Dark Visions: A Horror Anthology You Won’t Want to Miss
Posted: October 12, 2018 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Dark Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Speculative Fiction, Stories | Tags: Book Review, Dan Alatorre, Dark Visions, horror, Short Fiction 27 Comments
October is the month for scary things, and a horror anthology filled with spine chilling short stories from over thirty authors is the perfect read for the season. The release of Dan Alatorre’s compilation of Dark Visions anthology is October 15th, and you won’t want to miss it. In addition to a wonderfully original and entertaining prologue, and his own story, “The Corner Shop”, Dan has lined up a slew of writing talent to include in this tomb of short horror tales.
Not only does this anthology have a very cool cover, (Check it out above), but it also has some very well crafted short fiction, some that will stay with you in times to come. These shorts cover a wide spectrum of horrors; nightmares, voodoo, vampires, apparitions and spirits, and even demons. The stories found here prey upon your inner fears, making brief little ditties from the stuff of nightmares.
None of the stories I read from this collection would rate less than three quills, meaning even the mediocre stories are pretty good. Among my favorites are “The Devil’s Hollow”, by Adele Marie Park; “Road Kill”, by Ernesto San Giacomo; “Behind the Leather Apron”, by Alana Turner; “The Bloody Dagwood Tree”, by Dabry Farmer; and “Ice Cream”, by Geoff LePard.
Not to say that other stories in this volume are not noteworthy. Many of these stories will keep you awake at night, including: “The Haunting of William”, by Robbie Cheadle; “Nightmare”, by Lori Micken; “Swimming”, by Frank Parker; “Lucifer’s Revenge”, by Christine Valentor; “What If”, by Geoff LePard; “Ghosts of Tupelo” by Sharon Cathcart; “Where the Black Tree Grows”, by M.D. Walker; “The Right Time to Move”, by Jennifer Ruff; “The Stranger”, by Allison Maruska; “The Storm”, by J.A. Allen; and “Spirit Lake”, by Sharron Connell.
I may be difficult to please when it comes to short fiction, because I like my stories to feel complete and often short fiction fails on those lines, but most of the tales in this collection did not fail to satisfy. Most of them were also a little creepy, which is essential when it comes to horror. And, did I mention it has a really cool cover? Put all of that together, and I give Dark Visions five quills.
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Share this:
“Kissed by Literature”: A YA collection of short fiction
Posted: August 31, 2018 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Fiction, Paranormal, Speculative Fiction, Stories, Young Adult Leave a comment
Like many authors, Jordan Elizabeth started out writing short fiction, and in Kissed by Literature, she offers us a generous sample of paranormal and speculative shorts. The trouble in writing short fiction comes in making the story feel complete, with a beginning, middle and end, using a minimal number of words. It’s not an easy thing to do, and while there are stories included that feel a little rushed in the pacing or end abruptly, as can only be expected in a collection of shorts of this size, those that do feel complete hit the mark and give readers goosebumps. Among them, my favorites include House of Sixty Bells, a ghostly mystery solved; Satin, a tale of paranormal friendship with ulterior motives; and Lock the Door, the story of a husband’s guilt following his wife’s murder.
A delightfully eerie collection of paranormal and speculative stories, I give Kissed by Literature four quills.
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Share this:
Writing for a YA Audience: CLICK YOUR CONVERSE HEELS TOGETHER
Posted: August 15, 2018 Filed under: Books, Stories, Writing, Writing for a YA Audience, Young Adult | Tags: Converse Sneakers, Details, Writing, Writing for a YA Audience, Young Adult Fiction Leave a comment
When I write contemporary young adult stories, I draw on my own experiences growing up. A huge part of my childhood involved wearing Converse sneakers. Okay, you’re probably thinking that’s a sad childhood, but bear with me. I was always obsessed with shoes. I liked the old-fashioned ankle-boot style. I liked the shiny Mary Janes. I hated regular sneakers. They weren’t cute enough. I endured sneakers only for gym class.
In Junior High, I started seeing the other children wearing Converse sneakers. They came in all sorts of patterns and colors, and they went over your ankle. They were unique, and even though almost everyone had a pair, everyone had a DIFFERENT pair. Some kids even wore mismatched sneakers or used fancy laces. I went home to tell my grandmother I just had to have my own Converse sneakers. (If you aren’t familiar with Converse sneakers, you have got to check out their incredible selection.)
She took me to the coolest sneaker store in the mall (I don’t remember the name of this wicked awesome store) and got me…a pair of knock-offs. They were black and came below my ankle. I fell in love with them because they had a side-pocket. I wore those sneakers until they fell apart.
In the meantime, my grandmother and I went to the nearby outlet mall. We would go once or twice a year. At their shoe store, I saw a beautiful array of colorful Converse sneakers. She bought be an official, high-top pair. They were black with white pinstripes. I wore them so much they started to fall apart…so now I don’t wear them much to preserve their life.
After that, I got a pair each time we went to the outlet mall. I even got a pair that reached up to my thighs! I now have twelve pairs altogether in my collection. Converse is still my favorite brand of sneaker.
Why am I talking to you about my Converse obsession? Well, Converse sneakers were a huge part of my childhood, from shopping for them to wearing them almost every day. I loved wearing them to gym class with fishnet stockings. I always write about my young adults wearing Converse because that’s what I wore. I didn’t realize how prevalent the brand featured in my writing until an editor called it to my attention. I went back through my writing and almost every girl character has a pair at one point in their individual stories!
If you were writing about shoes, what shoes would you mention? What shoes are most important in your life?
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Jordan Elizabeth is a young adult fantasy author. Her latest book, a post-apocalyptic novella entitled ROTHAM RACE, released July 14th fron CHBB. If you’re wondering if it features Converse sneakers, you will have to read it to find out.
You can connect with Jordan via her website, JordanElizabethBooks.com.
Share this:
“Brave New Multiverse”: A Short Story Collection
Posted: July 20, 2018 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Science Fiction, Screenwriting, Stories | Tags: Book Review, Brave New Multiverse, Jeff Bowles, Science Fiction, Short Fiction, Short Stories, Short Story Collection Leave a comment
Brave New Multiverse is a collection of unusual and unique short stories by Jeff Bowles, in which there is never a dull moment. You may be amazed, amused, confused, or even a little disgusted, but you will not be bored with any of the stories in this collection.
Bowles combines the craft of short story with screenwriting to create an experimental writing style that somehow works. His descriptive power is phenomenal, if a bit graphic. The worlds he has created may be strange and difficult to define, but they are also different from worlds encountered by any other author. In Itsies, ids are called itsies and you don’t got to love them, even if they wear a teddy bear suit. In The Many Deaths of Lazarus Lad, comic book heroes never ever die. In Detective Robot and the Murderous Spacetime Schism, robots and gorillas are detectives solving the case of the deceased dropping from the sky. In Donald Carmichael’s Brave New Multiverse: A trip to five very odd ‘verses’, where nothing is as it appears, or is it? And in Snip, Snip: where they take bigotry to new levels and have hang ups about testicles.
His characters are as diverse and unique as the worlds he’s created, and he pairs them into unanticipated couplings: Gorilla Todd and Detective Robot, an investigative team that can solve the crime, even in the face of the dead falling randomly from the sky; Donald Carmichael and Max, who don’t know love until it reaches out and bites them in the ass; Lazarus Lad and his egocentric dad, who know no other life; Nelson and Jay, who just wanted to help their injured pooch; Tug and Petunia, rude and obnoxious itsies, who may even be dangerous, belonging to Tom and Pamela, who don’t know the meaning of tough love.
Want to explore strange new worlds which you’ve never encountered before? Take a trip into any one of Jeff Bowles’ stories from this collection. I give Brave New Multiverse five quills.
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Share this:
“Undercurrents”: More Than Just a Collection of Tales From the Deep
Posted: February 2, 2018 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Horror, Stories | Tags: Book Review, Monsters, Sea Monsters, Short Fiction, Short Stories, The Deep, Undercurrents Leave a comment
The twenty-three stories in Undercurrents are all about the mysteries of the deep, but beyond that they are as varied as it gets. Master story telling weves tales about monsters who dwell in the ocean depths and send chills down your spine. The monsters featured range from those of legendary status to those of the fantasy realm: krackens; sea dragons in Guardian of the Sea, by Kristin Luna; sirens in The Old Man and the Sea Siren, by Steve Pantazis; fairy horses in In the Water, by Jessica Guernsey; mermonsters in All Yours, by Melissa Koons; and the underwater cat in Underwater Cats, by Mary Pletsch – to those that are unidentified, as in Cold, Silent, and Dark, by Kary English; or spring from the recesses of the human mind, to inanimate objects as innocent as a pair of bookends in Bookend, by Chris Mandeville.
The points of view presented are varied, as well. As a reader, I was allowed to glimpse through the eyes of both hunted and hunter, getting the unusual P.O.V.s of things like a kracken in The Kraken’s Story, by Robert J. McCarter, a siren in The Siren’s Song, by Aubrey Pratt, a dragon in The Sea Dragon’s Tale, by Nancy D. DiMauro and a puffer fish in Mandala, by Jody Lynn Nye.
The stories in this collection explore more than just the waters of the deep. Sea Wind, by Kevin J. Anderson explores the idea of losing a brother to the sea. Four Billion Years of Solitude, by Alex P. Berg explores the oceans of distant planets. Eat Me, by Lauren Lang explores a revelutionary weight loss system involving antipods harvested from the sea. Songs to Sing and Stories to Tell, by L.D. Colter explores saying good-bye, and Lure, by Joy Dawn Johnson explores the connection between twins, and Sea Dreams, by Rebecca Moesta and Kevin J. Anderson explores the ties between friends. To Become, by C.J. Erick explores facing the unknown, while In the Garden of the Coral King, by C.H. Hung explores facing one’s own fears, and A Marsh Called Solitude, by Gregory D. Little explores self-sacrifice and altruism.
My personal favorites include Teens Teach Tech, by Terry Madden, where a teen tries to help an old woman face her fears of the past; Heroes of the Russian Federation, by Chris Barili, where an experimental bio-weapon escapes and goes out of control; and High Seas Burning, by Lee French, where the real monsters are of the human variety.
Best of all, all proceeds from this anthology go to the Don Hodge Memorial Scholarship to help students without the financial means to attend the Superstar Writing Seminar, a seminaar that addresses the business end of writing. The Superstars have been putting together anthologies, along with seminar attendees since 2015. Undercurrents is the fourth anthology to result from the Superstar Writing Seminar. In more ways than one, the Superstar Writing Seminar is quite special and the recipient of a scholarship is fortunate indeed.
News of this seminar was exciting to me because so many writing courses or workshops focus on the craft of writing and ignore the fact that there are some business skills required in order to be a successful writer. I’ve heard many authors gripe about not realizing they had to have marketing skills as well as writing skills, or complaining about the time they must put into marketing that could be used to write instead. The line-up of Superstars who offer their expertise include Kevin J. Anderson, David Farland, Eric Flint, Rebecca Moesta, James A. Owen and Brandon Sanderson. Each year they have additional guest instructors, chosen from the creme de la creme of the publishing industry. They all share their knowledge and expertise during the annual seminar, which is held in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Well-crafted stories fill this anthology exploring the ocean depths and the depths of the human mind in Undercurrents, an anthology created by master story tellers. I give it four quills.
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs at no charge. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Share this:
“Doctrine of Indecency”: A Good Variety of Stories
Posted: January 26, 2018 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Dark Fantasy, Erotica, Fiction, Paranormal, romance, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Stories | Tags: Anthology, Book Review, Doctrine of Indecency, Erotica, Short Stories Leave a comment
The trick to writing erotica is being able to write a fully developed story line and add just the right amount of erotic imagry to create a story which both entertains and arouses readers at same time. There is an almost poetic art to it, a delicate balance. A balance few of the stories found in Doctrine of Indecency: 18 Coveted Tales of Lust, edited by Virginia Lee Johnson and Kat Mizera, manage to achieve. Most of the stories, while not of the exceptional variety, were not bad stories and some were quite entertaining.
I must give kudos for the variety of the stories contained within this erotic anthology. There seems to be something for everyone. Some stories stretch genre boundaries, including tales of erotic horror, such as A Cabin… Somewhere, by Kyle Perkins; the paranormal erotica of Wings of Change, by Cee Cee Houston; the anti-hero erotica of Revenge, by Virginia Lee Johnson; the speculative erotica of The Succubus’s Sin, by Taylor Rose; and the science-fiction erotica of Suicide Mission, by Lila Vale; or Lunar Gets Some Loving: A Purian Empire Short, by Crystal Dawn. There are also those that are geared more toward the traditional erotic story lines which explore various sexual preferences such as the three-way fun of Apple Bite, by A.R. Von; or Welcome to the Dark Side, by Erin Trejo; the military erotica of Deployment – Dalliance, by E.J. Christopher; the grocery store erotica of Fruit, Veg. & Starfish, by T.L. Wainwright; the swingers erotica of 3, by Eden Rose; the S & M erotica of House of the Rising Sun, by L.J. SeXton; the stranger erotica Delayed Ecstacy, by Tiffani Lynn; and there’s even a tale of social media erotica in Yearning for Desire, by Amanda O’lone.
My three favorites: Pleasure Bite, by Brianna West is well written vampire erotica and Dangerous Desire, by Samantha Harrington is hot and steamy, yet has a decent plot. I’ve been doing a lot of playing with POV, so I was especially drawn to the stories which used mutliple character POVs. While Inferno, by Kat Mizera uses multiple POVs with some skill, Pepper’s Play Pen, by Mia Sparks uses multiple POVs and is crafted with expertise.
The variety of stories included is commendable, but since none are exceptional, nor are any terrible, but of more average quality, I give Doctrine of Indecency three quills.
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs at no charge. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Share this:
Starting Off the New Year with YA Author Jordan Hallak
Posted: January 1, 2018 Filed under: Books, Fiction, Gothic, Interview, marketing, Speculative Fiction, Steampunk, Stories, Writing, Young Adult | Tags: Author Interview, Gothic, Jordan Elizabeth, Jordan Hallak, Steampunk, Young Adult Fiction Leave a comment
I’m pleased to be able to start the New Year off with a YA author who I have interviewed for both my Book Marketing -What Works? series this past year, and my 2015 Pros and Cons of Traditional vs. Independent vs. Self-Publishing series. I’ve reviewed many of her novels, (Escape From Witchwood Hollow, Cogling, Treasure Darkly, Victorian, The Goat Children, Runners and Riders, The Path to Old Talbot, Wicked Treasure, Kistishi Island)as well as collections featuring her short stories, such as Darkscapes, Cast No Shadows, Under a Brass Moon, Chronology.
If you’re feeling a little confused right now, that’s okay, because all of the interviews and reviews were done for an author named Jordan Elizabeth, and in the very early reviews she was booked as Jordan Elizabeth Mierek. However, she’s starting off 2018 as Jordan Hallak, and we’ll hear an explanation for the different name soon. In addition to being the author of at least ten young adult novels and countless short stories, Jordan is a wife and mother, as well as often having a day job on the side. She runs a tight juggling act to keep it all balanced and still manages to craft some quality stories which are all quite entertaining. Join me in giving a warm welcome to Jordan Hallak today, on Writing to be Read.
Kaye: You’ve had a change to your last name. It threw me off and might throw of readers who know your work under the name Jordan Elizabeth. Were you recently married?
Jordan: I got married over a year ago, but I didn’t change my name right away. I still write as “Jordan Elizabeth,” but little by little I’ve been altering Mierek to Hallak. The most recent thing I changed was my name for my gmail account. Even though I signed things as “Jordan Hallak,” people were getting confused who Jordan Mierek was. I was getting documents for work to the wrong name!
Kaye: What are your secrets for juggling writing with family?
Jordan: Haha, I haven’t mastered it yet! Most nights now I’m too tired to do more than scroll through facebook. When I push myself, though, I have my husband watch the baby for an hour and I do all my writing. Once the baby goes to bed, then I do my marketing because it isn’t as emotionally draining. Writing leaves me breathless.
Kaye: Other than the last name, what do you think will be different for you in 2018, and why?
Jordan: My marketing budget is a lot different for this year. I’m only going to be using what I make off royalties. This might ruin my marketing plan, but we’ll see. 2018 is the first year where I won’t have a full time job starting out.
Kaye: What’s in store from Jordan Hallak in 2018?
Jordan: Other than my goal of landing a full time job, I want to write more novels and work on my marketing techniques. I usually fly by my seat for the year, but this time I want to concentrate on planning out all my marketing events. I’ve heard that’s better, so we’ll see.
Kaye: Is there anything unique or unusual about your writing process?
Jordan: I can’t plan. I start writing with a general sense of where the story will lead. If I try to plot, the book becomes a chore. It never follows the written storyline anyway.
Kaye: What is the working title of your latest book?
Jordan: My newest book will be Secrets of Bennett Hall. It is going to be a steampunk Gothic. I’ve always been entranced by Gothic novels, and I love the steampunk genre, so I decided to blend the two and see how it came out.
Kaye: How do you decide the titles for your books? Where does the title come in the process for you?
Jordan: The titles always come at the end. I usually call the book by the main character’s name as I’m writing, and then I see how it feels when I’m all done. Secrets of Bennett Hall started off as Adelaide. Adelaide is the main character who moves to Bennett Hall to work as a governess. Secrets from the past – both her past and the estate’s past – return to haunt her. Secrets of Bennett Hall had more of a Gothic ring to it.
Kaye: In my review of Runners and Riders, I identified the book as a part of your Treasure Chronicles Apparently, this isn’t the case, as it is the first book in a series of its own. Would you like to share how that came about?
Jordan: Runners and Riders features the same world as in the Treasure Chronicles. I called it a “companion” novel because of that, but it was mislabeled as a novella in many places. It is a full-length novel, and it was getting a lot of heat for being “misleading.” People who hadn’t read the Treasure Chronicles weren’t willing to give it a chance. It will now be book one in Return to Amston, with Secrets of Bennett Hall being book two. Secrets will be in the same world again, but with a new cast of characters.
Kaye: So, tell us a little about this second book in the Runners and Riders.
Jordan: Joseph from Treasure Darkly will make an appearance. Remember him as Amethyst’s spurned lover? I always felt bad about how things went down with the two of them and I wanted to give him his own story. As I started writing about Adelaide, he just fell into place as her love interest, and they are perfect for each other. He deserves a sweet, but strong, girl like Adelaide. In the novel, Adelaide loses her teaching job in Hedlund and finds a new position as a governess. Once she arrives at Bennett Hall, she meets its handsome occupant – Joseph – as well as some shady figures. People in the village warn her about the darkness on the estate, but it isn’t until she sees the Villain lurking in the forbidden wing that she begins to believe the rumors.
Kaye: A lot of your books are of the steampunk genre. What is it that appeals to you about steampunk?
Jordan: I love the nifty inventions paired with corsets and long skirts. I am obsessed with corsets and long skirts. You should see my closet!
Kaye: Most of your work has been published through Curiosity Quills Press, but it sounded like you might be striking out independently. Will this second book in the Runners and Riders series be independently published?
Jordan: Secrets of Bennett Hall will be published by Curiosity Quills Press. I haven’t decided to go the self-publishing route yet, but I might someday. I know people who have left their publishers to try self-publishing with great results. For now, I like having a publishing house behind me. The support I get has been awesome. I’m currently published by Curiosity Quills, CHBB, and Clean Reads.
Kaye: When will Secrets of Bennett Hall be available?
Jordan: Secrets releases January 30.
Kaye: What is the biggest challenge of being a writer?
Jordan: It is so hard to get your book out there. I know people are sick of me always talking about my books, but that’s the only way to spread the word.
Kaye: What’s the most fun part of writing a novel or short story? What’s the least fun part?
Jordan: The best part is actually writing it. I become lost in the setting and the characters become my best friends. I have an awesome time visiting this new world. The least fun part would have to be the marketing that comes after. When you have to push people to review and when you have to pay for ads, you start to doubt if your writing is worth it. Then you write a new story and remember how much it is worth it.
Kaye: If writing suddenly made you rich and famous, what would you do?
Jordan: I wouldn’t worry about money anymore! I would be happy being a stay-at-home mom and full-time writer. There would be a lot of traveling. I need fresh fodder for my stories.
I want to thank you, Jordan, for joining us on Writing to be Read to start the New Year off right. I wish you the best of luck in 2018, and I know Secrets of Bennett Hall will be a huge success.
Until next time, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year!
Like this post? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress.
Share this:
‘Tis the Season to be Thankful
Posted: November 20, 2017 Filed under: Books, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Stories, Western, Writing | Tags: Collapsar Directive, Delilah, Relationship Add Vice, Thankful, Thanks, Thanksgiving, Writing to be Read, Zombie Pirate Publishing Leave a comment
Thanksgiving is upon us, and I always try to take the time this time of year to reflect on events over the past year and discover all I have to be thankful for. Although my life has been crazy busy in the most recent past, I want to share here all that I am thankful for, because you shoud never take your blessings for granted. So, the first thing I am thankful for is my Writing to be Read platform, because it allows me to share what’s on my mind.
You may have noticed that the posts on Writing to be Read have tapered off of late, and of course, you would be correct in saying so. The fact is, Writing to be Read, has gone through many changes over the past year or so, and it looks like there may be more in store in the near future. Both Robin Conley and Jeff Bowles have had to step away due to life issues. Life happens to the best of us, so we can’t fault either of them, only hope that their life issues turn out to be the good kind, the kind that takes them both onward and upward to bigger and better life experiences, so we can be thankful for them. And I’m thankful for the time we were blessed with their talent and their content.
I’ve had my own life issues, of the good kind. At least, they’ve been good for me and I am thankful for them in this season which is for the giving of thanks. When I went back to school for my Master’s degree, I never would have guessed that my next career move would bring me back to Western State Colorado University on the teaching end of the system. By a stroke of luck, that’s just what happened, and things have been moving pretty fast for me. I didn’t realize how much time I’d need to grade papers, but it’s a lot. As a result, my posts here, on Writing to be Read has suffered. I haven’t had the time I need to write, let alone read books for review from an already backlogged que. It was fortunate that I had sent out the interviews for the Book Marketing series before I morphed into Professor Booth. I already had a lot of that series in place, so you maybe didn’t notice my absence quite so much while it ran, even as my regular book reviews began to taper.
Over the past few weeks since the series ended, I’m sure you’ve noticed a lack of content, (one week there wasn’t even one post), which is unusual, since over the past couple of years my content has run fairly steady. And now you know why it hasn’t been lately. But I’m thankful for the wonderful opportunity which has taken my time away from Writing to be Read, even if I’m not so thankful for the lack of content and the drops in the number of visitors to the blog.
And, I am thankful that even as I dig myself out from beneath a mountain of essays, life on the writing front continues, almost without me, but not every endeavor can be a success. The Halloween release of my short “A Turn of the Tables” in the HallowErotica anthology was a bust. The publisher of the anthology got cold feet and backed out at the last minute. I didn’t mind that things didn’t work out, so much as I minded the fact that all the contributors had already been pounding on the promotion pretty hard. As short on time as I’ve been, I ran the Excerpt, and did social media promotion for the blog and the release event on Facebook, and I really felt like it had all been time wasted. But, you know what they say, “S**t happens”. I’d already had a few doubts about the quality of the publication, so it’s probably all for the best. I am thankful for the learning experience it provided, and it’s prompted me to consider more seriously doing a short story collection of my own. I think I’m going to go for it. At least that way, I will have control of the publication and promotion details.
I’m also thankful that the above mentioned experience is so unlike my foray with Zombie Pirates Publishing, which I can only say has been a pleasure all the way. You may remember that my short science fiction story, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”’ appeared in their Collapsar Directive anthology last August? No? Well, it did and they did a bang up job on the publication and promotion of the anthology. It was a class A piece of work, featuring stories by some very talented authors.
But now, I have another story, “The Devil Made Her Do It”, coming out in December in their next anthology, Relationship Add Vice, now available for preorder, and I’m really excited about it. The story is about a straight laced home town girl who finds herself unexplainably drawn to a strangely magnetizing man. I just finished with my part of the edits, because all contributors take part in the editing and promotion processes with ZPP, and once again, there are some really excellent stories in this collection. It makes me proud to know my work will be featured in a quality anthology. ***Warning: Shameless plug ahead*** The release date is in December, right before Christmas, and they’d make great Christmas gifts for all your literary friends.
In the more distant past, I am thankful for finding a publisher for Delilah. It’s been an interesting experience and I learned a lot from it. The book is now available in both ebook and paperback. I’m also thankful for the wonderful reviews the book has received. In September, I got a royalty check. It wasn’t a lot, but it made me smile. People are reading my book. That’s so cool. I am definitely thankful for that.
I started to get the sequel to Delilah down on the page, getting only a short way into the second chapter before professordom took its toll. I’ve been working on it, writing a sentence at a time if it’s all the time I can find to write. I am always thankful for every spare minute I can find to write. Although I haven’t had a lot of time to actually work on it, the plot line has been simmering in my head, and is close to being ready to emerge, so stay tuned for updates. I do have the first three chapters. And as always, I’m thankful that I’m able to put words to page in a meaningful and entertaining way.
And of course, I’m thankful for my readers. That’s why I’m offering a free promotion of my short story, Last Call to coincide with the Cyber-Monday 2017 promotional event on November 27, which Sonoran Dawn Studios is hosting on Facebook. One more thing I am thankful for is my friend, D.L. Mullen, who runs Sonora Dawn Studios and acts as my P.A. and cover designer, helping me with a lot of my marketing needs. Her help has proved invaluable. I don’t know how I would do it wothout her.
Of course, this was only a reprieve to jot this blog post down. There’s always more grading to do, and I need to get to it, so I need to get this posted. Academic writing is historically a pretty stiff and rigid class, nothing a student would label as fun. I have tried to incorporate interesting material into my course with the help of Dr. Mark Todd, English professor, author, and paranormal investigator, and from the looks of my students’ most recent drafts, I think I may have captured the attention of many. Although the course is pretty structured, I’m finding that academic writing has more in common with writing fiction than I had previously believed. No matter the inkwell your writing springs from, the rules of good writing always apply. Maybe I’ll talk about that in my next blog post. I hope you’ll join me.
Until then, Happy Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for?
Like this post? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress.
Share this:
“Short Stories Not Forgotten” may be too short
Posted: August 25, 2017 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Fiction, Stories | Tags: Book Review, Calvin Bender, Short Fiction, Short Stories, Short Stories not Forgotten Leave a comment
Short Stories Not Forgotten by Calvin Bender is a small collection of short fiction. As I’ve mentioned many times, a big problem with a lot of short fiction is that authors fail to get in a full story arc. With this collection four, that is a problem with every piece. In fact, these seem more like brief ideas, each being a good start for something, but none following through to make a complete story. Every one ended abruptly, with none feeling quite finished. If the author just would have given us more. In all honesty, I can’t give it more than two quills.
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs at no charge. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Share this:
Let’s Talk About Short Fiction
Posted: August 14, 2017 Filed under: Fiction, Science Fiction, Stories, Writing | Tags: If You're Happy and You Know It, Kaye Lynne Booth, Short Fiction, Short Stories, Short Story Collection, The Collapsar Directive, Writing, Zombie Pirate Publishing 2 Comments
I have a story appearing in the newly released science fiction anthology from Zombie Pirate Publishing, The Collapsar Directive. It’s a dystopian tale titled, If You’re Happy and You Know It, set in a world where you’re only allowed to be happy on the weekends. I must give kudos to the editors, Sam Phillips and Adam Bennett for their selections for this anthology. The other stories featured in this anthology are all top rate, and my fellow authors are a talented bunch. I feel proud to be counted among them.
Zombie Pirate Publishing is pretty smart really, because they get their authors involved in the process – not really the actual publishing process, but with the final editing and, certainly in the marketing process. And having been involved in the process with this great group of writers, reading the stories of the others, which are all well written pieces, got me to thinking about what elements make up a high quality short story.
When I review a short story, I look for the same things I’d look for in a novel length work, with a few exceptions. I’d down my rating for the same type of things though: if it doesn’t read smoothly, if there are logic problems (which occur less in short fiction, but they do occur), excessive use of adjectives and unnecessary words, or if there are a lot of typos or spelling errors which bring my editors mind right out of the story.
Just as in a longer story, I want to see a well-written story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. But, this is where short stories often fall short. In a novel, it may take the author several chapters to wrap up all the loose ends and tie their story neatly into a bow. Short stories don’t have that luxury. Although, there is no set length as to how long a short story should be, other than word count limits set by those you are submitting to, it is even more important with short fiction to eliminate any unnecessary words and get to the point of the story. If you don’t, your story may end up becoming a novel. So, in short fiction, I look for stories that tell the tale without drawing it out unduly.
However, it can be difficult to get in a full story arc, without drawing out the tale, so I’ve come to expect this to be the case with short fiction. That way, instead of being sadly disappointed when a short story falls short (pun intended), I am pleasantly surprised when I come across short fiction which feels complete at the end of the story. It is even harder with flash fiction. The shorter the story, the less space you have to accomplish the task. I recently reviewed an anthology in which almost every story had a full arc, leaving me with a very satisfied feeling. (Catch my review of Darkscapes.)
All of the stories in The Collapsar Directive accomplish this feat, as well. All the stories featured seem to arc nicely, the beginning, middle and end are usually easy to identify in each one, and they all hold my attention to the end. That, of course, is the most important element in any story, long or short. It has to pull you in and hold you there from the first page to the last, regardless of the length of the story.
Like this post? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress.
