25 Impossible Tales of Survivors, Flawed Heroes, and Annoyed Villains: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection
This is a fun book of stories I collected over almost ten years, with unique worlds, interesting characters, and tough dilemmas.
Some of these stories are new to 2022, written during a Clarion West Flash Fiction Workshop in the summer.
Some of these stories were previously published by professional and literary publications like Creative Colloquy, Aurora Wolf, the Insecure Writers' Support Group Fantasy Contest Anthology from the 2016 contest, Book Dreams 1, and more. It was fun to work with these stories again in this collection.
This collection, unlike previous collections, is focused all on speculative fiction genres, from science fiction, paranormal, fantasy, and science fantasy.
The stories are a mixture of Noble Bright and Dark, with some sweet stories that could fit in the YA genre, but also with some heavier stories which mention abuse and trafficking. I tried my best to keep the graphic nature of those themes off the page, but I did give a content warning for tough subject matter.
If you are interested, you can find it in these places:
"Unique world-building and fascinating characters with strong voices."
No matter how hard circumstances are, there is hope for survival, even if it means making one simple choice in the right direction or standing up in the face of impossible odds.
But the question remains: What is the right direction and which way is up?
In these 25 Impossible Tales of Survivors, Flawed Heroes, and Annoyed Villains, we meet over 25 characters faced with impossible odds and difficult choices. Each story offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human, to survive, to live with hard choices, to have purpose, to love, to succeed, and to have hope.
These stories are set in near-future, alternative world, and far future science fiction and fantasy worlds. Some characters fly spaceships, and some wield swords. Some characters are everyday people, and some are extremely strange.
The story lengths range from 300-word micro-fiction stories to full, short stories. Some end with a horizon open, and some with the horizon closed.
CONTENT WARNING: Some of the stories in this book include graphic sword-fighting and fist-fighting. Some contain references to abuse and human trafficking, but I did strive not to include any of those in graphic detail. Due to the nature of this content, you may need to read the stories carefully.
Most of these stories end on hopeful notes, but a few of them end with either a sense of "justice" or reckoning.
