Here is the awesome foreword written for our latest short story Anthology by Randy McCharles, well-known Calgary author and
writing retreat guru. Many thanks to Randy for his thoughtful, high-energy and excellently penned words!
Congratulations again to all of our winners!
Foreword- StarkLight Volume 3
By Randy McCharles
“Katrina, she is death.” So begins the third compendium of quirky short fiction from Starklight Press. Like its predecessors, this issue fully achieves its mission of providing tales that are pertinent, timely and, above all, imaginative. The four words that begin the first of eleven amazing stand-alone stories are indicative of what you, the reader, will find– striking fiction that will wet the pallet, expand the mind, and bring a smile to your lips.
One of the pleasures of such a collection over say, a novel, is that you have little idea of what you will find until you have devoured the book. There is no back cover blurb enlightening you as to what to expect– setting, character, theme, and plot. A collection such as STARKLIGHT offers, instead, a treasure chest of surprises; eleven jewels to pick up and examine, each gem offering its own unique color, sparkle, and appeal. What the stories contained within these pages do have in common, however, is that they provoke thought and will take your imagination to lands and times and feelings you have never seen before.
Where the assembled stories differ is the second pleasure of such a collection. After discovering who Katrina is, why she is death, and why that is important, not only to the characters in the story, but to you the reader, there are still ten additional tales to enjoy, each astonishing in its own way, offering up new and unique experiences. Experiences unexpected, yet always managing to push one or more emotion buttons and resonate with realities in your life that makes each reading experience an intimate adventure between reader and author.
If that is not enough, a third pleasure is that you not only have eleven unique tales to enjoy, but tales from nine exceptional authors, each of whom have their own style and voice for story telling. Let us consider the opening line of our second story, What Has Kenneth Done! by J.M. Duell. “Let’s get a hold’a this fellow about the pamphlets again Fitz, there’s too many mistakes on ‘er.” Duell’s writing style could not be more different from Virginia Carraway Stark’s as enjoyed in Katrina, yet Duell’s story will carry you along just as easily. And what Kenneth did is only one surprise in the story.
It is said that variety is the spice of life, and this saying is no truer than in a compendium of short fiction. The selection of tales that fill these pages by authors no less distinguished than Virginia Carraway Stark, J.M. Duell, Veronica Robbins, Tony Stark, Roxann Alecia Harvey, John J. Higgins, G.W. Renshaw, Van Fleming, and Robert Marquiss, are stories you will wish to savour and share with your friends. So sit back, put up your feet, and prepare yourself to spend the next little while seeing the world in a different light. STARKLIGHT.