and Welcome to the
World of Short Humour
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What
is Short Humour?
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| Our Far Eastern, low cost,
pirate version of The Oxferd Inglish
Ducksionery explains Short
Humour as ‘Non-serious writing that is not
too long'. We defined
‘not too long’ as around 500 words, and
stories, poems and the like began to be written
that could be read in their entirety in less than
ninety seconds.
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| Why is Short
Humour needed? |
| With today's busy
lifestyles, there can barely be time to read
anything. Some
politicians and academics have even expressed
fears that written English might follow cuneiform
script and hieroglyphic writing as the preserve
of a few specialist academics.
Some of us
became equally concerned about the potential
effect on humour. Thus was created Short Humour
or SH, which can be read quickly at almost any
time and almost anywhere - see below.
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| What is the
purpose of The Short Humour
Site? |
| The purpose of this site
is to promote the reading and writing of SH both
in Britain and throughout the world and to
showcase work by writers of the genre. The site includes excerpts from the
seminal books: A Man of Few Words -
The Short Humour of Swan Morrison and
A Man of a Few More Words - More
Short Humour by Swan Morrison.
Each is a collection one hundred
examples of SH with a connecting theme of life in
the modern world.
The site also includes Swan's next book as it is being written.
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| Will The
Short Humour Site showcase
Short Humour I have written? |
| We
would love to. One of our aims is to
generate an archive of Short Humour for
the benefit of all Mankind.
If you would like
to contribute to this noble task, please
see our Submission Guidelines.
We have published
two anthologies of work, each by fifty
writers from our Writers' Showcase. We plan to publish others
in the future.
Click on the images
on the right to buy a paperback copy of:
People of Few Words - Fifty
Writers from The Writers' Showcase of The
Short Humour Site.
or
People of Few Words - Volume
2 - Fifty More Writers from The Writers'
Showcase of The Short Humour Site.
Both books are
published via lulu.com.
People
of Few Words is also
available from online booksellers,
including:
Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Waterstone's, WHSmith.
People
of Few Words - Volume 2 will
be available from online booksellers, in
addition to Lulu.com, in due course.
Note
to current contributors: All
those contributors whose work appears in People
of Few Words and People
of Few Words - Volume 2 were
involved in the production of the books,
so if your work is in either book you
will already be aware of the fact.
If your work is not included in one of
these anthologies, we hope it might be
included in a later one.
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| What is the
advantage of Short Humour as compared to other
forms of writing? |
| Many people have become
overwhelmed with despondence and guilt about all
the reading they have begun and then abandoned by
the third page. There
are no such probems with SH which is generally
over before the end of the second page.
Also, its brevity allows it
to be read in new situations:
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| When might I
read SH? |
| Opportunities to read SH
exist in numerous circumstances such as: Between stations on the metro.
During lovemaking.
During lovemaking between stations on the metro.
During free-fall skydiving - Those who
have undertaken parachute training will be only
too familiar with the mantra ‘Jump - Read
Short Humour story - Pull ripcord - Check
canopy’.
While driving long, boring, straight
stretches of motorway - In the UK,
driving while holding a mobile phone has been
banned. This has freed drivers’ hands to
turn pages.
At any time for members of religious cults
expecting the imminent end of the world.
While reading long, serious writing - Try
missing out two pages and reading SH instead.
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| Why might I
buy a Swan Morrison book when all the stories can
be read on this site for free? |
| You might electrocute
yourself if you try to read the Site on your
laptop in the bath. As
a treasured family heirloom, the book can be
passed to future generations.
But Most
Importantly: All
profits from the writing of Swan Morrison are
donated to a UK registered charity supporting
people in Africa:
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| Why don't I
just read all the stories on this site for free
and then make a donation directly to your charity? |
| A truly brilliant
idea! That way all the money
goes to helping people in Africa. If you are a UK
tax payer, you can even Gift Aid it! Click Here to go to the Charity Search Page on
The Charities Aid Foundation Website. Then enter Friends
of Teso (Uganda).
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| How do I add
your Story of the Day
to my Google Personalised Home Page or to my
website? |
Click Here to generate the code to add this
gadget to your website.
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