It may have occured to you, the faithful reader, that I have a fondness for short fiction: novellas; novelettes; short stories; flash; micro; cereal boxes. Novels are all well and good, and some are better than good, but when I really want to sink my proverbial teeth into a helping of literary-ness I reach for the short story collection. In a fit of ego, and no small bit of eagerness to share with you the works of some great writers, I thought I’d share my latest short fiction finds. Who knows? This might even become a regular offering.
First up is K.C. Ball’s SNAPSHOTS FROM A BLACK HOLE & OTHER ODDITIES, edited by Cat Rambo , published by Hydra House Publishing, 2012. In the interests of honest and open reporting, like myself, K.C. is a Clarion West 2010 graduate. S’alright? S’alright. Close the box.
Where was I? Oh, right.
K.C. Ball is a Seattle writer, Clarion West 2010 graduate, editor of 10Flash Quarterly, a Writers of the Future Contest winner, and a full member of the Science Fiction Writers Association of America. A self-confessed story junkie, she lives with her partner in West Seattle where she writes fiction by day, and battles invasions of foreign mutagenic crawfish with laser-eyes by night. Or vice versa. Take your pick.
SNAPSHOTS is K.C.’s first short story collection, a mix of previously published and new fiction. These stories explore age, gender, death, and suicide. She takes us through the heartland of America, the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, and to the edge of a black hole. K.C.’s prose is tight, and character driven. She has a knack for reaching up from the page to drag the reader into the thick of the action whether running through a ferry, or pulling the trigger.
Quoting from Cat Rambo’s introduction, “Worlds and time are fluid in K.C’s stories”, and she’s right. These stories offer the reader a taste of the elsewhens and wheres that make up the splendor of speculative fiction. “In His Prime” offers us a look at The Champ in a very different arena that isn’t so different after all. “Nosing with the Four-Stroke Kid” is a study in how dangerous curiosity can be, and “Synchronized with Evelyn” explores what might seem to be the final moments of a young woman’s life.
My favorite offerings are “Flotsam” (first published in Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine, September 2010), a straight forward science fiction story about an orbital garbage crew’s fight to survive an unexpected hazard, and “Bringing In The Dead” (first published in 2013: The Aftermath Anthology, Pill Hill Press, October 2010), the story of a Ranger unit struggling to finish their mission and leave no man or woman behind. Both stories explore the meaning of the human condition with K.C.’s understated insights. What exactly is the human condition? It’s love, respect, humor, and not a little bit of the butt-puckering fear that we feel when we read about a crisis and suddenly imagine ourselves in the character’s place, struggling with the same issues.
K.C. admits that she has been called “Old School”: “That suits me just fine. Old School is what I grew up reading.” Her love of the classics shines through in her writing, though, like Hemmingway, at times her prose can be so minimalist it is quite dry. “The Fluting Man” was enjoyable, but a tad bland. “Serves Him Right” (first published in Every Day Fiction, March 2011) was predictable and, though I like flash, I feel it suffered from a lack of depth brought on by the format.
There isn’t a bad story in this collection, fine praise for a first outing, and it sets the bar for her next outing. Reading K.C.’s work reminds me of sampling a box of good chocolate – even my least favorite pieces have something good to offer.
That’s a wrap for the first installment of Read All About It. Do yourself a favor and order a copy of SNAPSHOTS FROM A BLACK HOLE & OTHER ODDITIES here, then drop me a line and tell mne what you thought. Better yet, drop K.C. a line and let her know the same. Until next time, faithful readers, keep your nose between the covers and your eyes peeled for more great fiction.
(copyright 2012, Sandra M. Odell)
