What is Short People?
I started out, many moons ago, writing scripts for film and television.
Short People began as a television script around 2008 or so: I’ve always been a huge fan of Adrian Tomine’s books, in particular Summer Blonde, which is a collection of four non-related stories focusing on disconnected characters and “the loneliness and bleak humour of modern life.” (I’d always dreamed of adapting Summer Blonde as a film, but that’s another story…)
So my plan was to have six episodes made up of six or so short stories - some almost sketch-length, some soliloquies. Some characters would feature in different stories as main or supporting figures, akin to Pulp Fiction. The central idea was to tell varied stories about complicated people, because that’s what makes the world go round, right?
ANYWAY: Short People is now on here in bite-size chunks, so you’ll find lots of weird and wonderful tales, some magical realism, some sci-fi-tinged, some could be about that person who lives across the road from you. It’s about people.
Why subscribe?
My Substack market stall is where I will be touting my latest offerings, enticing you with a heady blend of genres.
Every month you will have access to:
Short People. An archive of flash fiction: Very short stories, focusing on us human beings. Always free to read.
Subscribe to my free newsletter so we can keep in touch!
For the price of a coffee, you can access bonus material every month!
With a paid subscription, you get:
The Long & Short. Stories longer than a hundred words. Stories like The Mutual.
The Blunder Years. Remember The Wonder Years? Well, like that but more bumbling.
Red Light & Bell. Excerpts from my film making diaries.
Persona non grata. Essays, musings and true-life experiences.
Anything to Declare. Any other writing which doesn’t fit under a banner.
The Archive: Access to every single post.
I also run another Substack for my pen name, Drew Hollis. If you want serialised novels and plenty of pop culture chat, go pay him a visit! (And don’t forget to subscribe there, too!)
If you enjoy reading Short People but don’t want to sign up to a small monthly fee, you can still support me with a one-off gesture of gratitude:
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