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Obsessions: An Anthology of Original Fiction
Webster defines "obsession" as an "a persistent disturbing abnormal preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling."
Obsessions sometimes include a hobby or collection that has gotten out of hand. Other times an obsession can drive a person to invent something new, cure a disease or attempt to right a great wrong. And at other times, obsessing can send a person down a dark and disturbing path.
Obsessions can be healthy; can be born out of love and the desire to protect. They can stem from a need to fix something that is broken or replace something that is missing. But they can also be pervasive and disgusting, unhealthy and bizarre. They can be mild or quaint and eclectic, or they can be all-consuming and life altering.
These authors tackle the subject with all original genre-bending fiction:
Ezekiel James Boston
Stephen Couch
Joe Cron
Leah Cutter
Dayle A. Dermatis
Robert Jeschonek
Kari Kilgore
Michael Kingswood
Kate Pavelle
Annie Reed
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Leigh Saunders
Rebecca M. Senese
Dean Wesley Smith
David Stier
Stories curated by Mark Leslie, editor of Campus Chills, North of Infinity II, Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound and multiple volumes in the Fiction River anthology series. Foreword by New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
Obsessions sometimes include a hobby or collection that has gotten out of hand. Other times an obsession can drive a person to invent something new, cure a disease or attempt to right a great wrong. And at other times, obsessing can send a person down a dark and disturbing path.
Obsessions can be healthy; can be born out of love and the desire to protect. They can stem from a need to fix something that is broken or replace something that is missing. But they can also be pervasive and disgusting, unhealthy and bizarre. They can be mild or quaint and eclectic, or they can be all-consuming and life altering.
These authors tackle the subject with all original genre-bending fiction:
Ezekiel James Boston
Stephen Couch
Joe Cron
Leah Cutter
Dayle A. Dermatis
Robert Jeschonek
Kari Kilgore
Michael Kingswood
Kate Pavelle
Annie Reed
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Leigh Saunders
Rebecca M. Senese
Dean Wesley Smith
David Stier
Stories curated by Mark Leslie, editor of Campus Chills, North of Infinity II, Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound and multiple volumes in the Fiction River anthology series. Foreword by New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
342 pages, ebook
First published November 24, 2020
4 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Mark Leslie
127 books177 followersMark is a writer, editor and bookseller who was born and grew up in Sudbury, spent many years in Ottawa and Hamilton and currently lives in Waterloo, Ontario.
When he is not writing, he tacks "Lefebvre" back onto his name and works as a book industry consultant, having been a bookseller since the 1992, the same year his first short story was published.
Apart from publishing novels and non-fiction paranormal explorations under the name Mark Leslie, having works occasionally appearing on his mother's refrigerator door under the name Mark Lefebvre, and podcasting and consulting about the book industry under the name Mark Leslie Lefebvre for his Stark Publishing/Stark Reflections brand, Mark is a lover of craft beer.
When he's not enjoying craft beer or playing around with his three given names, he can usually be found wandering, awestruck through bookstores or libraries.
When he is not writing, he tacks "Lefebvre" back onto his name and works as a book industry consultant, having been a bookseller since the 1992, the same year his first short story was published.
Apart from publishing novels and non-fiction paranormal explorations under the name Mark Leslie, having works occasionally appearing on his mother's refrigerator door under the name Mark Lefebvre, and podcasting and consulting about the book industry under the name Mark Leslie Lefebvre for his Stark Publishing/Stark Reflections brand, Mark is a lover of craft beer.
When he's not enjoying craft beer or playing around with his three given names, he can usually be found wandering, awestruck through bookstores or libraries.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 5, 2023
“We must leave no mind untroubled”
When it comes to saying good things about Mark Leslie’s anthology of stories which he has cleverly assembled under the theme OBSESSIONS, this quotation struck me as special. It was a short, sweet and absolutely clear statement of modern marketing’s obsessive drive to convert simple desire into compulsive consumerism and consumption. A meta-obsession or obsession squared, in effect. But, I also selected this quotation as a tag line for the entire book. For me, it illustrates the dark and devious mind of Mark Leslie as an editor and anthologist of short stories (an obsessed mind, if you will), when I know his preference as a skilled author in his own right is for horror, the paranormal, the twisted, the perverse, the macabre and the noir.
If it was Mark Leslie’s objective to “trouble” a reader’s mind, in the sense of making that reader contemplate the source, the meaning and the results of “obsession” deriving from a myriad of life sources and reflected in the minds and lives of people that might have been you and me, then he certainly succeeded. OBSESSIONS is a wondrously mixed bag of genres – humour, fantasy, science fiction, horror, ghosts and vampires, love stories, and even, for lack of a better term, general fiction. Your reactions to the stories in OBSESSIONS, I guarantee it, will be beyond diverse – laughs, disgust, grief and sadness (to the point of indulging a good bawl, no doubt), fear, confusion, shock and surprise, resigned acceptance, happiness, and more.
In hindsight, I have to say that I’m thrilled that I participated in the Kickstarter campaign that ensured this fabulous collection saw the light of day with the authors being paid properly for their contributions. A solid recommendation for those who enjoy exceedingly well-done short fiction.
Paul Weiss
When it comes to saying good things about Mark Leslie’s anthology of stories which he has cleverly assembled under the theme OBSESSIONS, this quotation struck me as special. It was a short, sweet and absolutely clear statement of modern marketing’s obsessive drive to convert simple desire into compulsive consumerism and consumption. A meta-obsession or obsession squared, in effect. But, I also selected this quotation as a tag line for the entire book. For me, it illustrates the dark and devious mind of Mark Leslie as an editor and anthologist of short stories (an obsessed mind, if you will), when I know his preference as a skilled author in his own right is for horror, the paranormal, the twisted, the perverse, the macabre and the noir.
If it was Mark Leslie’s objective to “trouble” a reader’s mind, in the sense of making that reader contemplate the source, the meaning and the results of “obsession” deriving from a myriad of life sources and reflected in the minds and lives of people that might have been you and me, then he certainly succeeded. OBSESSIONS is a wondrously mixed bag of genres – humour, fantasy, science fiction, horror, ghosts and vampires, love stories, and even, for lack of a better term, general fiction. Your reactions to the stories in OBSESSIONS, I guarantee it, will be beyond diverse – laughs, disgust, grief and sadness (to the point of indulging a good bawl, no doubt), fear, confusion, shock and surprise, resigned acceptance, happiness, and more.
In hindsight, I have to say that I’m thrilled that I participated in the Kickstarter campaign that ensured this fabulous collection saw the light of day with the authors being paid properly for their contributions. A solid recommendation for those who enjoy exceedingly well-done short fiction.
Paul Weiss
December 18, 2020
Many thanks to my good friend Mark Leslie for putting together this very fun, eclectic collection. I’ve not read many short stories and this may well be the first anthology I’ve read and enjoyed. I can’t wait to share the print version with my wife. I’m not sharing my iPad.
The stories are all very enjoyable. It is sometimes hard to choose between ‘just one more’ and sleep. I can get by with just a few hours of sleep.
Now on to Beyond Obsessions
The stories are all very enjoyable. It is sometimes hard to choose between ‘just one more’ and sleep. I can get by with just a few hours of sleep.
Now on to Beyond Obsessions
March 23, 2021
Really interesting stories!
Not all of them were my taste though, but that's what everyone has, with anthologies.
I love that Leslie wrote an intro for every story. Makes it more fun to start those stories, makes you (try to) understand them/the writer better.
Not all of them were my taste though, but that's what everyone has, with anthologies.
I love that Leslie wrote an intro for every story. Makes it more fun to start those stories, makes you (try to) understand them/the writer better.
Read
November 28, 2020Of course I read it. Multiple times. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of other words of other stories that were awesome, but didn't make the final selection because of the way I wanted the stories to fit together for this anthology.
Of course, I'm quite biased about this book. I think the stories are awesome and the writers are brilliant. But I'm not leaving a rating, because of that bias. That would feel a bit incestuous.
But I DO want to mark this as read. Because I'm anal about tracking my book reading in that way.
Of course, I'm quite biased about this book. I think the stories are awesome and the writers are brilliant. But I'm not leaving a rating, because of that bias. That would feel a bit incestuous.
But I DO want to mark this as read. Because I'm anal about tracking my book reading in that way.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews