The AE Anthology - Karen Bush

I love short stories - bite-size confections, entire books distilled down into tiny, perfectly formed delicious delights ... looking along my shelves I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised to see just how many collections of short stories I have acquired over the years.

Plenty of them are anthologies with multiple authors. I first came across this sort of collection while at school, where excerpts and short stories were gathered into text books which were read aloud during a lesson and then discussed. I couldn't bear listening to the stumbling, monotone reading of my classmates so used to stuff my fingers in my ears and race through several more stories while the current one was being murdered. They were good stories too, and I took note of the writers, and looked them up afterwards in the library - and in this way I was introduced to Jack London, Ray Bradbury, Saki and many other authors whose work I love, but might never otherwise have stumbled across if it hadn't been for those anthologies.

I still love anthologies, not just for the stories themselves, but because they are such a great way of broadening your reading, of sampling and discovering new authors - the wordy equivalent of a tasting menu if you like. So I'm very excited to be a part of one myself; the Authors Electric anthology - the first we have done, and with another to follow next year. I've had a sneak preview of it, and think I can safely say that you won't be disappointed. We're a pretty diverse bunch and this collection reflects that: it's a real smorgasbord and if you aren't familiar with some of our authors, its a great way of getting acquainted.  This is us. It's what we do when we aren't blogging here (just in case you wondered). It's published this month, on 21st June and is also available for pre-order HERE (UK) and HERE (US)    

We will be celebrating its publication (which coincides with our fourth anniversary of blogging) - with an online launch party on Midsummer's Day on our FB page - get your invite HERE - or if you forget simply stumble over to our FB page on the day - but do come and join us! Virtual nibbles and champagne will be supplied, but feel free to bring along your own - bring your pets, bring your friends or bring a druid: standing stones optional!