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THE COVID QUARANTINE CANTINA
A collection of short stories written by seven award-winning authors during the first four months of the COVID-19 lockdown. Each author brings a unique perspective to the crisis, and the results are spectacular. There is science fiction, Christian apologetics, horror, drama, suspense, and a dose of comfort. Produced daily during the first 13 weeks of the lockdown, you can see the change in thinking, hopes, and frustration that the public was experiencing. While written from a Christian world view, it's not preachy. In fact, it's far from traditional Christian fiction and brings a breath of fresh air to the flash-fiction world from accomplished authors. Also available in print and audio book, this was a labor of love for the authors and it shows through the carefully crafted stories.
375 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2020
2 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Courtemanche
10 books29 followersJoseph Courtemanche is a former Police Officer and Middle East/North Africa analyst. He is a distinguished veteran of the Naval Security Group of the United States Navy, and an Arabic linguist with training at the University of Minnesota and the Defense Language Institute (Honors Graduate).
Joseph holds several military awards, including two flag letters of commendation for his work in providing real-time intelligence support to commanders in the field. His experience provides the background that’s crucial to his writing in the thriller genre. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and holds degrees from two other colleges as well.
As a performer, he's appeared on television in a variety of commercials, and does voice over work for both radio and television. He delights in doing his own audio books.
His greatest joy is working as a professional Santa for the last fifteen years, appearing in a number of television spots as the Jolly Old Elf.
He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife and dog. Both of whom tolerate him fairly well.
Joseph holds several military awards, including two flag letters of commendation for his work in providing real-time intelligence support to commanders in the field. His experience provides the background that’s crucial to his writing in the thriller genre. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and holds degrees from two other colleges as well.
As a performer, he's appeared on television in a variety of commercials, and does voice over work for both radio and television. He delights in doing his own audio books.
His greatest joy is working as a professional Santa for the last fifteen years, appearing in a number of television spots as the Jolly Old Elf.
He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife and dog. Both of whom tolerate him fairly well.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 2, 2021
The Covid Quarantine Cantina is a clever and much-needed collection of short, almost-flash fiction by a gang of authors from the Athanatos Publishing Group: Joseph Courtemanche (also the Editor), Jamie Greening, Joe Shaw, Kathy Kexel, Derek Elkins, Robert Cely, and Paul Bennett. The collective idea here was that each of these authors pledged to write and publish a daily piece of fiction on each other's blogs while stuck in quarantine during the 2020 pandemic. There were several goals here including a desire to keep writing instead of falling into a coronavirus funk, keep each other engaged on their author social media platforms, and, if all went well, capture a record of the times with some good fiction that might stand the test of time. None of them probably thought, back in the heady days of March 2020, that the quarantine and pandemic would last more than several weeks or months at most. But alas, it has stretched into 2021. And the first edition of collected short stories from this experiment, The Covid Quarantine Cantina, has arrived clocking in at nearly 400 pages of fun. And fun these stories are, written by some of the best writers in the little known "alternative Christian Fiction" world that prefers to keep things edgy, sometimes dark, never trite, sometimes literary and lyrical, and always inspirational in contrast to the bland offerings of the mainstream Christian publishing world. This stuff has crossover appeal, shall we say, without ever compromising on the Christian worldview. And I call it "almost-flash fiction" because several authors here clearly cheated with stories that are a bit lengthy for "Flash" but none the less are still shorter than a novella or novelette (thankfully, I hate weeding through a long dull story in the middle of an otherwise high-energy short story collection).
There are multiple genres and story types represented here. The only thing binding these stories together is COVID-19. But since we are all living through Covid together and often end up sharing pandemic stories with each other in those rare instances when we can gather, it feels like one of those conversations. Everyone's story and perspective is different. Everyone gets a chance to share. It works. And that surprised me, because so many short story collections do not work for that very reason. But this one does.
And the writing! Author Joe Courtemanche (Assault on Saint Agnes, Nicolas of Haiti) has done a masterful job editing this project. But he is helped by the fact that these authors, although little known, are masterful writers indeed. All of them have books published by Anthony Horvath's Athanatos imprints and give credit to Mr. Horvath for helping them to perfect their craft. All of them are outstanding storytellers with good ears for the human dimension of Covid-19 (even if some of the stories take place in another dimension). Pandemic fears, social disruptions, conspiracy theories, frustrations, tragedies and triumphs are all captured here. And through it all runs a strand of inspirational faith and hope that is much needed in these trying times. Like all good fiction, many of these stories will stay with you long after you've read them... and hopefully long after the pandemic nightmare of 2020 has passed us all by.
There isn't much good coming out of this pandemic. But this collection is a bright shining exception.
And it's with mixed emotions that I add, I hope there isn't much material for a 2021 Covid Quarantine Cantina edition. But if there is, bring it on!
The Covid Quarantine Cantina is highly, highly recommended reading.
There are multiple genres and story types represented here. The only thing binding these stories together is COVID-19. But since we are all living through Covid together and often end up sharing pandemic stories with each other in those rare instances when we can gather, it feels like one of those conversations. Everyone's story and perspective is different. Everyone gets a chance to share. It works. And that surprised me, because so many short story collections do not work for that very reason. But this one does.
And the writing! Author Joe Courtemanche (Assault on Saint Agnes, Nicolas of Haiti) has done a masterful job editing this project. But he is helped by the fact that these authors, although little known, are masterful writers indeed. All of them have books published by Anthony Horvath's Athanatos imprints and give credit to Mr. Horvath for helping them to perfect their craft. All of them are outstanding storytellers with good ears for the human dimension of Covid-19 (even if some of the stories take place in another dimension). Pandemic fears, social disruptions, conspiracy theories, frustrations, tragedies and triumphs are all captured here. And through it all runs a strand of inspirational faith and hope that is much needed in these trying times. Like all good fiction, many of these stories will stay with you long after you've read them... and hopefully long after the pandemic nightmare of 2020 has passed us all by.
There isn't much good coming out of this pandemic. But this collection is a bright shining exception.
And it's with mixed emotions that I add, I hope there isn't much material for a 2021 Covid Quarantine Cantina edition. But if there is, bring it on!
The Covid Quarantine Cantina is highly, highly recommended reading.
Displaying 1 of 1 review