Trunk: Stories That Took the Long Way

by B. Morris Allen, J.H. Siegal, Robert Luke Wilkins

427 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2026

About the author

B. Morris Allen is a biochemist turned activist turned lawyer turned foreign aid consultant, and frequently wonders whether it's time for a new career. He's been traveling since birth, and has lived on five continents. When he can, he makes his home on the Oregon coast. In between journeys, he edits Metaphorosis magazine, and works on his own speculative stories of love and disaster. His dark fantasy novel Susurrus came out in 2017.

Reviews

[Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Metaphorosis Publishing for the ARC.

This was an interesting collection of short stories. Publishing stories that have been rejected numerous times was an interesting discovery in perspective, and how so much great writing is hiding out in the world. As far as the stories themselves, I loved a few, liked a few more, and had some that I did not enjoy.

The stories were not written poorly or of low quality in any way. Subjective experience plays the same role in any group of short stories, whether accepted immediately or rejected many times. It was enjoyable to be able to experience this experimental publishing.

[Adam Forster-Nnachi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting collection of short stories, made up of works that had been rejected a number of times before the editor of this book rescued them from being 'trunked'. I think this is a great idea and it is fantastic that these stories could finally be read by more people.


The genres were very varied and touched on a wide range of areas - post apocalyptic, witches, magic, pirates, gods, AI, time travel, to name a few.


Among my highlights were Amberlight, a tale of a magical grandpa doing all he can to save his granddaughter, and Take Another Little Piece of my Heart, about a magical portal that retrieves lost things. 


I also enjoyed the historical alien adventure set in WW2, Lost Souls, and The Grand Seeming, which gave Inception and The Matrix vibes.


My absolute top read from this collection was Dog Days, which I found amusing and fascinating at the same time. Without giving too much away, it is the story of a former gymnast that takes an unconventional approach to rediscovering the thrill of competition. 


Some of the individual stories were definitely 5 stars for me but overall a really enjoyable collection that I'd give 4 stars overall.

[D Dyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, like many anthologies was a bit of a mixed bag, but there were some stories, one involving cat transformations, and one involving the dangerous possibilities of food sharing that I especially loved, many that I like quite a lot and the few remaining I found not quite working for me, but still to be solid stories. The stories lean more toward meditative and lyrical, sometimes very literary in style with glimpses of humor, these are not for the most part action or plot focused pieces. I think this collection would work well for if you were looking for big thought provokers in small to medium size packages. And the backstory which accompanies each piece on the journey through rejections and revisions it took until it got here was enlightening.