Trip to Paris

I've enjoyed reading The Paris Review Book of People With Problems--one of a series of anthologies that The Paris Review published in the mid 1990s.  I found my first-edition copy at an online used bookstore and have enjoyed the short stories here by Rick Bass, Annie Proulx, Frederick Busch and many other short story luminaries.

The Paris Review is still one of those hallmark literary journals that writers aspire to break into (well . . . I'm still trying).  And it is always helpful to read the work of those who have graced the PR pages.

Currently I have a small notebook filled with story ideas--stories that I hope to write this fall.  But I know that some of these will pan out and others not.  Some stories will show promise at the beginning, but won't have enough energy to carry them to completion.  And there are those that never get off the blocks.

But it helps to read.  Many an idea is born from the experience of reading.  And The Paris Review selections are not a bad place to begin.