This seemed such a good idea in the bath last night. To be fair, if I’d given myself a bit of a run up it would have been a good idea, and likewise if it hadn’t started in the first working week of the month, which is . . . well let’s draw a veil over that. Still, I only have to make it to the weekend to have some quality browsing time. Until then we’ll have to make do with books I already know.
So let’s start by spreading the love around a bit with the Dark Fairy Queen Writerly Bridal Shower (various authors – of whom, yes, I am one, but one of many, so I don’t feel too bad about hi-jacking this post to recommend it).
I won’t claim that I love every story in this book, because they’re sufficiently varied to make the claim implausible. I will say that every story (except for one that I am carefully making no claims for at all) is readable, and that’s more of a compliment than perhaps it sounds. I may give the impression of loving everything that I read in a fairly indiscriminate manner, but that’s only because I won’t persevere with it a story at all if there isn’t something to love in it. There’s a lot to love in this book.
Although it was compiled with the purest intentions (as the title implies, as a bridal gift to that most talented, generous and complimentary of Dark Fairy Queens, Anna Loy) it also illustrates another thing that Smashwords does well. In allowing authors to put together collections like this and release them as free titles, Smashwords allows indie authors to tap into one another’s readerships in a web of mutual promotion. In fact, my current read (until I got started on this project) was from a writer I first encountered in the DFQWBS, writing in a genre I’d never have considered reading (sadly he’s not a Smashwords author, though, so he’s not going to help me get to the end of the week).
I think that’s well worth having, especially if it produces books like this one.
Be warned though. There are a lot of fairies.
Alex Brightsmith 