Honest Reviews of Zippered Flesh 3 and HWA Poetry Showcase IV

Since Amazon usually doesn't allow authors to review anthologies that include their work, I've made a habit of posting my reviews here on my blog.

Title: Zippered Flesh 3
Theme: horror tales of body enhancements gone bad
Publisher: Smart Rhino Publications
Editor: Weldon Burge
Number of stories: 19
Pages: 371
Price: $18.95 paperback, $3.99 Kindle

Favorite stories: "Worm" by Jeff Menapace, "All Will Turn to Gray" by Jezzy Wolfe, "Invisible" by E.A. Black, "And the Sky Was Full of Angels" by L.L. Soares, "Shopping Spree" by Meghan Arcuri, and my favorite, "Closer" by Charles Colyott.

My story: "Reduced to Tears," which describes a world where extreme body modification--in the form of yearly reductions--is the social norm. Margo thinks she's met the man of her dreams, until he breaks her heart by asking her to do the unthinkable.

Final thoughts: I give the anthology an A. What a thrill to share a table of contents with legends like Graham Masterton, Jack Ketchum and William F. Nolan, and Billie Sue Mosiman and James Dorr are talented pros as well. My favorites this time around were all new to me. In particular, Meghan Arcuri, L.L. Soares, and Charles Colyott all turned in riveting page-turners. Colyott's "Closer" keeps popping into my head at random times weeks after finishing the book. This may sound absurd, but I'm teary-eyed AGAIN just thinking about it. Powerful story.

You can order Zippered Flesh 3 right here.

Title: Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Volume IV
Theme: poems by members of the HWA
Publisher: HWA via Create Space
Editor: David E. Cowen
Number of poems: 50
Pages: 90
Price: $7.99 paperback, $2.99 Kindle

Favorite poems: "Stranded" by Robert Perez, "Atoms and the Void" by Miriam H. Harrison, "Cthulhu, Call Your Mother" by Lenore Hart, "The Length of His Spine" by Rob E. Boley, and "They May Not Tell Tales, But They Do Sing Songs" by Nina Shephardson.

My poem: "The Burial Shroud." A short poem about the so-called One Percent versus everyone else, and how it all ends.

Final thoughts: Overall, I give it a B. Besides my "top 5" noted above, I also appreciated the poems of Steve Rasnic Tem and Annie Neugebauer, in particular. The beauty of this showcase is that you can read it for fun, or read it to better understand poetry, or (in my case) a bit of both. I read every poem aloud first, then silently, then aloud again. Based on cost and how small the book is, page-wise, I'd recommend the Kindle. (There's even a deal where you can get all four volumes on Kindle for one price in one download.)

You can order HWA Poetry Showase IV here.