2011; 142 pages. New Authors? : For the most part, no. Genres: Anthology; Christmas Fiction; Short
Stories. Overall Rating : 8*/10.
Nine talented indie authors were
tasked with writing a short story with a "December Holiday” theme. For the most part that means Christmas,
but it could also apply to Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and even the Winter Solstice.
I doubt the authors were
given any other guidelines. The length
of a short story is ill-defined, and here the longest one is just over 30
pages, while the shortest ones are a mere seven pages or so. Two of the tales are written from the
first-person point of view, the rest are in the third-person. Each of the tales has at least one twist in it to keep the reader entertained.
At 142 pages (so sez my
Kindle), The Holiday Collection
is a quick and easy read. So if you’re
looking for a bunch of fast-moving festive tales, this book may just be your cup of eggnog.
What’s To Like...
The titles of the nine stories (and authors)
in The Holiday Collection are:
1.) St. Claws – Alan
Nayes
2.) Snow
Whisperers – Lizzy Ford
3.) Saving
Grace – Julia Crane
4.) O
Christmas Cactus, O Christmas Cactus – M.
Edward McNally
5.) Fred’s
Best Christmas – P.J. Jones
6.) Fresh
Snow – Talia Jager
7.) Let’s
Ride – Shéa MacLeod
8.) A
Very Shero Christmas – Jack Wallen
9.) The Darkest Night – Heather Marie Adkins
There’s a decent amount of
variety to the tones of these stories, which was a welcome respite from the
slew of Hallmark Christmas Movies my wife watches every December. A couple of the tales
have a somewhat “dark” tint to them, which in no way detracts from their
holiday themes. Among the others, one
has a romance theme, three felt
“warm-&-fuzzy” to me, one left a lump in my throat, one was a innovative take-off of A
Christmas Carol, and one , believe it or not, was a sci-fi
thriller. My favorites were 2, 4, 5, and
9; but honestly, I enjoyed them all.
Your faves will almost certainly be different.
You’ll meet some cross-dressers, empaths, talking snowmen, and a Jedi
knight along the way. You can help
celebrate the Winter Solstice, see auras, and help thwart a “hit” that’s been
put on Santa. I only recall one music
nod – to Katy Perry of all people.
O Christmas Cactus, O Christmas Cactus resonated with me because
it’s set in my present environs. Phoenix's Sky
Harbor Airport (from which you get a lovely view of the harbor as you land) really is a rat’s maze to get out of.
And if the protagonist has trouble visualizing the famed Camelback
Mountain nearby, he’ll have an even tougher time seeing the lesser-known “Monk
of the Mountain” on the northern part of the camel’s head, who once a time, on
a psychedelic night, turned his head and stared threateningly at me.
Kewlest New Word ...
Blahniks (n., plural) : a high-end shoe brand.
Ratings…
Amazon:
3.4/5
based on 32 ratings.
Goodreads: 3.70/5 based on 125
ratings and 11 reviews
Excerpts...
He watched the big man open a refrig and
pull out a cold beer and pop the top.
“How’d you know my name?” Matt asked.
“I know everybody that comes to St.
Claws. I’m the town’s founder.”
“Whoopee-do. Everybody?”
“Yup.”
He poured a double shot from the Patron bottle.
“My wife and boy?”
“Jenny and Billy.”
Matt eyed the man suspiciously. “This is getting weird. Where’s my tequila?” (loc. 309)
Garth Vader, Intergalactic Ambassador and
Jedi Knight, walked up to them, carrying his tinfoil lightsaber in one hand and
a carton of orange juice in the other.
Garth’s few strands of graying hair were gelled back and he’d even
shaved his scraggly beard.
Garth’s gaze swept over the room as
patients quietly opened stockings and stuffed their faces with candy. “I sense a change in The Force.” (loc. 1086)
ANAICT, The Holiday Collective is always free at Amazon. The Eclective has five other short story anthologies available for your Kindle, with the labels Celtic, Pride, the Apocalypse, Haunted, and Halloween. All of those are likewise free right now.
Her boyfriend of
two years had just given her the “it’s not you, it’s me … and my new
girlfriend” speech, two days before Christmas.
(loc. 522)
There’s not much to quibble
about in The Holiday Collection. Most of the stories have a small amount of
cussing in them, which might come as a surprise for a Christmas-themed
anthology. One tale was cussword-free,
while three others had more than fifteen instances apiece. I don’t recall any R-rated stuff besides
that.
The editing was overall quite
good, with most of the errors occurring in just one of the tales. This makes me believe that each contributing
author was responsible for his/her own proofreading. Most anthologies have an editor-in-chief, and
I wonder if that would have been helpful here.
One other author seemed to have trouble with the use of commas when dialogue
is directed to a specified person; sometimes it was done correctly, sometimes
not.
All in all, The Holiday Collection was a short but pleasant read. I’ve read other stories
by most of these writers, and so the polished storytelling was not
unexpected. Kindle gives an estimated
reading time of 2 hours and 48 minutes, although as usual, I broke that up into
four or five nights to prolong the fun.
8 Stars. Sadly, it appears that The Eclective, aka The Indie Eclective has been mothballed. They put out these six anthologies in 2011-12, but none since. One of the authors, Heather Marie Adkins, put out three more anthologies, apparently all Wiccan-oriented, in 2016-18, but I don’t see any more of those after that. I'm guessing that the career path of an independent author is a tough road to travel.
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