Challenges Met

by KateMarie Collins

"Challenges Met" springs from topics given out in writing exercises. In this collection, Ms. Collins explores a variety of themes, both light and dark. The idea of gremlin exterminators or that mysterious box that shows up on your porch. First contact with aliens, or a grim reaper on the job. The true meaning of immortality, and how society can take a game and make it anything but child's play.

100 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2014

About the author

Born in the late 60's, KateMarie has lived most of her life in the Pacific NW. While she's always been creative, she didn't turn towards writing until 2008. She found a love for the craft. With the encouragement of her family, she started submitting her work to publishers. When she's not taking care of her family, KateMarie enjoys attending events for the Society for Creative Anachronism. The SCA has allowed her to combine both a creative nature and love of history. She currently resides with her family and two cats in what she likes to refer to as "Seattle Suburbia".

You can find KateMarie at the following sites:

Twitter: @DaughterHauk
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/KateMar...
Her blog: http://www.katemariecollins.wordpress...
Via email: katemariecollins@gmail.com

Reviews

[Nathan Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually find it difficult to adequately rate anthologies and mainly because they're so diverse, it's hard to get a solid feel for the overall work. In this case, all the stories are by the same author, so the style isn't quite so diverse. They're all short stories, a few of them only a dozen or so paragraphs long, written in response to prompts in a writing group.
As a whole, the collection is interesting. Some of the stories are charming, others a bit disturbing. In others, Collins took the ideas in some rather unusual directions. Some of them have potential for expansion into much longer works and a couple of them have indeed been expanded into novels. A few, however, I found unsatisfying. I'd have liked to have had a sense of the time spanned with respect to when the stories were written--over months, or a few years--to give me a feel for the development of Collins' writing. I did appreciate the short paragraph introducing each story, giving the context and background for it.
I met Collins at an SCA event recently. She's quite approachable and this is reflected in her work.