Jeff Bowles’s “Wilding of the Painted World” now in Visions anthology

Kaye Lynne Booth gathered some amazing authors for Visions anthology. Reviewers can pick up a copy on Bookfunnel and readers can use this universal book link.

 
About the Author
Jeff Bowles is a science fiction and horror writer from the mountains of Colorado. The best of his outrageous and imaginative work is collected in God’s Body, Love/Madness/Demon, Godling and Other Paint Stories, Fear and Loathing in Las Cruces, and Brave New Multiverse. He has published work in magazines and anthologies like Tales from the Canyons of the Damned, Podcastle, Black Static, and Dark Moon Digest. Jeff earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at Western State Colorado University. He currently lives in the high-altitude Pikes Peak region, where he dreams strange dreams and spends far too much time under the stars.

 
How the story came about? Continue reading “Jeff Bowles’s “Wilding of the Painted World” now in Visions anthology”

That Th!nk You Do Chapter 2 – Avoiding Deadly Silences

For those who didn’t know, I’ve signed with a new publisher and my first book out with them, That Think You Do, should be available late Nov-Dec ’22.

Read:

As always, let me know what you think.


Avoiding Deadly Silences

 
You know those movies about families’ hidden stories? Everybody’s happy and smiling and chuckles on the outside and anger and distrust and betrayal are like lava flows on the inside waiting to erupt leaving death and destruction in their wake?

Usually the climax is around a meal, a dinner table. Some little comment is said by this person and that person erupts. Or the child says something that only a child could say and the family suddenly has to deal with great uncle Poopah’s crimes against humanity.

There are reasons these types of things usually happen during meals. I’ve mentioned in presentations and trainings that there are two times when humans are biologically most vulnerable: when we’re putting stuff into our bodies and when we’re pushing stuff out of our bodies. Most people have had the experience of gathering around a table with an extended family and friends. Few people have then had the experience of gathering en masse in the loo.

The science of group, tribal and family behavior aside, there’s often much that goes unsaid in human relationships. You don’t like that they put dishes in the sink rather than the dishwasher. They don’t like the way you put toilet paper on the roll (men, did you know this one?).

Seem a little…umm…ridiculous? Small? Meaningless? Irrelevant?

Of course they do and of course they are. Their very triviality is what gives them their power.

Your significant other should know better, right? I mean, who doesn’t know there’s a preferred direction that toilet paper should come off the roll? Why would anybody leave dishes in the sink when it’s just as easy to put them in the dishwasher?

Here’s what you may not know about these little irritations that cause such major eruptions — people, feeling their life going out of control, will exert increasing control over trivial annoyances before they make any attempt to deal with major annoyances. The mistaken(!!!) belief is that by controlling the small they’ll gain control over the large.

Who Holds Back More, Women or Men?
What’s your guess? And let me up the ante while I’m asking. Do the genders go silent for the same or different reasons? Studies done at Fairhaven College and the University of Houston indicate that men resort to silence more often than women do but the reasons are different. Men use silence to maintain power (to keep their partner “on their toes”) or because they simply don’t know how to express themselves (and women everywhere are nodding in agreement. “You needed a scientific study to know this?”, they’re asking).

Women use silence because culturally and historically they have been second class citizens (women are really nodding now). Second class citizens’ role is to listen, not to speak, hence their emotions, feelings, wants, needs, and desires go unannounced by them and unnoticed by their partners.

What is true for both sexes? That self-silencing is dangerous. It causes depression and the more one self-silences the more one becomes depressed. Depression untreated is a death of the soul, folks, so let me share some methods for bringing both your and your partner’s souls back to life.

Avoiding the Silences
While there is no guarantee, talking and sharing our wants, needs, and desires often cures depression… or at least lets us know the individual we’re talking and sharing with isn’t as involved in the relationship as we’d like them to be. Talking and sharing — using certain guidelines — allows us to take back control or at least know what we can control in our lives.

And you need to know that talking and sharing — avoiding the silences — is hard work if you’ve never done it before. I wish I could say it’s easy, it’s fun, it’s as lively and exhilarating as a game of Stratego and I’d rather have you err on the side of caution than not. Here are some rules to help start the conversation and avoid the silences: Continue readingThat Th!nk You Do Chapter 2 – Avoiding Deadly Silences”

Stephanie Kraner’s “Here, Now, Wherever” now in Visions anthology

Kaye Lynne Booth gathered some amazing authors for Visions anthology. Reviewers can pick up a copy on Bookfunnel and readers can use this universal book link.

 
About the Author
Stephanie is thirty-something queer chick living on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. She writes predominately fantasy and science fiction, though she has been known to dabble with romance and even literary fiction from time to time. Her work has appeared in F&SF, Apex and elsewhere. Follow her on Twitter.

 
How the story came about? Continue reading “Stephanie Kraner’s “Here, Now, Wherever” now in Visions anthology”

Michaele Jordan’s “Farewell, My Miko” now in Visions anthology

Kaye Lynne Booth gathered some amazing authors for Visions anthology. Reviewers can pick up a copy on Bookfunnel and readers can use this universal book link.

 
About the Author
Michaele Jordan was born in Los Angeles, bred in the Midwest, educated in Liberal Arts at Bard College and in computers at Southern Ohio College. She has worked at a kennel and a Hebrew School, AT&T, and a church. She’s a bit odd. In her spare time she writes, supervised by a long-suffering husband and a couple of domineering cats.
Her credits include her period occult thriller, Mirror Maze, and a previous novel serialized in Jim Baen’s Universe, Blade Light. You will find her short stories floating around the ether-including Wizard in F&SF and Message of War in Infinite Science Fiction. The Once and Future Cake is just one of her numerous stories in Buzzy Mag. Horror fans might also enjoy her Blossom series in The Crimson Pact anthologies.
Her website – www.michaelejordan.com – is undergoing extensive reconstruction, but just grab your hard hat, and come on in.

 
How the story came about? Continue reading “Michaele Jordan’s “Farewell, My Miko” now in Visions anthology”

Janet Garber’s “The Treatment” now in Visions anthology

Kaye Lynne Booth gathered some amazing authors for Visions anthology. Reviewers can pick up a copy on Bookfunnel and readers can use this universal book link.

 
About the Author
Janet Garber received an M.A. in English from the University of Rochester. A freelance journalist and a former Chief HR Officer, she’s published fiction, poetry, articles, essays, book and movie reviews, a non-fiction book, I Need a Job, Now What?, and an award-winning satiric novel, Dream Job, Wacky Adventures of an HR Manager.
She lives in the Hudson Valley with husband #2 (a keeper!) and two emotionally challenged cats. She welcomes visitors to http://www.janetgarber.com.

 
How the story came about? Continue reading “Janet Garber’s “The Treatment” now in Visions anthology”