Photo: amazon.com
Once again, I’m shamelessly promoting my latest release. This time it’s for a good cause. Out of the Storm is a re-release of a short story anthology. The anthology was part of a contest sponsored by Writers on the Storm, The Wooodlands chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers and proceeds for the anthology go towards the ACFW Scholarship Fund.
This anthology centers around the theme of storms. Some are literal storms and other more of a emotional one. The anthology also has multiple genres from general fiction and Amish to both science fiction and fantasy.
My story “Detention” is a steampunk interpretation of “Cinderella”, where Bryn, my version of Cinderella is somewhat literal. She’s a teenager with a part-time job working in the coal-fired power plant her father owns. For the storm theme, it starts with a post-thunderstorm power outage. Bryn has trouble being an expat in a country that prizes social standing over intelligence and hard work. Life is harder with her father away on an extended business trip while she is left at home with her stepmother and two stepsisters, a troublemaking socialite and a hypochondriac complainer.
Bryn doesn’t make it through her first class before getting into trouble by being clever, where she meets Wyatt, a frequent recipient of school demerits. Hardly a delinquent, Wyatt is a high achiever, and the two forge a friendship in the fires of detention.
School infractions are the least of her concerns. The national detention, a program that denies visas to essential expatriates including Laird, Bryn’s future brother-in-law who needs needs an operation that can only be performed in their homeland. Working with Wyatt and her new friend, Jetta, the threesome devise a plan for Bryn and Laird to return home but tragedy strikes.
What is your favorite short story?
The New Authors Fellowship 