Tag Archives: short stories

Shameless Self-Promotion Time! Help Fund “Unknowing: An Anthology From Beyond the Veil”

19 Apr

Unknowing an Anthology From Beyond the VeilUnknowing: An Anthology From Beyond the Veil [edited] by Jeff Kowalski
Genre: Fiction, horror, anthology, short stories, suspense, dread, the unknown

Summary (taken from the Kickstarter page):

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” – H.P. Lovecraft

Our goal with this anthology is to publish some underground and unpublished authors, while exploring a genre near and dear to us: Horror. We’d love your help in this endeavor! In exchange for your pledge, we’ll send along an e-book (PDF, ePub, and perhaps other formats) collection of the stories once it’s complete.

Dear ladies, gentleman and tentacles, I thought I’d do something a wee bit different this week and talk a little bit about a horror anthology Kickstarter that my fellow Cassie (Cassie-wa) and I are contributing short stories to.

So we all know what I’m really saying is…

IF YOU LOVE THE SITE AND YOU LOVE US, OR YOU JUST LOVE HORROR SHORT STORIES YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY DONATE TO OUR KICKSTARTER SO WE CAN GET SOMETHING IN PRINT THAT WASN’T PUBLISHED AT THE AGE OF TEN IN ONE OF THOSE TERRIBLE POETRY BOOKS. WE’LL LOVE YOU FOREVER.

Did that read as desperate? Nah, I played it cool.

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The Times They Are A-Changing: Cassie-la Talks About The Rise of eBook Novellas and Absolutely Nothing About Bob Dylan

8 Dec

Bob Dylan MemeThis post has everything to do with a rise in eBook only novellas and nothing to do with Bob Dylan. Kindly ignore Bob Dylan. Addendum: don’t ignore him forever, just in this post as he really has no place here. I just figured I’d stick with a Dylan theme because I am in charge of this blog and therefore you will listen to everything I have to say.

Or you know, click the back button. Or look at this adorable picture of a baby hippo which has been distracting me all day. But if you love young adult literature, dystopias, short story prequels, novellas and other such awesomeness, please stick around.

Right, eBooks. Perhaps because December is a slow month for book releases or perhaps to promote the various upcoming releases of books in their various series, I have been stumbling across quite a few eBook only versions of young adult novellas and short stories. This digital only concept may confuse a less technologically advanced generation – and by that I mean, my older relatives who think PDFs are called “PBS files… No wait, PFD files.” “Do you know what your eBooks can’t do that my book can? I can pull an Edgar Allan Poe anthology off my shelf and turn to any short story and read it. You can’t do that with a digital book.” “Do you know there’s a thing called internships now?”

This is a real thing that actually happened to me.

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Best Combo Ever: Cassie-la is Enchanted By “Fairy Tales From the Brothers Grimm” by Philip Pullman

23 Nov

Fairy Tales From the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman (Galley)
Release Date: November 8, 2012
Genre: Fiction, fairy tales, short stories, fantasy, magic, OMG PHILIP PULLMAN WROTE A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES!
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Summary: Fifty tales from the Brother’s Grimm retold by fantasy author extraordinaire, Philip Pullman. From the well known to the more obscure, Pullman rewrites the stories in a colloquial way while still keeping the essence of the fairy tale alive and well in his stories. Complete with added commentary on the stories themselves, how they have changed and other various reincarnations they have lived through, Pullman leaves no fairy tale stone unturned in this fabulous new edition of folk tales.

When I heard there was a new collection of fairy tales being rewritten by Philip Pullman I practically wet myself in excitement (I seem to do that a lot for the sake of these reviews). This collection combines two of my favorite things: classic fairy tales- particularly of the Grimm variety- and incredibly well-written fantasy, which is where Pullman comes in. If you have yet to do so, I highly recommend checking out the His Dark Materials series. It will amaze and break your heart simultaneously. Please don’t judge a book by its movie.

The collection opens with a lengthy introduction discussing the nature and tradition of oral stories (their prominence in the middle class) and how anyone could have ended up being the well known collector of fairy tales, the Grimms just happened to beat everyone else to the punch. Fun fact: the brothers also worked together on the first German dictionary and it was their interest in the nature of language that led them to collect the oral and written fairy tales in one place. I never thought I’d say this, but thanks linguistics!

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Bizarro Blursday: Cassie-la Reviews “Sleep Has No Master” by Jon Konrath

4 Nov

Sleep Has No Master by Jon Konrath (Submission)
Genre: Bizarro fiction, short stories, humor, even weirder than his last collection (which is saying something)
Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Summary: 27 more short stories and flash-fiction pieces from bizarro fiction writer/gonzo author Jon Konrath, laden with popular culture references and satire galore! In a world where the narrator lives inside a waking dream, grew up in a religious community called Bighikistan and can never tell a story in a linear or fully coherent fashion, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s fantasy. Especially when time travel is readily available, breaking the fourth wall is commonplace, Pixar is creating snuff films and The Hunger Games is the product of a rambling mental patient. Yup, just business as usual for a Jon Konrath collection.

I’ve already reviewed another short story anthology from Jon Konrath on another Bizarro Blursday many moons ago (specifically: The Earworm Inception) which was so weird yet so spectacularly written that I couldn’t toss up the chance to review another set of short stories and flash fiction from Mr. Konrath. I was not disappointed. And fans of hyper aware satirical short stories won’t be either. That is a genre now because I said so.

This is one of those books you need to read all the way through, starting with the hilarious multi-page disclaimer full of every warning already known to mankind. Konrath apologizes for “Resemblances to actual persons living, dead, or undead…” makes note to readers that, “This book should not be considered a legitimate historical document,” and that it “Mentions chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer.” Also it may cause “nausea” or “vomiting”, is not a toy and should not be used as fuel and most importantly it, “Does not protect against HIV … Or other sexual transmitted diseases.” Just in case you thought it did.

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Bizarro Blursday: Stephanie Loves “More Stories about Spaceships and Cancer” by Casper Kelly

23 Jul

More Stories about Spaceships and Cancer by Casper Kelly (Submission)
Genre: Bizarro fiction, short stories, social commentary in a fun, absurd way
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Summary: “More Stories about Spaceships and Cancer” is a collection of absurd short stories. Using several “hosts” including a skeleton, a super hot dead chick, and a werewolf who works in a fast food place, “you” the reader are guided through a bizarre world of stories that are anything but ordinary. There is no pretending to be something they’re not – these stories are 100% smart with intelligent things to say – the cave-like vaginas, large breasted ninjas, and universe-ending ejaculations are unapologetically awesome and necessary. This book will make you think about your place in the world and contemplate what’s really important in life. But mostly you’ll just laugh a lot.

Casper Kelly has written for Harvey Birdman, Squidbillies, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and more. He’s won an award for his work on “Scooby Doo.” He also asked us if we would review his book – I AM SO GLAD HE DID. More Stories about Spaceships and Cancer was absolutely awesome. It reminded me of buying a book or a DVD of Stephen Colbert’s – it’s immediately funny before you even get to the actual content. I was dying laughing at the Table of Contents which featured things like “These are not Short Story Titles” and “Go Ahead. Tap it. The Links Don’t Even Correspond to Anything.” Turns out it’s a story of its own, but I won’t spoil the ending. The dedication then reads, “For You.” For me? I’m so stoked before I even start reading!

Moving on to the Introduction, the book is in second person and a skeleton bursts out of my e-reader and introduces himself as host, Professor Badbones who along with assistant Snervley try to convince me that I do in fact want to read this book. Badbones compares a collection of short stories to “a hodgepodge of one night stands.” They’re not really long enough to want to develop a real relationship and usually they don’t really go together or connect. He continues with a bunch of commentary about the standard story and what we’ve come to expect from it and how even if it isn’t good, we still appreciate the symbolism or whatever. After that, we dive into the first story – where a duck is sad about his divorce and just when you think things are too normal, a guy gets sucked into a giant TARDIS vagina. (It’s so much bigger on the inside.)

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Bizarro Blursday: Cassie-la Reviews “The Earworm Inception” by Jon Konrath

12 Jun

The Earworm Inception by Jon Konrath (Submission)
Genre: Bizarro fiction, short stories, humor, would much rather this world existed- minus the cannibalism
Rating: 4.66 out of 5 stars

Summary: Author Jon Konrath enjoys straddling the line between fact and fiction in this twenty short story collection laden with popular culture references. In this alternative history, cannibalism is all the craze, R Kelly made history by leading police on a high speed chase, kids are getting high on Metamucil, Crispin Glover is the president, everything is Julia Roberts fault, and zombies are just an everyday occurrence. It’s all normal in Konrath’s world.

The majority of the stories in this collection, which are written in super short flash fiction, feature strange characters in an even stranger universe intriguingly similar to our own. They also seem to revolve around author Jon Konrath, called Kon by his close-friend (in the novel) Rick Perry and the strange circumstances that revolved around his semi-fictional life. Everyone in these tales are marked with unique character traits, hilarity, and popular culture references galore. In a word: bizarro. (NOTE: The Earworm Inception is currently available for free on the Kindle!)

Half the stories are titled like “Big Bang Theory” episodes, from “The Chainsaw Baron Prophecy”, to “The Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test Manifesto”, “The Chapman Protocol Conundrum”, “The MovieFone Snuff Film Agenda”, and the titular “The Earworm Inception”. Still others read like newspaper headlines, such as: “Nancy Grace Shit-fits and why you should start learning how to make soap and ammunition” and “40% of all UFO sightings that lead to anal coring of cattle take place on a Monday or Friday”. The titles will have you laughing, and the stories will keep you reading.

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Bizarro Blursday: Cassie-la Reviews “Tall Tales with Short Cocks” from Etienne DeForest

24 May

Tall Tales with Short Cocks: A Bizarro Press Anthology [edited] by Etienne DeForest (Submission)
Genre: Bizarro fiction, short stories, anthology, zombies, satire, so that’s how FOX works
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Summary: A collection of nine bizarro short stories with genres ranging from satire to noir and written by a varied group of authors. Each story has its own theme, but don’t worry, as required by all anthologies there is a tale about zombies. Not to mention steampunk robots, diseased monkeys, dystopic world views, talking whales, angry squirrels and everything in between.

We’re very happy that in addition to reviewing Bizarro Blursday books for Eraserhead Press, we now get submissions from Bizarro Press. Long live the bizarro revolution! This anthology, whose title seems to hint that it will be the first of many sets, is a nice introduction for the new bizarro reader. While a bizarro novella can be quite daunting to the average reader, a collection of short stories is a lot easier to digest if you’re just entering the genre.

The anthology opens in a big way with the wonderful, “In the Flesh” by John McNee. It’s set in a dystopic, post-apocalyptic world that’s populated with robots. The story itself is narrated by a private eye hired by the infamous Clockwork Joe to find his lost love. Ultimately, it’s a cautionary tale about the reliance on machinery and our treatment of the earth. We learn about Grungehaven, a city with metal and wooden women and a part of town that’s called “damed” because a rush of water is being held back by an enormous dam. It’s also a story of love and redemption, but you’ll have to read it for yourself to see how.

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Short Stories and eBooks: Cassie-la Breaks Down “Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel” by S.G. Browne

13 Apr

Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel by S.G. Browne
Genre: Fiction, short stories, zombies, luck, humor, science fiction, make all of them books
Rating: 4.23 out of 5 stars

Summary: Sentient zombies, luck poachers, personality supplements, sex robots, word dealers, personifications of sin, and super heroes. This eBook only collection of short stories from S.G. Browne is full of amazing ideas and fun characters that you could not dream up if you wanted to… Or you had a drug dealer who specialized in words. Satire, humor, science fiction, this collection has everything.

Over the last few years I have seen the rise of eBook only short story collections. Smart, smart, smart. No overhead costs, just digital files AND because of this you can offer it to your customers on the cheap. $3.99 for an amazing collection of short stories, how do you go wrong with that? Answer: you can’t. Whereas a consumer might waffle between buying a new book for $10 to $15, it’s hard to pass up one going for $4.

Unlike with most short story posts where I merely talk about the stories I liked and didn’t like, in this post, I will be discussing EVERY SINGLE short story, ten in all. While yes, I did like some more than others (“My Ego is Bigger Than Yours” won my vote for best and “Zombie Gigolo” got my vote for least), I enjoyed every single story in this collection in its own way. I have been reading S.G. Browne since his first published novel (hipster cred?) when I bought Breathers in 2009 and so far this man has done no wrong.

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Bizarro Blursday: Cassie-la Reviews “Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective” by Garrett Cook

25 Mar

Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective by Garrett Cook (Submission)
Genre: Bizarro fiction, short stories, mystery, crime, noir, you couldn’t pay me to live here
Rating: 2.6 out of 5 stars

Summary: After collecting a crippling amount of gambling debt, Charles Hatbox is payed to swap his body for cash with Jimmy Plush, a three foot tall teddy bear detective. Charles now Jimmy inherits a driver named Chang, a sea of enemies, and a girlfriend who dresses in a fox suit. This collection of short stories riffs on hard boiled detective novels with a bizarro twist. Fans of Raymond Chandler, take notice. Anyone frightened by furries, beware.

While writing up that summary I felt like I was transcribing the plot of a Rob Schneider movie. “Rob Schneider is, Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective, and he’s about to find out just how hard being a teddy bear is! Rob Schneider is a carrot! Rob Schneider is a stapler! Der derp dee derpy derp derp derp.”

Anyway, welcome to another Bizarro Blursday where we (generally me) review bizarro novels that get submitted to us by a variety of bizarro authors. This week we have an entirely different level of bizarro, which author Garrett Cook  has dubbed Neopulp Expressionism and Chainsaw Noir. For anyone who likes detective novels from the 20′s and 30′s, this is the bizarro for you. If you’re not a fan of mysteries, crime, or anything resembling Dick Tracy, this is not your short story collection.

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Bizarro Blursday: Cassie-la Reviews “A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space” by S.D. Foster

11 Feb

A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space by S.D. Foster (Submission)
Genre: Bizarro fiction, short stories, horror, fantasy, simultaneously upscale and bizarre
Rating: 4.67 out of 5 stars

Summary: A collection of bizarro short stories, from the life and pursuits of a clementine, to a chimp who wants to make it big, toys that come to life, overprotective parents, a rat who gets a job as an exterminator, and everything in between. A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space has it all. With rich prose and enjoyable stories, S.D. Foster’s debut collection is nothing short of amazing. This is one bizarro novel you do not want to miss.

Come one, come all to another Bizarro Blursday, where we review bizarro submissions sure to stun and amaze! Today I have the end all be all collection of short stories, which are so damn good that I could not stop reading. Bizarro fans would be remiss to not purchase it and continue S.D. Foster’s authorly existence with Eraserhead Press. The more books sold the greater the author’s chance to continue publishing. <– The basic gist of the New Bizarro Author Series.

I have read a decent amount of bizarro fiction. I am not a connoisseur of bizarro, I have a lot more reading to do until I get to that point, but despite this I have read a wide variety of stories from a good deal of authors. Which is why it is safe to say that this is one of the most well written books of the genre that I’ve gotten my hands on. The prose is top notch, teetering between the strange and the beautiful. The language is vivid, and there is a wide arrange of stories with something for everyone. Think Aesop’s Fables, but twisted and with less defined morals.

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