100 Lightnings

by Stephen Studach (Editor), Sean Williams, Deborah Sheldon

From iconic publisher Paroxysm Press comes a showcase volume of one hundred pieces of premium flash fiction crackling and flaring with imagination. Amongst those who have bottled lightning here are Sean Williams, Kaaron Warren, Angela Slatter, Rick Kennett, Lucy Sussex, Stephanie Campisi, Joanne Anderton, Jessica Reisman, Blanket Barrowclough and a storm of other talents who have set hammer to anvil in their wordsmithy's forge and cast forth bolts of story craft. This eclectic anthology serves up fictive goodness that ranges across the broad spectrum of genre fiction. From dark realism and the experimental to ghost stories (including one of the shortest ever written) to science fiction and the humorous to high fantasy and the horrific. The price of admission is fair, the quality undeniable. Approach the first jar, and don't fear the flashes!

Professor Downstryk is in town, for a limited time only, and he invites you into his sideshow tent to partake of his display of fevered flashes captured in glass. There you will find madness, murder, mutilation, perversion, time travel, werewolves, vampires, the dead living, revenge, the extraterrestrial, and the all too earthly. Conspiracies and child maiming. Grimmer fairy tales, Campfire stories and what happened to Santa Claus. Unpleasant futures, voodoo, spiders, and the Great Old Ones. Wicked people, wicked deeds, and seafood.

288 pages, Paperback

Published December 25, 2015

Reviews

[Deborah Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love flash fiction anthologies, and this one is a beauty. (I have a story in it, which I'm leaving out of my review.) Ranging in genres including literary, crime, paranormal, sci-fi and horror, each piece has a kick to it. Some pieces are vignettes while others have a more traditional story structure, and this adds another layer to the variety of prose fiction on offer. Good stuff.

[Matthew Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid, smart, colourful collection of flash fiction. Expect stings in tails, whacked-out concepts, left turns and mordant laughs. A work long in the making, but worth it in the end!