Major Acid's E-Rag
What Else Is There?
Volume 1, Number 10
Storyteller
Sayings are assumed to be simple, direct, easily understood. Sayings
that aren’t all those things are puzzles. Yet sayings can be interpreted
in different ways, sayings such as, “You get what you pay for.”
Consider, for example, Storyteller, self-proclaimed as “Canada’s Short
Story Magazine.”
If you stand in front of your local
magazine stand, leafing through Storyteller, scanning the openings of
the various stories and glancing through the publisher’s introduction,
then decide to buy the magazine, you get exactly what you paid for. You
shouldn’t be surprised, either. You knew the level of writing, and you
felt it was worth the $5.95 Canadian (plus taxes): you got what you paid
for.
As for the staff of Storyteller, they get
what they paid for, too. The magazine buys its stories, which makes a
story’s appearance in the magazine a paying gig. Sadly, it doesn’t pay
much. In fact, the inevitable web-site says the going rate is one half
of one cent per word for a story ranging between 2,000 and 6,000 words.
At the top end, that translates to $30. Oh – the writer might also get
two free copies of the magazine.
Before you succumb to the obvious
inference, read on. There are at least two elements that figure into a
well-written short story. One is the story itself, the plot, such as it
may be. The other is the style, the rhythm and the word choice – the
technique, in other words. It’s best to have both, of course, but
writers who can produce that combination consistently don’t generally
publish in venues that pay one half of one cent a word. Still, there are
many writers who are good at one or another, and there are many readers
who prefer one to the other, if they think about it at all.
The current issue of Storyteller (Spring
2004) has nine stories, some with more plot some with less. A couple
with style. Chances are good you’ll find something entertaining between
the covers.
If your taste runs to historical fiction,
set in Canada, try “Kelly’s Run.” This is the cover story, set in the
days of the North West Rebellion, long on events, short on style. If you
prefer more remote history, or fable of the historical sort, remote in
time and place, try the closing story, “Two Moon City.” This fable has
little plot, more style, and deals with young people suppressing their
baser instincts to preserve family honour and civic stability. I’d like
to think there’s some irony in the tale (I find the philosophy
repugnant) but if it’s there, it’s well hidden.
Other stories feature a vampire with
troubling neighbours, an inconvenient angel, and a woman who drastically
overdresses for casual day at work.
One of the best stories – as in a combination of plot and style – might
be Stephen Leclerc’s “Living the Dream,” a hockey story with a twist.
The twist is obvious early one, but the story is both solid enough, and
brief enough, to carry the reader through.
Beyond the stories, however, Storyteller
has little else to talk about. Three books are reviewed, briefly, and
advertising is sparse. In fact, most of the adverts are for Storyteller
itself, such as a page flogging back issues. For a change, you aren’t
paying a lot for advertising.
On a final, curious note, Storyteller has
a pricing anomaly. The magazine is a quarterly, so if you buy four
issues off the newsstand, the total cost, including GST and Ontario’s
PST (the magazine is Ottawa based) ends up as $27.37. But if you
subscribe to Storyteller, you will have four issues mailed to you for a
total price of 26.50 plus GST - $28.35.
Maybe that’s not as odd as it seems.
Storyteller has been around for about ten years, but this is the first
issue I have noticed on my somewhat out of the way magazine stand. It is
likely to disappear as suddenly. If you want to make sure you get four
sets of new Canadian short stories to feed on every year, subscription
may be the way to go. At the least, you’ll probably get what you pay
for.
Storyteller is published quarterly by Tyo Communications and sells for
$5.95 Canadian.
