competitive Edge’ columnist, blogger, speaker, and co-founder of Northants Authors. The former Chair of three writing groups, she has judged the H.E. Bates Short Story Competition, RONE, as well as the BBC Radio 2, BeaconLit, and Althorp Literary Festival children’s short story competitions. She also runs her own monthly 100-word competition. 2018 events include talks and workshops at Troubador’s Self Publishing Conference speakers, workshops and panels at Delapre Book Festival, interviewing and workshops at BeaconLit, and NAWG Fest with her ‘Editing your Fiction’ weekend residential course. Morgen can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and many others. Her blog is http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com, and email address morgen@morgenbailey.com.

Links used above:

author = https://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/books-mine

editor = http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/editing-and-critique

tutor = http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/courses

blogger = https://morgenbailey.wordpress.com

speaker = https://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/writer-for-hire/speaking-at-your-event

Twitter = http://twitter.com/morgenwriteruk

Facebook = http://facebook.com/morgenwriteruk