A (SRSLY) glowing review

Here is one of the ways the Internet has changed the world.  One of the good ways.

I'm reading a short story collection that I quite like.  I'm five stories into it and not at all bored, which usually happens to me with short story collections.  I think because traditional publishers find writers who are writing the same thing in their short stories as what they write in their long ones, and they just don't offer anything new, and they all fade into a sameness that becomes tiresome.  I almost always read maybe the one story by that one author I wanted to read and the collection goes on the shelf.  But this collection, every story is exciting and fresh and sometimes quite, tear-wrenchingly beautiful (I'm looking at you Peralta).

And I can, if I choose, comment directly to EACH. ONE. OF. THOSE. AUTHORS.  And I'm already friends on Facebook with a lot of them because I have been following this crowd around, hoping to pick their brains, already.  But this level of creativity, this excitement in reading something:

I don't remember the last time I felt this way. As both a writer and a reader.  

Maybe, maybe it was in creative writing class 20something years ago, when we shared our stories and critiques.  But this, my friends, this is new and amazing.  Indie publishing and self-publishing gets a bad rap sometimes because yes, there is some crap out there.  And there are people pulling in at least six figures on Bigfoot erotica.  I'm not judging that (in fact, I wish I could find a crazy niche I could write that would bring me that much money but alas, I get too embarrassed, even with a pen name.  Dang Victorian Literature.).

But there are also beautiful, unique voices that are doing fresh, interesting stuff.  They haven't fallen into a rut, they haven't been forced by publishers to write the same novel over & over again.  This is exciting, and I'm really hoping I can claim my own little piece of land out here on this new, amazing frontier.

If you like sci-fi and speculative writing and you have a Kindle, go get this short story collection.  Seriously. You can read it on your phone, for Pete's Sake.  GET IT!  Seriously. I recommend it, and can't wait to keep reading!  Let me add:  SERIOUSLY.  I can't say that word often enough.  (SRSLY!)