I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the DEVIL'S WAYS
ANTHOLOGY by Dragonwell Publishing Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
About the Book:
Title: DEVIL'S WAYS ANTHOLOGY
Authors: Nancy Kress, Ben Loory, R.
S. A. Garcia, Michael Swanwick, Andy Duncan, Curtis C. Chen, Darrell
Schweitzer, Imogen Howson, Edwina Harvey, Avram Davidson, J. M. Sidorova, Nancy
Kress, (Edited by Anna Kashina and J. M. Sidorova)
Pub. Date: June 25, 2020
Publisher: Dragonwell Publishing
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 270
There is no light without dark; no
highlights without shadows; no good without evil. The Devil is where things
happen. Where stories begin. This collection brings together stories from
multiple cultures, featuring the Devil both as an abstract concept and a
creature, a terror, a force of nature, an enemy, a trickster, and so many more.
Step into the world of shadows, and
travel through Devil's many incarnations spanning centuries of history and
myth, from the Ancient Greece, African and Caribbean folklore, dark ages in
Europe, all the way to the present day.
This anthology features new and
established authors from diverse, multicultural backgrounds.
“The Devil goes globe-trotting in this
eclectic anthology that explores the many guises of the Dark Lord across
cultures and ages. Persephone D’Shaun’s shocking “Nzembe” is a twisted tale of
zombie-like creatures set in the plains of Africa with an ending some readers
will find hard to stomach. An unnamed girl tries to steal back her heart from
her winged lover in R.S.A. Garcia’s lyrical “Fire in His Eyes, Blood on His
Teeth,” which draws from Caribbean folklore and the legend of Nanny of the
Maroons. Feminist themes carry through many of the tales. Imogen Howson’s
“Frayed Tapestry,” which follows an amnesiac woman and her manipulative
husband, is a bit too on the nose, but elsewhere gender dynamics are handled
more gracefully, as in “Of Finest Scarlet Was Her Gown” by Michael Swanwick, in
which 15-year-old Su-yin follows her father into hell, where she must endure a
series of horrible dates in order to save him from eternal damnation, and in
Nancy Kress’s brilliant “Unto the Daughters,” a powerful reimagining of the
story of Adam and Eve. Though horror fiends may be disappointed to find little
blood-curdling terror, there are very few duds among these wide-ranging tales.
Readers are in for a devilish treat.”—PW Review
Excerpts:
1. The
opening of Persephone D'Shaun's "Nzembe":
"Last
week all the nzembe-born children in town went into trances.
The week
before that, leopards sat together on my grandmother’s porch for an entire day,
keeping her inside. Later, many women came to her for help, insisting they had
fallen into sleep in the middle of the day and been violated by evil spirits in
the shape of vulgar children.
And the week
before that, Henriette claimed to have seen a sharp-toothed boy peeking at her
from one of the thick clusters of palm trees that grow near Little River.
I do not
want to think about these things, but today memories are thick and dry like
wild grass in the place between towns, tinder in my mind, needing only the
smallest spark to destroy the fragile peace I have built.
Today…"
2. The
opening of R.S.A. Garcia's "Fire In His Eyes, Blood On His Teeth":
"He
comes to me with fire in his eyes and blood on his teeth. Sometimes the blood
is his enemies. Sometimes it’s mine. Eventually, it’s mine. Always.
He is different today, striding across the sandy soil
toward my home with scuffed, much-mended boots. Often, he’s charming and
beautiful, like the first time I met him. Smooth brown skin and white smiles,
smelling of freshly scraped coconuts. Sometimes he is fierce and tall and
smells of the salty sea, with a glorious shining beard braided around the fuses
he hides beneath his battered hat. His teeth are longer, yellow, and his skin
burned from the sun. They call him a pirate then, and men on land and sea
tremble to speak his name. He has harsh words, but there are no teeth for me
yet. They come later.
They come with the fire and a shadow on the sun."
3. The
opening of J.M. Sidorova's "Escape Goat":
"A man
was leading a goat to a precipice. When they got there and the man readied to
bind the goat’s feet, the goat said, “Stop right there, human man.”
The man
froze and stared.
“You think I
don’t know everything about you?” the goat said.
Goats’ eyes
are notoriously hard to read. And the man had been in the blazing sun since
morning, walking the high desert, and admittedly had addressed the goat on
several occasions—as those things go—with a criticism or simply sharing an
observation. So it was easy for him to slip into a conversation with the goat:
“What on earth are you talking about?” the man said.
“She had
black hair and blue eyes,” the goat replied. “She cried the first several
times. Until you gagged her with her favorite rag doll. After that, when you
came to her she would bite on that doll ahead of time.”
The man
stumbled back as if pushed, and sank down.
The goat
said, “Shall I go on?”
“It was
thirty years ago,” said the man. “She was—” But he could not finish saying what
she was."
4. The
opening to Imogen Howson's "Frayed Tapestry":
"The
first time it happened was almost a year after he’d married her. They were
giving a drinks party, and the spacious top-floor apartment was filled with
sleek, beautiful people in immaculately cut trousers, or little black dresses
and the discreet glint of gold jewelry.
Candy had
been busy since the first guests arrived. Clym liked her to keep the canapés
coming and make sure he was supplied with ice for the drinks. With that, as
well as welcoming new guests and trying to make sure she remembered everybody’s
names, she’d scarcely sipped her own glass of wine.
So,
afterwards, although she tried to blame the alcohol, she knew she couldn’t.
She was in
the kitchen, cutting up more lemons for the gin and tonics. She had a gleaming
steel bowl of them, glossy polished yellow next to the duller green globes of
limes, and a neat little serrated knife to slice them into perfect rounds. But
then, of course, she had everything. She’d seen it reflected in her guests’
eyes. Her, this nineteen-year-old, already with a beautiful apartment, a
handsome, adoring, powerful husband…
The knife
slipped."
About The Authors & Publisher:
Founded in 2012, Dragonwell
Publishing is based in the US Northeast and publishes 4-6 books a year,
focusing mostly on science fiction and fantasy. Dragonwell Publishing titles
have been featured by Publishers Weekly, ForeWord Magazine, RT Book Reviews,
San Francisco Book Reviews, and Portland Book Reviews, and highlighted by
Historical Novel Society and Mythopoetic Society. Our books have been among the
winners of the 2013 ForeWord Book of the Year Award and 2014 Independent
Publishers Book Award.
Get to know all the authors here
on the Dragonwell
Publishing Site!
Giveaway
Details:
1
winner will receive a $10 Amazon GC, International.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
6/22/2020
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Excerpt
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6/23/2020
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Excerpt
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6/24/2020
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Excerpt
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6/25/2020
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Review
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6/26/2020
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Review
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Week Two:
6/29/2020
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Excerpt
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6/30/2020
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Review
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7/1/2020
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Review
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7/2/2020
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Excerpt
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7/3/2020
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Instagram Stop
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Sounds like a great book.
ReplyDeleteMost are new authors to me but this sounds like a great collection of stories.
ReplyDelete