Writing: A Few Free Reads

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I’m still compiling the third part of the demographics on Tesseracts 17 but it’s very time consuming and I’ve been far too busy. So, in the meantime, I have several pieces up on different websites this month and they’re free for you to read. I was paid for all of these so it’s a bonus both ways.

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly has my poem “Don Quixote’s Quandary.” Yes, it is about tilting at windmills.

At Polu Texni, I’m the feature poet for August so you will find three poems; “Heart of Glass,” “Father’s Child” and “Illuminating Thoughts.” The last two are Greek revisioning poems and the other is about that age-old dichotomy between stepmothers and the fairy tale princess. There is also an interview where you find out a bit more about what drives me.

Newest is my story “The Driver” featured at ReadShortFiction. Go and read it, and leave a comment.

Don’t forget, you can still pick up a copy of Deep Cuts, Bibliothecha Fantastica or Demonologia Biblica on Amazon. If you do read any of these,

Colleen hosts the ChiReading Series Vancouver, full of dark and disturbed things.

leave a review. Let us know what you think and what you like.

Reviews from Deep Cuts:

• Another story that really spoke to the artist in me is “Red is the Color of My True Love’s Blood” by Colleen Anderson. I love that this story is so raw feeling, and so very drenched (pardon the pun) in colors, particularly red (hence, the title).
• Other stories I really enjoyed included “Hollow Moments” by R.S. Belcher- a chilling tale bent on striking fear in those of us who spend much of our lives thoughtlessly plodding through the routine and not really living, “Red Is the Colour of my True Love’s Blood” by Colleen Anderson – a vividly frightening story that blends colours and associated emotions and states of mind with unpleasant events,…

• Colleen Anderson’s “Red is the Color of My True Love’s Blood” stands out by showing us that women can be as cold, calculated, and methodical a killer as men without dipping into stereotypes, but overall it’s a collection of brutality against women, dominant/ violent males, motherhood cliché, and weak females. Very disappointing.

Writing: A Trilogy of Books About Books

“It’s Only Words” opens this anthology.

While I’m working on the second half of the demographics about Tesseracts 17 I thought I would do a little catch up on my own writing. It’s been a awhile and there is a lot happening. Read to the end for the Easter egg.

Over the past year and a bit I’ve been in three anthologies that have to do about books. The first was Des Lewis’ The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies, and out of England. The theme was that an anthology had to be mentioned in some way and part of the story. Out of this idea came my story “It’s Only Words.” Right now, Des is offering a three in one deal that includes this title, as well as Horror Without Victims and The First Book of Classical Horror Stories.

Available through Amazon. This is my favorite cover of all three.

The second story to come out was earlier this year. Dean Drinkel, also from England, but teaming up with Western Legends Press in the US, edited the Demonologia Biblica. Like an encyclopedia it contains 26 stories that go through the alphabet of demons, real or imagined. My tale “P is for Phartouche: The Blade” graces those virtual pages. This story had its genesis in a writing exercise of giving an inanimate object a personality and in my fascination in the past with the Elric of Melnibone stories where a noble prince was forever linked to a sword that had to drink blood once it was pulled. I look at it from a slightly different perspective.

Third, and just out, is my story “The Book With No End,” which has just come out in Dagan Books’ Bibliotheca Fantastica. Edited by Claude Lalumière & Don Pizarro, I’m not really sure how this tale formed but again a book hand to be integral to this tale. All these books are available to order online though the first is only in paper and the second is only an ebook. Check them out.

The Book With No End, is in this anthology just out from Dagan Books.

Now, I have a poem titled “Don Quixote’s Quandary” which should be out in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly by the beginning of August. I will be featured on Polu Texni, also sometime in August with three poems titled “Father’s Child,” “Illuminating Thoughts” and “Heart of Glass.” All the poems are fantastical, with the first two at Polu Texni being Greek revisionings about Athena and Psyche respectively. (Both magazines are free to read online.)  A third poem in that series, “Visitation,” about Leda and the swan, will be coming out in Bull Spec but I still do not know when.

Look for the Easter egg below for a free copy.

Now, I’ve been very bad about promoting my collection Embers Amongst the Fallen. It is mostly a collection of stories published elsewhere, and two stories not seen before. So here’s my Easter egg. If you leave me a comment by Sunday, July 28th, I will give you a code so that you can download the ebook for .99 (your choice of Amazon or Smashwords) or order the hard copy for $4.99  from Amazon. These are regularly listed at $8 and $16.95. Please specify which you would like. The first person who can tell me what my first published story was will get an ecopy for free. Yes you can find it somewhere on this blog. Okay, maybe this wasn’t an Easter egg so much as just a treat. Stay tuned for a few book reviews to come and more breakdowns on Tesseracts 17.

Aug. 2: I got busy and forgot to list that DangerDean is the winner of the free ecopy. He noted that my first published sale was Phoenix Sunset. This tale is in the collection and has been published three times before, my most successful story to date.

For the rest of you, I will be emailing you the code for the promo priced ecopy and the hard copy by the end of the weekend. I ask that anyone who gets a copy, please do a review and post it in GoodReads, Smashwords, or Amazon (or all three). Thanks for playing. Check the blog for further promos.