Favorite Short Stories of 2008

This year, I'm breaking down the books I read and reviewed by length, mostly to give shorter works in anthologies recognition when they deserve it. The first of these are going to be short stories, which I consider anything less than 15k.

4th Runner Up

Chasing Phoenix by Christine D'Abo

When it came to the hotness factor, this story delivered in spades. It has its problems as a romance, but when it came to the erotic portions of the story, it followed through on the promise made in the excerpt...and then some.

3rd Runner Up
Flyover by Jefferson Dane

"Flyover" was hands down the best story in this particular anthology. It's not a romance but a paranormal drama with some absolutely chilling tones. It accomplishes some wonderful characterization, terrific tension, and best of all, reminds me that good authors will always stand out. Don't run out and get this anthology, though. Aspen Mountain Press released it as a standalone title earlier this year. Buy that instead.

2nd Runner Up
Spanish Lullaby by Emma Wildes

While this particular anthology leaves a lot to be desired, the final story in it, Emma Wildes' "Spanish Lullaby," proves that historical romance doesn't have to be cheated because of a short format. Her characters are warm and endearing, and the romance extremely gratifying. It's good to see she has a contract for a historical in mass market paperback to be released in the spring. I think she's more than strong enough to really make it.

1st Runner Up
The Mister Trophy by Frank Tuttle

One of my best discoveries of 2008 was Frank Tuttle and his Markhat books. "The Mister Trophy" is the second that came out with Samhain, and it is smart, funny, and rich in atmosphere. I don't know if there are more stories in the pipeline, but I sincerely hope there are. I've been greedy for this author ever since reading the first of the Markhat books. This is worth every penny and then some.

And my favorite short story of 2008 is...

Mahape a ale Wal'au by Paul G. Bens

This story is not just my favorite short story of the year. It's one of my favorite stories period. Of this year, last year, and a few more years before that. The prose is incomparable, carefully crafted to flow with the same melancholy grace as its hero. It creates both an intimate experience and a universal one, and it does so with more style than hundreds upon hundreds of other stories that came out this year. I find it incredibly ironic that this gem is currently sold by one of the publishers I always have to think twice about buying from. I've been burned more than once by sloppy editing there, and yet, this proves that talent will always rise, no matter who publishes it.

Chasing Phoenix by Christine d'Abo

TITLE: Chasing Phoenix
AUTHOR: Christine d’Abo
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 14k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $2.99

Michael Quinn attends a sensual storyteller’s show, determined to find out if the mysterious Lady Phoenix is one of his co-workers. He doesn’t expect to respond so strongly to it, and returns to the office on Monday, dead-set on discovering her identity. Abbey has been in love and lust with Michael for most of their friendship, but when he unexpectedly turns up at her show, she decides to act out a little on her desire. Can it move beyond the make-believe into something real?

I don’t have a lot of faith that short stories professing to be erotic romance will do more than deliver on the hotness, so when I bought this particular story, I knew I was doing it purely for the smut. It has one of those blurbs that’s more a premise for eroticism than a real plot or romantic growth, and normally, I would have probably passed. But then I read the excerpt. It’s the opening of the story, and Michael is being blindfolded in a dark space in order to experience the sensual storytelling of Lady Phoenix. It doesn’t go far – only as far as her first line of dialogue – but what was there was a hot build-up with tight potential for the rest of the story.

That smut scene – and a later one where Michael jerked off in a unisex bathroom stall with Lady Phoenix masturbating on the other side of the door – followed through on that potential.

They were hot, kinkily so. Anyone with a voice fetish, or a blindfold kink, or the mysterious stranger adoration, would love them, I think. I actually fall into all three categories, which might be why these scenes worked so extremely well for me. The author kept the focus on the visceral, without extraneous clunky verbiage to distract from the intent of the scenes.

That doesn’t mean it’s a perfect story. It has the usual EC baggage when it comes to editing – wrong words, the occasional slip in tense – though this one isn’t nearly as bad as I’ve seen in other stories. It also never really gelled for me as a romance. Abbey has been in love with Michael for years, but we never really get a sense of personality for him to understand why. Then, out of the blue, Michael decides he’s attracted to Abbey, after he’s been searching for Lady Phoenix’s identity. I suppose the author might have meant it to mean that he was recognizing her within his friend, but I didn’t buy it. It just felt like a convenient device – and an unbelievable one, at that – to make sure she got her HEA.

Still, if this kind of kink hits your buttons, you could do a lot worse than buying this story. In spite of my reservations about the rest of it, I’ll probably re-read it again. It’s one of the few stories I’ve read that really hit the hot factor in regards to that particular kink.

Readability	7/10 – Editing issues as characterizes most EC books, but the first two smut scenes totally did it for me not to care too much about the errors.
Hero	6/10 – I didn’t believe his turnaround, or really get that much of a sense of personality in the real world, but there wasn’t anything too annoying about him, either.
Heroine	6/10 – Not enough space in the story to understand the different sides of her personality and make them cohesive.
Entertainment value	7/10 – The first two smut scenes work so well for me that this is higher than the editing and sense of the story probably deserve.
World building	7/10 – I never get a real sense of the contrast of her two worlds, exacerbated by the brevity of the story.
TOTAL:	33/50