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Amazon.com reader J. Worthen has posted a review of BLEED: A BOOK OF HOPE, which features my short story, “The Funeral Portrait”:

BLEED, now available at Amazon.com.

Reading BLEED left me terrified and moved more than I should admit. The book is a collection of short stories and poems collected to fight children’s cancer. It is a book of horror. And hope.

The tome begins with “True Horror”, an essay by Lori Michelle, describing what she went through when her son was diagnosed with cancer. It is a moving essay and if it were all there were in the book, I’d have thought my money well spent. But BLEED is filled with words by some the best new and rising stars in horror fiction, all lending their pens to this noble and honorable cause.

I won’t lie. I cried often while reading these stories. Not the usual effect of a horror anthology, I’ll grant you, but with each contribution I found the themes of childhood threatened resonating like weeping thunder in my father’s heart.

The styles are varied, the voices clear and strong, the stories personal and evocative. Even if it was not for such a good cause, I’d give this anthology the highest rating I could – such is the collection. Knowing it is a weapon in the war on children’s cancer, I wish only I could give it more stars.

This is the perfect anthology autumn evenings – great stories for a great cause. Buy it, give it, keep it by your bed.

Echoing Max Booth III, I too hope this anthology punches cancer right in the balls.

Each of the contributing writers lines up to take their best shot with the following essays and stories:

• “True Horror” by Lori Michelle
• “With Paper Armour and Wood Sword” by Tracie McBride
• “The Addition” by Bentley Little
• “Welcome to the World Mr. Smiles” by T Fox Dunham
• “Leukemia is Fookin’ Stoopid” by Anna DeVine
• “The Nightly Disease” by Max Booth III
• “Sludge” by Stan Swanson
• “I Am Disease” by Jen Finelli
• “Sky of Brass, Land of Iron” by Joe McKinney
• “Descent” by William F. Nolan
• “Five Little Tips” by Kristin Bryant
• “Remission” by Charlie Fish
• “Ears” by Eli Wilde
• “Mr. Expendable” by Peter N. Dudar
• “The Call” by Rick Hautala
• “Where the Wild Welo Waits” by John Hawkhead
• “A Billion Monstrosities” by Mort Castle
• “Dance of the Blue Lady” by Gene O’Neill
• “Unwoven” by Tim Waggoner
• “King Rat” by James Dorr
• “The Rooster” by Glenn Rolfe
• “The Monster in Me” by Suzie and Bruce Lockhart
• “Muted” by Hollie Snider
• “Dreams of Shadows” by Robert S. Wilson
• “The Funeral Portrait” by Christian A. Larsen
• “Impossible is Nothing” by Jack Ivey
• “The Gift” by Lindsey Beth Goddard
• “Lost and Found” by Patrick Lacey
• “That Which is Not Seen” by Dane Hatchell
• “Goddess of the Moxie Moon” by Absolutely Kate
• “Finding Peace by Writing About Cancer” by T Fox Dunham
• “The Lucky Mouth” by Gerry Huntman
• “Death Knell” by Richard Thomas
• “The Sallow Man” by Adam Millard
• “March” by Micah Joel
• “Bumper Car Bandit” by David Pointer
• “No Limit” by Peter Giglio and SS Michaels
• “The Unstoppable Annihilation” by Jeffrey C. Jacobs
• “I Know this World” by John Palisano
• “Fight” by Jay Wilburn
• “Slippery Love” by April Hawks
• “Red-Wat-Shod” by Jason V. Brock
• “Get the Cell Outta Here” by Marian Brooks
• “All the Sludge” by Benjamin Kane Ethridge
• “Never Enough” by J. David Anderson

But no matter the quality of the story, we need you to buy and read this book to take a chunk out of childhood cancer. Proceeds from the sale of BLEED: A BOOK OF HOPE will be donated to the National Children’s Cancer Society.

This entry was posted on September 26, 2013 at 10:04 am and is filed under Book Reviews, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.