The Short Story Advent Calendar 2018: Giveaway open till Oct. 25
Disclaimer: Giveaway copy is courtesy of the kind people at Hingston & Olsen Publishing, but I bought my own copy. I know one of the creators, Michael Hingston, and reviewed his novel The Dilettantes here.
It’s that time of year again: The 2018 Short Story Advent Calendar is on sale now, and I have a copy to give away.
The SSAC is exactly what it sounds like: individually bound short stories that you open every day from December 1 to 25. The creators also post daily author interviews and extras on their website. The best part of SSAC season is reading along and chatting about the stories with fellow bookish people on the internet – use #ssac2018 on Twitter.
I plan to do daily reveal videos, so subscribe on YouTube if you haven’t already! Last year, two other Alberta BookTube channels took part, and it was a ton of fun. So check out Anne at I’ve Read That and Cheryl at crflamesfan too. Dedicated SSAC fan Des recently set up his own book blog, and I bet we’ll see some SSAC action there, too.
While you wait for December 1, relive the glory of my daily videos from last year with this gem from Day 22, featuring my Christmas tree, my kids, and some lego:
How to enter & other fine print
- To enter: tell me about the last great short story you read in the comments, and make sure your comment either includes your email address, or links to somewhere I can find it. Or, email me at lauratfrey@gmail.com and put SSAC in the subject line. If you haven’t read a great short story lately, that’s okay! Just tell me how excited you are to start reading them, or something. Last year, I compiled all the recommendations and came up with a great reading list.
- Rules and regulations:
- Contest is open till October 25, 2018.
- On October 25, I will randomly choose a winner. I will notify the winner by email and ask for their mailing address. If I don’t hear back in 48 hours, I’ll choose again.
- The winner’s calendar will ship in late October.
- The giveaway is open internationally, but can only ship to addresses in Canada, USA, Mexico, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Reading in Bed 
Wow, this is such a cool advent calendar. Where can you buy them and how much is it? As for short stories I have three that I can’t choose between. Three different eras, the earliest is a ghost story, The Signalman by Charles Dickens, the second, Lamb to the Slaughter by Ronald Dahl and last but not least The Octopus Nest by Sophie Hannah. They are each brilliant in their own way.
Right here: https://www.hingstonandolsen.com/store/the-2018-short-story-advent-calendar. Those all sound great!
The last short story collection I read was A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin. It is so incredibly good. She was a masterful short story writer.
I’ve been eyeing the short story advent calendars for the past few years, but haven’t read one yet. Thanks.
I tried that collection, but couldn’t get into it. I should try again!
That’s an awesome giveaway, I’d love to enter! I’ve really enjoyed Revenge by Yoko Ogawa and The Whole Story and Other Stories by Ali Smith recently. But I’m also reading The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories right now and it’s already piqued my interest in a lot of authors I hadn’t heard of, so I’d definitely recommend that as well. Email is in my contact page! You know where to find me.
Ooo did you read The Housekeeper and The Professor by Ogawa? I loved that book.
Not yet!! Revenge was my first Ogawa. Just added that one to my TBR though.
I’ve read some great short stories recently! I’ve been pushing myself to read more of them, and have managed 11 collections so far this year. The overall best has been Florida by Lauren Groff, but I also really enjoyed Come to Me by Amy Bloom, Four Bare Legs in a Bed and Other Stories by Helen Simpson, and You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld. In terms of favourite individual stories, I really liked “Mrs. Fox” by Sarah Hall and “Touching People” by Catherine Lacey.
I think I’ve read 8, which for me if more than 10% short stories. It would be fun to do a whole month (or longer!) of collections sometime. Thanks for the recs!
I’ve thought about doing a Short Story September :p But I think reading nothing but short stories for a month would drive me crazy. I guess I’m averaging a collection a month, which for me is really good.
Here’s my chance to put in another plug for David Huebert’s Peninsula Sinking. It’s not the most recent collection I’ve read, but I loved it!
Okay, never heard of him, but I’m gonna guess he’s a martimer 🙂
He’s from Halifax, but is living in Ontario. He won the CBC short story contest a couple of years ago.
My favorite short story collection of the year has been Rohinton Mistry’s Tales from Firozsha Baag and although I loved the whole collection one of my favorites was probably Condolence Visits which is heart breaking. I loved the idea of this when you showed it on booktube Laura and think it’s a great way to be introduced to new authors.
I did not know he had a collection!
Thanks for the shout-out! I don’t want to be entered into the contest because mine is coming already, but great idea 🙂
Thanks Anne!
What a fantastic idea. The last short story I read was The Good Lady Ducayne by E M Braddon. It is an interesting victorian story, with a vampire theme. Funny thing was I had read it in the past but only remembered when I was over half way through!
Sounds spooky 🙂 Thanks!
One of my favourite creepy little stories is Spinning for the Empire by Karen Russell — about girls who are told they’ll work as servants or nannies and are instead transformed into giant silkworms?? Don’t worry, they rebel against the system and things get super weird.
Sounds like things start out super weird too…
I Love H&O’s Halloween and Christmas concepts and am excited for your reveal!
The last short story that floored me was, fittingly, from their first Ghost Box. We saved it until this month, where my partner reads me a story per night. Neither of us were keen on the George R. R. Martin one, but we had to eat our words as The Pear-Shaped Man unsettled and entertained us more than anything else in recent years.
Good luck to everyone!
I Love H&O’s Halloween and Christmas concepts and am excited for your reveal!
The last short story that floored me was, fittingly, from their first Ghost Box. We saved it until this month, where my partner reads me a story per night. Neither of us were keen on the George R. R. Martin one, but we had to eat our words as The Pear-Shaped Man unsettled and entertained us more than anything else in recent years.
Good luck to everyone! (obsidianhyoid @ yahoo DOT com)
Oh god, the Pear Shaped Man!! My kids really wanted me to read it to them, and I was like HELL NO.
I wasn’t able to get this last year and won’t be able to do so this year either, but it is such a lovely venture. I’m a huge fan (I did read the first two years, although I only posted for one of those years). My most recent short story collection was Paige Cooper’s Zolitude, which would probably best suit those readers who are already committed to the form. I also have Mavis Gallant’s next collection off the shelf now, as discussion starts November 1st for the readalong, From the Fifteenth District.
I took out Zolitude from the library but returned it unread 😦 just didn’t make time for it. And have had Gallant on my shelf for years and years, never read. Oh, the guilt!
I haven’t read a short story lately. The last ones I read were by Djamila Ibrahim which were snapshots of refugees that had come to Canada (I forget the title of the book).
I cam across this short story collection on Twitter this morning and it sounds so interesting- what a great idea for an advent calendar!