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Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
A short story from the Classic Shorts collection: The Bohemian Girl by Willa Cather
These British Isles, moored across from mainland Europe, are more often seen as a world unto themselves. Restless and creative, they often warred amongst themselves until they began a global push to forge a World Empire of territory, of trade and of language. Here our ambitions are only of the literary kind. These shores have mustered many masters of literature. So this anthology’s boundaries includes only those authors who were born in the British Isles - which as a geographical definition is the UK mainland and the island of Ireland - and wrote in a familiar form of English. Whilst Daniel Defoe is the normal starting point we begin a little earlier with Aphra Behn, an equally colourful character as well as an astonishing playwright and poet. And this is how we begin to differentiate our offering; both in scope, in breadth and in depth. These islands have raised and nurtured female authors of the highest order and rank and more often than not they have been sidelined or ignored in favour of that other gender which usually gets the plaudits and the royalties. Way back when it was almost immoral that a woman should write. A few pages of verse might be tolerated but anything else brought ridicule and shame. That seems unfathomable now but centuries ago women really were chattel, with marriage being, as the Victorian author Charlotte Smith boldly stated ‘legal prostitution’. Some of course did find a way through - Jane Austen, the Brontes and Virginia Woolf but for many others only by changing their names to that of men was it possible to get their book to publication and into a readers hands. Here we include George Eliot and other examples. We add further depth with many stories by authors who were famed and fawned over in their day. Some wrote only a hidden gem or two before succumbing to poverty and death. There was no second career as a game show guest, reality TV contestant or youtuber. They remain almost forgotten outposts of talent who never prospered despite devoted hours of pen and brain. Keeping to a chronological order helps us to highlight how authors through the ages played around with characters and narrative to achieve distinctive results across many scenarios, many styles and many genres. The short story became a sort of literary laboratory, an early disruptor, of how to present and how to appeal to a growing audience as a reflection of social and societal changes. Was this bound to happen or did a growing population that could read begin to influence rather than just accept? Moving through the centuries we gather a groundswell of authors as we hit the Victorian Age - an age of physical mass communication albeit only on an actual printed page. An audience was offered a multitude of forms: novels (both whole and in serialised form) essays, short stories, poems all in weekly, monthly and quarterly form. Many of these periodicals were founded or edited by literary behemoths from Dickens and Thackeray through to Jerome K Jerome and, even some female editors including Ethel Colburn Mayne, Alice Meynell and Ella D’Arcy. Now authors began to offer a wider, more diverse choice from social activism and justice – and injustice to cutting stories of manners and principles. From many forms of comedy to mental meltdowns, from science fiction to unrequited heartache. If you can imagine it an author probably wrote it. At the end of the 19th Century bestseller lists and then prizes, such as the Nobel and Pulitzer, helped focus an audience’s attention to a books literary merit and sales worth. Previously coffeehouses, Imperial trade, unscrupulous overseas printers ignoring copyright restrictions, publishers with their book lists as an appendix and the gossip and interchange of polite society had been the main avenues to secure sales and profits.Show book
May Sinclair was the nom de plume of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1863 – 1946), a British writer who wrote novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragette and a spiritualist. "The Nature of the Evidence" is a ghost story about a first wife who returns to this world when her husband remarries to protest her disapproval of his choice of second wife and prevent the two of them ever sharing a bed.Show book
A fearless collection of stories that celebrate the humor, darkness, and depth of emotion of the queer and trans experience that's not typically represented: liminal or uncertain identities, queer conception, and queer joyIn this exuberant, prize-winning collection, queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming characters seek love and connection in hilarious and heartrending stories that reflect the complexity of our current moment. A nonbinary writer on the eve of top surgery enters into a risky affair during the height of COVID. A lesbian couple enlists a close friend as a sperm donor, plying him with a potent rainbow-colored cocktail. A lonely office worker struggling with their gender identity chaperones their nephew to a trans YouTube convention. And in the depths of a Midwestern winter, a sex-addicted librarian relies on her pet ferrets to help resist a relapse at a wild college fair. Capturing both the dark and lovable sides of the human experience, Rainbow Rainbow establishes debut author Lydia Conklin as a fearless new voice for their generation.Show book
A tantalizing mix of sex and horror in fourteen stories from masters of the macabre, including Max Allan Collins, Jack Ketchum, Lucy Taylor, and Edward Lee. Deadly After Dark, fourth in the genre-defining Hot Blood erotic horror anthology series, pushes the envelope the furthest yet. Two Bram Stoker Award–nominated stories—Lucy Taylor’s searing “Thing of Which We Do Not Speak” and Edward Lee’s brilliantly grisly “Mr. Torso”—demonstrate the depth and range of the best erotic horror, and highlight a fourteen-story collection that will both arouse your senses and make your blood run cold. Other contributors include award-winning and bestselling mystery author Max Allan Collins, making an all-too-rare foray into the dark side of suspense, as well as pioneering work from contemporary horror master Jack Ketchum and new fiction by both Graham Watkins and Graham Masterton. It’s no surprise Fangoria said “Deadly After Dark is a worthy continuation of a series that has yet to reach its climax.” Praise for the Hot Blood series “Read Hot Blood late at night when the wind is blowing hard and the moon is full.” —Playboy “Outstanding . . . A daring combination of sex and terror.” —Cemetery Dance “Will appeal to your every kink.” —Locus “Seek out this one (or its predecessors) for some naughty fun.” —BookloversShow book
Given the simple prompt, "hello winter," nine writers were given the task to create a new short story to be put into this collection. This unique group of stories were all crafted in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and brings writers from two continents and five states together when we all must stay safely apart. Short Stories included in this collection: THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO HAPPINESS by Mindi Dickstein, TEDDY by Ronald Keaton, THE SNOW QUEEN by Theresa Heskins, LE CYGNE by James DeVita, IN THE HOUSE SHE WAS GIVEN by Mallory Jane Weiss, CAPRICORN RISING by Nikhil Mahapatra, A WINDING STAIRWELL by Ben Asaykwee, THE SIMILID by Joe Jurek, THE LIGHTHOUSE TEACHER by Sam CollierShow book
A group of men gather in New Orleans to distribute the estate of the missing Randolph Carter. One of them claims that Carter is alive and begins to weave an incredible tale of his adventures.E. Hoffman Price, during Lovecraft's visit to his home in New Orleans in June 1931, tried to persuade the Providence writer to create a continuation of Randolph Carter's adventures after the character disappears in the story "The Silver Key." HPL refused to be persuaded, so Price himself, without permission, created a text titled "The Lord of Illusion" in August. He sent the result to Lovecraft, hoping that he would agree to edit the work.HPL struggled for a long time with the editing of the text. Although he radically changed the linguistic layer of the work, he made no major changes to the plot. Indeed, it is evident that the ideas are not his own: a lot of action, poorly thought-out concepts, and little suggestiveness.Show book
