Maria Haskins's Blog, page 58

ODIN’S EYE – now available in paperback from Amazon & CreateSpace

Odin’s Eye, my collection of science fiction short stories, is now available in paperback from selected Amazon outlets, and directly from CreateSpace. You can find all the purchase details in my Shop.

Get Odin’s Eye in paperback:

     

CreateSpace – Amazon

Of course, Odin’s Eye is still also available as an ebook:

                        

Amazon – Apple iBooks  – Smashwords – Barnes & Noble – Kobo

About Odin’s Eye:

Inspired by past and present science fiction masters like Ray Bradbury, Ursula K Le Guin, Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, these twelve short stories explore the human condition in a future where space travel, cloning, genetic manipulation and other technological advances affect the world and all of humanity.

With evocative language, and a sharp focus on human strengths and frailties in the face of change, pain, love, and loneliness, Odin’s Eye explores both outer space, and the inner workings of the human mind.

In each story, we glimpse the lives of characters in a distant, or maybe not so distant, future. Each one is facing a choice or challenge that will change their lives, and might also affect the fate of humanity itself.

Read reviews of Odin’s Eye.

‘From Joy We Come, Unto Joy We Return’ – short story perfection by Ami Blackwelder

The sky is a dark and heavy rock about to drop. Her light blue shade bleeds violently with grays and dark blues. I am kneeling before my open window.

Some short stories pull you in with their very first words. ‘From Joy We Come, Unto Joy We Return’, by Ami Blackwelder is one of those short stories. The story speaks to you, instantly, with a unique and captivating voice. This is dramatic fiction in short story-form at its very best. Blackwelder’s language flows and ripples beautifully through this tale of a woman stuck in a marriage, and in a society, that does not value who she is or what she wants. Only her obedience has value, and she must obey religion, tradition, and ultimately her husband.

The story is told from the point of view of its main character, an Indian woman named Sobha. We experience everything through her: the landscape and the village she lives in, the love she feels for her daughter and her friends, the hardship of her domestic life, and her longing for something else. There is exquisite detail here both in the descriptions of the world itself: spices, food, places, weather, towns, sky, and earth; and in the descriptions of Sobha’s emotions.

Blackwelder paints with her words, making you feel part of Sobha’s inner world, as well as her outer world – the environment and the characters feel close and real. And throughout the story there is a mounting sense of dread and desperation, with Blackwelder building carefully and skillfully towards the ending.

It comes as no surprise that this is an award winning story. It was honoured in the Best Fiction of UCF, Cypress Dome of 2007, and was also a semi-finalist in the Laurel Hemingway contest in 1997. ‘From Joy We Come, Unto Joy We Return’ is a highly recommended read: treat yourself to this short story for a taste of this writer’s gorgeous prose, and for the intimate peek into another world, and another woman’s life.

Find out more about Ami Blackwelder at her website: Home of Ami Blackwelder
Pick up the short story at Amazon: From Joy We Come, Unto Joy We Return
It is also available as part of the excellent short story anthology BestsellerBound Short Story Anthology Volume 2

Odin’s Eye is now available in paperback

I just got the whole setup and proofing process done at CreateSpace, and Odin’s Eye is now available in paperback in the CreateSpace store. In about a week, it will be available from other online retailers including Amazon!

Lots more pomp and circumstance to come when it goes live on Amazon, but it is available now:

Buy it at CreateSpace!

EDGAR ALLAN POE – mystery, horror, and classic short stories that will give you chills

The term “literary classic” might make some people shudder, thinking it’s all stuffy and boring, and something you have to read with a stiff upper lip and your pinky out. That is certainly not the case for a lot of literary classics, and it is definitely not the case when it comes to the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Poe was a true master and innovator of the short story genre, and a master of horror as well: his stories are often deeply disturbing and unsettling in a way that gives me serious goosebumps whenever I read them. If you have any interest at all in horror stories, or dark tales of mystery, crime, and guilt, then reading Poe is a must. He can be gruesome and macabre, and his work is permeated with themes like fear, guilt, death, horror, and inescapable doom. But what makes him so very, very good is that he twists these themes just a little further than most, driving them just a little deeper into your subconscious, and that he isn’t afraid of making his stories, and his characters, go more than a little insane.

Illustration for The Tell-Tale Heart by Harry Clarke, 1919

All of Edgar Allan Poe’s work is well worth sampling, but two of my favourite short stories by Poe are ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ and ‘The Black Cat’. Both stories are told in first-person by characters who are haunted (quite literally) by crimes they have committed, and who are losing their minds because of it. These stories vividly demonstrate Poe’s ability to creep inside a story, flipping the perspective to show you the horror from the other side, from the dark side – the guilty side – and dragging the reader with him into that madness and darkness.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture –a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees –very gradually –I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

An excerpt from ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.

Two other outstanding short stories by Poe that I’d recommend are ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’, often called the first modern detective story; and ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, a chilling tale that is an early example of a psychological thriller.

Poe’s life was not easy or necessarily very happy. He was orphaned as a young child, was eventually disowned by his foster father, and struggled with debts throughout his life. At 26 he married his 13 year old (!) cousin Virginia Clemm – a marriage that was followed by more tragedy when she contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of 24. And Poe’s death in 1849 is still considered so mysterious that it even has its own Wikipedia entry.

As a reader, I love reading Poe for the shivers up my spine. As a writer I love his technique and style: there are so many good reasons why his tales have become classics.

Edgar Allan Poe was only 40 years old when he died, but his work has been very influential. Many later writers – including such varied names as Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Stephen King – have been inspired by and influenced by Poe.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: “Poe is the master of all.”
Ray Bradbury: “Jules Verne was my father. H.G. Wells was my wise uncle. Poe was the bat-winged cousin we kept in the attic. Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers were my brothers. And Mary Shelley was my mother. There you have my ancestry.”
Stephen King: “Poe was the first writer to write about main characters who were bad guys or who were mad guys, and those are some of my favorite stories.”
Margaret Atwood: “I was warped early by Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allan Poe.”
Alfred Hitchcock: “It’s because I liked Edgar Allan Poe’s stories so much that I began to make suspense films.”

There are many editions and collections of Poe’s work available, and if you have an e-reader you can pick them up dirt-cheap (or even free!) online.

From Amazon:

Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
Tales of Mystery and Terror (Puffin Classics)
And even as a pop-up book: The Illustrated Edgar Allan Poe (Literary Pop Up)

New poem in progress: ‘In The Forest’

In the forest

The woods are quiet:

So am I,

pulling streaks of cloud through my crooked fingers.

But I can feel it,

feel it in marrow and gristle,

I can feel

leaves and bark,

sticks and stones,

root and sap.

I can hear

creaking wood,

squirrel paws,

and the wind breathing through my ribs:

tastes like pine needles and damp moss.

The ground is soft,

soft and wet,

as if someone had been crying here.

Not me.

Not anymore.

I remember

falling

scraping my palms on rough bark,

scratching my skin raw on the thorny darkness.

Then,

I was so tired,

laying down in the blueberry leaves

saw the moon

stuck

in the dew of a spider’s web.

The screams are far away, far away now.

I didn’t listen,

I was already sleeping.

But a small animal is breathing into my ear now,

whispering its name,

and I think:

That’s my name too.

 Copyright Maria Haskins 2015

A great science fiction short story – ‘Incursion’, by Steve Umstead

Steve Umstead’s science fiction short story ‘Incursion’ is a great sci-fi read: well-written and entertaining, creating a believable world and interesting characters quickly and effortlessly. The story takes place in rural area after an alien invasion, and it follows a very young boy who has been recruited to fight the nasty intruders. I really loved the way this child, who has been forced to take on a very grown up role in a terrible conflict, was portrayed in the story.

Umstead manages to give his story immediate depth and complexity: you can feel in his storytelling that there are layers of history and culture beneath the surface of the tale, and that is always a good thing in a science fiction story. You want to get a feel for the time and the world and the people in it without too much exposition, and Umstead manages that very well. ‘Incursion’ works on every level, and I really enjoyed his clear and vivid writing style.

Oh, and there is a twist at the end, and it’s a good one!

‘Incursion’ is my first introduction to Umstead’s writing, but I will be checking out more of his stories after this.

Umstead’s published works include the Evan Gabriel-trilogy; science fiction, suspense and horror short stories, and a science fiction novella. ‘Incursion’ is available as a stand-alone short story, or as part of the collection Wrinkled Shorts.

‘Incursion’ and Umstead’s other books are available from Amazon and various other online retailers. You can find all the links at his website.
You can also follow Steve Umstead on Twitter and Facebook.

This made my day: a 5-star review of ‘Odin’s Eye’

One of this writer’s strengths is that she is able to describe something so succinctly and with such precision that everything she writes becomes a picture in the mind of the reader. Her stories show a deep understanding of the human condition. [ —— ]

All of the stories transported me to different times and strange new worlds and each one contains insightful observations about life and people. The stand out story for me was ‘Lost and Found’, a tale about an astronaut, who is the only survivor after a crash, waiting to be rescued. That one is just perfect, in my opinion. It would make a great movie or short film. [ —— ]

All the stories are brilliant and I’m glad to have discovered such a talented writer.

Take a trip into the future with these twelve short stories. You won’t be disappointed.

Read the full 5-star review at Goodreads and also at Amazon! Thank you, Maria Savva!

A short story anthology to capture the imagination – TRIPTYCHS (Mind’s Eye Series)

Short story anthologies are a wonderful way to sample the work of different authors, and find new favourite writers in the process. Triptychs is a great example of this. This anthology contains 20 short stories, 4 poems, and 8 original photographs, and the idea behind the anthology is just a bit different than your usual short story collection. Each photo in the book was given to three different writers. Each writer then wrote a short story or poem inspired by that photo, meaning that the reader gets to see how one image can spark three very different stories. It’s a fascinating way to fire up the imagination of the writers, and the results are both interesting and entertaining.

The short stories cover a range of genres: there are tales of horror and crime and vampires, as well as romance and fantasy. All the stories and poems are well-written, and each one has something special to grab your interest and capture your imagination. I found it very hard to put down this book once I started reading: I kept wanting to know what kind of story would be next.

There’s the eerie and gripping “We Came From The Ocean” by Jason McIntyre, about a mysterious stranger looking for a girl in a small town: except that you soon realize that that neither the girl, the stranger, or her father who is trying to protect her, is exactly what they appear to be. This story ties in with McIntyre’s other short story in the collection “All Things Being Equal”.

There are two great short stories by Lisette Brodey, and I especially loved “I Wish…”, which has a terrific twist that literally gave me chills at the end. Maria Savva’s “Glimmer Siluridae” was another one of my favourites, putting a terrific fantasy spin on a tale about a couple on a riverboat holiday. Savva’s story “Lost In You” – a story about guilt, love, water, and death – is another one that gave me the shivers.

“All Questions Answered” by Jay Finn, about what might happen if you run into one of those trickster characters “who live behind the creases and folds of time” is a fantastic story as well: and it has an ending that I will be committing to memory, just in case I need it…

Eden Baylee’s “Swans” is a beautiful and touching short story about a little girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders, while J. Michael Radcliffe’s two tales: “The Easygoing Widower” and “Getting Away From It All”, pull you in and then flip the story around on you in a great way.

Other standouts for me in this well-crafted collection is Marc Nash’s evocative “Cloud Animals”, Julie Elizabeth Powell’s very original fantasy/scifi-flavoured tale “Beyond The Eyes”, and Darcia Helle’s thoughtful “Pointless Story”, which is anything but that.

Add in some great poems – Ben Ditmars’ “Dry Dock” for example – the (quite literally) inspiring photographs by Martin David Porter and the multi-talented Helle Gade (who also wrote two of the poems in the book), and you have a very unique short story collection that is definitely a recommended short story-read.

Buy the book at Amazon: Triptychs (Mind’s Eye Series Book 3)

Details about Triptychs:

Photos by Helle Gade, Martin David Porter.

Stories and poems:

We Came From The Ocean, All Things Being Equal by Jason McIntyre
A Storm Is Coming, A Kiss At Sunset by J. Michael Radcliffe
The Easygoing Widower, Getting Away From It All by Geoffrey David West
#666, Beyond The Eyes by Julie Elizabeth Powell
All Questions Answered, The Last Dawn by Jay Finn
Last Call, Swans by Eden Baylee
Think Green, Dry Dock by Ben Ditmars
Pointless Story, Fairies Wear Boots by Darcia Helle
May Twenty-Fourth, I Wish… by Lisette Brodey
Destiny, Meetings In The Night by Helle Gade
Cloud Animals, Water Fugue in C-Minor by Marc Nash
Glimmer Siluridae, Lost In You by Maria Savva

A short story collection from Earthsea – URSULA K. LE GUIN’S ‘Tales From Earthsea’

Ursula K. Le Guin is one of my all-time favourite authors. She is also one of the writers who has influenced my own writing the most. I read the first three books in her Earthsea Cycle as a teenager, and at the time, these books gripped me and shook me to my core like few other books I’ve read. The power of her stories, her writing style, her language, and her unique storytelling voice all made a huge impression on me. The Tombs of Atuan in particular is a book that moved me so deeply that I believe it has become a part of my own “writing DNA”.

While the original trilogy of Earthsea books – A Wizard Of Earthsea, The Tombs Of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore – were published in 1968-1972, Tales From Earthsea was published in 2001 – so it is a much more recent addition to the Earthsea Cycle, just like the novels Tehanu (published in 1990) and The Other Wind (also published in 2001).

In these short stories, Le Guin re-visits and expands her vision of the world and the history of Earthsea, and she also delves deeper into its lore and its magic. The original trilogy took place in a time when the majority of the people of Earthsea saw magic as something only men could (and should) do: “Weak as women’s magic, wicked as women’s magic”, as the saying goes in the stories. However, in Tales From Earthsea it is revealed that women once wielded magic powers that rivaled the men’s, and that both women and men founded the magic school on the island of Roke – a crucial center of power that later allows only men to be educated as wizards.

As you’d expect from one of the best fantasy writers in the world, Tales From Earthsea is an outstanding collection of short stories. Le Guin’s language is as beautiful as ever; her stories are captivating from the first word and sentence; and the characters are just as strong and alive as they are in her novels. Two of the things that have always appealed to me in Le Guin’s work are her lack of sentimentality, and her reluctance to create characters that are either simply good or simply evil. Instead, the characters in her stories are flawed and damaged and often difficult people to deal with, and that is why they feel so real, and close, and true.

If you’ve read the other Earthsea books, Tales From Earthsea is a bit like returning to a favourite place: you get to re-visit familiar places and events, while Le Guin gives you a new perspective on, and new insight into, the vivid world she’s created.

In ‘The Finder’ Le Guin tells the story of how the school of magic was established on Roke island; while ‘Darkrose and Diamond’ is a tale about a troubled romance between the daughter of a witch and the son of a merchant. ‘The Bones of the Earth’ (one of my favourites in this collection) is the true story of how the legendary wizard Ogion the Silent handled a massive earthquake – a part of Earthsea-lore that hearkens back to the first books.

‘On the High Marsh’ is vintage Le Guin: a beautiful tale with a hidden darkness at its core, about a mysterious healer haunted by a past he can’t remember, and what happens when he arrives in a remote village where the livestock are dying.

For me, the standout story in the book is ‘Dragonfly’. The main character in this short story is a woman named Irian who is driven by a fierce need and yearning to find out what her true destiny is. And in order to find the answers she seeks, Irian tries to enter the Wizard-island of Roke even though women are strictly forbidden there. It’s a fantastic story in its own right, and it also ties together the final two Earthsea novels: Tehanu and The Other Wind.

I highly recommend this book, and all the other Earthsea books, for any and all fans of fantasy. Besides being a queen of both fantasy and science fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin is also one of the finest authors working in the world today. I truly believe that if she wrote “regular fiction” rather than sci-fi and fantasy, she would be considered for the Nobel Prize. Because yes, she is that good.

Ursula K. Le Guin. Photo © 2012 Laura Anglin

 Read an excerpt from ‘Dragonfly’ at Le Guin’s official website.
Get Tales from Earthsea from Amazon.

The Earthsea Cycle contains 6 books:

A Wizard of Earthsea
The Tombs of Atuan
The Farthest Shore
Tehanu
Tales from Earthsea
The Other Wind

A brand new review of ODIN’S EYE

“Odin’s Eye” by Maria Haskins is much more than a collection of science fiction short stories. Through astonishing imagery and great character development each story of “Odin’s Eye” gives its own unique perspective on the human experience. There is so much depth in the portrayal of human frailty: Our delicate relationship with nature and the rapidly growing abyss dividing our attachment to it and simultaneously our dependency and future enthrallment to technology. “Odin’s Eye” is a beautiful and agonizing insight into the complexity and vulnerability of human psychology. In every story each character desperately attempts to overcome their personal deficiencies in future worldscapes created by societies collective shortcomings.

Huge thanks to Josh Johnson for the very kind words!

ODIN’S EYE is now available:

Amazon (available at Amazon.com and other Amazon outlets)
Apple iBooks
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords  (download available in various ebook formats, including epub, mobi for Kindle, txt, and pdf)