Extraordinary Treasures

by Beth Black

Ordinary treasures are diamonds and gold. Extraordinary treasures are inklings and dreams.

In unstable times, the most prized treasures could be little more than brief escapes from our relentless reality. Readers ache equally for adventure and solace. These can be found here, in several career-spanning stories reflecting the author’s lifetime of experiences and imagination. Come explore suburbia’s eccentricities, as a pee-wee softball player invites mayhem in the stands, and the flip side of hate turns up when a little girl asks her racist attacker a single killer question. One story pays loving tribute to Thurber’s Walter Mitty by sharing the part he left out. Another explores a not-too-distant future when commonplace genetic surgery alters the core qualities of humanity.

Each story glints like a precious stone embedded in a dimly lit path, enticing the reader to wander toward yet another fascinating destination.

Genres: Short Stories

97 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 26, 2021

About the author

Fade In Award winner Beth Black writes Romance novels for the Better Late Romance collection. She also tinkers with short stories for fun.

Beth spent six years on-staff at Toastmasters International as their Creative Writer. In her career, both on-staff and freelancing, this Pushcart Prize nominee has been published or produced in long and short fiction, journalism, creative nonfiction, magazine articles, technical writing, PR and commercial screenwriting. She holds a degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from UC, Irvine.

Reviews

[Sunnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent collection of short stories covering a variety of subjects.

[Beth Black]

Every writer will likely tell you that their work is deeply personal. I'm proud of being published in literary journals and thrilled at the comments from editors and readers. Bringing these stories together in one collection will allow a new group of readers to find them, and I hope they'll enjoy these brief escapes from the challenges of the day.

This book is now available on Kindle and Nook.

[Stephen Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an eBook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As the blurb says, treasure can be found in imagination and some of these treasures can exceed the value in jewels.

I have to confess that I’m not a reader of speculative fiction. I asked to read and review this book to stretch my mind and imagination.

The stories in this volume challenged my imagination in a speculative way with well-defined characters and interesting settings. At the outset each story seems set in the world of today in a known location, but as each story developed I found myself enveloped in a world of troubles from future times or a moment of "what if" leaving me with the wonder of what will happen next.

These stories are explorations of the human condition in our possible future.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've given it 5 stars to balance out the attack this author is under by blackmailers. And I'm going to read it too!

[Ann Marie]

Just read the article on Time titled, How Extortion Scams and Review Bombing Trolls Turned Goodreads Into Many Authors’ Worst Nightmare and I want to support these authors so I've bought this book and have every intention of reading it and rating it fairly.

[Terry Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary Treasures is aptly named, a fascinating collection of strange, disturbing and funny stories from an original voice in fiction. My particular favorite is "The Secret Wife of Walter Mitty," a twisted tale that would make James Thurber proud. And "The Battle of Beaumont Street" will change the way you see suburban living.

[Hadassah Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting

I gave this book a five star rating because even though each story was different in their own way, it gave me a better respect towards different genres . I also liked how each story had a lesson to teach the reader because all these stories thought outside the box.