I've just finished reading "My First Time." It was edited by Valerie Nygaard after an incredibly short time between announcing the theme for SoftCopy Publishing's first book and its delivery to the Kindle and iPad. It's been what? Fourteen weeks or so since they announced that all submissions must start with "The first time I..." It's hard to believe that such high quality writing can be found, edited, and delivered so quickly. This is a victory for writers--who want to see their work read, for readers--who want assurance that an electronically published work will be high quality, and for epublishing in general. I hope that SoftCopy's initial foray will encourage other independent publishers to do the same.
I particularly appreciate the quality of the publication: SoftCopy has paid attention to the specific requirements of epublishing; this is not just an automatic conversion from print-oriented media to epub formats. The super-short stories, along with their images, seem especially well-suited for epub. There are a few nits I hope SoftCopy will pick out in the future, especially more careful editing of typographic quotes and em-dashes. But this really is minor. And it would be nice to have authors' names along with the chapter titles.
But more importantly: the stories themselves. The super-short stories are great fun, and full of whimsy (I especially liked "Robots" and "Employee of the Month." There are some poems, all narrative, of fairly good quality; "Caretaking," for example, is heart-breaking. There are several science fictiony stories: in "In Memory Yet Green," we get a story in which Isaac Asimov appears in a person's dreams as a spirit guide. But the narrative conceit of "The first time I ..." means these are almost all personal stories. The story "Ten Minutes in Simile" describes the menace one feels in a strange and dangerous neighborhood when one is present as a community worker. And "Facts of the Case," a story of an encounter with a violent, jealous boyfriend had me shivering a bit.
Highly recommended.
