One of the best things about being friends with authors is that you get to glimpse tiny little pieces of them through their writing that, often times, they don't reveal in public. Such is the case with my friend and Indie Author, Peggy Christie. If you met Peggy out in real life, you would come to the conclusion that she's a brilliant, kind-hearted, creative, and super-fun person. All of that is true. But... she's also got an overwhelmingly creepy side! I offer as evidence, her latest short story collection, Dark Doorways. This is a superb romp through the underlying imagination that can make you think, "yes, maybe that's how it works", while simultaneously thinking, "wow... I hope that's not how it works." This collection brilliantly mixes short story, poetry, and flash fiction together in a wound that sometimes coagulates, and sometimes continues to bleed; depending on how much you want to think about it. The book begins with a literal telling of what might happen if you found yourself "Knocking On Death's Door". I almost burned dinner on the grill one night because I was too distracted. That's twice that's happened - I think I need to stop reading books while I tend the dinner. "HR" was a piece that I read while sitting at the hospital laboratory, waiting for blood work for an upcoming surgery. The story made me think a little bit deeper into the abbreviations one encounters while doing every-day things... in every-day places. It was a little unnerving. Thanks, Peggy! "Bending Space" was a weird tale that tugged at the remnants of old ghost stories told around Girl Scout campfires in days past. I thought I knew where it was going... really, I did. I thought I understood the stakes, what the character would find in the end. And then, WHAM! Peggy hit me in the end with that thing I hated in Girl Scouts... an eerie lingering. Stop with the goose bumps and the little hairs standing up on the back of my neck, already, will you PLEASE! Yes, this is a great book. No I'm not saying that just because we're friends. This is a GREAT book. Just... maybe... don't read it if you're at a hospital lab, waiting to have your blood drawn. Thank you, Christie, for pulling back the fourth wall of your brain for us. Watch my interview with Peggy Christie on Indie Reads TV, where we talk about this book and her writing career. Visit Peggy Christie's website HERE.
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