Collected stories, like songs on LPs, often share a theme or tone related to its title. In that sense, the title of Wade Alan Steele’s collection, A Sudden Dominance of Shadows, correlates to the opaqueness of many of its stories that delve into the murky psyches of its protagonists. Otherwise, though, the disparate styles and quality of the stories makes this book more like a collection of B-Sides.
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.
