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The BookViral Review:
In a beautifully written debut collection of short stories Lauren Wilson gives us a reflective meditation on ordinary people’s expectations and assumptions with stories that are emotionally rich whilst feeling fresh and disturbingly relevant in today’s world.
In a short story, nothing is superfluous and that’s certainly true in Afro-Bougie Blues where the focus of Wilson’s sentences is sharp and vivid but splendidly elliptical too.
Particularly skilled at compression Wilson is not afraid to take risks, with form, content, style, and structure as is clearly evident in “Transformations” where she writes a story that doesn’t look how short stories are meant to look by presenting it as email exchanges. It’s close to faultless, ingenious, singular and full of the echoes of real life.
The best short stories should explore ideas as well as emotions centering around an instant where intense change becomes possible or, at least, imaginable for the character and this is true in all of Wilson’s stories but perhaps no more so than in “Mourning Angela” where every sentence is as full and alive as a sentence can be while managing to stay ordinary and wholly relatable to her readers. And it’s this kind of attention to detail and richness of texture that lifts her characters from the page into some more lasting place in a reader’s mind.
With twelve stories for readers to immerse themselves in and characters that feel vulnerable and real Afro-Bougie Blues is a must-read for fans of short fiction and is an unreservedly recommended 5-star read!
Giving us an intriguing plot that’s deliciously dark at times Smith’s colourfully visual imagination is once again evident as she brings her characters to life with a feisty narrative to deliver everything a reader could want from a Teen & Young Adult Fantasy novel.
Beginning with the marriage of Erc of Dalriada to his first wife Marca at the age of fifteen and covering the period up until his death in 474AD, Strittmatter gives us a rousing historical novel and a fine example of what can happen when good writing and extensive research come together.
Classic stanza’s that reach the heart and soul with prose that slip from thought to heart to remind us we are never alone. With worldwide downloads exceeding 250K and the beautiful Heathcliff’s Soul included this is one poetry book you must read.
Albert Einstein said that. No doubt imagination, then, is a great thing to have if it yields such rich thinking in adulthood-But when does imagination start in the brain? And how important is reading for developing imagination young minds?
The explosion in self-publishing and the subsequent success of self-published authors has certainly turned the publishing industry on its head.
Ever had writers block? Hardly surprising! Here are our three tips to send your imagination skyward….
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