PRE-ORDER NOW: Tales From The Underground, from Inklings Press

It's pre-order time! The new anthology from Inklings Press - Tales From The Underground - is out this Friday, October 6, and is available on Amazon now. The Inklings Press crew stops by below to explain why Tales From The Underground was the next step in the series of anthologies. It includes one of my stories, Professor Algernon Whitlock's Exotic and Fabulous Grand Tour of the Underground.

We have a challenge for you. Put your feet on the ground. Feel the earth under your feet. Now imagine… imagine what is under that earth. Imagine the Underground.

Tales From The Underground is a new collection of stories from Inklings Press – with a dozen stories from writers around the world, all imagining what might lie beneath the ground.

There are stories of fantasy, there are stories of science fiction, there are stories bringing you a shiver in the dark.

So here, join us as we discuss what lurks beneath…

What is Inklings Press?

Inklings Press started out as a collective of writers working together to publish short stories – and though the net is wider these days, that’s exactly what Inklings Press remains. Royalties are evenly divided between writers, so every book sold gives contributors more money in their pocket. The press takes a single share too, the same size as any writer’s, to pay for advertising and promoting the book.

In short, Inklings aims to provide a place for writers who are new or up-and-coming, and we’re delighted to bring those writers’ stories to the world.

Why Tales From The Underground?

Tales From The Underground is perhaps the most natural development in the Inklings collection of books so far. The idea came from the writers of previous anthologies. In discussion, the writers themselves suggested the theme, so we ran with it. And the outcome is the biggest collection of stories yet from Inklings Press.

Who is in the anthology?

There are writers from around the world in the collection – there are stories that were authored in Australia, made in Mexico, that flourished in Finland and France, emerged from England and were born in The Bahamas.

The list of authors includes those with novels to their name, and those who are still taking their first steps in publication.

The authors in the anthology are Jeff Provine, Brent A. Harris, E.M. Swift-Hook, Claire Buss, Ricardo Victoria, Christopher Edwards, Lawrence Harding, N.C. Stow, Rob Edwards, Jaleta Clegg, Jeanette O’Hagan and Leo McBride.

You would love this anthology if you loved…?

One of the nice things about this collection is the range of stories inside.

Fantasy is a strong theme throughout, as in the urban fantasy of Rob Edwards’ The Lords of Negative Space, about the world just out of sight. But there are also science fiction tales, such as Jaleta Clegg’s tale, The Angels of Mestora, in which unwary dwellers of a distant planet are lured away from civilization by “angelsong”, and Ricardo Victoria’s Buried Sins, with a battle in an ancient underground city.

Jeff Provine delves into a cavern with a reputation for weird events, while Brent A. Harris takes us on a trip through time. N.C. Stow imbues her tale with the influence of Russian mythology, while both Lawrence Harding and E.M. Swift-Hook tell us tales of mythology in worlds of their own devising. Claire Buss goes underground in more than one sense in her tale Underground Scratching, and Jeanette O’Hagan presents a team of miners fighting for their very lives against supernatural powers.

Christopher Edwards tells us a tale of strange visions in an RAF bunker, and Leo McBride follows explorers retracing the steps of an expedition that never returned. There are ghosts, there are distant planets, there are things happening in the ground under our very feet. Legends are revealed, and legends are made.  

It is a delight to watch the stories take such different directions while all sharing the same theme.

Where can I get it?

Tales From The Underground is available on Amazon at mybook.to/Uground. You can also learn more at www.inklingspress.com. Each story also includes information about the writers, so if you fall in love with one of the works, you can follow the links to learn – and read – more.

So take a peek, and come join us, down here… in the dark.

Tales From Alternate Earths - available for pre-order now - PLUS FIRST REVIEW!

Tales From Alternate Earths - featuring eight authors exploring alternative history - is now available for pre-order on Amazon. You can pick it up here: myBook.to/Alternate

Ahead of the launch, we sent out advance review copies to several readers - and the first review, by author E.M Swift-Hook, is already here! 

So, don't take our word for what the new anthology is like... take hers. Without further ado, welcome guest blogger E.M. Swift-Hook:

Tales From Alternate Earths - Inklings Press.  Pre-Publication Review.  My Rating - 5 Stars

There is surely no other step-child in the weird and wacky family that makes up the genre known as 'Speculative Fiction', which is better suited to the short story format than alternative history. It allows an author to hone in on a point, even a single moment, in history and ask 'what if something different happened?' The answer is often not one that needs volumes to explore, but is better left to clever tending by an expert of bonsai literary expression. This anthology is a veritable greenhouse of such well-shaped bonsai.

Nuclear war actually having happened is the theme taken up by two of the authors, but with very different time points: 'September 26th, 1983' by Jessica Holmes and 1962 for 'One World' by Cathbad Maponus. One explores how Britain might be today if a Russian officer had not used cool headed common-sense back in the Eighties and the other is set in an America where the Cuban Missile crisis reached another possible conclusion.

"So, you said Oxford Street. This is Oxford Street. Anything special you want to see?"

Meteor strikes impacted enough to inspire the work of three of the authors in the anthology. 'Stargazing on Oxford Street' by Rob Edwards, has a view of how London could be which is very different to the one we have today. 'Tunguska, 1987' by Maria Haskins provides a totally original take on the cataclysmic event that flattened miles of forest in an isolated corner of the vast Siberian hinterland. 'Twilight of the Mesozoic Moon' by Brent A Harris & Ricardo Victoria is set in an almost unrecognisable alternative present day earth, but then the timeline as it is pictured here diverged in geological not historical time.

Away from the terrors of technology or the impact of astronomical objects, 'Treasure Fleet' by Daniel Bensen and 'One More Dawn' by Terri Pray  both pose interesting and very human 'what-ifs?'. 'Treasure Fleet' considers the idea of a medieval China converted to Islam and 'One More Dawn' is set in Ancient Egypt as a dying Pharaoh is tended by his loving wife.

“Um,” said Ogilvy, “I would say the chances are around a millio...”

Having a favourite in such a strongly written anthology as this is almost as impossible as having a favourite child - and may even be just as unethical, I am not sure. But I have to admit that I do have one: 'The Secret War' by Leo McBride. It is the one story that does the utterly unexpected and turns the idea of alternative history as approached by all the other stories in this collection completely on its head: what if a famous fictional story was really true? And then, when we have been brought to realise the impact of that, the author cleverly - and seamlessly - ties it into an equally famous real world event.

This collection of historical 'what ifs?' are each a near-perfect miniature cameo and a genuine delight. I can highly recommend it to all connoisseurs of speculative fiction, no matter which branch or sub-branch of the genre is their preferred regular perch. I think the only negative criticism I could offer is that the anthology includes more than one story drawing on the same actual event or very similar scenario. I think I might have possibly enjoyed the book just that little bit more if each story was tackling something unique from all the others - and the stories I appreciated the most were those that moved away from the more explored post-apocalyptic tropes and offered unexpected, unusual 'what-ifs?'.

I really enjoyed how many of the authors pulled in a second - and sometimes even a third - historical variable, to help expand and explain the events of their stories. All the contributions are well written and polished, all impacting in their own unique ways, offering thought-provoking glimpses of how things could have been - IF....

E.M. Swift-Hook