Did you know that May is National Short Story Month? Amber
Book Company plans to celebrate by releasing a new volume of my short stories
entitled Shards: The Omnibus Edition. Many of you know me from my social
commentary posts appearing on my blog, while others are familiar with my young
adult science fiction series The Adventures of Mackenzie Mortimer. Still
others think of me as a novelist or epic storyteller, pointing to my four-book
fantasy series Halos & Horns and my current ongoing fantasy series, Fangs
& Fur. There are even some readers who think of me primarily as a
nonfiction author because of my internationally top-selling book Issues in
Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law, my two Web design books,
and my Collected Essays of a Reluctant Blogger. But the truth is, above
all else, I’m a short story writer.
Shards may
sound familiar to you. My first short story collection was entitled Randoms. It was lovingly crafted, published in a hardcover edition with a dust
jacket. Unfortunately, the printer had tremendous difficulty printing the dust
jacket. Every copy rolled off the printing press with a slightly different hue,
making each book and instant collectible and the source of much aggravation and
vexation. Ultimately, and with great reluctance, we replaced the hardcover
edition with a paperback. My second short story collection, Careywood, was a charitable effort published in a limited print run to raise
money to restore a historic mansion. Then, in 2011, almost all of my short
stories were collected in a giant 450-page paperback entitled Shards. This mammoth collection included the best of Randoms, the stories from the limited edition Careywood, and a host of new short stories, many of which had been
shared in public readings but never collected in print. Shards was to
stand as my oeuvre: the complete collection of my short story output.
At the time, it was
the largest book I had ever written… Ironically composed of the shortest of
stories. But with each new edition over the course of 10 years, Issues in
Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law grew to 680 pages. After I
completed the four-book Halos & Horns series, the saga was collected
in a single omnibus edition, The Halos & Horns Omnibus, which clocked in at a whopping
904 pages. Suddenly, the 450-page Shards didn’t seem so big any more. And in the five years since its
publication, I had written a few more short stories. I wanted to gather these
new short stories into a brand-new collection but the Halos & Horns Omnibus had gone over so well that it
was decided to create a short story omnibus.
We began with the
original 450-page Shards
and reorganized the stories by theme. Then we added 300 pages of new material.
That’s right, 750 pages of short stories between two covers. Or 191,523 words
if you’re counting. We kept the original front and back cover to Shards and christened it Shards: The Omnibus Edition. The themes in Shards:
The Omnibus Edition include man’s inhumanity to man; technology in
society run amok; freedom; conformity; slice of life; fear; prejudice; revenge;
the inevitability of death; sadness and depression; darkness and light; lust;
love; regret; repentance; pity; debauchery and selfishness; hubris; obsession;
fusion fiction; Christmas; the quest; the trickster; discovery and wonder;
alienation (stranger in a strange land); and farewell.
Admittedly Shards: The Omnibus Edition is a mixed bag. Some of the tales are
downright hilarious. Some are frightening. And a few are disturbing. There are
stories within this volume you will treasure… and others you may wish you had
never read. Good writing isn’t about repeating hackneyed memes; it’s about
pushing the envelope and extending the boundaries until the reader finds
himself well outside his comfort zone. In Shards: The Omnibus Edition
you’ll find stories that make you laugh and make you cry; stories you’ll want
to share with your children; and story so horrifying you’ll banish them to the
deepest recesses of your mind. So join me in celebrating national short story
month with the publication of Shards: The Omnibus Edition.