I don’t have much time to read. A can take me six months to get through a proper novel. This is why anthologies are my new reading addiction. I can finish a story in one sitting and then muse on it for the rest of my day. What’s most fun about anthologies is they are like tapas at the Spanish restaurant or table of Indonesian nasi padang. You get to taste new writers’ styles, themes, and quirks. The stories contrast against one another, which allows you to fully appreciate each writer’s unique talent, making a richer, more delicious reading experience.
Last year, Story Literary Magazine hosted the epic Exit Earth competition. This project turned into a Kickstarter campaign that birthed the Exit Earth Anthology. If you were one of the lucky readers to back this project, you have been enjoying your beautiful book along with your accompanying Storgy swag. If not, don’t despair. You can buy your copy now and also fund their next exciting anthology. Read along!
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I will support anything that Storgy does and I will tell you why. They are a magazine of passion and integrity that also endeavors to support indie authors and groundbreaking fiction that might otherwise be missed. They are The People’s Literary Magazine.
Exit Earth was all I wanted it to be and more. As a child of the eighties, nuclear fall out, acid rain, radiation poisoning, and the possibility of a post-apocalyptic world were all very real to me. The A-bomb was discussed at the dinner table, my dad informing us that our action plan was to get the lawn chairs and sit on the roof to wait our inevitable incineration. Pop culture was saturated with images of big red buttons, mushroom clouds, and bleak wastelands. They became part of our psyche. I’m sure many people in my generation have a lingering post-traumatic stress from growing up with this constant threat of an apocalypse.
Because of this, I feel right at home in the Exit Earth anthology. Every Sunday I read one or two stories from Exit Earth. Some are gloomy, some are hopeful, some are a surprising. All are extremely good. Don’t worry, not all are set in an 80s-type vision of a nuclear holocaust. There all all kinds of possibilities for the extinction of the human race, and you will not be disappointed with the ingenious ways these authors have foreseen our demise.
I am about halfway through and these authors have me smitten:
- Don’t Go to the Flea Circus by Duncan Abel – Just plain excellent storytelling.
- Songs That Only Squirrels Can Hear by Francisco Gonzalez – Gorgeous language, engages all senses, is layered with meaning.
- Ken by Jessica Bonder – Badass writing. The Handmaid’s Tale with a Spiked Collar.
(Warning: I will be cyber-stalking you writers soon.)
Exit Earth is a beautifully-produced collection of exceptional writing on a fun topic we all love to think about. It’s also interspersed with incredible artwork by artists including Crap Panther, Amie Dearlove, HarlotVonCharlotte and Rob Pearce.
THE EXIT EARTH ANTHOLOGY – AVAILABLE NOW
SHALLOW CREEK
Storgy is now campaigning for the Shallow Creek anthology. I have backed this project and am eagerly waiting to add it to my bookshelf. Visit their Kickstarter. Your chance to scoop up all the rewards is almost over!
NEW KICKSTARTER: SHALLOW CREEK
Shallow Creek is an anthology of new horror stories and strange fiction with a sting in its barbed tail, edited by Tomek Dzido of STORGY Books. It collects together twenty brand new unsettling stories that draw upon the ethereal landscape of quiet towns just short of the outskirts of infinity for inspiration. Some of the stories within this tome explore the realms of the supernatural, whilst others are firmly rooted in gritty realism, but they all engage the reader with terror in abundance.