Twisted Shorties II

Review by: Sheila Deeth on July 25, 2013 :
“Returning favourites like Tracy Fabre, Doug Westberg, Barbary Chappel, Patricia Gilliam… as well as Twisted Shorties newcomers… mystery author Aaron Paul Lazar… have all joined in on the festive fandango,” writes author A. F. Stewart in her introduction to this fine collection of short fiction and poetry. The Gather.com site may have suffered a wounding glitch, but its authors are going strong, and this second Twisted Shorties collection is testament to the hard work and dedication of the editors, wranglers of writers, artists and more. Me, I’m one of the authors, yes, but I wouldn’t be had I not received such timely and generous reminders from Wrangler-in-Chief, Pam Brittain. I’m delighted to be part of such a fun collection, and I offer my thanks to all.

At 497 pages (on my kobo), this is a weighty book. But the reading’s easy, with content organized by author’s names, and again by category. It’s perfectly fitted to the electronic form, easy to dip into, easy to follow and browse through, and thoroughly enjoyable to open at any time of day. With romance, fantasy and science fiction, children’s stories, humor, horror and more, all set into fiction, essays, snippets and poetry, I’d love this even if I wasn’t a part of it.
Learn the secret of Helena’s second birthday in Pat Moore’s beautifully evocative A Holiday Somewhere in the World. Join Elsie Duggan in the remembered rapture of The Dance. Startle as Len Maxwell turns an awards night on its head, meet the world’s strangest unknown mythological creatures, buy a Stardrive from R. C. Larlham, beware the Jabberwock, enjoy Ms Lee P.’s Busy Bee, and see a different vision of Happy Never After… I could list all my favorites, but, did I say, there are 497 pages, and all of them fun, intriguing, odd, enticing, enthralling, entertaining.

I guess authors shouldn’t really review works they’re included in, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully edited, enticingly constructed collection, well designed with the e-reader in mind, and ridiculously excellent value for money.

Disclosure: I’ve already disclosed it: I’m one of the authors, but I’m reviewing the other 490+ pages, not mine, so I think it’s okay.

Review by: Pat Moore on July 18, 2013 :
Yep, I'm biased. Yep, I'm a Gather member. And yep, I'm a contributor.
Yep, it's one of the best books I've read in ages - right up there with the original Twisted Shorties (and my own humble effort, A Little Gathering). It's bigger. It's better, and you will not get more entertainment for the money. Whatever tickles your fancy, you will find it in here... and will probably find something else you hadn't thought of, to tickle it again.
Download it. It'll be the best thing you do this week.

Review by: Doug Westberg on July 17, 2013 :
I'm very grateful to be a part of Twisted Shorties II as well as Twisted Shorties. Dozens of authors from Gather.com have put their best foot forward to create a compendium of miscellany like no other.


Gather.com is a unique model for a discussion, meeting, and news site. It features everything from celebrity gossip to recipes. But the writing community is a truly vibrant group of people, encouraging and supportive, putting out great work of enormous variety and mentoring fellow writers to a degree hard to find anywhere else on the web.


Now comes the second volume of enormously creativitous and versatilatenous literaturity. The sheer creative variety makes this a smorgasbord like no other. The other thing that makes this collection unique is that we are not just writing for ourselves, alone in our garret. We are writing for each other, prompted by our editors, inspired by our mentors, encouraged by our friends.


It's free, it's loaded with inspiration and enthusiasm, and there are some damn good writers represented here, including Greg Schiller, Barbary Chaapel, Len Maxwell, Kevin Ewing, Patricia Gilliam, A.F. Stewart, and Sheila Deeth, among many others. Did I mention it's digestible? The fiction is sudden and the poetry is friendly. Perfect for downloading to your phone and reading on the poddy. What are you waiting for?

Review by: Heather Campbell on July 17, 2013 :
What a terrific FREE opportunity! This book compiled of the various contributions by this group of Gather writers is well worth your time to download and read. I know many of the people involved in the creation of this book and I have only the highest regard for their work. I hope you will enjoy their talents as much as I have.

Review by: Elsie Duggan on July 17, 2013 :
Just think this is an amazing book. The writers are all so talented and editors great. Recommend it highly for reading pleasure by all, something for everyone,

Review by: Sharon Pribble on July 4, 2013 :
Once again the Gather writers have created a wonderful mix. I enjoyed the variety.

Review by: Liz Husebye Hartmann on July 2, 2013 :
They put the prompt out there, we took the prompts in here
Our brains were cogitating and our imaginations weird
We gave a little chuckle or we shed a little tear
The best results presented here.

Twisted Shortie, mad gyration
Of a wanton mental swirl.*
If this rhyme don’t drive you crazy,
Then I must not be The Girl.

You put this sentence in, you take that adverb out,
You hit the space bar harder and you give a little shout.
You write your Twisted Shortie with a slinky little flout:
Poems and stories marching out!

***************
Please try these Twisted Shorties
Don't even have to print them out...
Verily I say to you:
Tis what it’s all about!

*(with sincere apologies to Jeff Brechlin)

Review by: Pam Brittain on June 29, 2013 :
I have thoroughly enjoyed compiling this great anthology. The diversity of the many writers who submitted their stories and poems is amazing, and reading them, fascinating. Granted, I have the manuscript, but I love this book so much, I downloaded it to my Kindle.

If you love romance, sci-fi, children’s stories, humor, fantasy, horror, poetry or just general fiction, there’s a story or poem in there just perfect for you.

Review by: Len Maxwell on June 25, 2013 :
Read the description and you’ll realize you really need to download this free book. The writers of Gather.com have outdone themselves with this new edition. I cannot think of another anthology that offers the diversity of this book. Whatever you want to read -- it’s there.