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On The Table Read, “The Best Book Reader Magazine in the UK”, founder of Fiction On The Web, Charlie Fish, launches a kickstarter campaign to publish his illustrated book of short stories, The Man Who Married Himself.
For 26 years, Charlie Fish has been a passionate advocate for the power of the short story, as founder and editor of the internet’s longest-running short stories website “Fiction on the Web”. Now, for the first time, he is publishing a collection of his own short stories.
Stories that will make you laugh, cry, quiver with fear, but above all – think. Stories that address life’s big questions: How can I be a good person? What is freedom? Is this penny really trying to kill me?
The Man Who Married Himself
The Man Who Married Himself is my collection of the best short stories I’ve written over the last two decades. Each story has a wonderful illustration by Yvette Gilbert. If you back the Kickstarter campaign before 20 May (tinyurl.com/marriedhimself), you can get a signed copy of the paperback. And you can also get beautiful, tactile, raised ink art prints of your favourite illustrations.
I’m Charlie Fish. Publishing this collection is a dream for me, many years in the making. I write stories to connect. To connect with people, with the world around me, with my own kooky brain. I’m not a full-time writer, but I pour a lot of passion into my stories, and I’m proud that those stories have connected with so many people around the world.
Quote from writer and Oscar-nominated actor Richard E Grant, talking about the title story in this collection:
“The Man Who Married Himself is something that’s going to be unusual, and Charlie Fish has written such an off-the-wall story. It has its own internal logic that just appealed to me, I thought it was a wonderful idea.”
Short Stories by Charlie Fish
I wrote The Man Who Married Himself in 1999; a decade later I adapted it into an award-winning film that starred Richard E Grant, Emilia Fox, Warren Clarke and Celia Imrie.
Another story in this collection, Baggio’s Story, was adapted into a film starring Jean Reno.
Also in this collection is Death by Scrabble, which has been published by the British Library, and in school textbooks, and adapted dozens of times into a short film.
I’m not saying all this to brag. OK, maybe a little. But the point is the stories in this collection are all killer, no filler. There’s the one that explains the epic conspiracy that led to the deaths of Martin Luther King, Elvis Presley and Princess Diana. There’s the one where the guy’s penis gets cut in half. There’s the one that teaches you how to get anything you want, which got me fired from my real-life job (you’ll have to read the book to find out how). And there are three exclusive never-before published stories too.
The book will NOT be copyrighted. It will be a “Free Cultural Work”, published under a Creative Commons licence (Attribution 4.0 International) that means it can be freely shared and adapted. I want these stories to be shared and loved as widely as possible, and I want other creators to be inspired to build on the ideas.
About Charlie Fish
Charlie Fish is a popular short story writer and screenwriter. He is the founder and editor of www.fictionontheweb.co.uk, which has been online and continuously publishing since 1996, making it the oldest short stories site on the web. Thousands of stories have been enjoyed by millions of readers.
Charlie Fish says:“I am a feminist, anti-racist, LGBT+ ally who believes strongly in the importance of representation, and I try to publish stories that reinforce those values.”
Born in New York in 1980,he now lives in London with his wife and daughters.
Find more now:
The Kickstarter campaign for The Man Who Married Himself will run from 20 April to 20 May 2022 at tinyurl.com/marriedhimself– where you can pledge to receive a signed copy of the paperback, and beautiful raised-ink art prints of the illustrations.
After the Kickstarter campaign, The Man Who Married Himself will be available from Amazon, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble (£9.99 / $11.99).
Twitter: @fishcharlie
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