Tag: anthology

Inspiration Sunday

On By rosereadsIn Life & other interesting questionsLeave a comment

Every Sunday between now and September I will be sitting at desk for eight and a half hours.   Eight and a half  hours of potential writing time if I can multi-task.  A dream come true for a lot of writers even if the price is talking to tourists; people who’s IQ seems to drop the moment they decide to go on vacation. But, I have access to a computer, the internet and  a boss who lets me write so long as I get my work done.

100One of the things that I do to keep myself from going crazy is watch TV shoes on Hulu.  It keeps the stillness of the office from overwhelming me.  At the moment, I am watching the 100, a new series on the CW which is gaining in popularity.  It seems that Americans are obsessed with dystopian  futures.  Perhaps it is our discontentment with the current state of world affairs. Or maybe we have just had enough of happily ever after and need something with some grit.

In the 100, the nuclear Armageddon that sent school children around the world under the desks for thirty years as finally taken place and the only surviving human are those living on a space station called the Ark.  Only nine-seven years in the future, the Ark’s systems are failing and life-support can no long support everyone on the station. People are already beginning to suffer the effects of oxygen deprivation.  So, 100 juvenile prisoners are exiled to the surface to see if it is safe.   hab

It is a well written drama with expert twists making it great food for inspiration.  I can see the classic archetypal characters running everywhere throughout the show.  It gives me ideas for how to make my own characters more complex.   This afternoon, I hope to brainstorm some ideas for a short story to be submitted to a horror anthology at the end of May.  Maybe I will watch some Hannibal after the next episode of the 100.

What inspires your writing or gets your creative juices following?

It’s Going To Be A Bloody Winter

On By rosereadsIn Book Reviews2 Comments

Review of  Undead of Winter  – Nine Zombie Tales from Armand Rosamilia, Brent Abell, Suzannobb, Jonah Buck, R.S. Pyne, Tim Lieder, Blaze McRob, Lisa McCourt Hollar, and Carole Gill

When I picked up this book, I didn’t realize that it was actually a collection of short stories. I saw something on Twitter that snatched it.  Each author presents a different tale, some modern, some gory and all unique.  They all had their own twists;  none were not worth the price of  the book in either of it’s incarnations; Paperback or Kindle.

What I liked about this book was the variety.  The  most unique of the tales was The Second Wave by Lisa McCourt Hallar.  As cliche’ as it sounds it really does take the traditional zombie tale and turns it on its ear. I would love to learn more about the world in this tale & how humanity deals its unique zombies.

Armand Rosamilia was not only the editor of the book, but the author of its first tale, Undead of Winter.  The main character is Darlene Bobich, who has been featured by him in other tales.  If you want to catch up with Darlene and her adventures this is a great tale. It was definitely the right choice to begin the anthology.  He has several other anthologies available on Amazon.

Every story was entertaining, a few though were a little too gory for my taste.   My least favorite tale was The Christmas Video by Tim Lieder.  It is well crafted, however the content leaves a lot to be desired since the story deals with a group of friends who gather to watch zombie porn every year.  Ya, I said it, zombie porn. Conceptually, I understand what he is trying to do here, but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. There were times in that tale that I wanted to look away and didn’t; despite being revolted by aspect of the story.  Lieder does his job as an author; he keeps you reading.

Lovers of Zombie fiction will love this book. It gives you a taste of a lot of different authors and may wet your appetite for more of their work.  If you don’t like a lot of gore, this book still has something for you.