So the first review is in for my forthcoming (and third) short story collection, Blue Yonders, Grateful Pies and Other Fanciful Feasts. I’m very pleased that my writing continues to resonate with the reviewers over at Publishers Weekly.
Here’s my favorite bit:
Scholes revels in the offbeat and surreal, marrying otherworldliness with very real human fears and concerns, and his stories are all the richer for it.
And the entire review:
Scholes’s third Imagination Forest collection (after Diving Mimes, Weeping Czars, and Other Unusual Suspects) continues exploring the limits of speculative fiction in 17 short stories whose genres include playful fantasy and SF as well as edge-of-your-seat suspense. Scholes revels in the offbeat and surreal, marrying otherworldliness with very real human fears and concerns, and his stories are all the richer for it. Curious characters abound, including “The Starship Mechanic,” about an alien mechanic fascinated with the holdings of a San Francisco bookstore, and a cat-woman trying to escape her former owner in “A Chance of Cats and Dogs.” The collection has a distinctive rhythm, with the novella-length standout piece “A Symmetry of Serpents and Doves” bookended by shorter vignettes. Scholes’s work is considerably inventive, and this collection showcases his versatility as a writer. (Aug.)
As usual, I’m just grateful anyone is reading. And delighted that my work is being so well received. Not a bad Saturday morning at all over here at West Scholes Manor. And it’ll be even better if you pop over and pre-order your copy of the collection right now!