N: Volume Two

by A. Lynn Blumer, Troy Graham, Gray Louise Philips

A lake as deadly as it is stunning, living in her midst is an affair not for the faint of heart, and yet we remain. This is a place where Mother Nature's creativity reigns, and Lake Superior holds the foreground while we love and hate, live and learn. Certainly, an inspirational relationship, and we channel it out in so many different ways.

Here, we collect . . . For it is us all and all of it that truly make this place beautiful.

185 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2016

About the author

A. Lynn Blumer lives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where she enjoys the outdoors just as much as her smoke-laden writing station. The last five years have been devoted to developing her poetry and independent publishing business, but prose remains her chief interest.

Owner of Pyre Publishing

Reviews

[Arthur Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, really good overall. Lots of variety and unique voices, disparate styles and subject matters that nevertheless manage to congeal together quite nicely. Like any such collection, it is bound to be the case that some authors/pieces speak more to the individual reader than others, and yet I cannot rate this motley crew of Michiganders highly enough. Message A. Lynn Blumer for a paperback or an ebook if you'd like to see for yourself.

[India · Rating 4 out of 5]

What beautiful words and stories. I loved this and can't wait for the next volume.

[Harry Whitewolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthologies can often fail because the works don't fit together very well, but this book's quite the opposite. Six writers of fiction and poetry is just the right amount to not have too many cooks spoil the broth, and their works work very nicely side by side.

There wasn't a huge wow factor anywhere in this collection, but I don't mean that too negatively. It's just that there's a gentleness and softness to much of this prose, which most certainly works, but which I felt could sometimes also benefit from slightly stronger narratives and more pack-punching. There's a feeling of youth in the pages of 'N', which is good, but also made me feel like these authors would have more to offer further down the line; these are writers with great potential who haven't yet perhaps found their forte.

Some of the poems by A. Lynn Blumer and Troy Graham were my favourites, and I really liked the uniqueness of Alex Tadder's works which contain both images and text, but which I felt might work even better as artworks hanging on a gallery wall more than being contained within a book.

There's much to enjoy in 'N: Volume Two', so I don't mean to be too critical. I'm just looking forward to seeing what else this crew of six can do in the future.

3.5 stars.

[Nate Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great volume. Even more variety has been represented this time with an excellent color art section by Alex Tadder and short stories by Nathan Sherman, Sam Graves and Joel Sundquist. Again I connected personally with the poetry of Amanda Lynn Blumer and Phillips, but I felt Graham's work was the most improved. He brought much needed humor and I found myself laughing aloud, especially at the bitter "In the Years to Come".