Somebody should invent the short story trailer. Oh wait, I totally just invented the short story trailer.

Book trailers are pretty big right now, but do you know what's going to be even pretty bigger? You guessed it: trailers for individual short stories written by people who don't have books yet.

Check out this one that I just put together for my upcoming McSweeney's story:



On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being I take this video seriously and 1 being I am actually aware of how ridiculous it is), this trailer comes in at about a 6.

Forthcomingapallooza

Some stories are on their way! Right now you can check out an excerpt from Frost Mountain Picnic Massacre at One-Story.com. There's also a quick Q&A with me. My answers are all lame, because I am a genuinely lame person. But if you're looking to have your socks rocked off, you should check out One-Story's archive, which includes interviews with Stephen Dixon, John Hodgman, Kelly Link, and many other awesome writers.

I also have a story called Those of us in Plaid forthcoming in McSweeney's #33, and a story called The Misery of the Conquistador forthcoming in StoryQuarterly. However, unlike One-Story, there are currently no online excerpts for these stories. And, for contractual reasons, I probably can't put any excerpts up on this blog. So instead I have written an alternate first sentence for each story, both of which are included below:

The Misery of the Conquistador

"Wow, I sure am miserable ... for a conquistador," said he.

Those of us in Plaid

We realized from the very beginning that we were not like all those people who did not wear plaid, but that we were actually very different.

There you have it! No firm release dates for either, but - having tempted you terribly with these alternate first lines - I will make sure to do the decent thing and keep you informed.