The New Death and Others by James Hutchings ASIN: B005Q8Q8DY Copyright © September 2011 264 KB (119 Pages) Kindle .99 cents Having read and reviewed James Hutchings’s Two Fisted Tweets I have to say that Mr. Hutchings is a master at microfiction. Able to tell a story in 172 characters or less in order to meet [...]
Kimberly Kinrade and I have something in common. We both write to free ourselves “from the tyranny of my words” as she says in a small entry in the beginning of her anthology, Bits of You & Pieces of Me. I shook my head in agreement when I read that. Her book is a collection of short stories, journal essays, and poems – a well organized file of information from deep within the mind of a writer. While I do enjoy reading such collections from indie authors, it is often hard to make a connection with any one piece since they are just a few pages.
While others out there have collected their personal Twitter tweets and formatted and published them, James has actually composed extremely short stories using the Twitter guideline of 142 characters or less, sometimes even dropping a period (.) at the end to meet the character count.
I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing several short story anthologies published through Lulu, and I have to say that Jeremy Boland’s collection is one of the best. Not only are the stories fresh and original, but the physical book itself is an excellent example of a self-published author getting it right. That’s why I’m going to talk about the book quality first.
The Simplest of Acts: And Other Stories is a short collection of short stories. In only 102 pages, Melanie Haney manages to take us into the hearts and lives of eleven separate individuals.
I remember coming across a blog post about this contest last year, and I thought about submitting something. But at the time, the deadline was fast approaching and I didn’t have a short story which I would describe as “Southern Gothic.” What is Southern Gothic you might ask?
I first discovered Mick Rooney’s writing last year when I reviewed his book Academy. Mick, like me, keeps informed of the POD world and its regular developments, often covering very informative topics in his author blog which I have read religiously over the past year. Mick kept me posted on his next book, Filigree & Shadow, published last November, but I waited so that it could be one of the first books I devoted attention to this year.
Bathroom duty has been the subject of many books, mostly targeted toward children. Some of my favorites are The Gas We Pass and Everyone Poops. But just search the word “poop” at Amazon and you’ll find books for adults as well. Dan Marvin’s book, Briefs for the Reading Room, is one such book, but don’t worry. It’s not about what’s in the bowl, but instead is a book designed to give you something to read while waiting for the end result.
Rather than introduce this book’s author to you, I’ll let him do it himself. Here is the very introduction from the first page of his book:
Matthew Rowe is a recently short-haired, neurotic lay about who is currently unsure of his place in the world. He hopes this book will go some way to asserting himself somewhere. He has written a lot and he wants to share it all, but no one with the money or power has let him as yet. He’s only in his late twenties though so he remains foolishly optimistic. Some people think it is endearing.
I can’t resist a good short story anthology. I love being able to sit down with a collection and read two or three stories, and be able to walk away from it for a few days if I choose and not feel like I’m missing out on something. I’ve got closure in a matter of a few pages.
