Talk us through it
Celapene Press's by now yearly collection comprises a surprising number of poems, short stories, and flash fiction pieces. The one requirement of any inclusion in the book is that it has a twist to the plot at the end. Celapene are covering all aspects of spec fiction, Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction here with the emphasis being on giving equal space to each genre and not allowing one to dominate. In total there are around 65 individual pieces, admittedly some of those are photos or sketches, in the collection from a wide variety of Writers and Artists. The collection is rounded out with an Introduction and short Contributor Bios at the end.
Review"I know Benny. One day she will." - Laura To a certain extent Short and Twisted only just made it onto the ScaryMind's reading list due to some dark genre content. While there are out and out horror items surfacing in the collection, Damien Kane's The Picnic immediately springs to mind, they tend to be sporadic with more space given over to the traditional ghost story construct. We have no problems with the ghost story, I'm a sucker for a haunted house yarn, and I was pleased the collection didn't descend into the mush that is the current in vogue supernatural romance, but there was a feeling that we might be diluting ourselves somewhat with this collection. End of day the decision was made that we cover all rooms in the horror manor, including the drawing room parlour of the traditional ghost story. Let's get down to it and see what Celapene's collection might bring. If you are the sort of dark genre reader that can't get past works by the likes of Stephen King, Richard Laymon, or Brett McBean then Short and Twisted circa 2008 (S&T08) isn't going to hold out much promise for you. There's nothing heavy under the hood here, it's all pretty acceptable in polite society. Whether this was due to Editorial policy or lack of the gross out submissions remains a moot point really. If you aren't a regular horror reader or dig a good fireside ghost story then you just might find something to get on down with in the collection. There are of course a couple of other genres rubbing your leg for attention so the collection really is a grab bag of local and international emerging talent that might just present the spring board into new Authors that we all need in order to stay fresh as readers. When I hit the last page I dropped the book on my coffee table and immediately grabbed the 2009 edition, yes I did enjoy myself between the covers and was happy to have the chance to hit this one. The Collection while not offering anything that you instantly class as classic stuff is of the solid variety. The book may have a remit to trawl the waters of Spec Fiction but the Editor wasn't totally on top of her job in rejecting the undersized elements and that catch of the day that isn't going to sit well on the plate of your average speculative fiction reader. There' s a number of pieces in the collection that would have been more at home in a mainstream short fiction colleciton and that had zero in the way of speculative elements. For example, Fireflys by Danielle Graber might be a fine story with the requisite twist in the tale but in no way should it have been included in this collection. Of course nowhere in the Editorial does Kathryn Duncan actually state the collection is restricted to Spec Fiction, but that's how the book was sold to me so that's how I'm reviewing it. I should note here that Celapene Press in no way misrepresented the book and they might be surprised that I for no apparent reason cottoned onto the Spec Fiction idea. Besides the odd venture into more mainstream stories we do get a decent amount of horror content. There's nothing in the collection that will have the more timid reader shying away, blood and guts style horror is notable by its absence, there's a far more genteel approach being taken. We get a fair splattering of ghost stories, always a welcome distraction over my way, and some solid horror yarns that will you have you sitting up and taking notice. I'm not claiming there's anything revolutionary or brand new in terms of plots or ideas in any of the dark genre stories, but there's certainly a workman like feel to things with no obvious cannon fodder being included. Just because you have thrown together a horror yarn your Mom likes, doesn't necessarily mean it will gain space in forthcoming Celapene collections. One of the weaknesses of the horror content in the collection is that everything is pretty predictable with no clowns suddenly leaping out of shadows brandishing knifes of mass threat. There's a general feeling you have read it before, in another form, the twist coming at you is preordained, and that you aren't discovering new territory. Both The Middle Of Nowhere, Stacey Ryall, and Christopher Elston's Laura have such hackneyed plots that the reader are left wondering if maybe some Writers should give the movies a miss. At the risk of dropping some spoilers on people, if you have seen The Others then there is nothing new here. Similarly the twist coming at you in Making a Killing at the Pokies, Hazel Edwards, can be seen lumbering over the horizon. It's kind of depressing as most collections do tend to offer one or two nuggets of inspiration at least. For sometime readers of dark fiction there might be merit here but for regular dark water swimmers it's all pretty much "seen it before got the tee". On the bright side of the collective mind at least some of the horror "twists" aren't as groan inducing as what I guess is meant to be comedic tales, hard to tell as in this collection the humour is on the non laugh out loud setting of the dial. There are however a number of stories, from various genres, that can hold their heads up and that make S&T08 a worthy investment. Without detailing an exhaustive list I would highlight Drying Out by Ingrid Elkner, that reminded me of the sort of yarn those Pan horror anthologies used to contain, Jonathan Elsom's Child's Play, the excellent Green Velvet, Beth King, and the sly The Dragon Slayer Peter Lingard. Overall Celapene haven't stinted on the presentation of the collection. The covers are dramatic black with white writing, the front including an excellent design by Andrew Duncan. Each piece is laid out with all the attention a Mortuary worker would give to an open coffin corpse, and there are a decent amount of illustrations and photos by various visual artists spread right through the collection. Some real effort has gone into the look of S&T08. S&T08 is available at the Celapene website, click through. I wouldn't muck around if you decide to purchase a copy as stocks are limited. For those with an eye to a bargain, you can get yourself a package deal with S&T09 included with the 2008 edition. While being slightly disappointed with the horror content I did get my dollar's worth out of the collection as a whole. There's a number of promising Writers included who hopefully keep up their writing, hone away people, and at least a couple of the stories wouldn't be out of place in a year's best of Aussie fiction, if such a beast exists.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... A few backward steps here and there but overall worth a look.
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