Today, Sheila Crosby launches her book, the Dodo Dragon, a collection of her short stories and novellas. The book's title comes from one of the short stories in the book. I read an advance copy of it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had previously read several of the stories, but Sheila writers the type of stories that age very well and stand up to repeated readings.
Almost all the stories are witty and amusing. Many of them with surprise endings, a talent that Sheila often uses in her stories. Some of the stories are set in the Canary Islands where Sheila lives and provides us with a setting that isn’t seen in very many stories.
Scream Quietly was my favorite story in the book. That story is told in letters from an anguished mother who faces an unusual predicament, one of the stories with a surprise twist at the end.
Go here to learn more: http://dragontree.sheilacrosby.com/blog/the-dodo-dragon-and-other-stories/
Contents:
- The Dodo Dragon I am the last and I am lonely. Last night I saw three of the large moons hanging together, with the sea sparkling and dancing below. It gave me no pleasure. There was no-one to share it.
- Oh Baby! The Ibble took great interest in the Earth Ambassador’s pregnancy.
- The Appliance of Science The fridge had gone missing again. All that was left was a rectangle of gleaming blue tiles where it had stood, surrounded by a ring of black grease.
- Caught in the Oort A trillion miles was a long way to come for revenge. I grinned. The Cult of the Bathtub would have to go much further than the Oort cloud to escape me.
- Scream Quietly Sweet Sister, my husband grows more violent.
- Infant Colic Agonized screams ricocheted off the grey metal walls. Hopeless and bewildered, Helen cuddled her newborn son. His tiny mouth opened like a great red tunnel, and his knees jerked up to his belly in spasms.
- Designer Genes I threw the magazine across my living room as hard as I could. Its pages made a wiffling noise as it flew, and hit the wall with a twick. Then it fluttered to the floor still in one piece.Frankly, I’d hoped violence to an inanimate object would prove more satisfying.
- Zuggy Zu and the Humans “No. Absolutely not! It’s far too dangerous.” The Controller threw Zuggy Zu’s report in the recycling bin.
- Breathing Space Dan Gaunt squirted half a tube of Tabasco into his chili. It still tasted like ashes. He shoveled it in anyway.
