Spectrum: A Colorful Collection of SmartyPants' Best

by S.C. Jensen, R. Bruce Macgregor (Editor)

Overview

You are an explorer in a galaxy of worlds... 

...with countless stories to delve into or even just try out.

Inside, you are the rescuer of the kitten who rescues you right back. You are the citizen making a life-or-death decision. You are the teenager experiencing her first bite. Drama. Mystery. Romance. Heartwarming fiction. Gut-twisting decisions. We gathered the best stories from multiple genres to create a kaleidoscopic collection of short fiction.

From award-winning authors to fresh new voices, worlds of discovery, adventure, and heartbreak are at your fingertips. 

Whether your tastes lie in blood red horror, green soothing family dramas, or night-black satire, there is a color--and a story--for you.

What's a good story?

If it's one that transports you into a different life, a different world, a different time, then we have 28 of the best.

Get comfortable and explore the range and breadth of SmartyPants authors painting stories with words. Fall in love, or be terrified and intrigued with the characters brought to life in these pages. Come celebrate how varied the spectrum of storytelling can be!

Whether you buy right away or you you "Look Inside", we know you'll find a story that speaks to you, immerses you, and seduces you into the colorful hallucinations of a well-told story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781944677060
Publisher:	SmartyPants Publishing Inc
Publication date:	11/15/2017
Series:	SmartyPants Spectrum , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	344 KB

About the Author

Raised on Star Trek, Dune, and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Jennifer prefers a good dose of biting social commentary in her speculative fiction, and with such influences as C. S. Friedman and Joan D. Vinge, uses gentle metaphor and a total lack of preachiness to do it. Her complex characters grow through their tense and challenging plots, through settings deliberately chosen to amplify the moral struggles we all face, but always with the assurance that you can kick back, put your feet up, and just enjoy an entertaining, funny, and haunting story if you want. Dedicated to the craft of writing well, Jennifer and her publishing company SmartyPants Publishing, Inc. work to grow authors of all genres who share in the love of a good story well told. To this end, SmartyPants maintains a learning site, critique group, and a host of upcoming projects including novels, anthologies, and a self-publishing and hybrid-publishing forum It is Jennifer's work in life to not only tell her own stories, but to help other writers tell the stories that need to be told, and to get those stories into the hands of anyone who wants them. Good stories, well told, and distributed across the globe.
S.C. Jensen is a Canadian writer from northern Saskatchewan. Right now, she's probably holed up somewhere to escape mosquitos or frostbite. When she's not hiding from the elements, Jensen can be found creeping around used-book stores, pretending she knows how to use her digital camera, and experimenting with how much caffeine she can ingest without causing cardiac arrest. Jensen also enjoys dandelions, northern lights, and apologizing for things that aren't her fault. Inspired by the speculative worlds of Margaret Atwood, Octavia E. Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Neil Gaiman, and Jeff VanderMeer, Jensen's stories explore unusual places with exceptional characters. She is the author of many short stories, her debut novel The Timekeepers' War, and is currently working on its sequel.

Table of Contents

About Spectrum 3

About the Stories 4

Red: Lures 5

“Aspen” by Jennifer Roush. Genre: Erotic Fiction 6

“Drawn” by Gale Meadows Genre: Dystopian 8

“Mrs. Caldwell’s Curtains” by Jamie Merrigan, Genre: Fantasy 16

“Once Upon A Blood Moon” by Harvey Covey. Genre: Horror 20

Orange-Warnings 23

“Yard Sharks” by B.L. Daniels. Genre: Bizarro 24

“Conscious Competence” by Daniel J. Moylan. Genre: Science Fiction 27

“R-Evolution” by Tim Clark. Genre: Bizarro/Satire 32

“Ubiquitously You” by Bob McNeil. Genre: Experimental 35

“Leap of Faith” by T A Miner. Genre: Science Fiction 38

Yellow-Warmth 40

“What Is Success?” by Sunayna Pal. Genre: Morality Tale 41

“Skipping Rocks” by M.D. Pitman. Genre: Drama 46

“It’s Something” by Lauren Tetrick. Genre: Literary Fiction 49

Green-Hope 51

“Loaves and Fishes” by Alex Mattingly. Genre: Memoir 52

“Over” by Kerry E.B. Black. Genre: Drama 54

“The Chosen” by Michelle Ford. Genre: Science Fiction 58

“Speed of Service” by Carrie Houghton 64

“Sweet Pea” by Cammie Adams. Genre: Drama 66

“Millennial Babies” by Trina Wynn-Waller. Genre: Literary 70

Blue-Loss 73

“Flashing Lights and Ticking Clocks” by Chris Reynolds. Genre: Drama 74

“Lunch Date” by Eva Schultz. Genre: Science Fiction 78

“Time To Go, Grasshopper” by Leah Mueller. Genre: Fiction 81

“The Old Woman” by Dani J. Caile Genre: Drama 84

“My Mother Is an Onion” by Trish Tuthill. Genre: Literary 87

“Flight of the Raven” by Mary Grosset. Genre: Historical Fiction 89

Purple-Turning Points 91

“From Within” by Aliya Jabrailova. Genre: Thriller 92

“Mother” by Nerisha Kemraj. Genre: Drama 97

“The Snow Bride” by Karin Davidson. Genre: Mystery 100

“Hunger” by S.C. Jensen. Genre: Thriller 104

Thank You! 113