Announcing: All Our Forms: A Shifter Anthology
In December of 2021, my fellow writer, Nikki Mitchell, got in touch with the core cohort of writers with whom she'd wormed on the previous anthology. The New Normal, of which I was lucky enough to be a part. She said the itch to do another one had come back, so she got us organized (something usually akin to herding cats), to do another charity anthology.
At the time when this offer came through, I was at the beginning of revising my novel-in-progess and was a bit reticent about going back to short stories. The trio of books I'd been involved with at the start of 2021 had left me semi-exhausted and anxious about my ability to write them. But, once we'd agreed to all write stories about shape-shifters, an old idea I'd been toying with came back to me.
The result: In All Our Forms: A Shifter Anthology.
My story "Aisling," like a lot of my anthology tales, predates the anthology. Set in the same fantasy world as my novel, the main character is a female Fey named—you guessed it—Aisling (although, she goes by Ash for most of the story), who one day, wondering aimlessly through the forests of Tegucia, happens across a human being attacked by a Giant Boar. Acting on impulse, she manages to save the man's life, and eventually, she falls in love and builds a life with him after transforming into a human. What follows after that is a tale of how, even the most noble of actions, which can lead to life changing circumstances, sometimes also have dark consequences years down the line.
Mine, of course, is only one of the myriad of tales festured in this book. The wonderful thing about anthologies is their grab-bag quality; with so many to read, you never know which will catch your fancy until you read it the first time.
As I mentioned, In All Our Forms is a literary charity effort. At first, when we started planning the book, we weren't sure which charity we'd assign the profits to, until one unfortunate day back in February.
When it became clear that Russia's invasion of Ukraine wasn't going to end any time soon, our choice became clear: we'd give the proceeds to an organization working to help the people affected by the war. After a vote, we selected Doctors Without Boarders. So, for the next 2 years, Nikki will make sure the funds will get to where they will do the most good.
In All Our Forms will debut September 29th, 2022. If you enjoy good fiction and love a good cause, by all means, purchase your copy asap.
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