[Insert witty, writing-related remark about the number 3 here.] why are they all so depressing?
We asked ourselves this question rather a lot while reviewing submissions for the last issue. Was it something about the magazine? Should we stop printing in black; maybe include some splashes of colour or pictures of kittens with captions scrawled underneath? While the jury’s still out on the future inclusion of kittens, we are sticking with the monochrome colour scheme for the time being. The mechanics of short stories are not simple; the writer has to develop character quickly and tell something worthy off the telling in only a few thousand words. A lot of short stories are constructed somewhat like a joke, steadily building up to a final pay-off in the last paragraph or so. For dramatic stories of this ilk, what could be more gripping than something unfortunate happening to the protagonist right at the end? When done well this can be effective, but a number of the stories we rejected for issue two were like this, done less well. So this time around we wanted to make more of an effort to display just what it is possible to achieve with the short story form. And our writers didn’t let us down. Stories in this issue range from snapshot moments of real life, to the whimsical, to the absurd, to the I-have-no-idea-what-this-is-but-I-love-it. I once had an idea for a magazine that would aim to promote the more maligned genres of literature: the experimental, the speculative, the new writing, the young writers, the fresh voices. I am not sure what I really expected to happen; but one thing I know for certain is that I didn’t expect to be publishing writing of this quality so quickly. I am very proud of this issue, and thankful to the authors who have filled its pages with their stories. I suspect that we will be seeing some of their names facing out from our bookshelves before too long. Onwards and upwards. Euan Monaghan, Editor (Buckinghamshire, November 2009)
Guilty parties Editor/designer: Euan Monaghan Associate editor: Keir Pratt Copy-editor: Elaine Monaghan www.structomagazine.co.uk