Will your story be in our tenth anthology? ... Four words which created a legendary story ... -~-~- Picture this: a mother and her four children walking through the streets of Edinburgh as the night begins to close in. They are looking for a room for the night, but each house is full. The stone buildings seem to grow darker as the streetlamps throw out as much shadow as light. Finally, one of the proprietors offers a positive response and the family hurry inside, into a cramped room with metal bunkbeds, but nonetheless comfy mattresses. Frightened at these new surroundings, concerned that she has brought her children into an unsafe surrounding, the mother puts the children to bed and tries to persuade herself to sleep. The room inside is darker than the putrid orange glow of the sporadic streetlights in the world beyond the curtains which are masking the window, and she once more checks the lock on the door before climbing into her own bed. Then it happens. Knock-knock-knock. Willing h...
Review My experience of short stories is more in writing them than in reading them, although some I have read and enjoyed have stayed with me for a long time. In almost every instance, I have read a book of short stories by a specific author (Neil Gaiman's excellent offerings on this spring to mind) and, in that case, it is more akin to reading a novel. By contrast, this is a book which brings together eight different authors, who provide their own unique perspectives and areas of expertise. The first thing I noticed about them as a list is that they are mostly female, with only one male author included. This is reflected in many of the stories, which take a very female perspective. The concept of alternate history is one I can definitely buy into. As an author, I very nearly indulged in it myself when I was writing a historical novel and the actual history was just too sad. We all engage in alternate history on a nearly-daily basis too, thinking about the pat...