The only time I really get to read the newspaper these days is when I am preparing the fire, scanning each page before I scrumple it up and shove it into the woodburner. Yesterday was such a day and it found me reading the Review section of the previous week's Saturday Telegraph (a newspaper which typically only gets looked at for the big general knowledge crossword on the day it comes out, and then ignored until, as I say, it's getting pushed into the fire).So it was, sitting in front of the woodburner, poised, ready to scrunch, I learned that short stories are "the literary form for our times" and that we can find out how to write them by joining in with the Telegraph's creative writing course, delivered as part of their Short Story Club.I took a look and it seems there's quite a lively forum developing. Definitely worth checking it out... and the competition side of things allows you to submit a story a month.Since Wordwatchers began over ten years ago, we've had a tradition for short stories, running two competitions every year. 2012 sees them going as strongly as ever, as John's blog posting shows. Let's see what the year brings as we start sending some of the new batch out in to this brave new world of short story opportunity.