At last week’s literary lunch in Suffolk I decided to read a short story which is the last (latest?) in a series about a retired couple coming to terms with their newfound life together ( I married him ‘for better or for worse ‘ but not for lunch ). I’m glad to say it went down really well with the fifty strong audience on the day and it reminded me that previous efforts in this series are available to download from the amazing Etherbooks site.
I have mentioned Etherbooks before, but I’m renewing my interest now because the stories on there are only (I don’t really mean ‘only’ as that is the whole point!) availabe on i-phone or Android apps and up to now I’ve never had the opportunity to see how they looked in e-print. But now I have can see just how well it works. The text is incredibly clear and much easier to read than I expected, and the interface is pretty nifty.Best of all, I have discovered that two of the stories – A Fork Less Ordinary and Museum Pieces are now in the ‘paid for’ category, although at 69p I hope it won’t put anyone off having a look.
In fact my favourite short story of recent times – Mouse Years – with protagonists from a younger generation, (it has won a couple of prizes too) is still free and has just had another 4 star review which describes it as ‘a mighty good read’. So if you have the technology, I can recommend it. Descriptions of everything I have on Ether can be found here, or ofcourse, on the app.
Finally a huge thankyou to the Wickhambrook WI Reading Group for having me last week. The lunch was fab, and I hear they also made £300 for the coffers.
Didn’t we do well?
Ali Bacon, Author 