I want your help on my first collection

Putting together a short story collection is harder than I expected. What’s all the fuss about? Just slap together all your old stories, throw in some new stuff, and Bob’s you’re uncle!

Not so fast! For one thing… does everyone really have an Uncle Bob? For another, I have all the ingredients for the collection (somethings old and somethings new)—but I’ve been struggling on how to assemble it. What do I include, and what do I leave out? What order to I put my stories in to achieve not merely a good representation of my work, but an organism that breathes with its own life, something greater than the sum of its parts?

While I was over-obsessing over this problem, as I tend to do, I said to myself, “Self, these fans of yours, they must be pretty smart. So let’s ask for their opinions.” Of course I can’t include every story I’ve ever written—and for this particular collection, I’m focusing only on stories that are specifically Appalachian in their setting. But my faithful readers will know that this criteria hardly narrows it down. So, what are your favorites? Which ones do you think I should leave out?

(If you need a refresher on my published short stories so far, you can find a list of them at https://tghuguenin.com/short-fiction/)

Start and end with a bang. But keep on banging in-between?

I’ve asked some writer friends, those who have gone before me in publishing some awesome short fiction collections of their own, and the common advice I keep getting back is this: start strong, finish strong. Oh, and don’t slump in the middle.

That’s all well and good. And I sure do have some personal favorites, stories I’m more proud of than others—but I want to hear from ya’ll. What are your favorite stories? Which do you think would really hook a new reader in those first few pages as they stand there in the bookstore deciding whether they will like all that follows enough to purchase? Which stories are strong enough to support the center and anchor the collection, for their themes, style, or any other specific or ambiguous qualities? Which stories will wrap it all up, and leave the reader satisfied and excited to tell their friends about the book?

Please let me know what you think!

Even if you don’t have opinions on the order, but just have one or two favorites you want to let me know about, or one you are afraid I’m going to include but shouldn’t—please, comment below!